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Date of Surgery: October 26, 2009 (my "re-birth day") Pre-op weight: 288 Current weight: 208 weight goal: 150 Pre-op health issues: sleep apnea asthma high cholesterol joint pain difficulty walking, needed cane often shortness of breath had surgery on both knees due to torn cartilages from excessive weight back surgery was recommended I could not walk more than 1 1/2 blocks before I was out of breath, and experienced severe lower back pain that made me cry and stop in my tracks. My doctor was adamant that I had to have back surgery, saying it was not related to my weight. I needed numerous cortisone shots to relieve the pain. The back doctor told me I had to have back surgery if I wanted to be able to walk without pain - "I SAID NO". I wanted to see if the pain would subside if I lost some weight, AND IT DID! I no longer walk with a cane. I can walk many blocks without shortness of breath and WITHOUT PAIN. Dr. George Fielding of the NYU Program for Surgical Weight Loss and his staff saved my life. There are two other wonderful doctors at NYU, Christine J. Ren Fielding (his wife) and Marina Kurian. Although I was confident that any of these three doctors would do a good job, I chose Dr. Fielding for several reasons. First, he had the LAP-BAND® surgery himself, and I felt he would really know what I was going through, and that he would really understand my feelings. Second, he is an Aussie, and I love his accent (LOL) - I love to hear him talk, so I ask him a lot of silly questions just to hear him talk in that Australian accent. I have had five fills so far - I skipped one month because my band was still very tight, and I knew they would tell me I did not need a fill - and I would still have to pay the co-pay. I saved myself a $40.00 co-pay (lol). I am going in for my 6th filling today, May 13, 2010. The only thing I hate about their office is that their scale always shows me three pounds heavier than my home scale! So I always ask if I can bring in my scale with me but after laughing at me, they tell me I can't do it (Grrrrr). I was told by Gaspar, one of the Nurse-Practitioners, that I should write an article for their newsletter about the type of exercising I do to help with the weight loss. I do lots of home exercising by using things commonly found at home, such as lifting weights (liquid laundry detergent), etc! I am thinking about doing that, but I also thought about starting this blog to have a shared support system. In this blog, hopefully you will find many helpful tools, such as: 1. healthy recipes, called recipe of the day 2. types of exercises 3. activities 4. ability to share your thoughts and feelings http://life-after-lap-band®.blogspot.com/ :thumbup::thumbup:

Before my first fill and after my surgery I felt hungry all the time. I also could eat what ever I wanted. Now I've had my first fill and its been 5 days. I still can eat whatever I want and if I am not careful I will over eat just like before. Total weight loss is 22 lbs since I started the whole process. But wondering if I need to just wait until my next fill or go back on the full liquid until my stomach shrinks a little more? Any suggestions?

We had our consultation with our surgeon last Wednesday and right after that we met with the patient advocate who set up all of our other appointments needed to get to surgery. For us, I think the hardest part is going to be getting our PCP to write the approval letter and also getting our weight stats for the last five years. We moved from CT to NV and we were never bigtime doctor goers. I've had to order our files from the doctors in CT and I am waiting on their mercy. We are lucky in that our healthcare plan does not carry any crazy demands like 3, 6 or 12 month supervised doctor visits or dieting.

Loss rates will be all over the map since there are so many variables involved, not least of which is amount of weight that needs to be lost (bigger, heavier people at the start will tend to lose more pounds per month even if the percent of excess weight lost is lower.) I lost about 60lb of the 100-ish that I had to lose in the first three months; others will lose slower and some will lose faster. YMMV. I have guy metabolism on my side (guys tend to lose more quickly than women) as well as established patterns of fairly high activity levels. I did a 5k walk at about 3 1/2 months (running is a no-go on my knees), but I had been doing them periodically for several years pre-op. What is probably more important for you is your condition at three months rather than any particular weight loss - any loss will be a big help, but you will be feeling so much better by that time that it won't matter that much if you are down 60lb or 30. It was around the three month mark that I noticed that fast walking was no longer providing me with the exercise intensity that it once did - a fast walk pace, about as quick as I could walk without breaking into a jog, somewhere a little above a 3mph pace, would previously get me into that peak cardio target zone of 80% max heart rate (130-140bpm for me) but after about 3 months I could barely break 100bpm at that pace. I really needed to get into the hills and do some climbing to get my heartrate up to that previous level. These days, at 17 months out, it takes some serious work in the pool to get it over 120. For the record, I lost about 30lb the first month, 15lb each of the next two months and 10 lb per month thereafter; your numbers will likely be different, but the profile of loss will should be similar, with your biggest loss in the first month tapering off after that. In the meantime, do your walk, walk, walking preop and postop as your doc instructs, and ramp it up as you feel up to it.

So far I've lost like 10-12 pounds.....But I found out that eating real food comes with a price......I'm sure if I did gain a pound or two, I've lost it all over again!!!!

Your BMI can be between 30-40 if you have a medical problem due to obesity. My doctor told me it was determined at my first weigh in at his office. If I lost weight between then and my surgery (which was 8 months), it was okay that I was locked in at that BMI for insurance purposes.

My surgeon's office just sent them my medical records from a doctor's appointment in March 2008 and their own records from an appointment at their office in September 2009. Just 2 weights. One from 2008 and one from 2009 and this was sufficient. So, I think the answer is 2 years.

I went to my Dr for my 1st appointment about a month ago. But I do my grocery shopping once a month and had already done my shopping for the month. (My appointment was a last minute appointment because there was a cancelation) So the Dr said it would be ok to do Weight Watchers for a couple weeks then to start on the Medifast Lean and Green diet. Well I didnt lose any weight on the Weight Watchers, because of the medicine my primary Dr had me on (which had a side effect of weight gain) I am no longer on that medicine, it caused me to gain 3 pounds. Anyways, I started the Lean and Green diet on Monday. I hate it. Most of the foods I am allowed, I dont like. I am just so hungry all the time. When I go to the Dr on the 22nd I plan on getting the Medifast shakes which from what I hear, will fill me up for a few hours. I am started to get cranky and I am just so miserable. I cant make this feeling of hunger go away. And to top it off, my husband comes home with pizza for himself for lunch! Now I know he has every right to eat whatever he wants but did he have to eat it right in front of me?! I dont know if all Dr's have you do the same pre surgery diet, but if any of you did this lean and green, please tell me what to do to make myself feel full. I am so scared that I am just gonna get to the point where I am so hungry and I am gonna pig out. Thanks for any advice.

I'm having a hard time finding information about setting weight loss goals after my surgery. It's important to have specific, measurable goals but I don't know how much I should be losing, say, per week or month, after my sleeve surgery. Is there a formula or percentage I should be looking at? How did you all set weight loss goals after surgery? Thanks in advance!! Sent from my SM-T713 using BariatricPal mobile app

You may find this web site useful: https://mbsc.arbormetrix.com/Registry/public/calculator/uiCalculator/7?menuId=1013 This site has a database of WLS patients and a detailed calculator where you can enter your info and see the average weight loss at 1 year, 2 years, and 3 years for patients like you. Once you enter your info, click the submit icon (it looks like a disk/save icon) on the top right of the screen to get your results. This calculator shows averages, so some people will lose more and other will lose less, but it can be a good start for a ballpark goal. Like catwoman7, I was asked my goal at my psychological evaluation, and I said 180 pounds, which was based on what the above web site said given my weight at the time. Well, I'm there now and still losing, so I know I can do better than that. I'm still in the obesity range for BMI, and I definitely want to get out of that. I discussed it with my surgeon at my 6-month follow-up visit and he thinks I can get to 150 pounds. But really, I am not that focused on the number on the scale. What I really cared about was getting my health under control, and I have had a 180-degree turnaround from where I was a year ago. My blood pressure went from hypertension range to low side of normal. My A1C went from 8.1 to 4.5. My cholesterol and triglycerides are good. I am exercising every day and I can walk a mile or climb a few flights of stairs without getting out of breath or sweaty. My quality of life has improved so much now that I'm not carrying around a whole extra person's worth of weight. I went from size 26/28 to 14/16. I no longer have to worry about whether I will fit in a chair or exceed the weight limit on a ladder. All of these things matter SO MUCH MORE than the number on the scale. I'm all for having specific, measurable goals, but I would recommend you set some non-scale goals. I would also recommend that you not get caught up in the rate of weight loss or let anyone tell you how quickly you should be losing weight. Everyone is different, and if you compare yourself to someone else, or even how quickly you think you should be losing, you'll set yourself up for disappointment. For at least the first 6 months, all you need to do is stick to your guidelines and you WILL lose weight. Focus on setting good habits that you will be able to keep once your restriction is no longer as strong. As long as you are losing weight, you're doing fine. That's not to say you should panic over a 1-pound gain (your weight can fluctuate by a couple of pounds even in the same day), but if your weight is decreasing from one week to the next, you're on track. I know that's probably not the answer you're looking for. I'm an engineer, and very numbers-oriented, myself, so I know how it is to like data and graphs and want to track expected vs. actual progress, but WLS has too many variables to be able to do it that way.

Did you surgeon give you an idea how much you may be expected to lose over the weeks/months? My surgeon didn't have any expectations (or if he didn't he didn't share them with me). I didn't set myself an amount to lose each week or month, I just kept to my post op guidelines. If I didn't lose one week I knew the scale weight would catch up. Weight loss after surgery is a bit fraught with danger, some people expect to lose a lot of weight quickly, but the reality is a lot different. There is the post op weight gain from iv fluids and inflammation, there are stalls along the way that could last from a week to many weeks, sometimes there will be temporay gains due to various reasons. Some experience a stall within weeks of the surgery....the infamous three week post op stall...it doesn't always occur at three weeks out some experience it a little quicker for others it may be delayed. Some people are fortunate enough not to experience stalls in the first few months. Generally each of the surgeries has an average weight loss after year 1, year 2 etc, but some people will have lost less than that, others will have lost more than the average.

No I have no health issues. Might sound weird but I don't want to lose too much weight and look ill like some people end up looking. And exactly I want the surgery that seems to workout best long term and gives me the most help. Wednesday is the big day!!

If I had to guess I would say he is afraid. Not of you dying, but of you losing weight and leaving him behind, particularly if he is also significantly overweight. Have you gone to any of the support group meetings? I have not yet been banded, but have been to one of the support meetings and it was great. Everyone was open and friendly and the experience re-inforced that I am doing the right thing. Would he be open to going to one with you?

Just butting in here, I LOVE the 5:2, been doing it for 2 months and have broken a VERY long stall/gain spell. Have lost over 10 pounds. But the Vets that are doing it all recommend that people wait until they are out a year before trying it. Follow your docs guidelines. If you can't reach your reasonable goal by 12-18 months, or are having trouble maintaining your goal, or are gaining and cant lose it again... dig right in! After a year or two you really get to see how the sleeve and hunger and such works, and you will be ready to try this if you need it. So far the Vets that are experimenting with this plan really like it. See my stats below for my history if you like.

I'm going to suggest if you are craving meat, you are craving protein and are not getting enough. A good rule of thumb calculation for protein consumption is weight x 0.3= grams in protein.

Hi, i have got to be on pre opp for 4 weeks as my liver hadnt shrunk enough but lost weight. Im doing the liquid diet from tomorrow. The cambridge diet shakes. I got on ok with them but im nervous whatever i do my liver wont shrink.

What do you lose first INCHES or WEIGHT? ME personally I lose INCHES quicker than weight... the pic on the left was 9/2/17 and the pic on the right is from today 9/12/17 Sent from my SM-G935V using BariatricPal mobile app

Hi Sleevers: I have Horizon BCBS. I have to submit a letter to the insurance company regarding my attempts to lose weight over the past 12 months. I'm curious how detailed this letter should be. I don't want to say too much or not enough that might get me denied. As anyone had to do this? If so, can you provide some insight on what I should write?

Well after nearly 2 months of waiting I am going to my first consultation! Have no idea really what to expect. I wonder if he will send me to my other appointments with the psych evaluation and the nutrionist? Or maybe I will have to go to his counseling groups? I know I will have to drop 10% of my body weight before he will do the surgery to weed out the people who are not serious about lifestyle changes. Oh man, I am all a flutter. Next I will be nervous about them denying me insurance. GAH! ::deep breath:: I am just so happy at least this day is here.

I was totally doing awesome and then I moved my scale. Maybe 5 inches. Gained 3 pounds. Unreal. I can't wait to get down to 320 and start weighing on the wii fit again. Too fat for it right now.

I was the same way Mona. After I graduated from college, I dedicated my life to working out. I went from 220 to 170, however I had also been on phentermine as prescribed by my old(slave to the drug company) doctor. Low and behold, I had to have surgery (unrelated) and in recovery they could not get my heart down to a normal beat. It scared my so bad I was off for good...ballooned back up and past my first highest weight. Oh and PhotoNut..I hear you. I plan on getting back to the gym and getting a head start, but I AM going to treat myself on the cruise. It was preplanned, surgery or not. I will get it together though...just to make myself feel good :-D

I'm scheduled to be sleeved on Thursday August 23rd @ 0730!!! With that tomorrow I will have nothing but liquids all day and start with the pre op meds tomorrow and early Thursday morning. This process has flew by. It's taken me less than 2 months from my initial consult with my PCP to surgery date, which is good, but way quicker than I had planned out in my head. I know I'm doing the right thing for me and my family. Me and my wife are expecting in late January and with me losing the weight I'll be able to keep up with him/her as they grow up, along with alleviating my constant knee pain I have due to 2 torn cartilage surgeries in my left knee. I'm soooo glad I found this site for the information and tons of support everyone here offers. Will check back Thursday or Friday after surgery!!!!

Thank you for Sharing. I am tired of the yoyo diet and weight. I have closets full I might fit in that clothes if and when I lose the weight. I know now that I will be able to enjoy those clothes on this journey (but just for a bit) and be able to give them away because they are too big and I am extremely excited knowing in the near future I can go shopping in any department store and shop and buy smaller fashion styles of clothes....... Holidays here I come with a new attitude, a new body, a new healthier mind and I will be styling. Lol...thank you again for sharing...

A lot of insurance companies will pay, it was my employer that has an exclusionary clause against any weight loss surgery. My surgeon also had a lot more experience than any of the surgeons in this area. I got a lot more personalized treatment there as well.

Thank You! I lost 25lbs with my first pregnancy and lost 7 with the second one. He's more concerned with gestational diabetes than with gaining too much weight, considering my history.