"Nita

Add me to the list...113 since my band. 175 from my highest weight. It can be done!!!!!

My surgeon likes to do at least six weeks on the pre-op diet. My consult was 4 weks before surgury so I had one last splurge of carbs, LOL ( I had a burger and fries) and then was on the glycemic index diet for the next four weeks....So I guess that really was officially my last burger and fries. (they don't work now with the band)

Just do your research. If there is a little voice saying this isn't for me, listen to it. Take some time, make sure you are making an informed choice based on knowledge not emotion or desperation. I have been very overweight most of my life. My highest weight (which I was at for many years) was somewhere around 315. I stopped weighing so I don't know if I went higher than that but probably did. I have done every diet, drink, pill, doctor, you name it. Some worked for a while some didn't. My biggest success....I lost 90 pounds on diet pills. ( of course it was from a doctor who made me sign a release against any lawsuits stating that I understood the meds I was taking may not be safe and may not be in recommended dose or combination and I couldn't sue if I became ill or died... hmmmmm dead-skinny...dead-skinny...no contest, LOL...I wanted skinny! the pills weren't even labeled so I have no idea what I took for a year...oh well) the point was I lost weight. Now that was a desicion made out of desperation ...wouldn't reccomend that. I did over the next few years start to gain it back which is the way it has always been for me. I gave a lot of thought to RNY but just had a nagging feeling it wasn't for me. When I started learning about the band and talked to my doctor, I had no doubts this was the right thing for me. I have the ability to lose weight. I have done it many times. My doctor found this very encouraging. He said, I am capable of loss, I know what to do and how to do it...The band will be my constant support and safety net so I won't regain it and slip back up to 315 before I know what happened. He considered me at a BMI of 42 to be a lower end BMI. He told me he would expect me to lose about 75 lbs. the first year and that he could see me reasonably maintaining about 150 or so, but not to expect to be super thin, I would not be 125 and if I was looking to be a super model after weighing over 300lbs of most of my life, it was not realistic. We agreed that my expectations where not unreasonable and here I am banded and very happy. Please do find out the good and the bad but keep in mind that nothing in this world is a one size fits all. Someone will have a tragic response to say... asprin but that doesn't mean everyone will. If this is something you fully understand and think is right, read the bad stories and try to find a lesson in them but don't let them scare you out of something that you really want.

Positive stories??? Well I love my band! I have lost 88 lbs in 11 months. I have gone from a BMI of 42 to 29. I have gone from a size 26W to a size 12-14 (regular). As for foods, You will find what yu can or can't eat is very individual but since you asked, here is what works/doesn't for me. I don't have trouble eating most healthy foods. I can eat chicken, steak, almost any meat. ( I can not eat sausage, hot dogs, or tough ribs or meat that is very tough--hard to chew) I can eat most all veggies. ( baked potatoes must be very soft not grainy or firm.) Cooked veggies go down better than raw for the most part. I can nibble a little bit of raw broccoli or carrot but I have to chew it so well and so tiny..cooked is just much easier. As far as other foods...I can't do rice. Some people suggest I try fried or spanish but I just haven't felt the need to try to eat it anyway. I chose to give that up. I cannot eat soft tortillas.Tried that twice...not good at all! French fries and tator-tots do not work at all. Also, I have tried Pasta once, it didn't work. I cannot eat soft bread or anything of that texture but I don't usually miss it at all. This is shocking coming from a self-admitted carb addict. I do still eat crackers now and then, chips ( as well as many other junk foods like cheetos, candy, Cookies, ice cream etc..) will go down fine although for common sense dieting sake, I try to avoid them. But, even when I give into tempation...I can now eat two cookies instead of an entire box. Basically, I have found that the foods I gave up weren't worth trading for my band. Before I was banded, I did some serious soul searching (it is sad to admit) as to whether I wanted to lose weight bad enough to give up foods I loved. Notice I said loved because I had a relationship with burgers and fries and french bread and pasta that I thought was just too dear to risk, LOL I had tried adkin's before and thought I would honestly die without those foods. Well, I am OK without them now. I can honestly say I hardly miss them at all. I have found to my suprise that Italian resteraunts offer other things besides fettucini or tortilini. Rosemary chicken with steamed veggies and roasted red pepper are actually what I crave now when I think of italian food. ( I know it is difficult to believe...I can go to Olive Garden and not shed a tear over the bread sticks..LOL) So yes, I would call mine a positive story. I wouldn't trade my band for all the french fries in the world ( even if they were magical non-fattening ones!) LOL

You should lose as long as you are working with your band as instructed but it will be slower. Here is a link to a great site that shows excersices and calories burned based on your current weight. You will see that someone who is 400 lbs. can burn a lot of calories just walking a block while someone who is carrying only 150 calories would have to walk miles to burn the same amount of calories. http://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.html That is one reason (along with adjusting metabolism) that weight loss slows as we lose more. We are taking off those extra "weights" that help burn more calories. PS, When I was banded, my BMI was 42, now it is 29. I am still losing at a BMI of 29, just not as easily as in the beginning.

There are some rules for band life that will find discussed on this site over and over. If you follow or nearly follow them you will do fine. (disclaimer...my opinions from my experience and research...not meant to insult anyone who is doing fine without observing these rules) I don't know of a single doctor who will argue the first one... once you are healed, the band is made to restrict solid food not liquids or soft highly processed food. So if you choose Soups, shakes, protien drinks, smoothies, mashed potatoes etc. for the majority of your meals, the band won't do as much for you. Even healthy liquids have a lot of calories that add up over the day and sneak right past that band. second...at each meal you should eat solid protien first then your high Fiber veggies and then if you aren't feeling satisfied yet have a few bites of starchier foods or sweets if you like. This means for most meals, no salad or Soup first, they go through your band much faster and easier than the meat so eat it first. The more solid the food, the more satisfied you will feel and the longer it takes to move out of your pouch so the longer you feel full. third....chew your food very very well and take small bite especially true since yu need to be eating solid protien which will be more difficult to eat than soft stuff but it is important to get as much solid food as possible. and fourth...(although there are probably others that could be mentioned) no liquids or drinking of and sort during or for at least 45 mins. (this time will vary from doctor to doctor..some say 30 min. some say one hour, I split the difference LOL). Drinking will do one of two things, it will depending on what you ate, either flush the food down much faster and cause you to be able to eat more than you should or it can cause the food to come back up not good. So really the work is in learning some new eating habits. I rarely feel hungry like I used to. I rarely have the desire to snack like I used to and I have found that eating in the car on the run doesn't work so that temptation was eliminated for me. I was a little worried about the work required also, but the band is a steady reminder like a little jiminy cricket telling you what to do, LOL. The one thing I am now struggling with is...excerscie! once you start getting closer to goal, it will become harder to lose..the whole burns less calories to walk across the room and such thing, so it becomes much more importanat to excersice. this for me has been the first real willpower thin. However this would be the case with any WLS. the lower the BMI, the slower the loss so you have to help it out by burning more calories. You will do fine! Best of luck,

Scott, I think there is one more very important factor you left out. % of time you follow the "Band Rules" ie. solid protien first, high Fiber veggies second, starch last if at all. along with no liquids at or after meals. In my opinion follwing these guidelines while eating each meal makes a huge difference in your success.

248 lbs. day of band, 11 months banded, 0-1% meals with drinks, 30-45 minutes per week excercise, 3 fills, no diet pills, white, 78 lbs. lost

That happens to me every month the wek before my period. I know that hormones change as you loose weight, so maybe it's all hormonal???? Also, if I have had too much caffeine for a few days in a row that will happen. Hope your feeling a little more perky (hehehe sorry...) real soon!

It could be thread from your internal stitches. Sometimes it doesn't disolve all the way. The thread my surgeon used was clear but when I had a lump removed from my breast a few years ago, they used Navy blue-ish thread and a few come to the surface and looked pretty weird.

Perfectly normal.You are in the healing phase and while I know it is easier said than done...LOL, you should just worry about healing and not weight loss right now. Once you are healed and on solid foods AND have your first fill, that's when things start working they should. Right now, you band is in place but not doing anything because it isn't filled yet. Any weight loss in the pre-fill stage is just a bonus. So be glad that when you get your fill and your band starts to work for you, you will already have a jump start!!!!

Choosing band or bypass is a big decision. I am glad you are taking the time to look at both options before you jump into one or the other. I personally do not think bypass is an evil horrible decision...LOL. I just found the band to be the better choice for me. I think for some people bypass is a legimate need. Here are some of the reasons I chose banding instead. I liked the fact that 1) far less surgical and post-surgical risks and the possible complications are not as serious or life threatening as with bypass. 2) no malabsorption componant which lead to many problems down the road..for instance if I were to ever develop a life threating illness such as cancer, survival rates are low for people with malabsorption problems. 3) the band can always be adjusted!!! If five or six years after I have lost my weight, I find A few creeping back on and they aren't going away, I can go in and get a fill and loses the weight, with bypass, you are on you own to lose the weight. There is no safety net if you will. As for non-compliance after the surgury, you can eat around either surgury. If you want to fail, you will. Those are my doctor's words. Basically, it is a little easier to cheat the band then the bypass but either way, they can both be cheated if that is the goal. Hopefully, anyone who is serious enough to have bariatric surgury is serious enough to be commited to losing weight and will try to eat around the surgury whichever choice they make. One last thing, as for statistics, take them with a grain of salt, the numbers range greatly depending on who is doing the study and what they want the numbers to say. I have seen as many studies stating that five years out the band people are doing better than bypass (as for mainting a lower % of excess weight) as I have seen studies stating bypass is better.