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Met with the surgeon for the first time today, scheduled for July 1st. I am so excited. Now starts 1 week of 2 Protein Shakes per day and one 300 calorie meal. Then one week of liquids? We haven't really talked about that yet. This is what I had to do: September 2012 - General class Sep-May Meetings with Family Practice Physician 3 meetings with a psychologist 3 meetings with a dietician 4 meetings with a nurse educator 1 meeting with surgeon 2 meetings with PA for weight loss pre op What I have left: Final visit with Physician prior to surgery to do a final weight check and education on where to go. Pre Op Physical. I am so excited! The next two weeks will fly by.

So another week is about over. Which puts me, I think 8 weeks out from my surgery date, or 2 months and currently my weightloss is 31 pounds. Which averages out to be almost 4 pounds per week. I know this is a good weightloss, despite the fact that I think I'm just depressed because I can't see it. But, I'm going in tomorrow for a fill. Unfortunately I'm not getting any restriction and I can't stay satisfied for very long...regardless of what I eat. I really hope this helps, it's been a long week. I joined the gym (curves) on monday with my neice Ashleigh. It figures that when found our farm dog a sweet 5 yr old lab in the front yard suffering from the shock of being hit by a car. So we didn't get to the gym tuesday, and we've been dealing with trying to get her healthy. She did survive the hit and extremely lucky might I add! She doesn't have any broken bones! But she did come out with a really bad laceration on her left back hock (ankle area) and her lungs collapsed and were badly bruised. She's very pitiful looking. She was hit tuesday evening and came home wednesday night for strict monitoring for the next 3 weeks. My poor big baby doesn't understand why we can't let her go work with us on the farm, and my indoor pups don't understand why she's inside all of a sudden....or at least they didn't at first. I think they got the hang of it when they heard her wimpering. :tt2: I just can't believe, I live in a small town, on a back road where everyone knows everyone, and everyone knows whose dog is who's and yet they hit her, left her and never even hit their brakes. :mad: I really want to find the person and make them feel the pain she has had to endure the last 48 hours.....:w00t: But alas, I don't think I'll get any justice for her. I'm just glad at this point that she's seemingly ok. So, yeah my nerves have been on edge this week, my sisters are driving me crazy, my dad wants me to take a job in NC and I don't want to leave home! :eek: The lady at curves asked Ashleigh and I if we had an stress in our lives...we looked at eachother and laughed....I know she didn't know but for us to imagine a life where we didn't have an intense amount of stress would be easy street. I mean, we've had doctors tell our family, namely my Dad, me and my sister Lisa that if we don't reduce our stress levels in our lives somehow, it WILL kill us. SOOOOO, I kinda want to move to Vegas and become a dealer in a casino.....yeah right...I mean I would but I can't/won't leave this farm. I love it too much...I just want to lose my weight and get a job and make ends meet, don't need much more than that, just survive..that's all. I guess just focus on the immediate and try not to think or worry about the future. :smile:

I'm excited today because I attended my first information meeting about bariatric surgery at Kiaser. It was informative however I must say a lot of the information I knew because I been researching on this every time a question pops up in my mind. I go tomorrow to my body analysis appointment where they take a picture and weight you prior to beginning the 12 week options program. I can't believe this is all about to get in motion. As a requirement I have to loose 10% of body weight prior to surgery (29lbs) I actually think that will be the most weight I ever lost. Well just wanted to share my journey so far.

Thank you all for your input. 95% chance of it going away or getting better sounds really good.... but I guess its something I will have to discuss with a surgeon because even if my acid reflux is weight related, I still have to contend with the bile reflux caused by having my gallbladder removed. In the meantime I guess I should get acquainted with the RNY. :/

I believe your fill will help get over the plateau! Looks like your initial weight loss was AWESOME, just need a jumpstart!

My weight loss has slowed down and I have been considering going back to the basics. My choices are : liquid Diet 5 Day Pouch Test Sacred Heart Diet Any suggestions. Sent from my Android Phone using RNYTalk

Not really sure even how to begin. I have been banded since June 2005. Had great success up until about one year ago. I went through a series of fills and unfills which culminated in a slip. I was completely unfilled from October last year until January of this year. I've played around with varying fill amounts since then Through this all, (from my low last summer) I've gained 16 pounds. Not too bad. I had a small fill at the beginning of August (went from 3.5cc to 4.5 cc in an 11cc). All has been going great...until yesterday. Had my normal lunch, crackers ff cream cheese, and wham...stucksville. Slimed quite a bit at work (that's always delightful) but felt pretty good by the time I went home. I took it pretty easy last night...Ice Cream for dinner..yea I know..., but that got stuck as well. Got up this morning, coffee went down ok. Got to work, had a slimfast, and there it sat, and sat and sat. Finally that came back up. I called the doc and they got me in right away for an unfill. My doc's office has always been super about getting me in right away. I immediately felt better. So, this is where I'm at now. My doc's office is submitting a request to my insurance company for removal of the lap band and revision to VSG. I was fortunate that my insurance covered the Lap Band this first time around. I've been doing some research on VSG and it seems like it might be a route I'd like to go. My doc also has said, that he will do all and anything he can to faciliate approval. Guess I'll have to wait and see what happens. Thanks all, feel better for having written this.

Here it is: http://www.medindia.net/news/view_news_main.asp?x=14068 Recent research has shown that the procedure can reduce death rates in the obese by as much as 75 per cent. Associate Professor John Dixon, from the Centre of Obesity Research and Education at Monash University said, ‘This is the first time that any form of weight loss treatment has been able to show that weight loss therapy saves lives.’ In three studies, 10,000 obese people who had the surgery were compared with another 10,000 obese patients. It was found that those who had the surgery were actually living substantially longer. In addition they were found to be less likely to die than those who were in the general community who were the same age and weight problems. 6 September 2006 I hope this will make all banders smile.

I lost 100+ pounds about 15 years ago. I fell in love with running, and with a distance of 5 miles around our 'block' that is what I did everyday no matter what. Well, except when I was training for marthons. I was down to 117, and in tiny clothes. I stopped having my period, developed all kinds of health issues, allergies, and finally fractured my foot. I look back and see pictures of someone happy... but way too thin. When I had to stop running because of my foot the weight started back on. Fast forward to now. My lb doc told me his goal for me is 145! A far cry from 117, but when we talked we agreed on 135. I definately had an eating disorder back then and will have to guard against it as I get down there. You sound kind of like me. I think that if I had a more realistic goal I could have maintained it, but the only way I could have stayed at 117 was to run it off. While fun it was not good, or healthy. I remember thinking (honestly) that I would rather die than gain my weight back, seriously. Scary place. I think if I, or my family, see that happening to me again I will force myself to see someone who specialises in anorexia, because, honestly, that is where I was. I do know that even now I see my body (at times) as bigger now than it was almost 40 pounds heavier. We all are battling our own food/weight issues or we wouldn't be on this journey. Hopefully I've grown a little wiser with age. Maybe my story will provide you with some additional insight.

So, with fitness, I need to develop new habits. My whole life, I've been a fairly cerebral guy, and I've never been one for sports or fitness. My career -- as a computer programmer -- is both mentally and financially rewarding, but it is very sedentary. Being the guy who was usually "picked last for the team" (due to obesity; by nature I have the build of a football player, but since I'm so sedentary, my body was always soft and unformed) I never cared much for organized sports. So, I'm facing a fairly large hill to climb trying to change a lifetime of sedentary habits into one of good habits. I have a few weapons in my arsenal that I'm going to try to use, however. I have always had problems with depression and anxiety. Most of these stem from poor sleep (when I sleep well, I have NO problems, but I almost never sleep well due to sleep apnea!) and too much caffeine (which, again, I abuse due to being tired all the time). One thing I've discovered in the last ten years or so is that nothing will calm me down and "level out" and improve my mood like some hard cardio work will. So I'm hoping to use this to combat the inevitable post-surgery blues. Boredom. Let's face it, I get bored easily, and I have often tended to eat out of boredom. I won't be able to do this (as much) after surgery, and I'm going to need something to replace eating with. I'm hoping that I can replace eating with exercise to entertain myself. One problem is that I find traditional gym-style exercise very, very boring. Weightlifting is okay (because you can try different machines, and different weights) but machine cardio is the most boring thing on earth. So hopefully, I'll be able to find some entertaining ways to keep moving and keep fit. I've always enjoyed martial arts, but since my 20's I've been too heavy to really get into it; I'm hoping to take it back up. At almost 40 I will probably be the oldest one in the class, but what the hey, it's good for me. Understanding how habits work for me. I've realized that it's really hard to quit a bad habit, and almost as hard to start a new habit out of the blue. From what I know about myself, what works best is substituting one habit for another, worse habit. I'm hoping to use this to learn how to substitute healthy fitness habits for older, unhealthy, sedentary habits. I would LOVE to hear any advice people have on these topics. I really, really, really have to make fitness and exercise a habit now, and make it lifelong. I'm not just doing the sleeve to lose the fat; I want to really make a turnaround in my whole body health and learn how to stop being my body's enemy, and start seeing it as my friend, my vessel, and my ally.

I'm 3 months post-op, just short of 50 pounds down. I've always loved exercise, but I've really ramped it up as I've lost weight and felt better. Currently I'm spinning 4x a week, lifting 2x a week, and hitting 10k steps a day without much effort (I stay at home with two young boys and a puppy, so I'm always moving.) My dietician has me at 1000 calories a day, but I'm HUNGRY. It's legit hunger too, not head hunger. The exercise is better than antidepressant I've ever taken, plus I'm feeling super strong and energized, so I really don't want to cut back. But I'm also eating more calories than I "should" be at this point, so I sort of feel like I'm at a loss. I'm planning to call my dietician tomorrow but was just curious of anyone has dealt with something similar?

Thank you so much for this! This is an awesome website!! Pre op weight 246, surgery weight 224, Goal 160, surgery 2/6/13

I'm so tired of being on the fence about having surgery. I've been going through all the steps, appointments and requirements for the last 6 months. I already have a surgery date the end of July. But for some reason, I am so afraid of going through with the surgery. It's something I've researched for several years. And I keep telling myself I should try to lose the weight on my own with diet and exercise. But with every attempt to lose weight, I just continue to fail. What finally pushed you over the edge? I need a push!

I've reached my 2-week mark post-op and have lost 20 pounds so far. I'm finding it hard to eat, or rather, it's hard to find the desire to eat. On the other hand, I am OBSESSING over this imaginary tall glass of ice cold Water that I am only able to DREAM of guzzling down! I'm drinking as much as I can manage in a days time, but am dry-mouthed and craving more! I'm also still very sore, but only in the area they took my stomach out. Over the past couple if days, I feel I've regressed. I'm back on pain medication (I try only to use at bedtime) and guarding my sore spot. I realize it's only been two weeks after an abdominal surgery and I've been utilizing all this energy that's slowly flooding back into me with to-dos around the house and for the holidays...I guess I just need to take it a little easier. I must say that it has been exhilarating watching my weight go from my heaviest of 321 down to 300 today! My first goal has almost been met (getting under 300)! Time for pain medication and some much needed sleep!

I'm so excited! October 28th can't come soon enough. Can't wait to get the band out, have bypass, lose weight, and get healthy! I'm so glad for this support group. Best wishes to u all.

Congrats on your 17 lbs weight loss! I'm day 9 post ops as well, I'm down 11 since surgery date. Way to go, and healing is the most important at this point

Well... i would say no..... we are not allowed to lift heavy weights or do strenuous exercise for 12 weeks due to the risk of ripping apart your staples... so i would assume with high speed, velocity and pressure it would be riskier. Your wounds on the outside have not healed in 2 weeks... and it takes a minimum of 6 weeks to start to heal properly on the inside Wait... i just realised you are a bypass patient... not a sleeve... you have also had your intestines re routed and a pouch created.... that would be even longer!

Today is October 12th. I have been on the treadmill Mon. Tuesday Thursday and Friday for 45 minutes at a 5% grade and worked out for 45 minutes and gone 2.2 miles each time. I have been trying to watch the snacking in the evening. We watch t.v. in bed and my husband likes to have a snack then. I try to drink just my Crystal Light at that time. I need to drink more throughtout the day as well. I did lose1-2 pounds this week. Trying to get back to my 151 lbs. and then head on down the scales to my goal weight which was to be about 135-140. Ten pounds to lose is not that much compared to starting out at 235. So I will keep working out regularly and try to stick to protiens and veggies.

Today is October 12th. I have been on the treadmill Mon. Tuesday Thursday and Friday for 45 minutes at a 5% grade and worked out for 45 minutes and gone 2.2 miles each time. I have been trying to watch the snacking in the evening. We watch t.v. in bed and my husband likes to have a snack then. I try to drink just my Crystal Light at that time. I need to drink more throughtout the day as well. I did lose1-2 pounds this week. Trying to get back to my 151 lbs. and then head on down the scales to my goal weight which was to be about 135-140. Ten pounds to lose is not that much compared to starting out at 235. So I will keep working out regularly and try to stick to protiens and veggies.

Weight fluctuates for many reasons. You know it's not from what you're eating, because you physically can't eat enough right now to legitimately gain. No worries.

I've been so excited lately, that it seems like all I talk about to my hubby is weight loss, or weight loss related topics (exercise, new clothes, etc). A couple of days ago, I said something about "when I get to goal..." and he replied, "What are you going to obsess about when you reach your goal?" I told him I'd obsess with maintaining then. He was half joking, half serious, but upon thinking about it, I've realized he's right. For nearly 20 years, I obsessed over food, in one sense or another (whether it be the latest diet or what's for dinner). Now I seem to be obsessed with losing weight/getting to goal. Food has played such a huge role in my life. I've always lived to eat, rather than eaten to live. Has anyone out there struggled with this? Or has anyone reached goal (or close to) and not known what to concentrate on after that?

Hi, everyone! I need some advice from you guys relating to the gastric band. I am terrified of the gastric bypass and losing half of my intestines (well, not losing them just "bypassing" them), but my starting weight is 390 and the posts all state that the band will help you lose about 40-50% of your excess weight. That would only put me at 270 lbs post surgery after a year! how the heck am I supposed to get to 150??? that's crazy! I am trying to get informed more--I am supposed to have the surgery within the next 2 months. It seems like there are less complications than the bypass, but only 1/2 the weight loss. Any recommendations? (As a side note, I started at 420 lbs and am down to 390 after 6 weeks of a nutritional program that I am on). Help me out, guys!!! Newbie in NC

I am 5 weeks post op and lost 35lbs and got down to 208 the insurance companies look at starting weight

Thanks Debra!! Without my band the last 5 yrs would have found me weighing OVER 400lbs... with it I have stayed UNDER 300 and only gained 40lbs over my lowest weight since surgery..

Aww, Im so sorry to hear this.. just reading your post mad me sad too..I know It would be very discouraging to gain after all you have went thru. But, it makes sense about the fluids from the IV.. Hang in there.. A change will come Im sure.. you will be losing in no time