tfkeel

I am not myself a candidate for lap-band or any bariatric surgery, my excess pounds are not enough and besides, if I am really religiously strict about my diet and sugar control, I will lose weight anyway.

The thing to remember about bariatric surgery is that it doesn't do anything which you cannot do without the bariatric surgery. It is also not a panacea for overweight. I know several people who had these procedures and some of them have actually, after about 3 years, started to gain weight again.

You can have bariatric surgery and go on a steady diet of ice-cream and milkshakes and high-caloric foods which require little digestion in the stomach and actually consume MORE calories per day than you did before the surgery.

Weight Watchers is a GREAT approach to losing weight. The diet is balanced, their portions are reasonable, and it is a terrific support group setting with people to encourage and edify each other through the difficult process of weight reduction. For these reasons, I recommend it highly....

I also agree that someone who is 100 pounds overweight, and diabetic, will have EXTREME difficulty sticking to a 1200-calorie diet. I think you are going to find yourself being ravenously hungry. At your current weight, it is likely not necessary to be so parsimonious....I am thinking a 1600 calorie or maybe higher may be, at this time, quite adequate to lose..... as you near your ideal weight, though, the reduction will become necessary to make your weight-loss continue. It is a function of your body weight, how much caloric intake is required to keep your weight where it is. Any "loss" of these calories, and you will burn your own food stores for energy.

One thing that will help you tremendously with weight-loss, and diabetes, is to limit your carbohydrate intake. High blood sugar makes me hungry. I feel much more satisfied if I keep my sugar levels controlled well.

The other thing that "works" is exercise. It not only burns calories, but it makes your body-mass-index lower, this essentially is the ratio of fat to muscle in your body. Muscle burns more calories in metabolism than fat.

It is more difficult, bariatric surgery or not, for a diabetic person to lose weight than a non-diabetic. The mechanisms of metabolizing food are interrupted and shorted in diabetes. I have never heard it said that it "won't work" for diabetics....