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Two Weeks Post-Op Weight: 286.3 Weight Lost: -3.1 Total Weight Lost: -18.6 BMI: 44.2 All in all, I think I had a pretty good week. My pain has pretty much subsided. The only pain that I am experiencing is the spot where they actually pulled out my stomach. It is still tender and hurts if I bend, or cough, or sneeze. Sneezing is the worst! Thank goodness I don’t have allergies! But in general, the pain that is there is minimal. I have only been taking the pain medicine before I go to bed because the muscle is sore by the end of the day. I have to admit that my walking has decreased. However, it is because I am up and about doing other things, and wear myself out. But my goal this week is to get back out walking. Good things that happened at the completion of this week: Liquid diet is finished and no more self-injections! Saturday ended the injections. I do not like needles to begin with, let alone having to do them myself. It was a struggle for sure. I will get to the new diet further down. Sunday was a family party. It was the first time that I had to eat away from home and have a ton of food sitting in front of me that I could not have. I thought that it would be pure torture. But it really was not as bad as I thought it would be. I tried to stay away from the food table, and ate my yogurt while everyone else was eating the main meal. Was I a little sad that I couldn’t have what everyone else was having? Of course! What girl who is in love with food wouldn’t be. But my overall future happiness definitely over shadows any food sadness that will come. I also tell myself that the super restrictive diet is only temporary. Yesterday I was able to start my pureed diet that will continue for four weeks. I don’t think that I have ever been so happy to eat semi-solid food. I started with a half cup of cottage cheese. I ate it slowly while I was on the phone, and when I was finished with it I was still hungry. So I got another half a cup. Halfway through it I started feeling that super full feeling. Kind of like my stomach was overflowing into my esophagus. So I stopped eating. Later for dinner I plated myself 1.5 ounces of salmon and a quarter cup of smashed cauliflower. I was only able to eat half of that. Again, I had that still hungry feeling, but I decided to ignore it this time. Today I saw the doctor. Main question I wanted to ask was about the hunger feelings that I am having while I am eating. He said that this is normal. The part of the stomach that pumps out food is smaller and right now working more slowly than normal. It will eventually get back to a normal pace. I was also worried that I was not getting enough liquid, I am only averaging 45 ounces a day instead of the 64 ounces that I should be having. That is normal as well. The dietician said that it takes some time to work up to the 64 ounces. The doctor was pleased with how I am progressing. I forgot to ask about the amount of weight that I have lost. But I am assuming that if the weight loss was not on track he would have said something. I see him again in two more weeks for my one month follow up. So goals this week are to increase my average liquid intake and get back to the regular walks. Check back next week for more updates! Thanks again for reading!

Congrats on your loss thus far. Great work! How much more do you feel you need to lose? (Your weight is not shown in your info.) Are you getting in your Protein? Are you tracking your food intake? Are you getting in your fluids?

I do horrible stuff I drank a soda like once a week it don't do nothing to me I eat horrible foods as well its so hard to resist I fell of in November for a month or so I got back on track on December so then I start sticking to my protein and veggies but I stop losing weigh I lost more weight eating bad foods then I did when I ate good foods now I'm like eff it I'm tired of stressing this weight loss

Lupe, What other methods of losing weight have you tried? I think most of us....well, let me speak for myself, have tried just about everything. When I went for my consultation and the doctor went through a list of weight loss mehods, there were only 2 of them that I did not try, NutriSystems and Optifast. I'm actually one of the lucky ones who were on Phen/Fen amd didn't get hurt. People like me are the ones who have this surgery. If you are planning to self pay, I guess you don't have to prove that you tried just about everything. But if you are planning on doing it through insurance your BMI must be a certain number to qualify and you have to prove you've tried to diet in the past usually through a doctor.

Congrats Gentry, Yeah, the only pain I had was port pain too. I never had any on the shoulder pain and I'm proud too. My doctor gave me 5 big bottles of the liquid loritab with a refill of 5 and I used about 1/2 of one and went back to the pills. I take the loritab 10's if I need one and break it in half. I couldn't choke down that liquid. yuckkkkkkk Sip don't take large drinks that was my biggest deal breaker. I would be thirsty and use to drinking big drinks and would forget. I think the walking saved my life. I walked and walked and at day 4 was vacuming, sweeping, laundry, dishes, everything and at day 12 was out riding 4wheelers and just very active. I think the walking is the key. Good luck and you'll be losing like crazy. The liquids were hard for me but enjoy them because now that I can eat the weight loss has slowed down.

Unfortunately, unless it's meat or Protein shakes, your options are very limited. You could add more nuts and Peanut Butter but that's not nearly enough. If I were you, I'd find a protein shake that you do like and start experimenting with different recipes to find some meat based ones that you do like. Protein is so important, not only for satiety but to help prevent hair loss too.

I’ve gone in for 3 vitamin and mineral IV infusions. At 7 months out, I’ve lost 75% of my hair. It isn’t very nice to have such thin hair. I was at my hairdressers today, and she showed me all the new hair, an inch long. That has started to come in. It is just going to take a long time. so I am going to get extensions for a while. I think it will make me feel better about my looks. I’m so happy to be in normal sizes now, and my hair used to be my best feature. Even my count on the cleavage boobs are gone south. So I do want my hair to look decent these next few months.

I currently have 3cc in my 4cc band, and I am not at sweet spot. Some times of the month I can seem to eat anything and forget my band, while just last week, I was "reminded" that breads are out of the question. I am thinking that if I was always as tight as I am the week before my period, I would be happy, so I am going tomorrow for another fill. I am guessing she will fill me anywhere from .5 to .3, and I would be happy to give that a try. I am very bad about going for my fills and have had a hard time finding a local doc, but I have one now and am looking forward to getting on the "band" wagon. At this pre-sweet-spot, for my 3cc, I have only lost about 3 lbs in 8 weeks, which is not really weight loss in my book, but the next fill may just get me there. I am very interested in learning what other people have to say about the 4cc band. ...Also- I was advised by my doc that he did the 4cc in expectation that it would be harder to lose weight as I got closer to goal, because I started at "only" 100lbs over goal weight...not sure if that sounds right or not, but I have never thought the bigger band would have been more beneficial...plus, I have heard SOOOO many times that you can go up to 5cc in a "4cc" band.

Well Grammy this isn't a diet. It is a tool to help you through whichever diet you chose. It isn't the end all solution to weight loss, you still have to watch what you eat but if you check out this forum you will read about all the success stories here and you too can be a success story. You'll find the people on this forum are very helpful and nice. Best wishes to you.

I am a total sweet person, loveeeee sweets. Love my Dr Pepper, love anything sweet. My husband too. I have been told by multiple people that sweets taste horrifically over sweet after surgery. Even on the pre op diet (day 6), this SF jello is starting to taste über sweet. I don't drink the mio, or kool aid, but I can imagine those would taste awful. Funny thing is, as much as I love sweets, I can take them or leave them, I don't HAVE to have them. For me, I haven't mourned the loss of anything, bc I know that the majority of what I eat, I will be able to have again, just in a smaller portion. My daughter is lucky, she's 9 & bc of my surgery when we do go out to eat we will get an adult sized meal, but we will share & take the leftovers home. :-)

Hello! I am almost 5 months out, and 55 lbs down! The last week or so, I've been getting muscle pains in my back. Last week it was one muscle, this week it's the muscle below. I don't know what's going on, bit I wonder if it has to do with weight loss? Has anyone else experienced this?

Hi Everyone! I've been going through some major heath issues that forced the doctors to take the Fluid out of my band. I have been down for the count for over a year and finally was just diagnosed with Lyme Disease and have started treatment. I have gained all but about 20 lbs back. I'm looking forward to getting back to exercise and a better diet. The band saved me from getting even bigger, but I'm looking forward to getting back to my weight loss! I am looking for recommendations for free online calorie counters and fitness logs. Any suggestions?? Thanks, Moe128

hey Guys thanks for the posts, when i woke up this morning i threw the rolls out i really didnt miss them as much as i thought i did when the impulse came. I started a low carb diet today!!!!!! Ive been a excellent patient for many years with all my injuries, so if the doctors say do this i will to the T. As for me doing diets and weight loss ive failed for one reason or another and after staring and stoping a diet Ill start again monday or after the holiday im just tired of it all. two years ago i walked into a bariatric doctors for a consultation he talked to me and pushed the Lapband, at the time i had three friends who had it done and it worked for one out of the three (the husband and wife) had complications not from lapband. So after leaving his office and talking to family who of course said just lose the weight you dont need another surgery, i put all thoughts of bariatric aside. All this time my mom has been suffering with Lymphoma (3yrs) and while helping her i popped a umbilical hernia and didnt tell anyone except my doctor and wife and maybe a close friend. I had been taking her to chemo and radiation for about 2 1/2 yrs and i just couldnt do it anymore i needed to help myself i forgot all about me and my needs, thats when i knew it was time to see another gastric doctor and get the help i needed for me. I seen my doctor this summer at the same time mom calls and says my aunt has pancreaitic cancer and not much they can do for her, she doesnt live close and mom and grandmom dont drive so ive been doing all the driving a few times a week back and forth 80 miles round trip and if theres traffic....ugh Id do anything for my family as you can see, had a talk with my aunt while she was in bed already thin and in pain but still smiled to see me and knew i love her, i told her what i was doing and she said its the best thing i could do for myself and wished she would be around to see my transformation, i cried she cried and she said she will always be around watching me and i know she will, last night i visited again and she only has days left. As you can see im a caretaker im not ashamed of what ive done always putting family or friends before me but if your like me and are thinking of bariatric help, DO IT and dont look back you have to put you first take your life back as im doing. Sorry for the long winded post i got off track a lil with my family issues andi was going to delete but there might be that other person who is in same spot and it might help...if not it helped me write it down! God Bless Joe

I had a VO2 max test today, along with my BMR test. Very interesting data. I learned that my BMR is 2174.... 4% above average for a man my age and weight....good to know it hasn't been reduced down to nothing after so much weight loss and so long on a reduced calorie diet. My VO2 max was 46.3 which according to their report was very good. They were also able to give me very precise target heart rate zones for burning fat versus burning glycogen while working out. It's nice having the exact numbers rather than using the online guesstimations that are all over the Internet. I'd say for many people this info may not be very important or necessary, but if you want to train hard and maximize your fat burning while doing it this information can be very helpful. Both tests together cost $175 and I had it done at a sports training center here in town.

Time for a fill! Seriously, there are two things that could be going on. One is that you have experienced lessened restriction as you lose weight, a common result as your stomach walls get thinner and fat disappears. In that case, a fill will bring back the restriction you used to have and you'll be back in the driver's seat. The other scenario is that there is something wrong, but I think that's highly unlikely if you're having no symptoms. By "wrong" I mean erosion (worst case scenario) or a leak of saline. The leak wouldn't cause any symptoms beyond a loss of restriction, but IMO it's less likely to be the cause than your weight loss. Call your doctor and make an appointment for a fill. That's my advice.

I started with the elliptical and am still using it on the weight loss setting but have increased resistance and duration

Hahaha! Great! I have not had the same experience. I am not losing hair but I am not growing hair either. Especially in the places it doesn't belong. I take 30000 mg of Biotin a day! I would rather wax it off it does grow where it's not supposed to. But I am nearly 7 months out and haven't had any issues. Good luck!

Comparing yourself to others is just as bad as weighing yourself every day. Both are surefire ways to make yourself feel terrible! 50 pounds is amazing in only 3 months! Pat yourself on the back and give yourself kudos for that! Have you taken your measurements? that's an ESSENTIAL to do. Your measurements will show you that your body is reshaping itself, even if you aren't losing pounds. I'd rather weigh 200 pounds and wear a size 12 than weigh 200 pounds and wear a 16, wouldn't you? My personal weight loss has slowed down, but now I'm watching my body firm up and dropping sizes in a hurry. You will do the same! Don't give up hope. You WILL get there!

@@devillynn Saw my nurse today, she suggested Nioxin shampoo (suggested for chemo patients who are losing hair) for the hair loss. It's supposed to stimulate the hair follicles, thus promoting growth! Here's to growing things in the RIGHT places!

By Elizabeth Goodman Artis (Shape Magazine) We dissect the science of fat to help you pick the smartest strategies for losing it. Fat is the ultimate three-letter word, especially the kind that you spend so much time watching your diet and hitting the gym to keep at bay (or at least to keep off your butt). But beyond making you look less-than-svelte, fat can have significant physical and emotional implications. We talked to Shawn Talbott, Ph.D., a nutritional biochemist and author of The Secret of Vigor: How to Overcome Burnout, Restore Biochemical Balance, and Reclaim Your Natural Energy, to find out a few essential facts that might surprise you. 1. Fat Comes in Different Colors More specifically, there are different types of fat that have different hues and functions, according to Talbott: white, brown, and beige. The white fat is what most people think of as fat—pale and useless. Useless in that it has a low metabolic rate so it doesn’t help you burn any calories the way muscle does, and it’s the predominant type of fat in the human body, encompassing more than 90 percent of it. In other words, it’s a storage unit for extra calories. Brown fat is darker in color due to a rich blood supply and can actually burn calories rather than storing them—but only if you’re a rat (or other mammal); certain critters can activate brown fat to burn calories and generate heat to keep them warm in winter. Humans, sadly, have so little brown fat that it won’t help you burn calories or keep you warm. The third type of fat, beige fat, is in between white and brown in terms of its calorie-burning ability, which is actually very exciting. Why? Because researchers are looking into ways to shift white fat cells into more metabolically active beige ones via diet and exercise or supplements. In fact, there is preliminary evidence that certain hormones which are activated by exercise may convert white fat cells into beige ones, as well as some evidence that certain foods such as brown seaweed, licorice root, and hot peppers may have the ability to do this as well. 2. The Fat On Your Butt is Healthier than the Fat on Your Belly It’s probably safe to say that no woman favors the fat on one body part over another, but it’s actually safer health-wise to be more of a pear than an apple, Talbott says. Belly fat, also known as visceral fat, is much more responsive to the stress hormone cortisol compared to the fat on your thighs or butt, so when stress hits hard (and you don’t find a healthy way to handle it), any extra calories consumed are more likely to end up around your middle. Belly fat is also much more inflammatory than fat located elsewhere in the body and can create its own inflammatory chemicals (as a tumor would). These chemicals travel to the brain and make you hungry and tired, so you’re more likely to overeat or eat junk food and not exercise, thus creating a vicious cycle and perpetuating the storage of more belly fat. The good news is that anything that helps you reduce inflammation helps reduce those signals to the brain. Talbott recommends fish oil (for the Omega 3’s) and Probiotics, which you can take in pill form or get by eating yogurt with active cultures. 3. First You Burn Calories, Second You Burn Fat The term “fat-burning” is thrown around willy-nilly in fitness circles, but as an expression of weight loss, it’s indirect. Before you “burn” fat, you burn calories, whether those calories come from stored carbohydrates (glycogen and blood sugar) or from stored body fat. The more calories you burn during each workout, the bigger deficit you will create and the more fat you will lose. You can also create a calorie deficit by eating less. The trick, though, is time, since it’s hard for most people to put in the time needed to burn enough calories to make a weight-loss dent. Talbott (and many other experts) advocates high-intensity interval training (HIIT) to burn as many calories as possible in as short amount of time as possible. This method, which alternates between hard/easy efforts, can burn double the calories in the same amount of time spent exercising in a steady state. 4. Fat Affects Your Mood Certainly there is no easier way to ruin your day than seeing you’ve gone up a few numbers on the scale, but having excess fat—especially around your belly—activates that inflammation/cortisol cycle, which studies show may be a factor in serious mood disorders like bipolar disorder. If you’re stuck in a stress/eat/gain/stress cycle, however, you’re likely to experience at least a perpetually low mood, even if you don’t have an actual clinical condition. To help break the cycle, try eating a square of dark chocolate, suggests Talbott; there is just enough sugar to satisfy a stress-induced craving, but the healthy flavonoids help calm inflammation that leads to more stress. Low-fat dairy products like yogurt can have a similar effect—the combination of Calcium and magnesium can help calm the stress response. 5. Even Skinny People Can Have Cellulite The dreaded c-word is caused by fat trapped under the skin (known as subcutaneous fat). The overlying skin "dimples" are created by connective tissues that tie the skin to the underlying muscle, with fat trapped in between like a sandwich. You don’t need a lot of fat to cause a dimpling effect, so you can be in great shape and have low body fat but still have a little pocket of dimpled fat, for example, on your butt or the backs of your thighs. Building muscle while losing fat (and the fat loss part is key—you have to have it to lose) can help minimize the appearance of cellulite; cellulite-specific creams and lotions can also help minimize the look of dimpled skin (though they can’t do anything about the trapped fat beneath).

I am five months out down 93 pounds from the day of surgery and about 120 pounds down from the start of my weight loss journey. I am six foot four and 248 pounds and when I calculated my BMI I am still classified as obese. I saw my doctor last week and he flat told me that I had lost enough weight. I simply told him that this may be true but according to my BMI I was still obese and he flatly told me that I didn't need to worry about that. All of his staff were amazed how much weight I had lost (he is my pulmonolgist and only sees me every six months) so of course the last time I saw him I had not even had my surgery. My question is, does anybody think that the BMI is really a wide ruler to determine a persons weight? I know I have went from a size 50 jeans to size 36 jeans and I have not worn that size jeans since I was in my 20's. I'm 60 now. What do you think, do I look obese? Please be honest ok? Thanks Mark Mom_&_Dad.bmp

Yeah umm has everything to do with being fat. People look away from you. Like past you. When people haven’t experience being obese not just overweight it’s s totally different ball game. Like when waiter comes to the table and barely make eye contact when you order but with your trim parents they do. It’s unreal. I’ve been up and down all my life with weight loss and there is def a difference hot obese people are treated. In shale people just don’t get it’s not calories in work out so be it. They don’t get it at all. It took decades until my family finally understood what I had been going too. Eh screw anyone who doesn’t get us. Now it’s our time to thrive! (; good luck to all of you!

You are newly banded..restriction does not usually happen until you start getting your fills. This phase you are in is the healing phase for 6 weeks. Any weight loss during this phase is a bonus. Anytime you go from one stage to another like liquids to soft foods you may see a gain and then when you go from softs to solids you may see a gain, it is normal until your body adjusts. Yes lower BMI's will lose slower. Hng in there..once you start to get your fills you will feel the restriction.

Hi guys! I remember about a month ago I found a post w/ a list of things that we should be doing to maximize weight loss as well as signs that let us know we do need a fill. Can anyone help me find it? Thanks!

PB - Productive Burp: There are many versions to the PB, but it's basically when slime comes back up often followed by the food you just ate after the food refuses to go down. NSV- Non scale Victory: Something fabulous that happens as a result of weight loss that doesn't have anything to do with numbers, like getting flirted with or picking up something off the floor without falling over. ESOPHOGITUS STICKY PM - Private Message: If you want to say something privately to another member, just click on their name for an option to send them a private message. ACID REFLUX FILL UNFILL (DH?)<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->