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I'm going through the SAME thing as you. I do have a different insurance company though. My current BMI is at the lower end of the BMI range that qualifies for coverage. I was worried about having to do the 6 month supervised weight loss because I wasn't sure if the insurance company would pay if I fell out of that BMI range. My dietician told me that if I get close she will help me maintain the weight so I can get coverage. With all the appointments & test this whole process sort of feels like a part time job. ???? I know what you mean, I try to think of it as I spent most my life over weight I can wait another 6 months but it's hard to not have a little negativity, especially knowing the tricks insurance company's like to play!

Who was sleeved on march 27th? What's ur weight loss and what r u eating

With a 15 second pause during an EPS study, I am surprised that they did not opt to at least put in a pacemaker. I had EPS and was ablated for a re-entry fast rhythm. Eventually I will need an AICD but thankfully, so far, so good. What's interesting is that in my case, I only began to have heart problems AFTER I lost 230 pounds. I put back 130 of that but did keep 100 pounds off for 4 years. Now I hope the band helps me get back down to a healthy weight. I'm glad that your weight loss has helped the heart flare-ups and I certainly hope you've see the last of them.

I think it's the liquid's, or lack of. I have noticed if I slack off on my Water, my weight loss slows to a stop. Try your best to drink at least 8 glasses of water a day and you should she a change for the better. Good Luck!

I take 100mg as well. I have no idea if it's making a difference or not. I started about 6 weeks post op. I'm at 13 weeks now. I am losing a little bit of hair. I've always had really short hair so I don't notice it as much as all the luck folks with big manes of hair. I have always had flimsy nails and that does not appear to have gotten worse or better.

Congrats on your success this far! My situation is a little different because there was only 1 close friend at work who knew I had surgery (others have figured it out since then I think) and there was this one woman who just would not leave me alone. She was obsessed with my weight loss. "What are you doing?" "What are you eating" "When will you stop" etc etc etc. She made a comment to me at least once daily. It made me really uncomfortable, but now 18 months out, no one really mentions it anymore. They've adjusted to the "New me" and your co-workers will too. But expect lots of compliments in that first year of active weight loss! Even today someone came back to work who I had resigned a couple weeks ago for visit and we hugged and she said "Oh, you're as thin as a rail!!" That's definitely not something I'm used to hearing! Also weird is new people who have started or I've met at my work, church, kids' school since I lost 140+ pounds. It's so weird to me that they never knew me as overweight. Sometimes it will come up and I will show them a before and after picture and they are floored. It's kind of cool the first time someone says "I never would have known you were overweight". Good luck to you on the rest of your journey!

Ok.. When I first saw a dr put on my med chart " obese stomach" ..I was in shock. This was about 12 years ago. This comment stayed stuck I'm my mind for years to come at the meantime getting larger year to year. Of course..I would lose tons of weight between that time I saw this term and prior to sleeve surgery. For some reason that word "obese" pierced my heart. I had to talk through myself that it is only a word that the med profession uses for excess weight. But what I was really doing to myself ..I was in denial about my excess weight.. Only when I saw pics of myself ..I looked "obese". When I started having high blood pressure, high cholesterol ..it was a sign of my health condition..but even with these bad symptoms. I was still in denial about my excess weight. food was my best friend that I could not conceivably ever give up. I could not even fathom this concept and certainly did believe I could in myself to even consider this option. Flashback to Sept , 2013.. I heard that a friend of mine lost tons of weight with the sleeve..and finally keeping off her excess weight reheat she struggled to do for years. I was a classic replica,of her weight loss journey. Lose, gain, lose gain. After losing 65 pounds two years ago, just to gain it back immediately, I was literally exhausted with getting on diets.just to gain it all back. I had liposuction twice, I had the lapband, and went on too many diets to count . I was still no better in Sept 2013 ..improbably spend over $75,000 On weight loss efforts. (Could of used that money for a world cruise). I never , ever considered invasive weight loss surgery till Sept 2013. The gastric by pass, in my opinion, was too extreme, I researched the sleeve, spoke to my friend who had the surgery, and went to a consult with my dr. I vacillated whether to have the surgery. Changed my mind several times. I was also seeing a psychologist at that time for my "emotional" eating. This turned out to be invaluable and a real added plus to my current success. I still see my psychologist every two weeks. I knew deep down that getting on another "diet" of food deprivation was no longer a solution to my weight problem. I was completely exhausted to deal with my weight ..on to dec, 2013'. I had the surgery. I remember that 7 days after surgery, my reality that food can and will no longer be my friend was very humbling to me. I knew that my life changed forever with my relationship with food. I cried, I mourned..but I prevailed. To me that day was a turning point.. I could now accept that food was no longer my best friend. I cannot explain how profound that day was for me. Sadness , mixed with hope ..5 month later, today, I am living such an energetic life, with great joy. I don't obsess on food.. My tool, the gastric sleeve, has helped my in curving my hunger, big time. Head hunger still appears in my life.. But through my psychological sessions, I have more tools to deal with this. I now have connection between my head and my stomach..I had lost,that for years.. Never, ever checked,with my stomach to see,if I was truly hungry ..I would just eat and eat and eat and never felt full. Even though I had years of struggle with my weight..I have to accept that my struggles has brought me to where I am today. Getting healthier, and seizing what life has to offer. Eating to live not living to eat. I have greatly reduced the "all or nothing attitude " I do enjoy on occasion my favorite foods..but he difference now..the guilt feeling nah as dismissed. I don't binge because I had one bite of a "bad stuff". Eating in moderation what I do now. No more deprivation. To those who are considering wls..I would suggest to get help if you are an emotional eater. You need the tool of the sleeve or by pass to help you get to your healthy goal, but just as important, you need to deal with your relationship with food. I am now considered overweight.. I accept this term without harsh judgement on me. I accept the weight I am today.. I know I will slowly reach my goal ..I decided to set a goal of 150 pounds at 5'2". 60'years old. I am in a size 8 .. Which I am very proud of. 13 more pounds to go. I am grateful where I am today.

I stalled every second week during my first two months post surgery. Frustrating? Yeah, but also totally normal. I was barely consuming 700 calories a day, and we're convinced that that MUST mean we lose weight. How can so few calories result in a stall and weird weight fluctuations, right? Well, the body responds to a prolonged and severe calorie reduction and post-op stress by stalling. It's a normal response, and our poor bodies have a lot of rewiring and adjusting to do after enduring major surgical changes. When I was finally able to eat more and up my calories to around 900 to 1200 a day ... the stalling stopped. I've now been fairly consistently losing, and feel like, after two months of modest weight loss, I've finally hit my "honeymoon period" (which everyone seemed to talk about but I was beginning to think wasn't going to happen for me). So stalls do break. Some go on for 3 weeks or even a bit over that. Others, like me, had them with mind numbing frequency. They're normal, and while it may seem counter-intuitive, super-low calorie intake often causes them.

This is prob a stupid question but would love to know the answer to encourage me to drink!! Why is water so important to our weight loss? I have seen people posting to drink more to break stalls or reasons for inadequate weight loss etc. What function does drinking high volumes of liquid serve?

I had my VSG on 1/20/2015. I told a few close friends I work with and of course my family prior. When I started my preop diet, people were quite nosey, so I was honest about my plans for surgery and really have had positive feedback. I returned to work after 4 weeks down 15.5 pounds (I lost 11 pounds in the 6 months working with the dietitian and 10 pounds on the preop diet), so I was at a total weight loss of 36.5 lbs. I really hadn't seen much of a difference personally in my appearance, but my scrubs were definitely looser. Everybody, made comments! It was crazy. I was very upfront about surgery and the response has been overwhelmingly supportive. The only somewhat negative experience I had was a doctor that I love dearly come up to me in excitement about losing weight and I told her about surgery, but she took a step back from me and stopped talking to me. She is overweight herself, but I was shocked at the look of disappointment she gave me. I'm now at the 8 week mark and I'm down 43.5! So not much of a change since I went back, but yesterday everybody again was commenting. Is the weight loss that different with WLS? I haven't changed much in 4 weeks, but I had multiple people use the phrase "skinny minny" yesterday! I'm a little overwhelmed by the attention. It's a very weird situation for me because I've always preferred to be a fly on the wall and now all of a sudden I'm front and center. Have any of you had this experience? Any advice? It's definitely not a bad thing and it is positive that people are so encouraging. I'm just not used to attention like that. It's a very new experience for me! ☺️

I've had more than one stall / plateau since surgery - see my signature area. One thing I think helped me break the most recent stall was to "change it up." I've been following the Atkins diet ever since I resumed solid food a few weeks post-op so I started eating some carbs and increased my calorie intake for a couple of weeks. I eat 4 times a day - 8a, noon, 4p and 8p. I love Quest bars, and I was eating one of those for 2-3 of the 4 meals each day. Someone on this site said she had to cut back on Quest bars to get the wt loss going again, so for the past week I've limited myself to just one bar per day - I eat real food the other 3 times each day now -- but just Protein and fat, keeping the carbs as low as humanly possible. Also I was eating several sugar free hard candies each day, and someone on here said she had to stop eating sugar alcohols for Atkins to work for her, so for the past week I've cut out the hard candies too. I had not been exercising at all since surgery, so now I've started wearing a pedometer to count my steps each day, with a goal of 10,000 steps a day eventually, and I've started taking my dogs for walks several times a week. And sure enough, the pounds have started to come off again, albeit v-e-r-y slowly. I'll TAKE it! The important thing is ... SLEEVE ON!! Best wishes!

Yes, I agree with above poster. Quest Bars may not have the correct "net carbs" that they claim. I cut them out when my weight loss slowed around 4 1/2 months. I also started exercising, which I hadn't been doing. The other ingredient, if you're doing every thing else right, is patience. I have an app called Libra that tracks my projected loss, and it showed that I had actually lost more faster than it predicted, so was ahead of the projection. That's where I stalled. My body just was catching up. So be patient, it's really hard to screw this up if you're reasonably following the plan.

In response to both of you. I was able to eat more than I anticipated before my first fill and more than I anticipated after my second and third fill as well. I was working on sheer willpower and portion control but losing or staying put so it was okay. I had my fourth fill last week and I also don't like my band very much. I am finally feeling full after 2 ounces,which I believe was the original goal, but it has been an experience. I worry that I might be over-filled but I'm going to wait it out just a little more to see if it gets better before I ask to go back in for an un-fill. My average has been staying the same weight or 1-2 pounds a week. I am happy with those results. Keep track of your portions, starting with protein first and I think if you stay within 1/2 to1 cup of food per meal (I usually serve myself 2 oz's of meat and 1/2 or 1/4 cup of Beans or other protein) and drink plenty of Water between meals, you'll manage your weight loss. Good luck to you.

I think the thing to remember too is that small losses of weight can make big changes to health. We all want to lose all our excess weight but remember that as far as your problem with your spine goes, you wont have to lose ALL of your excess weight to improve your health. So there's no need to jump into a bypass if it worries you simply for that reason. there's every likelihood that even if you were one who didnt lose all your excess weight, you can still improve your health and quality of life with the 50% loss and not jeoapardise nutrition in the process. But you CAN lose it all. It just takes reasonable - not ridiculous - work and commitment.

Your weight loss so far is great! I was two weeks post op this past Tuesday (I also had the plication!) and I have only lost 16 lbs post op. I did not loose a single pound this past week at all. Your body is still healing so it may take some time to start seeing the numbers drop. It will happen...in time! I think the plication is a great benefit. I have not had any hunger pains at all since the surgery, whereas I see others start experiencing this and feel like they can eat as much as they did before surgery. Good luck!

they want to make sure that regular diet don't work for u so don't loss much weight

Hi everyone... I was banded on 4/16/08, and down 53lbs. Some people think that was quick.. but it wasn't quick enough for me! For the last month I've lost nothing at all... Trust me, it gets discouraging!!! You just have to remember, you didn't gain it over night... nor did you gain it all over the last 6 mo... As long as it's coming off... who cares how long it takes. So far, I'm really am happy with my results. I do exercise every day.. I walk 2 miles on my treadmill 30 min... You have to work at it!!! and it's NOT EASY!!! Eventually we will all meet our GOAL!!! You all must remember the band is a TOOL... and not a automatic Weight loss system!!! I have relatives that have had the Gastric done, and I have to be honest... the weight came off of them QUICK!! My cousin lost over 100 in 7 months!! She takes tons of Pills, and looks like CRAP! Sorry to say that, but I don't know how else to describe it. Very withdrawn... face sunken in, lost alotta hair... white as a ghost... soooo un-healthy looking!!! I think when you loose it slow, you body adjusts sooo much better and less flabby skin and you look sooo much healthier!! What ever you decide, I wish you best of luck!! God bless you all on your weight loss!!!

Ok I'm 47 years old and perimenopausal. I reached my goal weight. Yay! But the last 50 lbs. off I didn't lose a single inch of my waist. I would still like to lose about 10 or 15 more pounds, mostly from my waistline. But you can't target weight loss. I'm thinking the odd way I'm losing weight is due to my being perimenopausal. And think that maybe a low dose birth control might help. Or hormone replacement therapy. I would also like help with regulating my cycle as it's very short right now. Anybody have any insight or knowlge about this? Perimenopausal women on BC that are losing from their waistline? BC suggestions? Any help would be very appreciated. Thanks!

Congratulations on your loss!

Best piece of advice........from the vets: not everyone loses 100 lbs the first month! In other words, be realistic about your rate of loss. And don't panic when you stall! Funniest post you ever saw...........the 'SEX' post with Pokeychic and BigCountryAbs!!!! Whatever helped you the most............posts from people like Laura-ven, CheriCLK, Butterthenean, Fiddleman, Lsereno, and all the other vets who come back regularly to share their experience & advice. Priceless, in my opinion!

I am 9 weeks post op and I am down 34 lbs. SD was 12-7-12 and I weighed 283 today 249. I feel great knowing that being that I am losing!!! I am sure I am not getting ALL daily protein in but its still a work in progress. For the past month I have worked out 5 days/week. Is this an average weight loss or should I have lost more? I guess I am feeling a bit like my progress is slow and I am not going to be where I want to be by the time 6 months get here in this rapid WL phase.

I have that brain thing going on. The one that you see the loss in a pic but not daily.....daily I see yuck. lmao My head isn't catching up fast enough I guess....even tho its BIG! LMAO

wow!! What a difference E! And in not that much time at all! You look great. And I LOVE the short hair. Very sassy

Wow, I had no idea hormones were stored in fat and realeased during rapid weight loss! My re-banding surgery was 3/17 and my TOM was so messed up after my surgery. The first week I cried off and on for no apparent reason and I couldn't understand because I was so happy that I got to keep my band. Thanks for shedding some light on this subject!

Just wanted to share pic from progress over the past couple of months Surgery 8/7/12 start weight 231 Current weight 169