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Thanks, everyone for reading and for the kind words! EdomontonGal, I had to go 2.5 months before my first fill and I ate almost a pound of baby carrots a day so I could always have something to eat. 1 pound of carrots was about 175 calories and then I had my Protein shakes for Breakfast and then dinner and a little bit of deli turkey for lunch, and this was with an empty band too. I could have eaten what ever I wanted but like you I made good food choices and it has paid off and it will for you too! I have read on here time and time again that people are not loosing weight but as soon as someone asks what they are eating they reply not what they should be, and they had icecream, Cookies, or whatever. I have a good friend that was banded two years ago and hasnt lost a pound and thinks I had a magic band installed, all this while he sips on his can of pepsi and eating a huge piece of Bday cake. Keep up the good work it will pay off Kll724 Congrats on the 104 LBS lost! I know you feel a lot better with it all off, I wish the best for your son but I am sure he will be fine with you as his mentor

400 LBS!!!Well I was banded on 2-24-10 and I weighed 355, but I had topped out somewhere around 410 or so. Sadly I never knew what the highest I weighed because there were no scales that would read that high. Anyway, I like everyone else in here had tried to loose the weight and I always dropped 75-100 LBS just to gain it and some back, thats when i looked into WLS. I had a friend that went through Dr. Richard Carter and was happy so I decided to give him a call and went to a seminar and I was really please with his personality and overall seemed like a great guy that would take care of you. I was right! he is a wonderful surgeon and a great Dr. that has the highest hopes for you and really wants you to succeed. I had the operation and evrything was fine, I was in a lot of pain and I believe most was from the hernia they had to sew up but I survived! I waited the 2 months to begin any physical activitys but i did go to the gym and walk a few weeks afterwards, after the 2 months were up I was in the gym at 4 am doing 3 miles on the eliptical machine and then I would go back at 6 to do three more! On my 3 month bandaversery I was down 70 lbs and had not had a fill yet, I was getting very pissed off because he installs the band empty and makes you wait 3 months for the first fill, but that was a blessing as it got me in the mindset of eating better foods, chewing, and getting all of my food addiction killed. Like I said, 70 lbs down in 3 months!!! and the Dr was excited too! I kept my cardio schedule the same and added weight traing in the mix as well. I have been liufting weight my entire life but with the extra 200 lbs I never could see any resutls, that would always get me down and I would eventually stop lifting for months on end. But now with the weight loss I was seing drastic changes in my body and I just kept training harder and harder until I was going to the gym 7 days a week twice a day, I started to see amazing results but ended getting sick from over training. By now I have had my 3rd fill and it was July and I was weighin in at 238 or so, the smallest I have been since JR high. My wife was loving the new me and thought that that was the perfect weight for me but I wanted to break into the 100's for the first time since (no shit) elementary school, yea I was a big kid! I guess I will finish here to not bore everyone, I cannot type and this alone took an Hour to type out, but if I can help inspire people to better there life and prove the haters that Lap Band DOES work it was worth it. I started at surgery date 355, today I weigh 195 and have maintained that weigh since the end of august so I lost 155 lbs in 6 months and have been able to maintain that weight and enjoy life. It can be done but you have to use the band and not rely on the band, You and only YOU can decide that that tasty chocolate is not worth it and you can live with out it. I keep hearing from the guys at work "you dont know what your missing" but my reply is I didnt get to 400+ lbs by "missing" out! I look bad and I used evry excuse in the book, I have a slow metobolism, its genetics, my whole family is fat, and the list goes on. I was the only one that could make the band work and I did, I made the decisions not to eat the rolls or chips when we went out to eat, not the band. I didnt eat the kids halloween candy like I use too, and the band didnt stop me I did!!!!!!!! You can too Thanks for the read I cant figure out how to add pics......HMMMMMM

Sorry for the crazy pictures, still trying to figure out how to attach all this stuff. Thanks everyone for the kibd words, I am really pleased with everything so far!

Well everyone I have come to a point where I am extremely happy with my size and my wife thinks I need to gain a few pounds back! LOL. I started my journey 02-24-10 and was at a whoppin 340lbs and thats after loosing 55 on my own, but I am at a wonderful 208. 32-33 inch waist pant and med.-lg shirts, I have seen people I havent seen in 6 or so months and they dont even reconize me AT ALL! My wifes uncle thought that she had remarried when we drove to Mississippi to see him, 132lbs in 7 months and I can honestly saw I have worked my @ss off in the gym and I am proud of myself and my weight loss. I have still not had bread, pasta, or sweets!

Loosing was the easy part, now I have to figure out how to maintain. my wife thinks that I need to start adding back in "normal" people food but I am still worried I will start gaining weight back. Good luck to all the banders out there, if I can loose it everyone has hope!

I have a friend that did the same thing, he eats cake, cookies, full meals, and drinks regular coke. Now he is 1.5 years out and has actually gained weight and looks at me and wonders how I have lost 115lbs in 5 months and thinks that there is a problem with his band............:scared2:

You still need to journal after the fills, you can still eat quite a bit and you still need to know everything that you put in your body. If you stop losing you can always look and see what might be causing the stall and avoid it, if you dont journal its a memory game trying to figure out what you think you may have eaten. Fatsecret.com is a good site and they have apps for the iphone and droid

The weight will fall off if you can get active, do as much cardio as you possibly can and dont start weight training for 2 months or so. I was banded feb. 24th of this year and I am down 105lbs!! I lost 30lbs the first another 30 the second 20 the third 15 the fourth and 10 going into the fifth. I am a 31 yr old male and I am looking to get to a goal weight of 210-220 and weigh 234 now so it is slowing down. I say reach for the stars but also dont beat yourself down if you are unable to get to your goal, it takes time. Also I had to go the first 2.5 months without a fill and with an empty band, eat like you have restriction and stay away from the bad foods and you WILL get to your goals. Wish the best of luck to you and congrats on your new friend the band!!!!

I dont think that you can lose to much weight too fast, I had surgery 2-24-10 and was at 338lbs and I weighted this morning at 243.5:thumbup:. All my Dr. has told me is keep up the good work and "I bet you never thought you could lose weight this fast" Either way though you are doing great and keep up the good work and dont let the weight loss slow down, be as active as you possibley can and if the scales slow down do different excercises and eat different foods, it has helped me with a couple of slow weeks.

Does everyone consider it vomitting if you eat to fast and have to chuck it back up within a couple of minutes of eating it, or is it after it has sat in your stomach awhile and comes up later all nasty. I was wondering because I am still learning to eat slower and at times I have to "refund" it as revren said and I dont consider that destructive to the band, I have only once had to vomit where it actually hurt. Just wondering

I was banded Feb. 24th 2010 and I am down a total of 86lbs!!!!! I went in to the surgeon today and the nurse looked at me and looked at my chart and smiled, she said she has never seen anyone lose as much weight this fast before, I was grinning from ear to ear, and actually proud of myself. The kicker is as of this moring I have had only 1 fill that was last month and the only thing in my band is 1.5cc in a 10cc band, I was down 25lbs from the 27th of arpril until today. I started the surgery day at 338 and at the visit I was at 252 with 40 more to go. I really thought about doing it with no fills but I think as conservative as my Dr. is it will take awhile to get restriction and hopefully I can get all the weight off and by then I can use the band to "maintain" a normal weight for once. I am happy I made this decision and I can honestly say it has been tough not eating what I "can" or want but what I should eat and I have not had one piece of bread, tortilla, alcoholic beverage(heavy drinker before surgery) candy, or anything I would have eaten before. I cant believe it but there are days I eat an entire POUND of baby carrots and still lose weight the next day, I do work out very hard at the gym and I try to get at least 2.5-3 miles on the eliptical 5-6 times a day and weight training some. If there is a day I feel I have eaten a little to many pretzels or fruit I will burn a few more cal. at the gym. I want to thank everyone here, I did ALL of my research on this site and it mentally prepaired me for the journey I am on, I knew before surgery that it would not work with out effort and willpower from myself and thank everyone here again!!!!!!! It can be done:biggrin::biggrin:

One day will NOT hurt you as long as you get back on it and do the right thing ASAP! I am a 6' male and I get in around 1000-1200 cal. a day. I am 3 months out and as of this morning I only have 1.5cc in a 10cc Band, focus and excercise and you will be just fine.

Arlington TX here, I was banded 2-24-10 by Dr. Richard Carter. Start weight 338. I weighed 257.3 this morning!! over 80 LBS in less than 3 months!!!!!

As far as fills go I believe that they are needed(for ME), I was banded 2-24-10 and I had to wait 2.5 months for my first fill and can only get one every month. My band was installed empty and my first fill was 1.5cc in a 10cc band so I did not feel any difference, but I think that as I lose weight and start getting fills I hope by the time I am at my ideal weight the band will help me maintain and I will not balloon back up like I always have done before. Alot of my weight has fallen off not because of the band but because of my change in eating habbits and the amout of excercise I do not, I really want the band to "kick in" and start working but untill then it healty eating and portion control even if I am still hungry! To the OP if you are losing weight you are doing the right thing, keep it up but try and get a fill if you think you need it. You went through surgery and I believe you should utilize the new tool you have to work with but dont rely on it, you have done great with 36 lbs in a month!

The band for me right now is all will power, I cannot get my first fill until 3 months post op. I am 6 weeks post op and down 48lbs, I have NOT over eaten and I have regained control over my food choices. Yes, am hungry alot and I wish I could eat more but I elected to have surgery and am going to make the best of it. I try to stay under 900-1000 calories a day and document everything I eat, look up calorie counter by fatsecret on your IPHONE or on the android market(fatsecret.com), it is free and a wonderful app with barcode scanners and it has just about every food and excercise you can think of. Best of all its mobile and web based, so as soon as you enter it in your phone it is on the website. I also just started hitting the gym again and do 30-40 minutes of eliptical or treadmill 4-5 days a week. I wont lie, I really wish I could get a fill today but the wife agrees that the wait has made me eat better and get my mind in the right place. All I can suggest is get moving! Do as much excercise as you can and watch the pounds melt away, I was loosing a pound a day for a few weeks! Start weight was 338 and I was 290 this morning, surgery date was 2-24-10

At least you dont have to wait for 3 months to get a fill! My surgery was Feb. 24 and my first fill is may 24th, just be patient the weight will start to fall off. I am almost 5 weeks post op and I am down 35lbs, I am a male so I know we lose faster but the first couple of weeks I really didnt lose but 10-12 lbs but the last few weeks I have seen it come off fairly good, and my band is EMPTY with no fill in it at all. I just keep telling myself I didnt gain it all in a couple months I will not lose it all either. Good luck the hard part is over(waiting) and it is time to get your mind in the right place as far as food goes, eat good and excercise will get you there alot faster!

It is normal, I am 15 days postop and my skin is still numb orind the BIG incision and I have some bulging. I saw the doc yesterday and all is good with mine even the numbness. good luck!

I was banded the 24th! My Dr reccomended that the first five days were liquid and the 6th day start mushy food. On day 10 I was able to move to solids, I made it 8 days on liquids and started mushy foods but I have since started eating normal again. I have a protein drink for breakfast and a sf Jello between lunch at break and then I have something really small for lunch. Today I had tuna and for dinner vege soup, I have had a couple ofchick fil a nuggets and they went down ok. I have a hard time eating COLD mushy(mashed potatos) for some reason they hurt. All in all I average 800-1000 calories aday and Have dropped 13lbs since surgery. Good luck