CherubofCA

I had my lap band surgery 7 months ago. So far I've only losst 11# and am unable to lose more, but I haven't gained either so that is something. I am 76 years old and have arthritis in my knees so unable to do a lot of the exercise that they recommended. I do have a trilevel home which has 10 stairs up and 6 stairs down and I go up and down them about 12 times a day. I walk my dog every day for about 20 minutes. I have also started using my rowing machine twice a day. Before the surgery I ate about 1200 calories a day and that is about what I eat now so maybe the reason I haven' t had better results. (Most of the people in my support group ate about 3000 calories a day and are much younger) For the first 6 months I wrote down every mouthful of food that I ate but after 6 months with no success I have stopped doing that as I eat the same foods every day. In the morning I eat a cup of cut up firm tofu with cranberry sauce on top of it. At about 2:pm I eat a cut of edamone and I have either a cup of tomotao Soup or clam chowder with osyter crackers. That is all. Can anyone tell me if there is anything else I can do to get this weight down? As I paid cash for this surgery I am Sort of discourged in California, Cherub

Thank you for your comments and no, I did not take it wrong. After I retired from nursing, I took a computer class and learned to build computers and to pass the class we had to build a basic computer from the motherboard up in 30 minutes, so then I helped my kids add things like hard drives, memory, etc. to their computers. [That's a switch, huh?] I run two computer graphic tag groups and love it. I'm trying to spend less time at the computer and more time exercising as I know that's one of the reasons. I think that all the litature that you see on lap band surgery tells all the success stories and none of the failures and that may not be a fair picture. Most all of the success are with young people who are pretty much way overweight. The ones in our support group where about 250# when they started. One good thing that happened is that after 5 days I could stop taking my blood pressure meds. I take my BP every day and now I'm running around 110/60 and before, even with BP meds, I was 125/75 so this is a plus and I'm not hungary all the time like I was before. Thanks again for the reply. Huggs, CherubofCalif

I was eating those things for a while but now I can't eat ANY solid foods so going to see the doctor and have some Fluid removed as feel there is something stuck in the pouch. One member said that I should not be eating the same athings all the time as my body gets used to it. Maybe that is the answer and after I see the dr and he removes some of the fluid, I'll try to mix up my menu a bit. Thanks everybody. Cherub of Calif

I agree with you! I have already figured this out and I have added exercise to my routine since I had liquid cartlidge put into my arthretic knees, but still no change. I'm a retired RN who has taught nutrition classes and yes I have met with a nutritionist several times. I try to get 60 gms of Protein each day so as not to eat away at my muscles. I come from fat relatives on both sides and they think that my genes have something to do with it. When I was younger I line danced, round danced and walked 10 miles a day at my job and jogged after work. Now since I have gotten older, the arthritis has kicked in, cutting down on all that and I'm sure that is the reason. But I am doing chair exercises and I have a rowing machine which I do 3 times a day. The reason I got the lap band is because I had tried everything else. I went to MediWeight 2000 and lost 40# over a 7 month period but that was 20 years ago, when I was younger. I paid $13,000.00 out of my own money to get this operation so you can see I was serious and I followed all their rules to the letter. My doctor is puzzled too. Right now I can't even eat anything solid so it's all liquids at this point but I have another appointment with the dr. so he will pull some Fluid out of the pouch as we feel there is something stuck. Before I had the lap band surgery, I had a tummy tuck, a butt lift and several liposuctions. This lap band was my last resort. Thanks for the reply. Have you had the surgery yet? If not I can tell you it's a piece of cake. I had no recovery time. There was nothing to it. If you have, how much have you lost and how old are you? I would love to hear from you again. Huggs, Cherub

What you're feeling is normal. It takes a few fills to feed the difference. You will feel the difference later on. I had another member tell me this and that helped a lot. Cherubof Calif.