Dr. Davtyan: Hello Tanya, hello Lianna! How are you?
Tanya/Lianna: fine wonderful thank you.
Dr. Davtyan: very good well welcome and we have this program we started the intent of it is to convey to our viewers what are the benefits of weight loss but also what is the detriment of having excess weight and I’ve been very open about my personal experience with the Lap Band and my personal sort of crusade against obesity and would like now to involve you and ask each one of you to share with us how has lap-band impacted your lives and how has it changed. So first let me start with the time with Tanya, why did you feel you needed to lose weight?
Tanya: I struggled in my entire life since I can remember with weight. Emotionally and physically and actually the older, I got spiritually too- it affected my life greatly so I just came to a point in my life where I was balancing I was going up and down up and down and I just didn’t want the fight anymore and that’s why I chose the Lapband.
Dr. Davtyan: What methods of weight loss have you tried before?
Tanya: Everything. I worked here weight loss companies everything, starving, exercise, Adkins only fruits everything shakes and everything
Dr. Davtyan: And was it not helpful at all where it was helpful temporarily and you would regain the way what would be happening?
Tanya: Well you know I was actually just thinking about this I think this morning or yesterday morning I was just thinking the best part about the lap-band, the other diets do work because if you’re not consuming calories you’re gonna lose weight of course but with the lapband and it’s when you have a moment of weakness and you want to eat that entire box of pizza or Oreos or chicken you can’t and you get your sanity back it’s like in that moment of just rage where you want to just go there you can so you kind of calm down and you go from day to day so dieting will always be successful but in order to lose and am at an excess amount of weight you have to do it for such so many days perfectly with the Lap Band it helps you so that you can stay on track.
Dr. Davtyan: So when did you have your lapband?
Tanya: I had my lapband four years ago. Over four years ago
Dr. Davtyan: And how much weight have you lost and how quickly?
Tanya: I’ve lost 100 pounds and I actually lost it fairly quickly I lost it within the year before the year
is up and it’s amazing I feel amazing I know you didn’t ask this but just at first it was exciting just like being able to shop in oh now I’m kind of used to that so it’s really fun but it’s just fun you can go in your closet you look good in anything you just don’t if you can worry about other things not your weight not what you look like.
Dr. Davtyan: Lianna was this any different for you? Why did you decide to lose weight and why did you choose the lapband to achieve that?
Lianna: Well my story’s a little different because I actually was a really skinny, skinny kid it started to change for me I think after in my mid-20s and then it just the weight just kept going up and up and then I reached almost to size 18 and it got to the point where I was so insecure and it was affecting me mentally, physically, I started to become depressed I wasn’t happy because when I would go to work I have to work on my feet a lot all day long. I’m a freelancer and a makeup artist so my weight would start hurting me under my feet you know and it would get to a point where it was just my feet were hurting me so much my weight was so bad that my back started to hurt me and it started to affect my brain. I wasn’t happy and it just was not a very good place in my life at that time and then at work one of the co-workers that I worked with actually she had she had it done and she was really happy and she had heard me complain and that’s when she actually recommended me to come and visit and meet with you and when I did I thought it was a solution and I actually thought about it for like a year and then a year later is when I came and now it’s the best decision I ever made because like I said like in the beginning you know when you’re losing the weight it’s so fun and it was actually quick for me too but the first like 20 25 or 27 pounds I felt so good because your clothes you start feeling good. I started to feel more comfortable you as your weight comes off you get to a point where you’re more comfortable to work longer hours on your feet you’re not tired you know and it’s different wearing even heels I started to enjoy wearing heels again where before it was it was just like oh no I have to wear one inch or flats because I knew after two three hours it was just bothering me so much but as the way kept coming off I started to become more and more happier. I was more confident I wasn’t insecure and I started to become more comfortable to actually when men would flirt with me I was more you know secure with myself I wasn’t so feeling like I’m so unattractive.
Dr. Davtyan: Well you’re a pretty tall lady, how tall are you?
Lianna: You know I’m five eight five eight
Dr. Davtyan: And you’re wearing high heels?
Lianna: Now of course now I wear four five I even wear them to work I could stand on my feet with the three inches that I have for maybe six hours, seven hours
Dr. Davtyan: I’m assuming the men aren’t insecure approaching you?
Lianna: You know but yeah the part of going into the store psychologically I was so used to reaching out for looking for the large sizes like extra-large 16 14 and my girlfriend it was such a habit like when we started going to the BB store I realized I was going down to size 10 and 8 and she was grabbing the smaller sizes and I was still stuck on that yeah you know old habits, dies hard for a long time like I was grabbing she’s like don’t you get it you’re getting smaller you’re actually skinnier you’re skinny now and I’m like I haven’t heard that in a long time you know. I know I was just I had to kind of accept it you know in many different directions of the weight loss and it just was happier and better and just more confident it just keeps getting better and better.
Dr. Davtyan: Did you feel deprived in any way, of the food?
Lianna: No I was excited in the beginning that I couldn’t eat a lot of food because I was happy when I would fit in some of the clothes I can go into the store or go into my closet not say today is a day that I’m so frumpy and feel so heavy and and you know fat and I want to hide myself it just brought more and more confidence and the more you lose the more comfortable you become actually as you know my thing was that I lost too much it got to a point where I was actually losing so well that I had lost more than I think it was almost like I came down to I’m 155 now and I came down to 120 he was it 123 I think yeah it was too much yeah it was too much and so we had to realize for me I had to stabilize myself what am I comfortable with, what weight I am happier at, and I realized between 145 to 155 I’m good I’m happy and and I still have my curves. I’m not like where I was too skinny or no it’s just too much you know but you still have that ability that we can come back to you and you can adjust to you know make it looser or tighter than we can you know and take a little bit more food and you can actually gain the weight you know what I mean and stabilize that weight that’s what I love about it that you’re in control of it you can take to whatever weight do you want to be, you know and that’s what’s so special about this and I’ve tried everything to like my god and the more we would try these different whatever diets have been out there you think you’re losing you lose that 10 pounds and it’s that water weight and then when you get off of it you gain so much more back you know double the weight
Tanya: as well as you gain depression
Lianna: Yeah, depression
Dr. Davtyan: You know for me what is important with the Lapband is the fact that it took away the hunger
Lianna: That helps yes
Dr. Davtyan: I mean I’m a surgeon and you know it typically wouldn’t be the anything in the morning but between the cases I would really get hungry and the short break I would get between the surgeries whatever is in the surgery or sweet or whatever. It would be even rather quickly without thinking of the volume or calorie content and stuff like that but with a band taking away the hunger I think was very empowering all of a sudden you were in control, and did you guys experience the same?
Tanya: Still today even with it being looser it’s amazing I experience like I’m a little hungry I can eat a little bit whereas before if I had one, I had to have the whole thing just a little bit or you’re not even hungry for hours. You have to remind yourself to eat you feel a little faint yeah.
Lianna: I like that it teaches you instead of like me I would never eat breakfast it wasn’t that’s not a good thing but I like it that you stabilize where you can actually eat every like it teaches you to actually eat every two three hours but you eat in small portions than rather you don’t eat you starve all day and then you just eat a whole big dinner plate at night that’s what those my thing it was always the hunger was like it after five seven o’clock.
Dr. Davtyan: So it’s like a force retraining of normal patterns
Lianna: new lifestyles, new habits where you learn to just appreciate just I think for the taste of it to eat smaller portion and to actually enjoy what you’re eating because it does teach you to actually that was my challenge to chew the food slow and you know like and enjoy the food because a lot of times when we’re hungry the food is right in front of you big plate and let’s say if you’re with even with company and you just not realizing you’re in a conversation you’re just shoving down to food and I have friends when we go out to eat they say that they go you’re so good like you actually take your time you’re eating I’m like I had yes it’s the challenge I have to remind myself I have to enjoy the food well they’ll be done and I’m still like trying to eat my little you know food like right in front of me still chewing you know I have noticed that too.
Tanya: It’s food actually I thought that I would miss food and I wouldn’t really be able to enjoy it any longer but I here I found I’m now I’m I was reading a book yesterday and I was I had made something to eat and I thought I’m just gonna eat this food and then I’ll read because it’s just so enjoyable now which is I really thought I’d be the opposite like I’ve never built in joy. You do you enjoy it so much more because you’re actually eating and enjoying and savoring.
Dr. Davtyan: And do you have any problem with alcohol?
Lianna: No not at all why some people do?
Dr. Davtyan: Maybe well I mean some people say that because the stomach volume is smaller, they get perhaps areas the effect of the alcohol a little bit faster.
Lianna: I haven’t been drinking at all lately, but I think being me yes I had my surgery I think now for years. In the beginning maybe because it was harder the effect it could give you that effect easy.
Tanya: The buzz? Is that the word the buzz?
Lianna: You do get the effect easier I guess because maybe there’s not so much food that we used to intake like and then you would easily drink where before it’s open and there’s all that space, you’re having two three four drinks and food and it’s you know different.
Tanya: And also, you know we weigh less.
Lianna: Yeah, we weigh less and that’s true. When you weigh less it actually affects you quicker too but ya know.
Dr. Davtyan: So you’ve decided to have a lap-band, now let’s go back for years and first remind me how did you guys find me? How did you find me?
Tanya: A friend. A friend at work she was keeping it a secret and then one day I was like I am done I can’t stand this any longer and she said Tanya let me just tell you a little secret and that’s when I made an appointment I went in and when I see when I met you I felt so comfortable and I felt so like for the first time I actually felt like somebody understood me and that was you Dr. Davtyan and that made a huge difference we booked the appointment and it was done. Best thing I ever did.
Dr. Davtyan: Was it a difficult decision for you to make or what were the thoughts what were the sort of pluses and minuses in your mind?
Tanya: In my mind the pluses were I’m not gonna be fat anymore, I’m gonna finally lose this weight that challenge that fights gonna be over, the things that I was worried about I thought I’m not gonna really be able to eat anymore I’m not going to be able to enjoy food so before the surgery I did chow down a bit too much gained a few extra pounds.
Lianna: I think everybody does that.
Tanya: Let me say goodbye do you think it’s gonna be your last like a little before you write not it’s not and and I have my tastes have changed since the lapband and they have changed.
Lianna: Which is it’s so true like I don’t go out of my way like to eat greasy or fried foods it’s not like that feeling when you start to eat better you feel better and when you eat those fried foods and greasy foods
Dr. Davtyan: You feel you don’t want to go back.
Lianna: Yeah it’s like you ask yourself, wow why did I do this before or why do people you know why do they even do it like just people now in general like it’s so bad for you and there’s a saying you are what you eat there’s so true that it’s such a true saying you know and I think when your lifestyle changes to what you take in in which you eat it makes you enjoy differently. I think the foods that you eat, and you feel it in your body too so when your body for months at a time is eating good and if you’re eating the right foods fruits and soup and things like that and then when you try the bad you feel like the heaviness that grease you go oh it’s such a bad feeling. You feel lazy, it’s lazy food I think that’s what I call it like it’s just it’s not comforting food it’s lazy you makes you lazy it makes you tired and you don’t want to do anything you know.
Tanya: But for people who think they can’t ever eat that again you can enjoy everything yeah you can still I still do enjoy the bad food.
Dr. Davtyan: Yeah you’re still enjoying the foods that you like
Lianna and Tanya: Absolutely!
Dr. Davtyan: Okay well we’ll take a brief break and then we’ll come back, and we’ll discuss the procedure itself. How difficult was it how difficult was the recovery, how was the follow up, how was it going now? in the meantime we will take a brief break and go over the brief infomercials that we have providing testimonials from other patients, and we’ll return to this programming to continue our story of Tanya and Lianna, and how they were able to completely win their battle with excess weight
Now the American Health journal, obesity is becoming an epidemic in America. For the morbidly obese bariatric surgery has been successful in helping patients achieve and maintain a healthy weight. As we learn from Dr. David Davtyan of the Beverly Hills Weight-loss Medical Center’s a new laparoscopic procedure promises safe and effective results with less risk of complications.
Dr. Davtyan: A lap band was invented in the United States approximately in early 80s but unfortunately went on ignored for about a decade until in 92 Belgian surgeons first used it to induce weight loss and to try to fight off obesity which as you know is now becoming an epidemic playing not only United States but the entire world and what it consists of; it consists of a band which is placed around the stomach around the upper part of the stomach to restrict the access of food to the stomach which is the band is then connected to a subcutaneous port which is this part which is placed under the skin on the anterior abdominal wall where it is though not visible easily palpable so these two components are connected to each other through a catheter which you see here thus enabling the physician to control the size of this band by injecting fluid into this port. The band wraps around the stomach the outer surface of the band is fairly rigid but the inner surface is inflatable, by inflating the inner surface you reduce the inner diameter and thus make it tighter and tighter cinch it down around the stomach creating a very asymmetric hourglass if you can imagine where once food fills up the upper part of the hourglass it takes a long time to empty into the lower part of the stomach thus taking away the feeling of hunger controlling inducing early satiety and that’s inducing weight loss. The nicest thing about the lap-band it does not involve cutting any vital organ there is no suturing there is no stapling there is no cutting or rearranging of the native God created normal Anatomy what is nice about the lap-band is that lap-band involves a small dissection around the stomach. In good hands lap band should take 1 hour or less as far as a procedure and the results are very good, patients go home either the same evening or the following morning and they can return to work in two to three days. Tami is one of my first patients who has lost 70 pounds by now and she’s gonna continue losing weight until she comes close to her ideal body weight and she is also very happy with those results.
Tami: I went into the hospital I had it done two and a half days I was out I had three or four more days I went back to work. Within about a week two weeks everybody started coming up my face started getting slender you could just tell that I was changing my stomach started going down and people started noticing so I was losing weight and they really didn’t know how until I started talking about the surgery.
Dr. Davtyan: One of the other advantages of the Lap Band other than it is a reversible procedure with no permanent restructuring of the normal anatomy is also the fact that it is adjustable and the adjustments are usually done in the office setting by injecting or withdrawing fluid from the band by accessing it through with a needle through subcutaneous port but having a band myself I have perfected the of the band to the maximum where I can predict how much volume of injected is going to be just the right for this person to control their tightness so that it’s good enough meaning that they’re still losing weight but it’s loose enough that they still can enjoy good food.
So once again I’ve just reviewed for our Armenian viewers the whatever we’ve discussed up until now but wanted to make a quick trip back four years ago when you came for the procedure. How did you imagine the procedure and how was it in reality? Was it there a big difference between what you expected and what the procedure was actually like, how was it?
Tanya: It was a piece of cake, but it was it was quite easy I was I was so excited that I wasn’t really afraid but I thought it’d be very painful it wasn’t. I had been told that I’d be able to go to work a couple days and I thought yeah I went back to work it wasn’t a problem at all you’re a little tired, a little a little sore it’s like feels like a bruise kind of you have a little difficulty getting out of bed but you can walk upright, you can it’s really it’s really pretty easy.
Dr. Davtyan: was it any different for you Lianna?
Lianna: I was excited I was looking forward to it because I felt like it is gonna be a new beginning a new life something that you know I can that something could help me to take charge over and start a new beginning. I was excited I wasn’t scared I was a nervous and the surgery it was like okay waking up and it was like okay you know a little dry mouth we put our ice I had my little ice and then my dad came and picked me up I put you know put my clothes on and walked to the car and really, I was just at you know in bed like maybe two days at the most but like I could get up who isn’t really with any surgery you’re gonna have a little bit of you know just a little bit sore, but after the visit when I saw like I was like well where remember I was like where are the stitches it’s like a little like a little like a scratch or something you know it’s just so tiny you can’t even see anything it’s amazing and it is this like there’s no insecurities like oh my god I can’t wear a bikini or I can’t wear anything that might show my stomach.
Dr. Davtyan: So how is it wearing a bikini these days?
Lianna: I’ve wore it, actually the first time, year and a half ago I think it was or two years ago you had two years ago I was excited and a little scared because I hadn’t done it in so many years but with all the nice compliments for my fiancé and my friends, my girlfriends everybody how great I look
Dr. Davtyan: So if you don’t mind, can we look at your before surgery?
Lianna: yeah do we have too yes
Dr. Davtyan: Well just to see how dramatic the lap band brings can be
Lianna: Extreme.
Tanya: Bikini shopping are good.
Dr. Davtyan: We asked our operators to put up the Liana’s preoperative photographs so that we could see what you look like before surgery
Lianna: Wow I forgot that
Dr. Davtyan: yes and so how many pounds have you lost since then
Lianna: as of now with trying to gain back weight because I had lost too much it’s hundred, but there was a time a year ago where was 125 so now I’m more comfortable at this weight. I like it better
Dr. Davtyan: So how has this changed your life?
Lianna: Everything, I mean there’s so many things, there’s so many different areas in life I mean more confident, happier. When I wake up I’m not lazy or tired
Dr. Davtyan: The fatigue goes away
Lianna: Yeah it does and your energy level is much higher. You look forward to your day if you have to go to work, you’re not dreading it I’m not training oh my god I’m gonna be so tired my back is gonna hurt my feet are gonna hurt I can actually feel like just get dressed up like like you know and get fufu Fifi like I love dressing up now. I just love putting my you know my clothes on together and choosing the shoes that I want to wear that goes with that outfit that I don’t have to worry about oh it has to be flats or for my comfort level. I can actually wear heels and be comfortable with it. You know in many ways it’s just a positive, wonderful change in your life. I mean..
Dr. Davtyan: Did you notice any change in how people relate to you amongst those who already knew you before, as well as the new acquaintances well
Lianna: Besides the compliments you always get I like that you know friends who say oh my god or the best is when you actually haven’t seen a friend maybe for a couple of months and you’re approaching them and there trying to pass by you oblivious where they don’t know it’s you and I’m like Hello they look at you and they look oh my god oh my god no way and you go is that a good was like that bad before they’re like no would you just look amazing no you look so much better you look amazing and it’s just that constant you know confident like it just you feel good and it’s that you know that you’re doing something right I mean besides the lap-band I entered like and go into a gym I was working out you know besides eating better I loved it that I was actually able to like gain more energy, go to the gym after that first 20 maybe 20 pound loss where I’m not you know I was more comfortable I’m not sore or anything. I started going to the gym I could actually not be afraid I’m going into the gym because thinking oh my god I’m overweight you see the skinnier people you know you know there are people looking at me or you feel insecure you start to get more and more confident you know working oh yeah you working it is here so much easier and the more weight you’re losing and you’re getting more firmer and toner and you just you feel stronger it just feels good and the best part is when you go into a, when you go shopping you go into a store you don’t worry about oh where is the biggest size for me to like look for a rack like you can actually look through you know average size 6 8 whatever it is that did you want to try on it and you don’t worry about oh they don’t have my size. It feels good you know it’s like that good feeling you can put it on you come out of the room to look in the big mirror how you look right.
Tanya: Sometimes, when I go to stores the shirts aren’t small enough, I’m like oh yeah and another thing it’s like life I think we people mirror what how we’re feeling so losing weight just feel not only more confident but just better happier and less self-conscious you feel good about yourself even if you’re not thinking about your physical appearance it’s like there’s a light inside of you and I believe people reflect that back so I think I don’t know maybe it’s the weight loss maybe it’s the new confidence but people all know amazing and they just do they approach you get things quickly I mean it’s almost like what like you have a little magic wand it’s called the lap-band.
Dr. Davtyan: Yes actually like that many of my patients have told me that they have experienced some sort of difficulty but with work they wouldn’t be really taken seriously before when they were overweight but once they lost the weight all of a sudden there was a different relationship with co-workers they people would behave with them as if what wait a minute you nothing’s wrong with you and I was something I thought that I always thought something was wrong with you that you were overweight and now all of a sudden, I see that your normal. You know a lot of people relate that because I think there is a lot of discrimination just related to the fact that the world way people are taken toward not being smart or something like that yeah but when all of a sudden, they lose the weight people change their attitudes toward them
Tanya: The truth is we live in a society where weight is important people do if you’re doing everybody has their they’re naughty thing that they do whether it be drugs alcohol but if it’s food you wear it everybody know to prove it and it’s like you’re weak, you’re ugly you’re bad not that not that we are but that’s what that is bad.
Tanya: Especially in LA
Lianna: LA is the hardest place but yeah, it’s true it is a little different and the biggest difference was like me going out to different places and being approached by different cultures and that was new to me you know the smaller I got more like you know just different cultures with.
Dr. Davtyan: Doors opened
Lianna: Yeah you know I was like well this is different and new you know not so you know different people are tracked I guess different cultures are different attracted to maybe different appearance, different looks so it just kind of overall it just changes.
Dr. Davtyan: Did you find that losing weight also help with the travel? You know the other day
Lianna: Oh my god yes in the plane yeah huge difference.
Tanya: Traveling is such a breeze. I just fall asleep and drew a little bit before I was like embarrassed,
Lianna: You feel more compact in everything but you actually I remember the first time when I had I went I can’t remember where I went I think was two years ago but I had lost my first maybe 65 or 70 pounds and that was like really huge I sat down and I was like and I saw the sides of the seat like the emptiness and I was like wow and the belt I had to like literally like yeah pull it in and just adjust it like wow yeah.
Tanya: Now you can put your feet out in front
Lianna: Yeah in many areas in life just
Different, just different things that you do it’s a it’s just I’m so happy I did it I really am. It’s the best decision that I ever made the other best decision was when I was used to be a smoker and I quit smoking 12 years ago so those are the two best things I’ve ever done in my life so I took steps you know first it was that and then I don’t regret anything I loved it I’m so happy I did it.
Dr. Davtyan: I’m so happy for you, I have several patients who’ve actually stopped smoking after they got the lapband
Lianna: interesting
Dr. Davtyan: It was such a major life changing for them that all of they’re all bad habits sort of went out the door with the obesity. These people started working out they started watching their diet yeah they quit smoking and I think what happens is your metabolism changes and you basically get sort of positive juices flowing
Lianna: Yeah I think your brain just gives more clarity where you just want to do good things you’re just more happier, you’re more positive you wake up yeah you’ve wake up feeling good and it’s a good feeling when you can just look in the I was gonna say refrigerator I don’t know why but because my closet and just pick out what you want to wear because there’s no just struggle registers yeah you enjoy it and you feel sexier, I feel more sexier now more confident more like a just a woman a lady you know like a sexy woman, before it was like hiding myself like you saw maybe with the old picture with my jacket and my scarf you hide yourself and the bulky clothes now that was the biggest I’ve ever been it was a size 18 and I was like I visited you year before and I had actually over that year I had gained another maybe I reached I was 245 I came to and then when I had the surgery it was 255 and I was like okay this.
Dr. Davtyan: Don’t you regret now that you waited that whole year
Lianna: Yeah you kind of weigh it out you think about it and I’m so glad that RP was the lady that I work with that she referred me to you, you know and she was just very she was like come on just come visit just have a consultation just visit and whenever you’re ready you can we’ll do it you know and I think the first thing you said to you said I’ll never forget you were like you’re such a beautiful lady you’re a beautiful young woman, you have to make this decision and it’s gonna be better in the long run it’s gonna be good for you know and I said okay I just have to do it when I’m ready I guess and I whenever I was ready I came and I was excited I was like wow I didn’t even get scared or nervous you know people I guess with surgeries and it was my first surgery ever in life with anything and I wasn’t nervous because I knew it was just gonna be breeze I was gonna get in and get out and I did I got in and I got out and then it continued
Dr. Davtyan: oh good for you 800 other people did it yes by now we’re more than 800 cases and we’re very proud because we have very few of the complications that we see from other places as far as prolapses erosions and others and I am personally very grateful to my staff because my staff is helping me to make all that possible. What would you how would you describe your experience you’ve been coming to my office now for four years at some point you’ve worked with my staff how helpful is it to have people who are next to you all the time?
Tanya: I think it’s very important and you feel like family you feel like you can say anything you can tell the truth you can say how you’re feeling you having the lap-band is amazing because you’re so empathetic and you understand and you’re very good at adjustments it’s there’s a peace that comes over you.
Lianna: Oh yes I think that was the comfort for me I’m sorry that when I met you and when I found out you told me you actually got have one done yourself and how you background how you were taught with the person the actual person that actually you know discovered the lap-band I was like I’m in good hands and your confidence was huge for me too you’re very confident, you love you’re passionate and I think mean that you’ve had it done – that makes a huge difference and I think that was the one of the convincing things for me that you most definitely are very you’re very you have the most gentle hands the scarring there’s no scarring like I’m as sometimes look at him like where is it what yeah exactly thank you
Tanya: And you care like it shows you care and that’s what that’s what we need we need like TLC
Dr. Davtyan: Well in this profession that’s very very important you know I mean you know me well and it was doing surgical oncology for all those years and I still continue to do surgical oncology but when I discovered the lapband or stumbled upon the phenomenon of lapband and you know I saw it as a very effective tool that could help me fight my own problem with obesity and when I got the lapband and I saw how effective it is I decided that I should be using it to help others lose weight and of course as I’m excellent and oncology it was very important for me to be excellent and you know weight loss surgery and that’s why I started doing obesity with you know such fervor and we’ve got very good results but indeed it requires a lot of attention it requires a lot of care a lot of compassion and well I guess part of it is because I do feel for my patients because it’s the same disease that I have and it’s the same procedure that helped me there is a very special connection and indeed I think we do get very good results at our centers because when I go to national meetings and when we’re looking at the National Statistics, you know national statistics are saying that for any person who is about hundred pounds overweight nationally they lose 40 to 50 pounds 40 to 50 pounds, and yet you guys are you know fairly typical extremely beautiful, but a fairly typical result at our Center that we produce very close to the expected weight loss
Lianna: Oh yeah I had to gain back
Dr. Davtyan: You went above hundred percent
Lianna: Yeah and it was only because not because I didn’t feel right I think it’s just for my frame because I am very tall – not very tall but I am taller than more the average five or five six, so on my body it look maybe it was too skinny it was a size two it just didn’t look right it didn’t feel right at least from the feedbacks that I was getting from friends and family they were like you know you look good but I think you would you look better when you were like size four and six he’s just you know you and I thought about it I felt the same way and I realized okay I’m too skinny now I never thought I would say oh my god I’m too skinny I need to gain weight so I try to gain him back you know.
Dr. Davtyan: Did you guys experience any bad side effects from the lapband and well it was there anything bad throughout the period that you’ve had about four years now
Tanya: This isn’t bad the only thing this was actually very good, but I thought I would have thought it was bad, I don’t like french fries anymore it’s not even bad. Yeah I think that’s the best but it would have been the worst I don’t like bready thick I don’t need my tea I don’t enjoy brown bread as far as side effects wonderful absolutely wonderful
Dr. Davtyan: No prolapse, no erosion the wound infection can dream no major calamities
Tanya: Just have to chew well
Lianna: That’s the challenge in the beginning because you’re not used to it so you have to, it’s like disciplining anything when you’re not used to working out or you’re not used to eating right every it’s just a lifestyle change and you teach yourself to in eat your food slowly chew well and it teaches you actually to enjoy your food it’s the there’s a truth out there like I forgot that the reality is that everybody eats too fast and the worst is when you’re sitting in front of the TV and eating fast you know like you don’t realize what you’re eating what you’re in taking .
Dr. Davtyan: What is the typical menu these days
Lianna: I enjoy soup I think I love soup so it’s a good thing you know I enjoy soup it usually it goes down really well I still love my ice cream I love frozen yogurt and I enjoy frozen yogurt you know
Dr. Davtyan: you know speaking of soups, I before my lap band I didn’t eat soup and and I did not eat broccoli, so one day I’m calling my wife and she’s like what are you eating, a broccoli soup cream of broccoli said what you eating cruel broccoli I’m enjoying it, so it is interesting how it for in a way forcibly but changes your food preferences and like you mentioned now I just would not I’m not craving fries I would not go back to fries
Tanya: It doesn’t even sound good, also have their fast-food ish type things but like fries one or to show you like.
Lianna: Because maybe you know it’s a drive-thru but some things could be healthy through drive-thru to like it’s not fast food
Dr. Davtyan: you know but you know most of my patients I think find it easy to particularly for the lunchtime like you said there go with soups or with like a tuna salad
Lianna: yeah yogurt I love yogurt and go with what is actually interesting is as you can imagine a lot of my patients are Armenian order of Middle Eastern sort of heritage and they like the Mediterranean foods you know like the hummus and baba ghanoush and yeah boolie and all of the captors and stuff like that so and all of that is also very healthy and is also lap-band friendly so we recommend that to our patients and they usually do quite well with that. The I think difficulty sometimes with the lap-band is with major meat-eaters but I try not to discourage them. Bread eaters are more difficult.
Lianna, Dr. and Tanya: The two major is the bread and the pasta and it’s a good thing I was a big bread eater not pasta so I didn’t feel like I’m like missing on bread but in the beginning, you go oh my god yeah the bread no the bread is not gonna be my friend I don’t care but now when I go to a restaurant, I still can have a little bit a little or do it but you but you can have your share to do though exactly when you used to do those things the bread the pasta those are things that are very because of their carbs yes you’re heavy and that’s what makes you lazy too it makes you lazy. It turns to sugar
Dr. Davtyan: Not only that, but it also stimulates the insulin production by the pancreas and your insulin shoots high and then you are sort of craving more sugar the rest of the day so what it does there’s actually recent research to show that when you start your morning with a carbohydrate diet the rest of the day you crave carbohydrates whereas if you would start with a protein you would be more on the protein metabolism the rest of the day so that is why we recommend our patients in the mornings have a rather soft boiled egg or something like that or the yogurt that you mentioned or the cottage cheese in along with coffee and stuff but avoid the carbohydrates.
Lianna and Tanya: The white rice that’s one I had to I used to love now I don’t even care I don’t care so those are the white rice, pasta and the bread those are the three things that are really major that I think that you may start missing in the beginning but you adjust to it you know you just think you don’t yeah it’s just in the beginning where you changing your I think eating habits
Dr. Davtyan: The interesting story that I have is that when I went to Belgium to have my own lapband after I had my lap band I continued doing lap bands with Dr. Kadir who was my surgeon and he’s one of the pioneers of the lapband and we were doing them and many of our patients in Europe were either for northern Italy were their bread and pasta eaters or they were from Germany were their beer drinkers well guess what bread and pasta eaters would lose weight tremendously because the lap band would effectively stop their ability to eat a lot of pasta and yet the German beer drinkers would not lose the weight and would be unhappy so it brings up the point that high quantity of high-calorie liquids as in milkshakes or alcohol are basically contraindication, contra indication meaning you should not be abusing those because the band would not recognize those liquids and would not stop them and then you’re on your own yeah, so we are currently whenever we’re advising the patients we say okay well you can have a little ice cream you can have a little you know milkshake here and there but just beware that it does not become an obsession. I had a patient who came in and she was taking eight frappuccinos a day I’m wondering why is it that she’s not why is it that she’s not losing weight it was yeah it was well she was paralegal, a lot of stress it was giving her the buzz and keeping her through the day and also keeping the band food to a certain extent that she didn’t need another food but by the same token it was already itself containing so many calories that you know was defeating the purpose do you guys watch your calories do you count calories? do you look at the calories on the package?
Tanya: every calorie for every food now I know the weight that I want to be at it’s really easy to stay there and I just I kind of do the same pattern each day with what I eat in different foods but the same kind of time you know we’re like creatures of habit and it works out wonderfully I don’t really count calories.
Lianna: I think anything with liquids like the soup like protein juice or yogurt if I’m trying maybe like you know to stabilize and lose weight I realized that that’s really good but anything that is more kind of solid then I can feel it differently like you know where I’m like okay this is kind of going down you learn about your body you do you learn solos you know what you enjoy and what could help to lose maybe more or not it’s in life is it’s it’s a change for the better that’s for sure.
Dr. Davtyan: So given your such life-changing experiences what would you like to tell our viewers who may have any you know questions, doubts, issues concerns yeah
Tanya: I would definitely say don’t wait it will change your life immediately I mean I remember coming out of surgery you don’t know anything’s happened but I remember just thinking I have something inside of me now it’s like you finally have this tool that’s not the answer you have to work with it but don’t wait if you if you’re thinking about it do it it’s a quick procedure you’re in very good hands Dr. Davtyan and the staff will be there all the way around you can’t go wrong no fear if you don’t want it someday you can get it taken out just do it.
Lianna: yeah that’s all I would like I forgot to say it I have that option that it’s reversible you know and that’s what’s so wonderful about it you know and I think the lapband is the best solution to lose weight other than there’s other may be options of surgeries but I think I’ve seen with some of the other ones they lose the weight a lot in the beginning but they gain it back yeah more than half you know with the gastric bypass enough and I think that’s why I was kind of putting it off to see which one was the right decision for me the best one to choose and the Lap Band is the best one because you’re still you can always be in control of it you know and you have those options like when I lost too much I can gain it back I can size it up to what I want what size or what weight I want to be at.
Dr. Davtyan: Well, that’s clearly the lapband is the safest option amongst the all effective therapies so we would definitely recommend all together the three of us to those of you who are interested please do not hesitate if you have call our office we will be more than happy to answer your questions, we have free consultations, free seminars and we are just here to help you win this battle and enjoy a different level of life that you just wouldn’t know otherwise so don’t hesitate. In the meantime this is it for us for today please join us next week for another informative program good night.
