I started gaining most of my excess weight after leaving high school where I was always heavy set but looking back I was never very big at all.

The decision to have a band was made in July 1999 after seeing the results on tv of a young girl who lost all her excess weight in less then 12 months.

This was after failing yet another attempt to lose weight (gut busters) and I realised that with my weight at the level that it was that I was never going to take it off without some kind of medical help.

I'd tried many diets in the past and all did not last very long, the same happened with drugs where I would lose weight for a few weeks and then fall back into old habits.

For a long time I knew that my weight was affecting me in my job and socially and that I needed to do something about it. There are many things that I wanted to do that my weight would not allow me.

I was banded on October 25 1999 and have never looked back since. I had rapid loss for the first 3 1/2 months before work again started to affect me with my hours and for the next 3 1/2 months gained a few kilos. I made the decision to resign and move to Brisbane and take on a job with normal hours.

Since then I have continued my loss from when I was banded and am currently losing about 1.9 kilos per week. This is helped by living and working in the city so I spend a minimum of 1 hour every day commuting to and from work and at lunches.

My goal has been revised to 85 kilos from 100 kilos recently. I expect to reach 100 kilos at Christmas and my goal weight by March. Long term I would love to get to 74.1kg as this will mean a 100 kilo loss from my starting weight.

I would not hesitate to recommend the band to anyone who is serious about weight loss and would have another fitted in an instant. Having said that I beleive that the band requires a lot of commitment and you should not consider it unless you can commit 100% to it.