WMBFNews.com | Myrtle Beach/Florence, SC | News, Weather, SportsDoes lap band procedure hold true to weight loss?

Does lap band procedure hold true to weight loss?

(NBC) - When it comes to weight loss surgery, the lap band procedure is one of the most popular, but doctors say in many cases the weight either never comes off or soon returns.

That has caused thousands of patients like Stephanie Gaida to complain about the popular lap band procedure.

"I vomited nearly every day for two years," she says.  "Two years later, I had never lost any weight."

Her lap band was supposed to change her life, but didn't.

"I felt like a failure. Everybody I know was looking at me and saying, 'There she is, another diet she tried and it didn't work.'  I even had a physician say the band didn't fail you, you failed the band," she recalls.

Dr. Wade Barker is a weight loss surgeon who often performs the procedure, and admits that a certain percentage of patients don't respond to the surgery. Because of that, he believes there is a better alternative.

Over the long term he says, the gastric bypass surgery is much more successful than the lap band.

"With the bypass, you go from a football size stomach to a stomach about the size of your thumb," he explains.

Gaida opted for a gastric bypass following her lap band failure.

"It was wonderful," she now says.  "The surgery was not a big deal. They did it laproscopically. I had five little bitty incisions."

Stephanie lost over 100 pounds.

Still, weight loss professionals all agree that even after weight loss surgery, psychological counseling is a must.

"Until you address the underlying aspects of the overeating, the weight can come on over and over again," warns psychologist Dr. Lori Golden.

Stephanie says her involvement with weight loss support groups that meet daily is the key to controlling her food addiction and keeping the weight off.

She says she's conquered those food addictions thanks to counseling and her gastric bypass surgery.