Frederic

I doubt it's "food withdrawal" but it could definitely a nutrient issue especially if you didn't eat well balanced before the surgery. Do you take a multi-vitamin?

You're off to a great start by a) recognizing you'll need to change your behavior; not thinking it will be easy; and c) your seeking support both locally and here online. There's nothing wrong with having doubt it's just an opportunity to examine your options. All that matters is what you decide, everything else is out if your control so worrying about it won't change anything.

The ugly truth is the band is not magic. It will help you make changes but you still have to commit to making those changes. I was banded in February, I lost 60 lbs before, about 40lbs since and still have over 100lbs to go. Losing after the band hasn't been easy I still need to exercise, watch what I eat, and deal with getting stuck occasionally but it's been much easier than losing weight ever was before. I feel full sooner, I don't get hungry as often, and even exercise is easier (I assume this is due to satiation triggering a more consistent insulin response).

I'm 4 months post op. I get up and run for approx. 30 min every morning around 7am but don't start to feel any hunger until around 11am or later. I'll usually have a 100-300 calorie high Protein lunch (sometimes just a Protein Bar or some lunch meat). I'll then have a 100-200 calorie snack around 5pm (usually chunk cheese). I then eat dinner with the wife around 11pm around 750 calories. I just have whatever I'm fixing her but I'll have larger portions of meat and vegetables and a smaller portion of whatever starch I prepared. If I get hungry during the day a 0.25 oz. chunk of cheese or a teaspoon of Peanut Butter will satiate me for an hour or two. I get hungry easier and it takes more for me to feel satiated the later in the day it gets but somedays I don't get hungry at all until 2 or 3pm. We're all very different though and our eating changes as we lose weight. The more weight I lose the easier it gets to feel satiated. I still suffer from clean plate syndrome though so I need to serve myself smaller portions so I can recognize I'm not hungry anymore.

My wife didn't and still doesn't really support my need for WLS but I knew that beforehand I did the research myself, found a local support group, identified friends I could talk too, and most importantly started to become an active part of this community. It boils down to the simple fact either you need WLS enough you're going to commit to it fully and make the changes in your life regardless of who doesn't approve or you just aren't ready yet. There's no shame in needing more time to prepare for such a major decision.

I would encourage you to take a page from your husband's military training and focus on building habits. Record your food no matter what even if you don't get the calories exactly right, you can always get better at counting calories but if you don't record what you ate in the first place it isn't going to happen. Second of all start adding in time for exercise. Even if it starts out as taking a 1 minute walk around the house. Once taking that walk is a habit it'll be much easier to turn it into a full blown workout just make it a minute longer every few weeks.

What can I say I really enjoyed watching "Scanners" as a kid.

You're not selfish for wanting to improve your health. The trouble with your trainers experience is that it's anecdotal. Seeing people with complications while working at a hospital is like seeing broken cars when you operate a tow truck or seeing mice when you're an exterminator. People who are having success with the band don't generally wear t-shirts or introduce themselves by saying "hello I have a lap band and am experiencing no complications, would you like to hear about my toothbrushing routine?" <insert minor plea for people with WLS to think twice about keeping it a secret> Regarding your husband I have to ask. Is the money really an issue? If this is just about the money then you should sit down with him and discuss the long term cost of your medical needs. The lap band is a much better financial investment than a patio. It's like comparing buying a home to buying video games. All of that being said in addition to seeking advice from your health practitioner I strongly suggest you also start speaking to a mental health professional about how you will deal with the stress that WLS can cause. Not just for you personally but on your relationships as well. Your husband will need to cope with your decision as well and if he isn't supportive you'll need to deal with alot of additional feelings of rejection and alienation. This stress sin't insurmountable but you need to be prepared for it. Your body will experience alot of changes which will affect your thinking both in terms of self image and how your hormones influence your perceptions.

This is a prime example of how the quality of science reporting has continued to devolve despite the increasing need for comprehensive coverage of emergent technologies. The statement doesn't even make sense... "almost half of patients with a gastric band had no weight loss or needed the device removed after six years. More than 40 percent had long- term complications." If half the patients had the band removed that would mean 80% of the people who had it removed had long term complications which seems hard to judge based on a 6 yr time frame. If on the other hand they're saying 40% of all patients had long term complications that would mean only 10% or people had no complications which if that was the case the FDA wouldn't have approved it for anyone and more importantly no insurance company would ever agree to pay for it. If this is an actual quote the original reporter obviously doesn't know how to read medical statistics. WLS isn't for everyone and the less weight you "need" to lose the less likely it's the right solution for you. Unfortunately as WLS becomes an options for larger sections of the population that also means the statistics get harder to interpret in terms of success not to mention harder to simply comprehend in terms of success. It's easy to see that a person who is diagnosed as morbidly obese; hyper tensive; and diabetic has show improvement when they don't need medication and are now classified as simply obese or even overweight. It's much harder to judge success if the person just wanted to lose a persistent 50lbs and only lost 5 or 10 lbs.

I've decided today is a good day to take stock of my weight loss journey. Running today I broke my pace record for my entire life averaging 14 min/mile and more importantly I broke my record for fastest mile (13.5 min/mile). I'm still running half the distance and 50% slower than the average man my age who uses Nike+ but I'm running twice as often. I'm within 5 lbs of having lost 100 lbs (40 of which has been in the last 3 months with the lap band). I still have nearly 150 lbs to lose before my BMI would be "healthy" but I'm starting to suspect I'll reach a "healthy" waist measurement before that since I've lost 6 inches off my wait in the last 3 months and and am on the cusp of wearing 2xl shirts rather than feeling uncomfortable in the 4xls I was wearing a few months ago. So you may not be at goal but I'd encourage you to share your progress so far; feel free to brag yourself up a bit.

Trust me as a person who works in the behavioral field people are much too self centered to take the time to figure out how much you used to weigh the most common response will them imaging themselves either that much heavier or lighter depending on their own body issues.

#1 tip: Focus on developing habits. Exercise everyday, record every meal, Even if it's only 5 minutes and you don't count the exact calories once you can do these 2 things without effort it gets easier to record specifics and eventually figure out how to increase burned calories and decrease calories consumed.

I seem to plateau for 2 weeks at a time and then seem to lose 5 pounds in three days. When people talk about average weight loss it's important to remember that it's an average over time not necessarily a steady loss from day to day.

last night I had a major stuck episode I was literally sliming for hours until eventually I coughed up a little chunk of flour tortilla. What causes you to get stuck (and how badly) will vary based on time of day, what you've eaten earlier, how hydrated you are, and numerous other things. All you can do is try to learn for next time.

Regardless of the liver effect I appreciated the pre-op diet since it helped me prepare for the much tougher post-op diet.

I'm under the impression that not being honest about lap band surgery just helps propagate the misconceptions that it's vanity surgery or an easy option. People aren't going to appreciate how hard and necessary WLS is for some people until we stop pretending all anyone has to do is diet and exercise to lose weight. If we get WLS and then claim "all" we did was change how we ate and exercise we're just making it harder for the next person who really needs WLS. No social change ever occurred because people kept the need for change a secret.

One advantage of the smartphone app is that it brings up "your" most common foods first. So once you've selected the right brown rice the next time that brown rice will be the first one listed. And of course the bar code scanner saves a ton of time.

I only have 3.33 ccs in my 10cc band I rarely feel hungry before 11am and as long as I focus on Protein it doesn't take much for me to feel full and am losing about 1.5lbs a week pretty consistently and shedding inches much faster. That being said how much fill you need to experience restriction is different for everyone I know people with 7ccs who can easily eat twice what I do and have to eat in the morning or feel miserable. The same way some people don't need WLS at all some; people are simply more responsive to it. How quickly our bodies adjust to the band will be very individualized the most important person to compare yourself to when gauging progress is yourself a month earlier. As long as you feel healthier than that guy, you're headed in the right direction.

Generally you lose weight the opposite of how you put it on. So if you had a tummy and then thickened you're tummy will probably be the last thing to go but if you have a large frame and slowly got a larger waistline then your tummy will shrink quickly but otherwise your weightloss might be harder to notice.

You probably can but generally shouldn't. Reasons not to drink diet soda after the band *the caffeine and acid (that creates the carbonation) may slow healing. *the carbonation may cause expansion of the pouch created by the band. The more often this expansion occurs the less effective the pouch will be. *the carbonation may cause expansion below the band pushing the band above the stomach and onto the esophagus making it useless for weightloss and possibly causing additional damage. *dt soda reinforces your brain's desire to consume "sweet" things making it harder for you to eliminate other sweet things from your diet and generally resulting in more instances of head hunger. You might be lucky and experience none of the above. You need to ask yourself though is it worth the risk of experiencing 1,2, or even all of them.

The band makes it easier to change your own behavior but it doesn't change your behavior for you. You need to make an effort to change your eating and exercise habits the band will just make those efforts more effective. The nice thing about the band is unlike other WLS generally you can eat anything in moderation. The Bad part is the band will let you eat anything and some of the easiest things to eat are the things that make the band ineffective or risk damaging the band.

So I'm just venting but I'm increasingly annoyed whenever I see children at the Gym. They're generally loud. The younger ones treat equipment like toys and the teenagers reek of judgment and condescension. Intellectually I tell myself it's good that they're being active and developing good habits but my emotional self is reminded of a childhood of shame and ridicule at the hands of their predecessors. As I said I'm just venting but am trying to share more.