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Hi everyone! Tomorrow I will be 7weeks post op and have lost about 20 lbs since surgery day! a year ago I was on 328 lbs and that pushed me into considering WLS. Now as of today I am 274. I'm excited but I'm also curious as to what everyone elseat 7weeks is at? I had hit my 1st stall in the last week of September and lasted 2weeks but I feel I could be doing better in losing the weight. I excercise for an hour 4 times a week and am sticking to eating fish chicken and veggies. Today I actually ate just the top part of a cupcake with no icing because its my birthday. Maybe its just me and I'm expecting too much too soon. I also read about losing hair at 3 months but looks like I started already and it actually makes me a little depressed.

I like your description The prescription pain meds I have tried (hydrocodone) just seem to make me tired and itchy. I keep hoping that weight loss will help with the pain because they say that the fat cells cause a lot of inflammation. I am going to ask my rheumatologist for some alternatives, but have never found anything really helpful in the past. I don't want to get hooked on stronger drugs - but I guess that may be what it takes. Good luck with your ankylosing spondylosis and your surgeon - I am rooting for you!

Hello all and thanks for the well wishes! The surgery went well and I was released from the hospital last night. The hardest part for me was no liquids the day of the surgery. Yesterday they ran a GI test and watched the liquids move through my new stomach and confimed there were no leaks. Today I'm finding I still need pain medication to make me feel comfortable. I'm just walking and sipping liquids and I don't feel hungry one bit! Tip: A few drops of peppermint oil on a paper towel helped me with nausea. My doctor had recommended it and I'm glad I had it. Dr. Garth Davis was my surgeon and he has a very helpful book called, The Expert's Guide to Weight Loss Surgery. @TNT- my consultation was June 10th, insurance approval on June 28th and the surgery schedule was pretty full so my surgery date was August 17th. It seemed like a long time to wait for a surgery date but I will say it helped me mentally prepare!

Hello Friends! Today I am exactly 3 months out from surgery. I thought I’d write a little blurb (or maybe more… lol) to update how I’m doing. The numbers are, I am down 35 Lbs since surgery and I’m down 44 since starting my pre-operative diet. I am averaging 2.92 Lbs per week right now. Not nearly as fast as most here, but guess what? I am absolutely happy where I am today, and I haven’t felt this thin and energetic in many years!! I just want to get into a few things at this time, because it is something that means a great deal to me. That is the inner peace I feel for myself, and I want everyone to feel this way about themselves as well. This past week has been a big struggle for me. My husband and I celebrated our 15th Wedding Anniversary on the 9th and my 37th Birthday was on the 12th. I had some confections during this time and as a result (along with it being TOM) I did not lose any weight this whole week. However, this is nothing different that what I’ve experienced every TOM since having surgery. I find that I’m much weaker to giving in to temptations during this particular week, and of course I wasn’t able to again. How do I feel about this? Well, considering I have been excellent all day so far today, I still feel really good about myself. I CANNOT nor will I beat myself up over this. What I will do though, is do what I can. That being, I will do 5 days of super low carb to fight that demon and work myself back to weight loss form. The ONLY thing beating myself up over it will do is put me down a spiral of self hatred, and once again on the path to being the old FAT me. I never want to be there again, EVER!!! I refuse to allow myself to dredge over living my life! So I had some cake on my birthday and enjoyed some sweet treats during my favorite week. So the heck what? So I didn’t lose a single ounce last week… oh well. I’ll tell you WHY I will not let that make me feel like a failure. Simply because the very week before, I lost 6 POUNDS!!! Because, the few months before this I lost almost 30 Lbs too!! I will now and ALWAYS Celebrate every single pound that I lose. I don’t care how long it takes me, so long as I’m doing it. I am not in a race with anyone here, and as far as I know we are all jogging along side one another and patting each other on the back for all our accomplishments. Time will pass and the weight will drop. So long as I’m doing the right thing majority of the time. Especially recognizing when I am allowing too many bad foods in my diet and correcting it, the weight WILL COME OFF!! Besides, I do find that I lose much more quickly when I break up the monotony. If I eat the same exact amount of calories day in and day out, my body WILL start burning those calories accordingly. I’m absolutely positive that I will have an amazing drop this week. My body has no clue what’s coming. *wink* Anyway, call me “Pollyanna” or whatever you want. But, you will NEVER hear me say I “ONLY” lost this much or I STILL need to lose that much. My glass is ever half full, and one day it will runneth over (though I consider it to already!!). You will never hear me ask someone what I’m doing wrong, because as long as the scale is going down, I’m NOT doing a darn thing wrong. I won’t let my self worth be associated to what my scale says (or rather what it doesn’t say, IMO). I started at 330 Lbs for crying out loud!! Granted this was many years ago, but so what? I was STILL 330 Lbs, Size 28W and 3X tops, and I did lose every single one of those pounds. I’m also down to size 16M and Size L tops. Some pounds and sizes were gained and lost over and over again, but now – thanks to my sleeve and my new found love for myself, it will be down FOREVER!!! Onward and forward I go. I will get to goal… someday. When? I have not a clue, but now that I know WHAT I know, it will surely be sooner rather than later. I do enjoy a challenge however, so I will definitely still work with them. But… whether I make them or not is no matter. What DOES matter is that I continue to celebrate EVERY SINGLE POUND LOST as a pure success. I will never discount any of them or treat them poorly because they didn’t fall away as quickly as I thought would or should – or because someone else lost theirs faster than I did. That is THEIR journey, not mine.

My experience has also been 1 or 2 pounds a week since restriction. I am happy with that. I still find myself wanting to have a bite of this and a bite of that and the band doesn't stop every habit. So be prepared for that and have some strategies to combat Snacks. I have a dumb question. How do you get the weight loss ticker to show on this site? I set one up on the ticker factory, but couldn't get it over onto my page. Mary

Hi, forum people! I'm new to the whole scene here, and I just wanted to get some opinions on how this whole thing is going to roll. I'm 18, 4 feet 11 inches, and near 240 pounds. I have been talking to my Belite case supervisor, Teri, and am working on getting a passport card for my trip to Juarez for surgery. I'm hoping that my new sleeve will be the beginning of the end of my (way too long) weight-loss journey. When I was in eleventh grade, I went to Wellspring Academy of the Carolinas, a weight loss-dedicated school in the mountains of North Carolina. There, I had three physical activity periods a day, as well as a low-fat-no-fat diet. We were constantly supervised and not allowed any electronics at all (cell phones, tv, movies, mp3 players). I was there for 8 months and lost 56 pounds; I was around 160-ish when I left the school. This branch of Wellspring has since been shut down. I gained all the weight back within a year due to their teaching me the skills in an extreme environment. Prior to Wellspring, I did Jenny Craig. That. Was. Horrible. The food made me hate eating every day and my mom, who was doing it with me, would often sneak frozen pizzas into the house to curb our voracious appetite for non-horrible food. Needless to say this did not last long. AFTER Wellspring I had a personal trainer and a dietician who tried to help me maintain weight loss. Failure. Even later, I went to an eating disorder clinic which was intensive therapy for seven weeks. I was taught better eating habits there, but no weight was lost and I still continued to gain even after. Then I went to college, which we all know doesn't help anyone. I ended up coming home due to my ill health. So here I am! My parents are working on getting the surgery working for me, but my dad is still not fully convinced that VSG is right because of the lack of long-term data. I don't really have too many questions, but I would really appreciate anyone that could put forth some details as to what it's done for you to convince my dad (and inform me more) that this is the right thing to do.

I've had two so far. Not sure of the dosage. One was pre-op and the second was this Monday. I think I noticed more of a difference this time (post some weight loss).

My doctor says that the typical wt loss is 70%. Does that sound right to everyone?

While we are on the topic of waiters/waitresses. I wanted to ask if anyone ever gets any funny looks when they ask what you will have to drink and you say nothing? They always do a double take and say "would you like water," and when I say no, they are even more surprised. I know I could just take the water and be done with it but I have a real problem with the not drinking during meals thing so I like to avoid it all together. More often than not I find myself having to explain to the waiter that I can't drink with my meals do to weight loss surgery yadda yadda yadda. It can be a pain sometimes but oh well I guess it would seem odd on the other side of the fence.

Just dropping in to say hi, glad to be here and I hope to meet and chat with some of my fellow bandsters from all over the place. As for me, it's been almost a year since I got my lapband installed :bored: (July 31st) and I can hardly believe how far I've come! I've lost a little bit over 100 pounds and I've still got about another hundred to go for me to be at a happy weight. I've had many ups and downs including getting my surgery covered by my insurance, to having digestion issues with the Protein and being able to exercise (walking) a lot more since the weight loss. :wink_smile: I look forward to talking to everyone!

My surgeon had me on up to 800/day until I was on solid food. Then my calorie intake was increased to 1,000. I have to be careful of my carb count. Try to stay under 50 carbs/day. I keep a food diary & this has helped. And my proteins are 60+/day. I found to many carbs slows down my weight loss. Good luck with your journey.

Hi Terry...I hate to sound negative and it's very possible that this was just my own experience, but not only did I not lose any weight, or go down in a pant size, but I have actually gained 8 lbs since my surgery 18 months ago. The gain isn't because of the surgery but that's when it started for me . I was unable to exercise for 3 months and it just started creeping in. I didn't have a lot of skin to remove but enough to warrant the surgery. But I think unless you have alot of excess skin, you won't see dramatic weight loss or size in clothes. But again, that's my story. I wish you all the best and hope it goes very well for you. Queen of Crop www.queenofcrop.com

Add me on instagram see my weight loss and food daily Iamforeverhappy-add it

I'm in the beginning phase too. I looked into weight loss surgery years ago, but never felt I could afford it. Then, my sister-in-law had banding done about a year ago and I became interested in it all over again. It has been 6 months since my decision to have gastric banding, yet only now does the dream feel obtainable. I finally think the finances are set, so now it's just a matter of crossing off the lengthy "to do's" from the checklist I've been given before my surgery date can be set. However, during this time I am looking to find out all I can from online members like yourself and post-ops. I less frightened about the procedure as I am about failing, but I feel like this is my best shot. My biggest stress right now is the waiting. I look forward to following your progress!

Hey all, I had my pre-admission testing this a.m., and then went to Dr. Abkin's office for Pre-Surgery Class. I'm not sure if all Docs have this class, but mine requires attendance. The Nurse Practioner was fabulous! Honestly, I didn't learn anything 'new' that I haven't learned on this board. What I did learn was pretty much a step by step of what I can expect at the hospital, what my specifics are for eating after surgery, what meds to take and hold on 1/30, etc. The best part for me; was definately having the feeling I was so much more educated than anyone else in the room. At the same time, was kind of shocked to think there are so many people out there who elect for this surgery - but don't gain the knowledge. There were minimal questions for the most part (Other than mine). There was one man in the class who, IMHO will fail. Not for lack of eating; but for his lack of awareness and COMPLIANCE. He will certainly not follow bandster rules. Said so himeself. "I don't like soft cheese", "I have to have my caffeine from soda...I don't drink coffee...I don't want to get up and be at the hospital at 5:30 a.m., I don't like dairy products, Can I fly the next day, Can I go in a hot tub, Can I jet ski. Oh yes....I am very serious. THESE were his concerns. Honestly, I'm not trying to have no value in his concerns, as they are his. But seriously man...isn't there anything MORE important you should be asking? About your meds, Protein supplements (of which NO ONE in the class is prepared with!). :omg: I think what it comes down to is this board, and all of you have SO incredibly well educated me going foward...I'm spoiled. :clap2: Anyway, I left the class feeling great. About my decision for the band; which I did doubt here and there - but no longer. I felt great about my new HEALTHY future; especially when the nurse said how HUGE of a difference just 10% of weight loss will affect/improve my recent diabetes diagnosis. And I felt great, knowing that I am going to finally have the tool to help me beat down these beasts of fat, hunger, obesity and illness. Thank you for playing a huge part in my preparation!!! :scared:

I'd have nothing to say but shut the hell up, followed by a few other not-so-nice words. See, people who have never had WLS don't know that it's not the easy way out, nor is it cheating. It takes an entire lifestyle change with a lot of commitment to lose weight. In the end, I'd say nothing at all. I've had people make comments like this, and eventually I realize they aren't worth it to have around. They're all obviously jealous; I wouldn't let it bother me. Either way, congrats on your loss and congrats to you husband as well. You've both done awesome! Keep your heads up.

I have always had trouble with all sweeteners except Equal which really limits many foods and drinks. It is my understanding that sugar does not affect the band. The reason for limiting sugar is for weight loss if I understand it right. Sugar has never caused me any problems but I have not reached my "sweet spot" yet. I don't know if this changes with optimal restriction. I sometimes split sweetness between Equal and sugar because too much Equal also makes me feel bad. I would be interested also to hear other peoples experiences.

It's a well known complaint before the first fill and even sometimes, the second or third that people aren't dropping weight. Remember, the average weight loss (over a period of time) is 5-10lbs per month. This may not happen every week, consistently, but I can almost promise you by this time next year, you will have lost an average of 5-10lbs per month AS LONG as you have met the band halfway. Protein, Water and exercise. During this trying phase of being UNfilled, you may want to try tracking your foods on www.fitday.com. Sometimes carbs and fats slow us down and we're not even aware we're loading up on them. This is not something you'll want to do every single day of your life, but it is good to go there and check on your habits for a few days at a time to see if you're heading in the right direction. Sometimes, we're not getting ENOUGH calories... check it out and see! Good luck!

I'm from Memphis. Surgery date 11/22, Dr. Virgina Weaver, St. Francis Center for Surgical Weight Loss.

Yes, and it gives you additional protein to prevent muscle loss.

Thanks for responding. I am pretty happy with the loss considering it took me 6 months to lose 35lbs last year when I went on a diet. I think it mainly has to do with the fact that I rather starve than eat something I don't like, I hate grits and cream of wheat and cream soups getting boring fast! So there were plenty of times I just had gatorade or water.

In a hispanic family many times our loved ones try to help and their way of helping is by making rude comments like the ones you dad is making but you have to realize that deep inside they don't mean it that way, if they didnt care they would'nt even comment about if you are eating good or bad. My mom always made comments like "when are you going to stop eating" or "your going to be sorry later but eat it anyways" but now that I have my kids I always stop and think about the way I tell them about their eating habits so they don't have the same problem I did with my parents. Please don't take it as no support I would just take it as a compliment and show your dad that it doesnt bother you and you are going to do great like you have been so far. Good luck!! By the way I am over 3 years out and know my mom tells me "your face looks ugly are you going to keep lossing" or "look at your legs they are to skinny" so hey we can't win.

I was on a two week, modified atkins type program. All I had to do was keep under 40 carbs, which was super easy. I enjoyed wine and cheese and steak the entire time LOL I lost ten pounds, but was not required to lose anything. Many do the preop just to get your liver in better shape. It has nothing to do with weight loss with some docs.

I had a two week pre-op diet of only liquids. It was the hardest thing ever!!! I had to get in 3-4 Protein shakes a day and 64oz of Water. I was allowed to eat sugar free Jello, pudding and crystal lights and Soup. I lost 12 or 14lbs. I did cheat also but it was on grilled chicken and broccoli! @ Badkness beer is not in your future. You can just forget about alcohol altogether for at least the next 6 months if not longer. The point of the pre-op diet is to not only jump start rapid weight loss but to also shrink your liver so it its easier to handle during surgery. If it's too big they will just sew you right up and be done without doing anything to your stomach and this will be all for not. After surgery the carbonation of beer will make you sick. Besides you will only be drinking 4oz at a time anyway. Start cutting down now!!

I will do that. I'm at work right now but I have a gazillion questions!!! You are so nice to respond! I think I may have written Troy, but all the "stuff" is going throught the Weight Loss Center in Royal Oak/Troy off Coolidge. I just had my first medical visit yesterday with Kerstyn Zalesin. She seemed nice just not a whole lot of personality going on there. I just gave blood, signed in blood and handed over a ton of money so far!!!