For almost 30 years, John Rogers, a married IT professional from Atlanta, battled obesity. While he could often lose weight by trying the latest fad diet or appetite suppressant, keeping the weight off was a struggle John had yet to overcome. Nothing he’d found was ever sustainable enough to maintain weight loss for the long term.
“Over the years, weight loss had been like a yo-yo process for me,” says John. “I would try different things, and the pounds would drop off easily—but then they would always come back. It really came down to my insatiable appetite, which had always been my downfall.”
John Tries Gastric Lap Band
By 2009, John had reached 400 pounds and felt a sense of urgency about turning his health around. He decided to try gastric Lap Band surgery, an adjustable gastric band placed around the upper part of the stomach, and it worked wonders for him. John lost a huge amount of weight, but he eventually started experiencing major health issues. Something had gone terribly wrong with his Lap Band, and he stopped being able to eat or even drink water. John’s weight had dropped to 176 pounds, 14 pounds less than his normal weight of 190 pounds—but he was feeling miserable. In late 2011, he learned after an imaging procedure that his stomach had become extremely twisted, and he promptly underwent emergency surgery to remove the Lap Band. The whole experience was very painful and difficult for John.
While he was able to recover and get back to good health, John knew he would be hesitant about trying any other weight loss surgery in the future. Inevitably, after several years—John’s weight started to creep back up. Before he knew it, John’s weight was over 300 pounds again.
“I then tried appetite suppressants, prescribed by my doctor, and those worked well for a few months,” explains John. “But, when it was time to come off of that medication, my constant hunger returned, and the weight came right back on again.”
