Before banding, I can honestly say that there were many "diets" that i told myself and others I worked really hard on and could not get why I was not losing the weight. Now that I have done much soul searchng and had a long talk with myself I know for a fact that at many stages of life, i could have done more, could have eaten better, excercised more, tried harder etc. I kid you not my system, body whatever is the craziest thing i have ever seen. I am finally down forty pounds. Thank you Jesus the scale finally moved. Here is the odd thing, I was banded on May 28th and go for six or seven weeks at a time, eating only tablespoons a day of food, walking 2 miles and day and that stupid scale doesnt move, I mean not at all. I KNOW i weigh too much, I KNOW i need to hide it except for once a month but it is so hard for me not to get frustrated. I am not a big fan of the protien shakes, my nurse told me that may be why my weight loss is so unpredictable. She says with out the protein your body freaks out a little and just kinda goes into starvation mode. I hate to say it but when I do start drinking those things, even with the extra calories, i lose. I dont know what else to contribute it too. I have done this twice already, no loss for weeks and weeks then boom several pounds in a few days. Hope this recent two pounds turns into much more. The avg. weight loss is supposed to be 1-2 a week, it makes it very hard to know that when you are doing everything you are told and the scale isnt moving at all.:thumbup: Wish me luck. I cant wait to get to that 50 mark then 9 after that to hit Onederland. (I am 218 now. ) God bless.:eek:

When you say 'you're doing everything you were told', I can't believe your doc wants you to be eating only a few T a day. You need to heed the nutritionist's information. If you're eating less than 800 cals. a day then you are absolutely in 'starvation mode'. Our bodies were set up to go through times of 'feast and famine'. You're told your body that you're not going to feed it and now it's holding on to every calorie it can by slowing your metabolism down to a crawl.

You also need the right amount of nutrients, especially protein, or your body will start taking them from where it can...you'll be malnourished and you'll lose more muscle mass, while you want to be losing the fat.

I don't agree with the protein shake solution as the band was set up for a solid protein diet, not liquid proteins (defeats the purpose of the band), but you need to follow your doc's rules and advice.

Try counting your calories and protein and get in 1000-1200 cals/60-80g of protein per day and see what happens...you'll need to give it a few weeks for your metabolism to start reving up again...it will think the 'feast' is here and start burning fat again.

Trust me, I've been on every starvation diet out there and it's not the way to go. I'm eating the correct amounts and losing the 1.5-2/week and we started out at close to the same weights.

Good luck -BG