Candidates for gastric band surgery need to meet some criteria to get qualified for the surgery. The most important thing is that BMI is over 30, sometimes people with a lower BMI may be qualified, but the prerequisite is any obesity-related chronic disease (e.g. type 2 diabetes, hypertension, or heart disease). What is more, patients should have attempted to lose weight by a healthy diet and exercise in the past as well as pledge themselves to follow a healthy lifestyle for the rest of their life starting from the surgery day.  Finally, it is the surgeon who qualifies patients for weight loss surgeries and while for some people gastric band may be the most effective solution, for others a surgeon may recommend other bariatric surgery.