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I am soooo confused. Since the fill I had in early October I have felt that I was at my "sweet spot". I was supposed to return for a doc visit just for a check up in early November but, since I didn't think I needed a fill (and since my doc moved to Beverly Hills the parking is RIDICULOUSLY expensive and impossible to find on the street - yuck), I opted not to return for a while. Well, now I can't decide if I need a fill or not. My weight loss is pretty slow but steady and in the right direction -- down. Lately though, I have been feeling hungry -- like right now -- AND, I know longer feel as tight in the morning and at lunch as I did a month or so ago. I had scheduled and appointment for December 3rd but cancelled it because I am afraid that if I get even a small fill I won't be able to swallow my breakfast (a protrein drink). My daily regimen has been pretty satisfying and filling for the last couple of months (breakfast = protein drink, lunch = Lean Cuisine, dinner = protein[meat, poultry, fish], starch, and veggie. But, of late I am getting hungry during the day AND I am able to eat more at dinner. I am sorry if my post is a bit confusing, but I am confused myself. Do I need a fill or not? Should I just stick to my current food plan and eventually the hunger will go away or what? Any and all advice would be helpful. Thanks.

i read where people have been on this and lost 25-40 within their first couple of months. I know exactly what you are going through. I had my surgery on Aug. 18 and have only lost 17 pounds. I am always reading on this site where people have lost alot more weight and here I am stuck on 17 pounds. I am on my 3rd fill with 7cc in my 9cc band. I am also really bummed and wonder if this band is even going to work for me. Unlike you, I AM able to exercise. I walk 4 miles every other day (but since the kids are finished with cheerleading and football), now I will be down to 2 miles a day due to gas prices and not wanting to run out my gas so fast. It seems that no matter what I do, I can't get this weight off and it is really driving me NUTS!!!!

I'll let other folks weigh in on the waiting aspect, but taking a long period of time off and then getting back on an elliptical (especially an eliptical) is going to crush anyone, but probably more because of muscle memory than any kind of muscle loss. Heck you could workout on the elliptical every day and if your gym came in one day and changed the lifefitness model out for a startrac with a slightly different path of movement it would probably feel incredibly awkward (and limit your capacity) for a while before getting back to where you were. I tried to get back to the gym as soon as possible because I thought it best to tackle the weight loss by maximizing the caloric deficit from both sides (plus I figured if I could burn off more surface fat while losing the weight I might be able to minimize the loose skin (or rather loose fat) that accompanies the weight loss (still TBD).

FWIW, I hate the elliptical. If I make three minutes on the elliptical its a banner day! Find something you like. Turns out, I like to fence. (As in, en garde.) I love it. I fence 5 hours a week now. Plus do weights and what not in the gym. Find what you like. Then do it.

Last night I went to Panda Express and got the 2-item combo with rice and noodles. I ate the whole thing and could have eaten more. This morning I can barely get down a hard boiled egg without the tight feeling in my chest. I have never pb'd. Sometimes I get a tight feeling in my chest and if I stop eating for a few minutes I can usually start right back up again and eat whatever I want. I am eating less than I did before but not by much. My fear is that I don't want to get too tight and have a band slippage but I'm not losing weight so wtf am I supposed to do?? I am getting frustrated with the whole process. I have had 2 fills and am filled to 2.9 in a 4 cc band. What happens if I max out in cc's?:tired Any advice?

Hi everyone,my name is Helen Bauzon and I work as a Bariatric Dietitian and I am a magazine contributor within this forum. I have received the permission by Alex Brecher to ask your assistance in completing a survey. I am presenting in 3 weeks at a conference detailing "how to keep the bariatric patient well nourished while losing weight". I am looking to ideally obtain 100 replies from individuals who have had a sleeve gastrectomy. If you would like to contribute your feedback, you can do so by clicking on the following link https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6G76QLV Thank you very much in advance Helen Bauzon

Stalls are quite normal, more prevalent for gals, but happen to guys too. Just this week - and I am 5+ months post op - I encountered a stall. For some reason, my weight stuck at a number, then all of a sudden, I was back to losing. Each person is different, but this does happen. Keep ur head held high -RC-

Stepping on the scales a few days ago to realise that I had cast aside the title of "morbidly obese" was almost as thrilling at when I first discovered Sicilian lemon pudding. Almost. As I left the bathroom, adorned with my new proud banner of "obese", I was mentally working out when my next heavy-weight title adjustment to "overweight" would be. Perhaps I wasn't savouring my obese label with as much pureed relish as I should have been. What it took to lose my "morbid" moniker! The one thing about slowly shedding a life-long disability is the dawning realisation that you may well not be fully ready to throw away the crutches and run as soon as you would like. Having hidden behind morbidly obese for so long and realising that in a few months I would be just overweight started to make me feel a little edgy. What excuses would I be able to conjure up when I didn't fancy going for a walk? What reason could I give for feeling depressed some days? What lies could I make up for the reasons I never made it as a singer? I remember being filmed for a documentary for the Discovery Health channel and giving the sob-story that my songs would never make it because no one wanted to see a man of my weight on stage. I didn't conform to the marketable beauty that all rock and pop stars must have. Soon, my only excuse will be that my music just isn't that good. It's a scary prospect that I may well have to admit that to myself one day and not blame the belly. Such massive life adjustments, whether for the best or not, are bound to be scary. It's new territory that I am totally unused to. I can't remember ever being anything but fat and, this time next year, I will be in the nerve-wracking zone of a normal, healthy weight. I just have no idea what lies ahead because of this change. Also, moving on from a long-term relationship into a small flat on the other side of town brings an even greater anxiety of uncharted seas ahead. In the old days (ie last month), I would take a short overview of the situation and settle down with a big fat steak - and forget it all. Bury my head in the sand of that huge unending desert that is emotional gorging. Now those wastelands are not part of my life - I have to find a new way of dealing with my upsets and fears. Maybe, just maybe, I will have to...gulp...deal with it! All this change and personal turmoil is certainly going to be one interesting ride and I think the best and only thing to do is sit back, watch it all happen and enjoy the ride. Originally posted at: Lap Band Blog

As of this morning I have lost 70 lbs!!!! I was ecstatic. I have never lost this much weight in my life. This journey has not been easy. I have to work hard. I watch what I eat and I exercise. It's not fun when you are on vacation and can't really enjoy yourself at a restaurant because you know if you're not careful food can easily get stuck and bam you need to find a bathroom. On a recent trip to Disney World I couldn't enjoy myself at Chef Mickey's because I kept getting stuck. I spend the majority of my dinner running to the bathroom. It sucked. What was even more embarassing is we were eating lunch at our hotel and there wasn't a restroom around and I got stuck and had to throw up right there at the table. That was pretty embarassing. Thank god there weren't alot of people around and I got myself unstuck asap. Anyway, my 1 year goal is to be in onederland. I am 43 lbs away. I'm sure with hard work I will reach my goal.

As of this morning I have lost 70 lbs!!!! I was ecstatic. I have never lost this much weight in my life. This journey has not been easy. I have to work hard. I watch what I eat and I exercise. It's not fun when you are on vacation and can't really enjoy yourself at a restaurant because you know if you're not careful food can easily get stuck and bam you need to find a bathroom. On a recent trip to Disney World I couldn't enjoy myself at Chef Mickey's because I kept getting stuck. I spend the majority of my dinner running to the bathroom. It sucked. What was even more embarassing is we were eating lunch at our hotel and there wasn't a restroom around and I got stuck and had to throw up right there at the table. That was pretty embarassing. Thank god there weren't alot of people around and I got myself unstuck asap. Anyway, my 1 year goal is to be in onederland. I am 43 lbs away. I'm sure with hard work I will reach my goal.

I had a RNY gastric bypass surgery 21 months ago and am well pleased with the results. One of the things that I found out after surgery was that I completely loss my hunger. It was not hard to lose weight when hunger was not constantly gnawing at my bones. I went from a size 3X to a size small in shirts and from a 46 in pants down to a size 33. I ran across a few people in our support group who had lap bands and switched to gastric bypass. In one case the band wore into his stomach and it had to be removed. In another, the band was installed too restrictively. One of the individuals who underwent this change was very pleased by the results.

I gained 10 pounds after surgery. I asked to get on the field during one of my walks around the hospital floor. I was flabbergasted when I saw the extra weight. That came off in about a week and a half. I had my sleeve on 12/5. I've lost 23.7 from my starting weight before surgery. I'm starting to slow down now. I think I need to pick up the exercise a bit more Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Howdy again! Well, I am writing this on Thursday, June 1st. It has been eight days since my banding. Well, Sunday, 5/28/06, came and went. I awoke a bout 9am and got dressed. I felt the pain still from stiches and had diarreha bad. I had decided to take another Immodium tablet, but this also handle the gas problem I was going through also. I went to church and saw several people who asked how I was feeling. I expressed my concern about the pain, the diarreha, and what I was eating. The service proceded well until the Come Forward for prayers. I went forward to Pastor Doug and asked for continual prayers and I just started to cry uncontrollable. While he was praying for me, I just heard that little voice speaking to me -- which I believed was the Holy Spirit. He said that God Loved Me and would be there for me. It was the peace in which I heard it. I want you to know that I always pray for Pastor Doug -- as I trust me as I do Pastor Walker -- that they are men I listen to because of their belief in God and how he leads us all. After service, I went to the movies and saw The Hedge. It was a good movie, but I don't know if I would get it on DVD. That's is another story. I went back to the hotel and spent most of the day with Shawn. We just watched tv most of the day and played on our laptops. Took my pain medicine and fell asleep. Monday, March 29, 2006. It is memorial day. We must have slept late to about 10am. I played on the laptop some more, while Shawn watched "The Price Is Right!" My God, how Shawn does love Bob Barker. It is one of his deepest dreams to be on that show. Who knows -- he probably will be on it one of these days before Bob Barker retires. Mostly, just rested and decided to get a new blender just for my Optifast diet packets. Well, I did have the chololate Optifast...which was delicious....aded some cold skim milk instead of water to it. Well, we are going back to the apt on Tuesday about 1pm. So, Shawn fell asleep and I prepared for bed. Gosh, I am hungry, but I am afraid to get something to eat because I might get another case of diarreha. Sometimes, I still wonder if I was sure I should have gotten this lap banding. :think Oh wonderful, it is Tuesday and I got up early. Shawn and I went to Vic's place -- I had a small cup of grits and runny soft egg -- a little bit early for "mushy" food. It still tasted good. We went back to the hotel and we got our stuff together. I loaded my Tracker with my clothes, my laptop, and medicines. Shawn loaded his stuff into the Ford Contour. I checked out at the office. It was a nice hotel, but I don't think I would want to spend another week at a place like this. The office isn't readily available -- it is only open 11am to7pm each day except Sunday, when it is closed. Well, I got home, but Shawn decided to go shopping for some reason. Anyway I dropped off my stuff and went to the movies. I went to see a horror movie, but I ended up coming back home after I developed diarreha. It was about 3pm and Shawn was home. I went to sleep for a few hours -- about 4hrs. We decided to just stay in after getting some groceries amid my thought to have an Optifast shake. I didn't have the shake, but I did have an individual mash potatoes and it tasted good with the little gravy they put on it. Well, I knew I would be busy on Wednesday morning into the afternoon. I woke up at 8am and got dressed to go and work out at 8:30am at Lifetime Fitness w/ Megan, my personal trainer. My God, it felt good to get there, but I felt strange. It was about 8:20am, I saw Megan and advised I would walk for 10mins to warm up. I was a little light headed, but figured it would be ok once I got into working -- boy, was I wrong. Before we started, I asked Megan to weigh me. I weighed in at 380lbs. A loss of 9lbs per the prior week's weigh in. (I get weighed two more times with surprises!) About 5mins into the workout, I began to get really light headed, but pushed on. After 15mins, I did something to my right shoulder, but Megan showed me how to stretch it and the pain went away. We continued for another 15mins, as we were almost done, but I was too light headed to finish. So, I told her that I would see her on Saturday. She knew I was going to Dr. Veninga's office to see Barb for my "one week follow-up." It was about 9am, so I got a protein shake w/strawberries and whey protein. It tasted really good. I waited until 9:30am and left for Dr. Veninga's office. I was stil light headed but not as bad. I guess my body was still adjusted to the lack of food it was use too. It was undergoing retraining on what it would be getting and how much. After meeting with Barb, she weighed me. I weighed in at 374lbs. If I used the weigh-in from Trinity Medical Center's D.S..U. weigh-in of 392lbs. That would be an 18lbs loss. (Ok, I chuckled. I loss weight, but a six pound difference). She advised me of several things, especially, I should not have been on a "clear liquid" diet for those three days out of the hosptial. I did express my concern of taking the Immodium and Gas-X tablets. She said that it is ok, but once it was cleared up not to take them. (I would notify the office anyways if I took anything or was contemplating taking for other issues). I had to see Dr. Feinstein at 1:45pm, so I had about 2hrs plus before I saw him. I decided that since I was feeling light headed still to take a nap. So, I went home and slept good. Shawn wasn't back yet, but I left the apartment to go to my appointment. It was strange to go back to his office as you might want to note that Dr. Feinstein was the original one who said I would have been a candidate for Gastric bypass (only this was said in 2002). After filling out a new patient packet form(s) and paying my co-payment, I got to see Dr David Feinstein. He has changed little, but his office is now added other services -- not going into those. He was surprised to see me, but was very nice. He had a new intern doctor in his office and was following him around -- he was in on our session -- I didn't mind this. I gave Dr Feinstein glowing adulations. He looked at my "old" medical information -- telling me my blood sugar levels of over 4 years ago. I advised him that his assistant didn't have a chance yet to do the blood tests and other pre-visit tests for the doctor. So, he and the intern left and the assistant came back in to do the tests. My blood sugar was 155 and my blood pressure was 126/78 (both were great!!!). She weighed me at 376lbs. (that was a surprise when I told her the prior two weigh-ins). Now, Dr Feinstein began to ask questions and was surprised when I advised I had gastric work done, but not the bypass. It was the lap banding done on 5/24/06 ... just one week ago. I also, explained that I had weighed in and had three different results, but some average about 375lbs. I will take that weight loss of about 11lbs to 18lbs. The doctor advised me to keep measuring my blood surgars and fax it in next Tuesday before making any adjustments in my medicines. Well, I left his office and decided to go to the movies ... so, I went to see "Keeping up with the Einsteins." A delightful movie about the young man coming of age and how they "spend so much money" to "keep up with the jones" syndrome. It was hilarious. Well, it was time to go home and I slept most of the day. Shawn went out for a while and I was playing on the laptop when he got home. We watched a new TV showing deal with the best game shows of the past. It was a good show. Well, I ended up going to bed. Well, I will end this entry and begin the new one on the day it was written. God still Loves you Ron! Ron Sutton Banded 5/24/06 - 392lbs. Avg weight loss in 8days, 18lbs.

I am also 6 months out and have been gaining and losing the same 1 or 2 lbs for 2 months, Just yesterday I went town 3 lbs for the first time. Unfortunately I think stalls are very normal at this point and we just have to expect and accept them. I do plan to see my NUT for advice on reaching goal, but I know in my case I should be eating fewer carbs.

HappyHikerGal, I really appreciate you taking the time to respond. I was a little sad that no one had responded because every one on the forum seemed so chatty and supportive. I just sort of felt stupid. May I ask what clinic you chose? How has the whole process been for you so far? It looks like you are doing well losing weight so far!

Yes to the weight loss and the thrill of it all.... but there is something about the simple victories and the internal feeling of success . Being able to cross your legs comfortably is amazing Take the little victories in too.... they are equally as fulfilling HW 242, SW 236- (Bypass 12/20/17) GW#1- 199 [emoji736] (2/11/18) GW#2- 175 CW 190 5’6”

Wow that is great and look at you..you have lost a significant amount of weight pre-surgery...way to go and inspire those who are following you in surgery!

I was scared of sagging skin too especially my arms. As soon as I got clearance from the doctor, I started doing arm weight training. It has really helped. Good luck.

I've lost 200 lbs. Yep - I have sagging skin. But it's easy to hide. And I can tell you now that I'd take my saggy skin *any day* over weighing 373 lbs! Once you get your weight off, you'll wonder why you worried about it so much!

I am still waiting for my approval from insurance for my surgery, but I worry about sagging skin too. You are definitely not alone there. All the ladies above definitely just helped me see that I am worrying for nothing because the end result is the only thing that matters. I do a bootcamp class here in Texas called Camp Gladiator and it has helped me tighten up the skin I have from losing the weight I have when I started in January. Definitely weight train when you are able to. Wish you the best of luck with your surgery!

OK, you are just having too much fun! Now it's time to get back to business and eat healthy. I doubt you have gained too much weight if any, but if you have, you can get it off.

Oh Boy, I must admit I'm a bit afraid to get on the scale this week. It seems that this entire week was filled with friends and relatives either going out to eat, or coming over to my house with a ton of cookies and candy. Just one bite of this and that, a chocolate whatever, some homemade pasta and a nibble or two. No time to exercise. Be afraid, be very afraid. I feel as if I've gained alot of weight, but I'm hoping its all in my head. (and not on my hips) Wish me luck as I approach the scale.

The first four to six weeks are not for losing weight. Some people do, some don't. Now is the time to heal. Start monitoring all of your calories - use something like The Daily Plate. Get a fitness monitor, Fit Bit is $99 and offers online diet tracking and will monitor your activity. Move more and make sure you're not drinking calories. Eating what you're eating at 19 days out is totally normal and acceptable. Though doctors suggest liquids, mushies, soft, then adding foods gradually - you may drive yourself mad sticking to that. Just east sensibly. Two other things to note: Women will gain between 5-10 lbs every month just by biological nature. It comes off a week or so later. After starting back to new foods you may gain 1-10 lbs in Water weight (from the salt content) but you'll lose it within a week. You'll learn that when you eat very clean six days a week then indulge on that seventh day that you can gain anywhere from 5-10 lbs as a woman (men can gain 15-25 lbs) all in water weight. Within a week it's gone and you're likely down an extra pound or two. I hope that helps a bit.

If what is typical? That you have lost 100 pounds? Congratulations!! Only you know if you think you look sickly. You need to be happy with the weight you desire. What I find is that if you haven't been at a smaller weight and people that know you they think you are too thin because they are not used to seeing you like that. Over time I think as the weight settles with us people don't think we are too thin; does that make sense?

I was worried that I was on the high side of losing, but my surgeon said that I'm just ahead of the curve. People lose weight at different rates after surgery. Some lose faster than others. Rejoice in being down 100 lbs.! As far as looking sickly, well, that is just certain people's opinions. If folks compare your thinner face/body to your old face/body then someone could potentially perceive you as looking sickly now. Do you look sickly? Absolutely not! I think family members and co-workers are the worst culprits on this. They feel compelled to warn you not to get too thin and that you will start looking sickly if you don't stop losing. What they are really saying is that they are very uncomfortable with your success and they don't know how to process your new physical image.