Recovery is easier after lap-band procedures - placing an inflatable band around the stomach that can be reduced in size to restrict eating. Lap bands, however, may not be as effective. Lap bands require a great deal of patient compliance with diet as well as with visits to the physician. With gastric bypass, most people lose weight no matter what they do, because the physiological response after the operation makes them physically ill if they eat fattening foods. With gastric banding, patients can still eat fattening foods, so it takes a lot of patient buy-in. Weight loss is very slow with the band; It may take 5 years to achieve the degree of weight loss with a band that one observes a year after a bypass.