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I'm 2 1/2 weeks out and I find myself snapping a lot too. Not sure what's going on. Sent from my iPad using VST

Hi everyone! I'm 22 and ready for this change. My mom is actually one week post op and so I'm getting to see what it might be like for me even though I know it's different for everyone. Even though it's nice to get to see what it is like post op, it's kind of frustrating because I feel like I've been through the whole process with her but she's the one getting the benefits right now and I have to "repeat" the process. We were trying to do it together but it was difficult because I lived out of town for school. I'm worried that insurance struggles will postpone my surgery even more because besides the excessive weight I don't have any other medical issues and I'm not quite heavy enough to qualify for coverage without another medical condition. Basically - I was wondering if you could give me advice for the first steps of this process. Clearly I've been waiting for awhile to get this done and do need to be patient but I'm just so ready to be on the other side! Any advice you can give me through any step would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks!

can i ask why some doctors require a pre opt diet,and my surgeon said eat 3 small meals a day, except for the day of your surgery no food after 9 p.m,, just asking>>if you knw

I don't have a trainer, yet. But I started by going to a toning class twice a week and then doing cardio 2-times a week. Now I focus on curcit and cardio 3-4 times a week. As for motivation...it's more willpower then anything. Don't get me wrong. There are a few times that I only made it twice a week like this week, but I am determined to continue on the path to good health.

I am nearly 9 months out from surgery and have lost about 75 lbs. I still have about 25 lbs. to go to get to my final goal weight, but it has been tough sledding the past two months (last month I only lost 3 lbs!). I am eating about 1,200 calories a day and exercising 5 days a week (primarily cardio ... walk/jog intervals or Zumba class or exercise DVDs). I have definitely stepped up the intensity and duration of my workouts the past month. My eating could be better -- I have been working to cut out Snacks. But, I am starting to worry that I will never get to goal. So, for those of you who are are 10+ months out from surgery, there must have been a point in time where your bod just stopped losing weight. Has anyone experienced that where the weight loss has stopped well short of the goal? How did you deal with that?

My band is currently empty and I flew for the first time two weeks after surgery and again about a month later and I didn't have any problems either time. My flights were about 2 and a half hours each way

Okay so I'm about 3 weeks post op, and today I noticed that the right side, under my rib cage is is slightly tender and rock hard. I think it may be my liver, just from an anatomical aspect. I have no incisions nearby, so I know it's not my port or anything like that (that I can feel under the port incision, so I'm really sure about that). Any thoughts? Like I said, mildly sore, but really hard, so I'm not sure if this is normal or if I should worry. Has this happened to anyone else?

What are you eating? If you are not and only drinking the tightening (fill) won't help. My suggestion is stay away from Starbucks or wherever younarengetting your drinks. You have to break the habit, once you do your taste buds may change. Mine did, but it took a couple weeks of staying away from the sugary drinks and now I can't stand the taste. Find a substitute. I make my own tee and flavored drinks using truvia. I know it is hard, but you can do it. I also find that logging everything keeps me accountable. I love food, so I don't drink my calories.

I'm 3 days post op! Can you tell me what some of you did for full liquids? I have a list but I love getting other ideas! I'm doing well today! Had a couple of rough days, but I feel so much better at home! On the road to recovery now! Thanks ahead for your suggestions!

I have lost so far 105 lbs in 1 yr.l have no problems with the band in the last 3 months I lost 4 lbs and I usually average 9 or 10 lbs...I haven't gained any weight during the holidays "mind control ",I know I lost about 4 inches in size..I have no restrictions with my band and I'm not hungry and I continue the same routine every time..I'm glad I'm over the mind hungry phase...I am not a gym person but I did bike riding and the treadmill until November,our friend winter is here...What else can I do or should do???

I am going on a three day girls trip in September and I should be in the 6-7 week po range. What foods do you suggest I take? I know I'll be in the soft foods stage and I will have a mini fridge in the hotel. My concern is that we won't always be in the hotel, we will be seeing shows and museums so I need to have stuff I can carry along with me. Thanks for any ideas that you have!

I am a 35yr. old mother of 3 beautiful boys, and I have been married for 2 1/2 yrs. now to a hard working man. I am a christian, and enjoy music very much. It varies from gosple, R&B, neo-soul, some country, old school, jazz, and some classics. I enjoy writing, meeting new people, and good conversation.

So I was sleeved on June 24th and I am very happy with where I am at and the progress am now 102 lbs from my highest weight which was 2 weeks before surgery and now 85 lbs since surgery Today I went to the gym and did 4 miles in 52 minutes on the treadmill feel more energy and so much better I do travel a lot so getting all my Protein in on the road is at times a challenge, but I am still learning and doing better and as I said all along, I was not going to go crazy on this strict food plan - i wanted to be realistic and practical, smart and yet not deny those things that i like but thanks to the tool really control my portions. so, I do eat a halloween size pack of Peanut M&Ms every now and then - so yes all 6-7 of them little candies - the old days it would been a whole pack I have had a bratwurst (no bun) at a football game I have had pizza ( mostly just the toppings and very little of the crust and its a thin crust) - if i have 2 slices of toppings that is a lot - compared to used to eating a WHOLE pie I do have the Skinny Cow 100 cal fudgesicle most nights when at home sometimes for Breakfast I have 2 slices of Cracker Barrel Cheeses (individually packaged so very nice) with a 100 cal Pack of Goldfish (nut said crackers were good to help with nausue on occasion from Chewable Multi-Vitamens and my biggest bad thing - I will drink diet soda - i get the small can 7 1/2 oz and drink slowly - used to drink 6-10 full 12 oz cans a day I do drink through a straw in public and yes at a restaurant i get soda and small sips when eating, but i have never emptied a glass So i am not perfect, but I am doing well and making progress, i could see how i could go backwards, but the portion controls is huge and I am eating so so so much better and working out so so so much more Used to wear a size 50-52 w pants and now i am doing 44-46 shirts were a 5XL and now 3Xls are almost to big Goodwill got 4 huge bags of clothes!!

I took Source of Life liquid Gold - available on Amazon. 9 months post sleeve I am finally back to the big Vitamin. I had a pharmacist friend recommend Source of Life. I added extra Iron, B-12 shots. One bottle lasted about 3 months and I loved the taste. You can see the white bottle online if interested. Best of luck!

I’m super excited to start this journey. My insurance requires a 3 month program so I still have 2 months to go. I have watched many YouTube videos, researched websites, read books just so I will know what I’m getting myself into. I know everyone’s journey is different but many go through some of the same things. So my question is what advice would you give to someone who’s just getting started on this journey ? For example, I know hair loss seem to be common among Bariatric patients, would you suggest taking vitamins now ? Are there questions you would have asked your doctor but didn’t know to ask at the time ? Any advice would be greatly appreciated 😊

I am four weeks out and like the topic title states...I have been eating salad left and right! I would add diced boiled egg, avocado, fish, some cheese and drizzle it with a vinaigrette such as raspberry or balsamic. Are you a salad lover? I don't have restriction yet, but I have read and heard that many people cannot tolerate salad after getting fills..

Tuesday, April 17. I got out of the hospital today with a new sleeve. Less pain than I thought I would have, though my big incision hurts like a B...... No nausea so far, but not able to drink much at all without feeling like I overdid it, even small sips. The leak test was an adventure...YUK! All is well there and I told the tech next time I drink at his bar he'd better have some better whiskey on hand. I'm taking it easy today and glad to be home. They make it all but impossible to sleep in the hospital. If it's not somebody waking you up to check vitals and meds, it's some machine going beep alarm. I had enough energy to go 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 laps on successive walks and they still wanted to discharge me in a wheelchair. Go figure....more later.

By Elizabeth Goodman Artis (Shape Magazine) We dissect the science of fat to help you pick the smartest strategies for losing it. Fat is the ultimate three-letter word, especially the kind that you spend so much time watching your diet and hitting the gym to keep at bay (or at least to keep off your butt). But beyond making you look less-than-svelte, fat can have significant physical and emotional implications. We talked to Shawn Talbott, Ph.D., a nutritional biochemist and author of The Secret of Vigor: How to Overcome Burnout, Restore Biochemical Balance, and Reclaim Your Natural Energy, to find out a few essential facts that might surprise you. 1. Fat Comes in Different Colors More specifically, there are different types of fat that have different hues and functions, according to Talbott: white, brown, and beige. The white fat is what most people think of as fat—pale and useless. Useless in that it has a low metabolic rate so it doesn’t help you burn any calories the way muscle does, and it’s the predominant type of fat in the human body, encompassing more than 90 percent of it. In other words, it’s a storage unit for extra calories. Brown fat is darker in color due to a rich blood supply and can actually burn calories rather than storing them—but only if you’re a rat (or other mammal); certain critters can activate brown fat to burn calories and generate heat to keep them warm in winter. Humans, sadly, have so little brown fat that it won’t help you burn calories or keep you warm. The third type of fat, beige fat, is in between white and brown in terms of its calorie-burning ability, which is actually very exciting. Why? Because researchers are looking into ways to shift white fat cells into more metabolically active beige ones via diet and exercise or supplements. In fact, there is preliminary evidence that certain hormones which are activated by exercise may convert white fat cells into beige ones, as well as some evidence that certain foods such as brown seaweed, licorice root, and hot peppers may have the ability to do this as well. 2. The Fat On Your Butt is Healthier than the Fat on Your Belly It’s probably safe to say that no woman favors the fat on one body part over another, but it’s actually safer health-wise to be more of a pear than an apple, Talbott says. Belly fat, also known as visceral fat, is much more responsive to the stress hormone cortisol compared to the fat on your thighs or butt, so when stress hits hard (and you don’t find a healthy way to handle it), any extra calories consumed are more likely to end up around your middle. Belly fat is also much more inflammatory than fat located elsewhere in the body and can create its own inflammatory chemicals (as a tumor would). These chemicals travel to the brain and make you hungry and tired, so you’re more likely to overeat or eat junk food and not exercise, thus creating a vicious cycle and perpetuating the storage of more belly fat. The good news is that anything that helps you reduce inflammation helps reduce those signals to the brain. Talbott recommends fish oil (for the Omega 3’s) and Probiotics, which you can take in pill form or get by eating yogurt with active cultures. 3. First You Burn Calories, Second You Burn Fat The term “fat-burning” is thrown around willy-nilly in fitness circles, but as an expression of weight loss, it’s indirect. Before you “burn” fat, you burn calories, whether those calories come from stored carbohydrates (glycogen and blood sugar) or from stored body fat. The more calories you burn during each workout, the bigger deficit you will create and the more fat you will lose. You can also create a calorie deficit by eating less. The trick, though, is time, since it’s hard for most people to put in the time needed to burn enough calories to make a weight-loss dent. Talbott (and many other experts) advocates high-intensity interval training (HIIT) to burn as many calories as possible in as short amount of time as possible. This method, which alternates between hard/easy efforts, can burn double the calories in the same amount of time spent exercising in a steady state. 4. Fat Affects Your Mood Certainly there is no easier way to ruin your day than seeing you’ve gone up a few numbers on the scale, but having excess fat—especially around your belly—activates that inflammation/cortisol cycle, which studies show may be a factor in serious mood disorders like bipolar disorder. If you’re stuck in a stress/eat/gain/stress cycle, however, you’re likely to experience at least a perpetually low mood, even if you don’t have an actual clinical condition. To help break the cycle, try eating a square of dark chocolate, suggests Talbott; there is just enough sugar to satisfy a stress-induced craving, but the healthy flavonoids help calm inflammation that leads to more stress. Low-fat dairy products like yogurt can have a similar effect—the combination of Calcium and magnesium can help calm the stress response. 5. Even Skinny People Can Have Cellulite The dreaded c-word is caused by fat trapped under the skin (known as subcutaneous fat). The overlying skin "dimples" are created by connective tissues that tie the skin to the underlying muscle, with fat trapped in between like a sandwich. You don’t need a lot of fat to cause a dimpling effect, so you can be in great shape and have low body fat but still have a little pocket of dimpled fat, for example, on your butt or the backs of your thighs. Building muscle while losing fat (and the fat loss part is key—you have to have it to lose) can help minimize the appearance of cellulite; cellulite-specific creams and lotions can also help minimize the look of dimpled skin (though they can’t do anything about the trapped fat beneath).

i had my fill one week ago and didnt feel to much restiction but today it was good. i still ate a little to much though. i went to exercise tonight and i was so tight i thought i was going to explode. i will try tomorrow to even eat less and maybe i wont be so uncomfortable. nothing is getting stuck at this point. i kind of wish things would get stuck because in the beginning it was like that and i was more cautious of how fast i ate and how much. now ive slipped on both things. andrea

andielmt, We are like DITTO of eachother. I was banded on 11/19/07 too!! I was down 21 pounds by Christmas. I've lost 38 pounds, my stomach feels achey about an hour after I eat. I too can feel my band. My tummy just hurts sometimes. Not even after eating and it is NOT my port. It hurts at all times of the day. It doesn't seem to have a reason. I feel tight when I'm REALLY stressed out. I did my taxes last weekend and I got myself so worked up I gagged on two bites of chicken, it got stuck then I slimed in the toilet. I haven't PBed yet. I didn't notice any difference after my first fill on January 11th. I'm having a second one tomorrow. I was noticing I can eat more and more and I'm also at a plateau of sorts. 1 pound a week is a little slow.

I have Lupus and sometimes when it acts up I have arthitis in parts of my body or sometimes my entire body. Today its in my knees and I dont feel like I can walk hardly at all. Plus I have been sleeping almost all day long this last week because I get really tierd. So I havent been getting much exercize at all. I wonder if I should try to suck it up and gimp my way through my walks or if that it anti-productive really. I am sure alot of people have arthitis and try to exercize anyway. Am I being a wimp? lol

Hello all, I'm 7 days post surgery...I'm so happy I'm feeling better but nobody told me that I would have terrible shoulder pain from the gas inserted into my stomach during surgery would be so painful. It was more painful than childbirth..LOL my shoulder still aches but the pain is manageable because I'm active and walked daily. I slept on my back for 5 days straight because turning on my sides just hard so bad and I could fill my port moving. I really did not drink or eat much Soup for the first 5 days because of my shoulder pain. After the 6 day, I decided to eat kid cup of sugar free ice cream and had no problems. I also made some devil eggs on Sunday and was able to eat two devil eggs minus the relish with no problems . Well its Monday, 11/10/14 and I had my first post surgery appt. with my doctor. I jump on the scale with my shoes off:) I was so surprised that I lost 18 lbs. I'm so happy:) my doctor told me that when he placed my band he added 4cc of Fluid. I was shocked because I thought I would not get my first fill for several weeks? maybe that's why I did not want to drink much and felt content? I don't know. My doctor told me that he would not add any more fluid into my band if I continue to lose weight. I'm scheduled to go back for my 2nd doctor appt. on 12/08/14 I'm nervous because I plan on exercising and limiting my calories intake to 1200 or less but I really don't feel any restrictions? Any thoughts? Thanks Cindy

I am very sorry I haven't been in to chat and visit with everyone. Unfortunately the lapband and weight loss has been the furthest from my mind as of late. My most favorite aunt has been suffering for a long time with cancer, they recently told her there was nothing more they could do for her, that she had 10 days to 10 weeks, go home drink martinis and enjoy the rest of your life. She did. And she left us Wednesday. I have been an emotional roller coaster since. I want to feel good about this. Finally she isnt suffering, there is no pain in eating and drinking, no pain in her body. But we (her entire extended family) were just not ready to let her go. I started the first day with Cookies, but soon started feeling like I needed to DO something. So I drained all 5000 gallons of my pool and leveled the ground beneth it properly, in the 102 degree (heat index) heat. The more the sweat poured off me the better I felt. Unfortunatly this hasnt made a dent in my weight but right now I just dont care. As long as I am moving and working I am ok. If I stop and be still I loose it. If I am alone, I loose it. And she would be very upset with me for that. So I work my butt off so I don't think about it. This has been my life lately. I will be back soon, I just need some time to get over this. All my best!

Sounds like ketosis, the metallic taste is a dead ringer. Ketosis is the state of your metabolism switching from Ironing glucose as a primary fuel source to burning fat. It can be burning stored fat, or dietary fat and most likely a mix of both. Your body contains approximately 300g of glucose "on hand" stored in your muscle tissue. Once you cut your carbs, those stores get depleted and your body turns to an alternate fuel source, fat. Your liver generates 280g of glucose every day for brain function and cellular functions every day regardless of your diet, so there is no danger to remaining in ketosis. When fat cells are burned, there are by products called "ketone bodies" or ketones created. There are 3 types of ketones, and you can buy urine strips that will test for 1 of them. When you first start ketosis, your body sucks at using ketones and so that "spill" over into urine. The longer you remain ketogenic, the more efficient you become at burning them. Beta-hydroxybuterate is one of the ketone bodies that has been shown to have very beneficial results on the heart, and is a preferred source of fuel for the brain. While initially in carb withdrawal and your body can't uptake ketones properly, there is a syndrome known as "keto flu". But after the initial withdrawal subside and your body adapts to using ketones as well as fats for energy and fuel, there is evidence of increased mental clarity and acuity as well as dramatic improvement in heart conditions. Sorry if this is more info than you wanted, just chewing the fat, so to speak.

I had my daughter 8 weeks ago and I'm finding the weight lose really slow did anyone else feel the same way