jasonweinberg

my program recommends a minimum of three 10 minute walks per day until you can start other more strenuous forms of exercise.

my surgeon and his team are definitely pro-bypass in almost all cases. i was only interested in the lapband and just went ahead with it. having said that, my surgeon and his team have been fantastic.

i had a temporary gain of a couple of pounds after going on mushy foods too and i assume it was simply because when i was on liquids nothing was staying in my system for long and my digestive track was generally empty. it took me about 4-5 days to lose those couple of lbs. and now i am headed in the right direction again.

mine is 8 weeks after surgery but i was told with the type of band they used on me i can get a fairly big fill the first time. in the meantime, i feel no restriction whatsoever.

i am brand new here and there is a lot of information to digest. one thing i notice right off the bat is that a lot of people have included a pre-surgical weight, a ten day pre-surgical diet, a surgery weight, and then weight-loss after surgery in your signatures. am i to understand that with the programs you were in you went straight from your "regular weight" to a ten day pre-surgery diet and then had your surgery? in the program i was in we had to lose 10% of our body weight at our first consult, have massive amounts of tests done, then get approved for the insurance and then schedule a date. i wound up losing 56 lbs. prior to surgery. i think i would feel overwhelmed if i hadn't had that time invested beforehand before my surgery. just curious about other people's varying experiences. or maybe i am misreading these signatures...

interesting. my surgeon specifically mentioned that my weight loss did help with having a fatty liver and said my surgery was easy because of it. it does, however, seem that many that don't lose a lot of weight pre-surgery quickly make up for lost time after. still, i am glad i did it the way i did because i am really struggling with the post surgery diet and feel it would be even worse if i hadn't "prepped" by losing weight.

we had to lose 10% of our total weight, not just excess weight. i thought that was a requirement of the insurance companies but am quite glad i did it anyway.

i was banded the day before you. i don't get my first fill till mid-october. i was starving for the second week of liquids and the first week of soft and pureed foods and i did wind up cheating some, which was a bummer for me because i didn't cheat at all in my pre-surgery period. i skipped the second week of soft/pureed foods because i feel completely healed and have no restriction whatsoever. i feel much, much better. it is so nice to have food that actualy requires digestion in your system and i made my Protein goal without a Protein shake today, which also means more food! i feel so much better. i still have a week to go before i can really start introducing everything back in but at least having ground meats, toast, and nonfat cheeses again makes me feel like i am eating more normally again. i have also already lost 74 lbs. and am down to 48 lbs. to goal so i don't feel the urgency to lose weight rapidly. my original goal was to hit goal by one year from when i started which was april 23rd and now i am looking at only 12 lbs per month to hit it by new years. obviously, you need to make the right decisions for yourself. and if you do decide to move forward as i did, just use common sense and caution. personally, i can hardly wait for my fills because then this extremely low calorie regimen will make a lot more sense to me.

agreed. one of my biggest challenges with my calorie goals has been that it really doesn't leave much room for Snacks. sugar-free Jello only fills you up for about five minutes. on my pre-surgery program regular healthy snacking was key to my success.

i chose the lap band and never would have considered the bypass. its just too intense for me. a couple of things that were said earlier i think need to be corrected, although one has already been contradicted numerous times. the lap band is reversible. its not meant to be reversed but it can be if there are complications or it needs to be for some reason. also, the bypass is restrictive as well as malabsorptive. i would not want to subject myself to dumping syndrome. i also did very well in my pre-surgery weight-loss and feel very confident that i will reach my goal comfortably in a reasonable time frame with the lapband. in the end to me it was simply a choice between the lapband and no surgery. my pcp only recommended the lapband for me as well.

i for one have been doing fine on getting my 60 grams of protein per day. its the calories that have been my problem.

from my first dr.'s visit 4/23 till my 8/16 surgery i lost 56 lbs. since then i have lost 18 lbs. for a total of 74. my total goal is 122 so i have 48 lbs. to go.

i am, three weeks in and going through the same thing. i feel completely healed, my first fill isn't for six weeks and i feel no restriction whatsoever. i was doing great pre-surgery, losing 56 lbs. in about 14 weeks and have now lost 18 lbs. since surgery. the difference for me has been i was enjoying it pre-surgery now i am miserable. i have been exceeding their calorie recommendations because i really couldn't meet them and now went to "phase 4" a week early to see if it could help me to stabilize my situation. i really want to be on a program that works for me from day to day. in business we always called that "setting ourselves up for success". my perception is that they run the exact same program for bypass and lapband recipients and clearly this program is designed for bypass patients. why not let me stay at a higher calorie goal until my surgery is actually providing restriction? i undrstand that my activity level is down as i recover but frankly i would happily sacrifice losing a few lbs. right now in exchange for not being so insanely hungry all the time. i've got 48 lbs. to goal and don't feel like it is imperative that i get it done yesterday. i know it will be a lot easier after i've had a couple of fills so why struggle so much now?