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Hi, I will be having the new AP band. When I asked my surgeon about it he said that it is softer than previous bands, and that they believe it will facilitate greater weight loss. I would also be interested in further information regarding this band from Dr C, or anyone else in the loop. Susannah

If you aren't ready for a band and aren't willing to make a lifetime lifestyle change, the band is not for you. Any WLS should be a choice of last resort. It's not an easy way out or a shortcut to lose weight. If you aren't that point, you are making the correct choice.

Hey guys I'm new im just starting my With my process tomorrow it's my weight management class appointment im nervous i don't know what to expect will I be weight in front of people? I think I'm suppose to receive papers to get blood work done and other test and maybe a diet I'm not sure.

Today at church a sister approached me and mentioned how good I look and that it looked like I had lost a lot of weight. Well, that made me feel so good! But then she and another sister asked me how I did it. Well, I told one person in my ward, but didn't really feel like I wanted to share with anyone as to getting surgery. I told them I did it with portion control and exercise, which is TRUE, but not TRUE. You know what I mean? Now I'm feeling really bad, like I lied. And at church! I don't know, maybe I just need to get over it... I mean, I didn't want to be rude, but I don't feel like telling anyone about the surgery.

July 17th here, down 30 in seven weeks. I'm getting in closer to 1,000 cal/day because I'm working out 5-7 days a week, cardio and weights.

I know think that you lied but why do you not want to tell people about the surgery? It is a tool to help you loose weight not the end all. I would have said that I had the lap band and with that and diet and exercise I have been able to to accomplish this. Only because of how many people dont think of surgery as an option. Just a thought. Hope you have a great day. Rebecca

to my understanding from them. is that they perfer the realize band over the l.b. now in some instances they will us the l.b. but only when you are a real big person. because the l.b. is bigger. this is what dr. miles told me anyways. now if you are wanting a lapband you might need to be calling them and talking to them about it asap. i not sure when your surgery is but dont wait to late to do it. when i got banded i was told that i might have to get the lap band because i was a very big guy. but i did get the realize band. they both are great working bands. and your weight lose is going to be up to you on how much you lose anyways. so i would say just to call them and talk to them about it.

completely off topic, how do I put in my new weight under my name? I can't remember!

Hi, I am 5 months post op from my gastric sleeve surgery! I weigh myself every Saturday morning once a week. Since the Gastric Sleeve surgery I had lost 59 lbs. Got on the scale and it said I gaine 3.7 lbs. in 1 week since last weigh in...anyone have did happen? I did not deviate from my diet seems odd. Out of 22 weeks I have gained weight in only 4 weeks usually lose between .5 - 2 lbs per week! thanks, Rob

Thanks...I already am moving more than I was before surgery.....I am keeping track of the little successes....like the first week home I walked three of the 7 days. This week I have managed to walk 6 of them, AND have spent two days in a row doing laundry all day AND have packed two rooms for our move. ALL of which was more than I could even begin to do the week before surgery. Today, even tho I didn't get a chance to walk, I did spend about 40 minutes playing with my weights here at home--both my upper body and lower body. Before my RA dx, I was very active....exercise has never been my enemy till the past few years. However, my weight has been a problem all my life......I am just happy to be able to move more than I have for the past few years. Just trying to get past my mom's comments AGAIN.

My doc told me that the band is meant to be in place forever. Once I reach goal, he'll take out half of the saline so that I can hang out in maintenance. I'll gain some, drop some, but should stay relatively at the same weight. Remember, this is life-changing, meaning it SHOULD last your whole life :thumbup:.

Thanks for all the good wishes ...it is now day 3 and im doing fine ....i have to pick up my Optifast tonight on the way home ....who knows wy it took so long , maybe it was on the slow train ....Great ideas for making the optifast taste better... Im going to go and get the syrups that you mentioned Andrew any recomendations on what flavor??? Ive used the salad spritzers and must say they are a godsend. I am also a pickle lover and saw Andrew mention them as a good part of your veggies or when you just need something crunchie...so they are on my list !!! I also liked the idea of blending it with coffee for an ice cap ...maybe ill try that tonight. I weighed myself yesterday and was just about where I thought so I am pretty motivated ...It would be nice to loose 10lbs or so just to get a boost on the journey. every one here is so helpfull ..it is great to see how everyone is doing, its a real motivator. I am feeling good ...not too hungry...and am determined to do my best on this pre op adventure... thanks, and all the best to everyone on their weight loss, you guys are an amazing group its realy nice to know that every one is supporting each other ......susan

No way of knowing before you do it. Be aware that, as it's the unknown, filling to the max could leave you wishing for death. No bariatric practitioner will do that, certainly not right out of the gate. If you really wish to limit yourself to soft foods and purées for a while, why not just make those your food choices with a reasonable, working level of saline in your band? You'll do as you see fit. I don't know how much good work you've undone, but I'm there, too. In deciding how to get back on the horse, I wouldn't choose a route that might conceivably feel like punishment for having regained weight. That's what a period of soft foods and purées seems to me. The process of eating well and seeing results should be a joy. I don't see a month of mush, for example, as joyful. Best wishes for your renewal regardless of how you do it.

Welcome and congratulations on getting your band. It is very hard right after surgery. At first your not hungry then your staving then your focusing on experimenting with all the food stages and sometimes you lose weight and sometimes you don't. The first 6 weeks is for healing then comes the real weight lose time. You will be hungry but once you get on mushy's and then on to solids it does get better. hang in there you will do great!!!

I told limited people and waited till a couple of weeks before surgery to do that. My kids were stunned. Worried about how risky it was and then acted as if I didn't tell them. Another family member, who never dealt with weight, stated how all she had to do to be healthy was make a life style change. People who haven't dealt with the physical and emotional pain of obesity don't understand doing this. We are doing it for ourselves. Good luck to you. Sent from my VS986 using the BariatricPal App

Yes, my support was 50/50. People that don't have weight issues don't understand. Pushing away from the table anit that easy. I'm 3 weeks post op. I feel so much better. Do what's best for you. Understanding the process and working the process. I was 380 at the start. I'm down 345. I feel much better. Have a good day. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using the BariatricPal App

I haven't had anything to post as of late. I am still stuck in the 184 range - since the beginning of January. I went for my 6 month check up and my surgeon seemed happy with the loss and said that I am at 47% loss of excess weight. She said I may only end up losing 50-60% in total. I am not happy with that and while I am determined to prove her wrong the scale seems to be agreeing with her right now. I am still walking & exercising but haven't done as much in the last two weeks as I did in Jan & Feb. I go through periods of extreme frustration at the scale and then times when it doesn't bother me as much. I have tried all kinds of things - more exercise, less carbs, more & less calories. Not sure what to do at this point....

Good for you. Yes, the healing process feels bad because weight loss might stop. You will do fine, you are motivated, too! Good luck, Karen

I'd never be one to try and talk someone into having surgery. But I'd also never try to talk someone out of it, if it was something they felt would help them. Sometimes people just need to come to terms with their own reality. To the OP, all I can suggest is you take a step back and look at your life up to this point. How long have you been overweight? Are you morbidly obese? Do you have any comorbidities? Is your weight affecting your quality of life? Do you want it to be different? What exactly are you doing to change that? Every person on these forums has been down the "I promise I'll do better" road a thousand times. We're experts at fooling ourselves into thinking "This time it'll be different!" But it never is. We diet and diet and diet till we can recite the popular-diet-dujour litany verbatim, yet when the fuss is over, we're still standing there fat as ever (or MORE fat than ever) with nothing to show for the effort but less money in our pockets, lower self esteem, and another diet failure to feel badly about. When will you have had enough of that kind of failure to finally make a REAL difference in your life? As to your fears, face them: A sleep apnea test is nothing more than sleeping in a hospital bed while wearing a series of wires that monitor how good or bad your sleep is. It's painless. And it could save your life. Being "cut into, as in the operation" is almost a non-event. Most lap band surgeries leave five or six small puncture-type scars, and one about two inches long. There are even lap band procedures that go in through a single incision near the belly button, for those who don't want multiple incision sites. The days of wide-open zipper-scar surgeries are long gone. Things are done laparascopically now. You're "having a hard time writing down" what you eat. A food journal is easy to maintain, unless you're embarrassed to have a written record of your food intake. Using a phone app is fine, but there are limits, as you've seen. Websites like caloriecounter.com or livestrong.com can help you find the caloric amounts in restaurant foods, and even let you calculate your own recipes, so you can get a pretty good idea of what you're eating. If the "surgery only cuts down on food intake" and you can do that yourself, why haven't you? If dieting that results in long-term weight loss is SO easy, why isn't everyone skinny? Simple: Because as soon as the diet is over, or the person goes off that diet, the weight comes flooding right back. As for a "new technology that makes lap band obsolete," what's stopping you? Lap band surgery is removable and reversible. If something new and better comes along, you can have the band removed. But chances are you'll be pleased enough with it that you wouldn't want to, even if something else came along. And BTW, diet and exercise ARE the technologies that will make a lap band obsolete. If you get off your couch and exercise, then eat properly, you'll lose weight. But you haven't done that very well so far, or you wouldn't be here. Not judging, just saying. If you don't want anything inside you, all I can tell you is the band doesn't have a pulse, it doesn't weigh anything, and only rarely do I feel it. If anything, I feel the port, which is where they add or remove saline to adjust the band. But the band being there isn't being felt. I don't know your gender, but if you happen to be female, and if you have menstrual cycles and use tampons or birth control devices, I'd wager you've had something a lot more troublesome inside you. The band is a non-issue. My bottom line: After decades of fooling myself into thinking "This time it'll be different," I finally stood up to myself and made the decision to have surgery. I'm losing an easy average of about ten pounds a month so far. And I feel awesome. I look and feel years younger, I have tons of energy, I sleep better, I'm better at my job, and I'm delighted to feel this way after all these years. My only regret is that I wasted all those years lying to myself. I wish I had done this years ago. So those are my comments. I don't mean any of them to sound mean, only to give you some food for thought. Keep reading, keep researching whether banding is the right answer for you, and I sincerely hope you come to the decision that's right for you. There are other weight loss options, all of which require cutting and removing body parts. Banding is by far the least invasive. Wishing you the best of luck with your decision. Dave

Really having a hard time of it right now. Yesterday I went to see my parents who have been sick since the weekend before my surgery. I had my two weeks and one day ago. Since beginning my journey in February I have already gone down 5 pants sizes (from barely squeezing into my 26's to easily zipping and having room in my 18's now). I have lost 30+ lbs--15 of which were in the last two weeks. I am barely getting in 400 calories a day and choking down my Protein drinks......and my mom asked "are you sure this is going to work?" Mind you this is the woman who has been after me to have this surgery for the past 10 years. Now that I have actually done it and can't go back she is like "are you sure you aren't eating too much?" "are you sure this is going to work"........ I went from feeling great about myself and my progress, to feeling like a complete and total failure once again. I can't avoid her as she and my dad are very sick and need us three kids to step up and care for them. It has been bad enough that I can't be there to help her in and out of bed since I have had surgery and can't lift more than 5 lbs. I guess I am just looking for someone to reassure me that Yes this does work. That yes, if I follow my dr's rules and move more and eat less I will lose weight. That my mom is just being her usual critical self and it isn't about this surgery--that the surgery is just the most recent thing for her to pick about. You would think that by the time I am nearly 45 I would be over her nit-picking......but I"m not..........

Hi, I am scheduled to start the pre op diet around the last two weeks of April. I am trying to figure out how this works. As I understand it, for two weeks I am only having shakes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and a cup of either vegetables or fresh fruit. No carbs or starchy veggies. The written instructions say "if you need it" I can have a snack of a piece of fruit. Now, after surgery, there will be no fills for at least 6 weeks. During that time I am mostly going to be on liquids and towards the end soft 'mushies". So that is two months of starvation with no assistance or restriction. If I can not lose weight on my own, how am I supposed to get through this? I was recently following a normal carb counting diet for diabetics and every night I went to bed with sharp hunger pains in my chest area. I kept thinking that the pre op diet is going to hurt worse. Herbal tea helps but really, I just dont understand how this works. Does the smaller pouch cause less hunger pangs??? I really need an answer because I am wavering and do not want to change my mind about surgery.

Today I am 17 days away from my surgery date 11/20/07. I am extreamly excited and starting to feel a bit nervous. I know everything will go well, I am just worried that this is going to be another failed attept for me to lose this weight. I am currently at 210lbs. and my goal weight is 120lbs. My husband is very supportive and has even taken the week off for my surgery. I do not want to let him or myself down. We have been together since we were 15years old and he understands this constant battle that I've had my entire life. He has loved me at 130 and he continues to love me at 210.

I haven't gotten my lap band yet, but I'm planning to sometime in June. Because I know it's right around the corner, I have been eating like a crazy person!! I swear I have a bottomless pit, which brought me to need lap band in the first place, but I also eat tons of fast food and all kinds of other awful, yet very tasty, foods. I know this is so bad of me...I need to be preparing myself to cut way back, but instead I'm eating even more because I know I won't be able to later. Also, I've actually GAINED weight because I know during the liquid diet I will lose it all and with the lap band I will lose even more so it's like I'm having a major binge...that's never ending!! I am screwed up in the head!! Did anyone else go through this before you got your lap band or am I the only one who's jacked up???

Hello all. I'm new to the group. I stumbled across this site via a google search and knew this is just what I needed. I've thought about WLS for the past couple years but always let others talk me out of it (people who have no weight issues and certainly couldn't understand what I go through). Well I'm tired of being tired and tired of being unhappy and feeling like I have no control over my life. I'm scheduled for my 1st seminar this Saturday and hope all goes well because I am super excited to get back to me. I live in the Chicago, IL area and have Cigna insurance. So if anyone out there has any tips, suggestions, etc. I can sure use it. I have read so many encouraging remarks and stories on this site and I know this is where I need to be. Looking forward to future posts