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New member to the website, although found you all so helpful in deciding to get the band. Banded in Sept 2011 and fell into the category of the 30 BMI with 50lbs to lose, but no health problems. I self-paid and live in LA, so I went to TJ. Dr. Almanza banded me and was wonderful. I have been back for two fills and think they are fantastic and Dr. Almanza is soooooo cute I just like seeing him for 10 minutes. lol Please ask any questions about my experience there. I don't think their clinic is for everyone, but it was fantastic for me and I will give you the truth. I know in some forums "only" needing to lose 50lbs was criticized and mocked, but I found some positive comments here that helped give me the courage to get the band. Carrying the same 50lbs for 10 years was a problem I couldn't solve on my own. I'm down about 20lbs and now I think I need support to get to the last 30 off. First, I think I have about 2.4 cc's in with two fills. I am adjusting to realizing I can just keep on eating, hungry or not, with the same emotional issues as before. I do a lot of what I call "companion" eating. I am single, no kids and work and go to school. I eat out of boredom, loneliness and for a "companion." Nothing feels as good as snuggling up to a big hunk of chocolate cake, right? However, I still think I can eat too much quantity. Just struggling with restriction vs. length of time between hunger. About the only "restriction" I get is if I eat bread type stuff early in the morning or if I don't chew enough. Then it gets stuck, feels horrible and I sorta vomit up slim until it shifts. I don't really every throw up food, just the slime. Anyway, I am still working through eating well and not going to those comfort foods, but I think out of guilt of eating bad foods I don't think I "deserve" another fill. lol Getting the bad doesn't make us any less messed up, does it? Only two fills, so it can be that I just am not in the green zone, right? Thanks for any feedback! Oh, also, I don't have a doctor in LA. I just went and got the surgery so "go talk to your doctor" isn't a helpful answer for me. Just looking for personal experience and encouragement!

This a a great thread! Thank you for being brave enough to address binge eating. I'm worried about having food cravings that I can't satisfy after surgery. I started counseling recently for behavior modification to address the unhealthy eating habits and events in my life that have led to my weight gain. Surgery is such a drastic measure that I want to be sure I will be able to keep it off. I'm so scared, but so excited too!

I definitely think you should find a new lap band doctor, having a good doctor gives you reinsurance and the knowledge you need to get through certain obstacles. As for the slight weight gain, everyone hits a plateau sometime during their lap band journey, the only way to continue on your journey is to push through and continue trying. I wish you all the best, good luck!

Had surgery 3/19 ..193lbs...Bm on 3/23..192lbs Monday morning 195...can anyone tell me what's going on? We all are Superstars!*

I have a 10cc standard band as well, and I have been banded almost 2yrs and I have less than 5ccs in my band. I have learned from experiences it's never good to be too tight. When someone becomes too tight it encourage poor food choices and you run the risk of developing reflux issues (not fun at all). I have found for (me) that my success came from learning when enough was enough and not to take that next bit of food. A band is a tool and it 's not going to do the work for you. Yes, some people do gain for several different reasons. It could be water weight/ slider foods that may be higher in calories. You just need to look at all the different thigns that is going on with you to determine what's causes your weight gain. Also, do you work at ? Good luck. Always remember that more in your band don't mean more weight lost! Everyone's tolerance is totally different.

I know it's been a very long time since I have been on this site. In the past I would get on the site at least twice a day, but I slowly started to fade a little from visiting so often once my first year of being banded. I really do miss all of the wonderful post and comments people would write on this site. Actually, things have been very well with me. I have spent a lot of time helping my daughter out since she started her first year in college. I am very proud to say that my weight continues to go down and I have not had any weight gain since the Christmas seasons passed. I do thank God for that. I have learned what do and do not work for my band. Certain foods had to be limited, and I have finally learned what my sweet spot is and what that actually means for me. I have not had a fill in over six months and nor do I need one. I finally have the tool I need to have long term weight success. My weight lost has always been slow, but I continue to lose weight. I really don't and never have used the scale to measure my success, but inches and my clothes sizes are my biggest indicators. I started off wearing a size 24-26 and today I wear a 1x & 16-18. Most of the 18 sizes are too big in dresses so I normally get a 16w. That is a very- very big accomplishment for me. All and all I am very very happy with my band. This relationship has had its ups and downs, but the majority of my experiences have been very positive. The band is really what a person allows it to be for them. It really takes a lot of work and effort to get to where you really want to be. My husband recently purchased a very expensive treadmill like the ones they have at the gym, and that has really aided my success. I try to walk a mile1/2 at least every other day. It takes only 25 minutes so I watch Netflix on my iphone which makes the time fly. I really have to say that my family has been great and they really made this process so much easier to go through when times got hard. I will be banded 2 years on July 21st this year. I just encourage all new banders to be patient and give yourself time to learn your band and how it works best for your success! I am going to make an honest effort to visit the site much more often than I have done in the past. This is truly a wonder site in which a person can gain a lot of knowledge, support, and motivation from others who have figured things out a little clearer than others. My final words would be to stay encouraged, be patient, and never ever give up on your weight lost goals because you are worth it. Always remember that half the battle has been won if you have already gotten your band or started the process to have it done.

Hi Elcee, They had to completely unfill due to all of the swelling. I allowed a month to go by barely eating anything as I thought it was me and the last week I could barely keep liquids down. So he stated due to the urgency of the situation we had to unfill completely to allow healing. He explained it as it was like I just had the surgery. He is also very reserved and the first fill I had 4cc put back in and the last one only 1 cc. He says it is fine and the weight gain is normal, however I am an all or nothing person. When I see one pound gained it is like 100 to me. I feel great physically, but mentally I am a mess.

Hello Sarah, Weight gain after surgery is normal, you should not be weighing in at this time can be discouraging. My first weigh in was at my post-op appt. I am 3 weeks out and still have a lot of gas, its easy to pass so I am no longer using the gas-x unless its really necessary. Itchy scar means healing, good sign. Stomach protectiveness I feel the same way, I guard mine daily and let no one touch it lol. Try focusing on healing and not weight during this phase. Welcome to the other side, good luck on your journey into becoming a healthier you.

Yes, itches are good as long as the incisions are not red and irritated. The weight gain is normal, as folks said - my nurse told me not to freak out. Hope the gas is moving, and your water starts to go down!

Weight gain after surgery is normal from all that sailine they pump you full of. Drink lots of water and it will be gone in no time

First, always check with your doctor and follow his or her advice. That being said, I had my first glass of wine about 3-4 weeks after surgery. Neither my nutritionist nor my doctor ever said I had to cut out alcohol. What they DID say was to treat it like any other high-calorie/low-nutrient food and keep consumption low to avoid weight gain. I do find that since I'm eating fewer calories, the alcohol does go to my head a little faster, but I was a cheap date before banding, so it's not exactly a drastic difference. I'm 7 weeks post-op and I had a glass of wine with my dinner tonight. It was delicious

Julz, you sound like one terrific human being. What a blessing it would be to have you as a friend, a neighbor! There were sooo many things that went into this huge decision I made not to do the lapband at this time. A lot was fear of the unknown.. But much was the state of my being right now. i just retired from 36 yrs of an extremely stressful job. Stress that caused me to overeat and gain a lot of this weight. Hypothyroidism that went undetected for several yrs that caused weight gain. I feel that I need to allow my body to decompress from working...focus on what's important, which is health and see if I can make a change naturally. I love healthy food. im not a junk food addict. Never have been. I Dont want to restrict my body from healthy eating by putting a band in my body. I hated the idea that I couldnt eat asparagus without getting stuck. Not eating kale or lettuce was not an option for me. Besides all this, my 90 yr old parents were diagnosed with cancer and Alzheimer within 6 mo of each other. im the only child in the area to care for them. I cant be thinking of myself right now. Im thinking this kind of stress with a band will only lead to trouble. SO, I think you can see the sum of all of this is how I made my decision at this time. YES, banding is the most personal decision and it must be honored. Thank you April Bandsters! Good luck.

Well, something life changing will happen for me on June 25. I have always had weight issues and, after a spate of horrible events (lived with the thought of kidney cancer for several months, then had a healthy kidney removed; had a particularly nasty breakup; challenged the principal at my first teaching job on advice from union reps and, as a result, had to negotiate a package that involved "quitting" in exchange for a letter of recommendation), I spiraled into a sharp toothed depression. I didn't have the energy to do much of anything, let alone prepare healthy meals. pizza & a pint of ice cream was the daily fare. After a while, I just didn't care. I am now at the point where my health in becoming compromised and, dammit, I want my old life back. I have done a ton of research on the whys and wherefores of weight gain & loss and know that a restricted calorie diet isn't going to cut it for me. I have tried that route more times than I can say. On June 25, I'm going to join the thousands of folks who have had surgery for weight loss. I am very excited and a little nervous. Mostly, I am looking forward to a new beginning. Yippee skippy! Can't wait! I am a little worried about Protein and my one kidney status, though my surgeon says he's done other folks with one kidney. I am 280 pounds right now. I teach 4th grade at a small private school. I love my Scottish terrier, Moxie, and my Glen of Imaal terrier, Simon. I,m glad to have found this forum and look forward to chatting with all.

Thanks so much. I do plan to do exactly what the Dr tells me to do. I really need to do this. I was scheduled to do surgery in 2008 and at the last minute my thyroid test came back Hyperthyroid. I had been having issues with my heart rate and BP going up but not much weight loss. The Drs couldn't believe I had Hyper thyroidism (Graves Disease) and not hypo since I was a big girl. I had to have it ablated with radiation and now I'm on meds the rest of my life for HYPO thyroidism. After having it ablated, I gained another 50 pounds. I'm devastated by the weight gain and I just can't lose on my own. This really is my last option. I keep praying for GOD's guidance and I have to have faith that whatever happens God is in control. Thank you for your comments. It helps alot.

Just throwing it out there - I've had the Mirena IUD for almost 3 yrs & LOVE it! It releases centralized hormones to the cervix only so no weight gain, crazies, or skin issues. I had the worst time with BC. Totally could not take any of them w/o turning into a psycho & packing on the lbs, but this hasn't caused any side effects at all. Oh, except one: I don't get my period anymore! Whoohooo!!!

Ladies, For those of you who are really and truly "stuck" at a weight, and feel like you're already doing everything you can, I wonder if you've considered body fat testing? I think body compositions can very so much, and it may be that you're where you should be regardless of what the scale says. Those "extra" pounds may be muscle, or extra skin. I recently discovered there's a mobile service in my area that does submersion body fat testing, and the pricing's pretty good. I'm pretty tempted to give it a try at some point, just to satisfy my own curiosity about how I'm doing. I totally understand having a goal, and not wanting to give up on that goal, and my blessings and support go out to everyone that's working so hard to get to where they want to be, but I know for myself that I have a bad habit of getting more and more disciplined to reach a particular goal, and not being able to maintain that discipline long term. The last time I lost a lot of weight I started training for a 10.5 mile event (walk/jog for me, mostly walk). In order to build up the endurance for mileage I was doing 2+ hour workouts regularly. It simply wasn't something I could imagine keeping up indefinitely, though, and once the event was over the weight started to creep back on, sending me spinning into a downward spiral of weight gain >> depression >> more weight gain. I'm not saying this is an issue for anyone else, but I'm working hard to make sure that whatever I'm doing now is something I can honestly and truly contemplate doing for the forseeable future, because otherwise the weight it helps me lose isn't going to stay off. (And, as time goes on and my metabolism changes, I may have to get even more disciplined just to maintain!) I'd definitely still like to lose a few pounds, and I suspect they'd come off more quickly if I tightened things up a bit, but I remind myself that I've made HUGE progress, I look great, I should be really proud of what I HAVE achieved, and the most important thing is to continue to work on good, healthy habits I can stick with. If I take off a few more pounds in the process, that's just "icing on the cake" (if you'll forgive the expression!)

Insurance submission was on Tues. Got denied immediately Wed. due to I'd gained almost 10lbs. over the winter instead of losing..apparently they want to see at least 5% total body fat loss prior to surgery. So am working on this but here's the thing..I gained due to having ddd in my back and since last summer haven't been able to really exercise like I was due to the extreme pain in my back and shooting down my right leg..the back pain and getting some of the weight off was one of my reasons for getting surgery..to aleviate the pain some as there's no cure or surgery according to the neurosurgeon..I haven't been the same at all since last summer when I really messed my back up and had to quit the gym and everything, even yard work was trying for me and I LOVE being out in the yard doing stuff..does anyone have any suggestions on how to lose the weight without extreme exercise? I mean, I am eating low carb and cutting my portions but as soon as I can show 5% tbw loss I can be approved.

The thing about people that had surgeries is they dont seem to realize they still have the porcedure in place and they can again follow the rules and lose weight....maybe with a good therapist,but I believe it is possible.All that the weight gain means is that you are practicing the old habits of your before surgery days. Still,I pray I never lose control to the point of allowing myself to gain that much before I catch myself and stop myself.I am reall praying that. xxo

I also feel sorry for her but like they say, it is only a tool and you need to be strong enough to change your eating habits and keep up the exercise. I hate it when people use pregnancy and an excuse for weight gain. Yes, you do gain weight but you can keep that to a minimum if you eat correctly... not for two! I only gained 25 lbs with my pregnancy and he was 10 lbs!! I was also 200 lbs when I got pregnant so I wasnt slim. I was in my regular clothes the next week. I know everyone is different, some have bed rest and all but I feel exxesive weight gain with a pregnancy is completely avoidable if you work at it. Best of luck to you Carnie!

I've only had three weeks out and I don't want to get discouraged. Is there anyone that can tell me that this is normal. The day of my surgery I weighed in at 226, this morning, I am at 230. My weight has been slowly inching up after my initial lost. I am confused because I exercise almost everyday. I have run up to two miles and walked up to three miles. I have done some resistant training with the bands and with my own body. I have joined my fitness pal to keep track of my caloric intake and I never go over 1000 calories, to be frank, I usually don't come close to that. I have to admit, I don't drink enough water and I am working on that, but I don't know what else to do. Should I just wait? I am reading everyday how others are losing this or that and many of you have said just be patient. My first fill will be April 2, I am trying to see if anything changes by then. My family and friends keep asking have I lost anything yet and I get frustrated. I expected at least six lbs by now. I know everyone's journey is different. Can anyone relate?

Hi Everyone, I'm back from my cruise to Mexico. It was nice, but unfortunately DH caught a stomach bug midway through the cruise and was really not feeling well for the last several days. I usually catch whatever he catches, but somehow escaped the stomach bug. In the days before he got sick we had a lot of fun. food was everywhere, and I certainly enjoyed it, but I know I was eating much less than pretty much everyone on the ship (based on what I observed was on peoples' plates in the Lido restaurant) and for the most part I ate a pretty healthy diet (I got in plenty of fruit and veggies along with Protein, but also indulged in dessert after lunch and dinner, and mid-afternoon snacks). When DH and I would share dinner each night, the steward always had this weird look on his face like he couldn't believe we would do that! I didn't see anyone else around us doing that so I guess it was a bit odd. I was also lightly active -- I exercised pretty much every day (but fun kinds of exercise -- walk/jog around the promenade deck, snorkeling in chilly Water, dancing, tai chi,etc. -- not as intense as the workouts I do at home) and I took the stairs a lot rather than wait for elevators, etc. When I got home the scale said I was within my normal 2 lb. "bounce" range and so I'm calling it even -- no weight gained or lost. The cruise director mentioned that on average people on a cruise gain 1 lb. for every day they are on the ship, so I feel very good about not having gained weight. It does make me go hmm, how did I not gain weight while having lots of indulgences and slacking off a bit on the regular vigorous exercising? Maybe if I stayed on ship a couple more days I would have gained weight ... who knows ... it does make me seriously wonder though if I've hit my new "set point" for my weight. The worst part of going on vacation is getting back into the swing of normal life! Whaddaya mean, I can't sleep until 7:30 every day, and have to do harder exercise, and people aren't cleaning my house and serving me fab meals I didn't have to cook??? LOL. Back to the regular grind ...

oh also, you're supposed to take the shots for a couple months and then go off of them for a couple months so your body doesn't get immune to then. I didn't do this and that was probably another reason for the weight gain.

I've only been at goal for 3 months, so it's all still new to me. I talk to my Dr quite a bit about some of the questions I have, and this was one of them. I was told: even though you have reached goal, you still need to maintain a high Protein diet (for the rest of my life) and drink the Water (64 oz at least) for the rest of my life. Still no snacking or nibbling between meals. Was also told to weigh my self daily, so If I see a weight gain, I can get it back in controll before it gets out of hand. (I was really hoping he would tell me, now that you have reached goal, eat what you want' just in smaller quanities...lol..nope!...grrrr) So, basically, nothing's changed for me. I'm eating this way for life, staying away from all the foods that have no protein value.

As one of those 200+ers out there, I just want you to find hope in my story. I've had a number of knee operations over the years, mostly related to athletic injuries, and they allowed me to use the knee pain as an excuse so avoid the work I needed to get into some kind of shape (other than round ). In no way was it as severe as osteoarthritis but I still used it as an excuse and allowed myself to excuse my gain weight. As the weight gain got worse, so did my knee issues. I was looking at knee replacements but I knew, in my case, that it was more related to weight gain so I kept putting it off and dealing with the pain. Eventually, as the rest of my health deteriorated, WLS became the solution to address my problems. As I lost weight, I gained energy and I wanted to lose more. Losing more meant exercise and I started with walking. I enjoyed it and got hooked. Being competitive, I looked for an outlet to challenge myself. I've found it and each of you will too. 200+ is a lot to lose. In fact you will lose 1/2 of yourself in this process but gain so much more than you can imagine. Good luck and we are here to support you.

NJ2NC- is there anything else you can do? I am on the Mirena IUD, which pretty much gives me no tom or very light tom- or maybe a no estrogen pill? Unfortunately, for taming of the beast purposes, it would have to be trial and error as to what works for you. Good luck, but I would probably try to switch. I had no weight gain when I went on the Mirena, but not sure if it's appropriate to use it to regulate your cycle. I hope to have at least another pound gone by tomorrow, WID. Hopefully 2, that will put me at an even 30 lbs lost!! I am having the darndest trouble not drinking while eating. Right now it's okay, but I know once I"m at restriction it'll be necessary. And maybe I wouldn't be so hungry between meals if I didn't! Something to work on. Consistency is the key for me, for sure!!! have a great day everyone!!!