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Ok first off I had to have two surgeries for my band. After the first one the band was too tight and nothing went down. 2nd surgery fixed it... I went for my follow up last Friday and dropped 32 lbs since Dec 3rd. Also my doc said that they may not even have to do a fill because the band should still be tighter than most people. I'm already eating people... Lol and I have gained 5 or 6 lbs... Is that normal? How do u know when to stop eating? I can't really tell... Although I'm not eating near as much as before the surgery I think its a substantial amount. So, I'm thinking I need a fill and that appt is not scheduled until 2/12... I'm thinking of bumping it up... Is this weight gain normal?

disneynut. I just have to say I love Disney too!! I have never been a diabetic, so I cannot comment on that, but I can talk about a 24/7 huge appetite I that had and was never satisfied pre-band. I had huge portion control issues. I would eat large quantities of food and would always be hungry. Plus, I would snack all day too! I was consuming around 3,000 to 3,500 calories a month and was gaining weight like crazy. The weight gain wreaked havoc on my joints and it was painful to exercise and walk for that matter. But once I had the surgery, and I got through Bandster Hell, I was not as hungry as before. I was able to consume around 1,200 calories a day and feel satisfied. I was not snacking and weight was coming off. Once the weight started coming off, I was able to exercise without pain. As I exercised, I was dropping pant sizes and inches quickly. When my fill is working with me, I can eat a small meal and not feel hungry for 6 hours. When my fill is diminishing, I can eat a meal and go for 3 hours with out feeling hungry. I am newly banded and have had 3 fills. I have a 10cc band with 5cc in it. I received a fill last week, so my restriction is great right now. I understand your apprehension; wondering if the Band will realy appease your appetite. I had the same concerns. You will get hungry, but it will not be like before the band. The Band only allows you to each so much food. I have no regrets at all and would do it again. Good luck with your journey!

Hey Everyone, Thanks for the words of encouragement. It is so great to come here and see everyone doing so well and know that I am getting right back on track. Hannah - You are very welcome to join us! I put in your info on the spreadsheet. It's great to see how everyone is doing and share in our journey. One thing I have to remind myself of is this is a journey and there will be times that I won't do as well. This last week I also chalk some of my weight gain up to high stress at work. We had a huge deadline to meet by Friday and thus some of the highest stress for work in a long time. But those are only excuses. I did do very well with my walking and like FWWAB mentioned I had some great NSV's this past week. I got the spreadsheet up to date with everyone on here. Not sure if your wanting to join too JohnC. You would be welcomed! It is great when the Doc takes us off meds we have been and beating Diabetes is a huge step! Congrats!

Was your band doc an integral part of your pregnancy? I am just wondering because I found out last week that I am pregnant. I am hoping that I won't have to get an unfill during pregnancy, and that I won't need to consult my surgeon for anything. Not because I don't want to gain weight, but because my surgeon is not covered by my insurance. Long story short, I have a different insurance now than I had for surgery, and my surgeon and the hospital he works at is not covered. And because I have a realize band, none of the surgeons for my new insurance will touch me. So I am just curious if any of you had complications from the band with your pregnancies, and/or if you had to consult your surgeon often? I am not really worried about needing an unfill because I am not very tight and I am able to eat around the band to get all the food I need. Luckily I AM tight enough that I should be able to manage to stay under the recommended 15 pound weight gain, which is good.

I used to exercise a lot, and was very much into running; weight gain slowed me down then eventually stopped me due to pain and discomfort. But for me, it really gave me a lot of confidence and a sense of power and achievement. I would set goals for myself for how much I wanted to lift, how many reps, or the distance I wanted to run (I was never fast though--I'm built for endurance, not speed!). My biggest achievement was a half marathon. Besides being beneficial for my health, that's what it was--a way to strengthen myself inside and out, and to provide myself with a way to achieve if I just try. There aren't too many things in life that can give you that freedom and that kind of guarantee. I dearly hope I can get back to that eventually. It was a good 50 lbs. ago that I had to stop even walking due to pain. I never felt better about myself than when I finished a good run.

I stopped taking my birth control a month before surgery and haven't needed to restart it. However, my period has been really heavy and I am thinking about going back on it. Has been on the pill affected your weight loss at all? I know it can sometimes cause weight gain.

Pete, You are right, some of your weight gain may be from stoping the lasix. (furosemide) Are you noticing swelling especially in your lower extremities. If you are making good food choices and still gaining weight like that you need to let the doctor know. You don't want to put on a lot of fluid. It wouldn't be good for you. Keep up the great work. You will get there!

First off I gained 5 lbs this week. Not lost. Gained. :tounge_smile: Medications - Up until last Saturday I had been talking the following medications. Benicar - Blood pressure medication Antenolol - Blood pressure medication Furosemide - Heavy diuretic (water pill) Klor-con - Potassium pill (counter balance to the furosemide) It's great that I am able to go off these medications now and that my blood pressure is doing so well. My blood pressure reads on a continual basis to be in the middle of the normal blood pressure range. With my legs over the last week I have had a minuet amount of swelling not the measurable amount that I had in the past. I also have not worn the compression socks that I have so I will wear those over the next week and see if that makes a measurable difference. What I am not sure about is going off the Furosemide. I know that some of the weight I gained this week is water weight but I just don't know how much of that is. It's something I have to work through. Exercise - I have to say this has been a decent week for exercise. Of course walking every evening after work but also I have been good also in getting out at lunch time to walk. It feels great to know that I am pushing myself harder with this but I can tell that I still need more. I am going to have to add some additional exercises to my daily program to continue my weight loss. Food - I have made some bad food choices this week. There has been a couple of times that I snacked on stuff I shouldn't have and I know that I am eating more then I should. This has to change and is changing starting today. I can tell that I need a fill and I do have a scheduled fill on the 26th. I just wish it was sooner to help me with this hunger that I have been getting. I have to be strong once again and have the will to keep working at the weight loss. I am so close to breaking that 400 lbs mark and continue on down. Overall - Overall this week is a wash to me. Off medications and doing good with walking but bad food choices resulting in a weight gain. I have to really step it up more this next week. I have had a steady weight loss since the middle of October. In the middle of October I weighed 465 lbs and today I weigh 415 lbs. So yes that is a total of 50 lbs since then and since my highest weight in January of 2008 I have lost a total of 70 lbs but I have a lot more to go and need to keep focus on what it is I am doing. I guess this is my two steps forward and one step back week. Now get moving forward and don't let this discourage me is what I have to do now.

First off I gained 5 lbs this week. Not lost. Gained. :thumbdown: Medications - Up until last Saturday I had been talking the following medications. Benicar - Blood pressure medication Antenolol - Blood pressure medication Furosemide - Heavy diuretic (water pill) Klor-con - Potassium pill (counter balance to the furosemide) It's great that I am able to go off these medications now and that my blood pressure is doing so well. My blood pressure reads on a continual basis to be in the middle of the normal blood pressure range. With my legs over the last week I have had a minuet amount of swelling not the measurable amount that I had in the past. I also have not worn the compression socks that I have so I will wear those over the next week and see if that makes a measurable difference. What I am not sure about is going off the Furosemide. I know that some of the weight I gained this week is water weight but I just don't know how much of that is. It's something I have to work through. Exercise - I have to say this has been a decent week for exercise. Of course walking every evening after work but also I have been good also in getting out at lunch time to walk. It feels great to know that I am pushing myself harder with this but I can tell that I still need more. I am going to have to add some additional exercises to my daily program to continue my weight loss. Food - I have made some bad food choices this week. There has been a couple of times that I snacked on stuff I shouldn't have and I know that I am eating more then I should. This has to change and is changing starting today. I can tell that I need a fill and I do have a scheduled fill on the 26th. I just wish it was sooner to help me with this hunger that I have been getting. I have to be strong once again and have the will to keep working at the weight loss. I am so close to breaking that 400 lbs mark and continue on down. Overall - Overall this week is a wash to me. Off medications and doing good with walking but bad food choices resulting in a weight gain. I have to really step it up more this next week. I have had a steady weight loss since the middle of October. In the middle of October I weighed 465 lbs and today I weigh 415 lbs. So yes that is a total of 50 lbs since then and since my highest weight in January of 2008 I have lost a total of 70 lbs but I have a lot more to go and need to keep focus on what it is I am doing. I guess this is my two steps forward and one step back week. Now get moving forward and don't let this discourage me is what I have to do now.

Hi everyone, I am new to this site and new to blogging as well. I got my band on 9/29/08 and was weighing myself about every three days. Driving me crazy. I made a New Year's Resolution to wiegh once a week. I showed no weight loss from last Thursday to this Thursday (actually showed a .2 oz weight gain) and am freaking out a little, so I know how you feel right now. But I'm going to hang in there and you hang in there too. I'm hoping we will eventually figure this all out.

I to had a leak-scariest thing for me was the weight gain. I felt so helpless. Turns out I needed to have my port replaced. Surgery was a breeze, nothing like the lapband surgery itself. Almost no healing time. Things will be fine before you know it and you will start losing again.

You've done pretty well considering. Dig in your heels and really try to keep on top of the weight gain and hopefully this will be fixed for you in no time. I've got everythign crossed for you that its your port rather than the band so that it can be easily accessed and fixed.

Yes I am new to the sight, all I have left to do is my preop testing and then I am good to go. Getting banded on 2/23.I am so looking forward to enjoying all the activities I use to enjoy before the major weight gain!!!! Life here I come.

I went to they gym and exercised my brains out for 3 years and never lost an ounce. I thought I was dieting, but my portions must have been too big. I was never successful without the band. If that were true, all the people on LBT would not have gotten the band. Those that could lose the weight, gained it back plus more. I don't get why Policeman does not go out of town. My dr. is charging 10,000 for the band now. Even with plane fare, it would be way less. His complication rate is the lowest in the entire Pacific Northwest. He is a center of excellence, which is almost unheard of for a town this small. They went over his records and stats with a fine tooth comb. There are probably a lot of great surgeons closer, who are doing this for a much better price that what you have been quoted. You can find someone cheaper. The recovery rate is going to be the same no matter where you go. It just depends on your body. It's getting fills that you need to figure out if you go out of town. Why finance a huge amount if you can get the surgery for a good price by another excellent surgeon?

My first pregnancy was my first experience with weight problems. I weighed 125-127 when I got pregnant and had never weighed more than that. I remember I was up 67 pounds on the day of delivery (I had a morning OB checkup and I remember my doctor was very upset with me so the number sticks in my head ). I went from the 120's to the 190's so fast that I had angry, glaringly red stretch marks on my belly, thighs and arms. I looked like a road map. I remember some of the main dietary culprits of that weight gain was huge quantities of strawberry flavored milk, and lots of Mexican including taquitos and quacamole several times a week. I was living in southern California and my diet was primarily Mexican during that pregnancy. By the way, I made a point not to have even one glass of strawberry milk or a single taquito (shredded spicy beef wrapped in a corn tortilla deep fried in oil with salsa, sour cream and guacamole on the side) during this pregnancy out of fear of repeating the past, lol. After that pregnancy, my new lowest weight was 156 and I went ever upwards from that point on until banding. I know I have the potential to gain a lot of weight during pregnancy. I think being banded must be impacting me in that I am eating lots of things but just not huge quantities. I think this will just be an entirely different pregnancy for me than the first, especially since I am much older and hopefully a little wiser this time around, lol.

A similar situation happened to my husband just before the holidays. He had a fill that was either too much or it aggravated the esophogus so much that swelling would not allow even Water to pass though. He was unfilled and went through the holidays this way. He gained about 10 lbs but is now back on track with a good fill that is working for him. Try to remember that your doctor wants your body to heal from the trauma. It may mean a small weight gain but you'll get back on track too. Hopefully, your doctor uses flouroscope for fills. My husband has had fills with flouro and without. He is a fan of the flouro. I'm just beginning my lapband journey. Just had my surgery Jan. 8th. Good luck to you.

Honestly, I don't think I was beating down on FOG *at all*. It's reality that diets don't work if you are as heavy as you have to be to get a band. Exactly! People who come here and tell us that *they've* found the answer and *we're* stupid to having gotten a band when they haven't even gotten to goal yet are going to get exactly the reaction they deserve. Especially if they've been on a diet for a grand total of TWO months! Everyone is like this when they first go on a diet. Whatever diet they are on -- a commercial program, something they've come up with themselves, whatever -- is the greatest and they've finally cracked the code!. Then the weight starts not coming off so fast and it gets harder to exercise obsessively and they never even get to goal. Or they get to goal and the hunger is too much and they start eating a little bit more here and a little bit more there. The weight creeps back and at first you tell yourself that, hey, 10 lb. isn't so bad. You're still in normal clothes and maybe 10 lb. ago you were a bit gaunt anyway. And then 10 becomes 20 and 20 becomes 30 and the next thing you know, you've gained it all back. I know this because I've lived it. We've *all* lived it. Statistics show it. Scientists can even explain exactly why it happens. So people who tell me they've found the answer and I just wasn't dedicated enough when they aren't at goal and haven't been at goal for at least 5 years have absolutely no credibility with me. Not to mention, you don't tell someone who has beaten the odds (I've been in the 2% that those studies talk about.) that they aren't dedicated. I fought my weight gain like a banshee and I did way better than average because I was dedicated. But I ultimately failed for the same reason we all ultimately failed -- because my body was fighting me and my hunger would not be denied. The other thing is, I came here because I was looking into a band. I made friends here. So when I decided I didn't want a band, I didn't want to leave. I stayed and everyone was very nice. But I didn't run around the boards telling you guys how stupid you were for getting a band and that you should have got a sleeve instead. If I had, I would expect people to be upset with me and I won't blame them.

I would have a problem with this too, though I'm not exactly sure why. I think Jachut and the others made some excellent points that make a great deal of sense to me, but...I don't know. I get a sense that you don't think your boss is a very nice person anyway; I probably wouldn't look as kindly on a situation like this if I didn't like the person, either. It does sound like HE may be a bit judgmental or at least insensitive, if he's acting like a bit of weight gain and stretch marks make his life less worthwhile. But...there could be things going on that he's not saying. Good luck dealing with this. I would be very conflicted too in your situation.

Ms. Pris - You can go to my blog (it hasn't been updated in a while but my PS stuff is in there). As for my recovery...it was a piece of cake. I was actually typing on LBT about 3 hours after I was out of surgery. My PS gave me a pain pump (it is something they implant just under the skin that dissolves) and that is a life saver. Stay up on your pain meds and stool softners and I was great. There is some discomfort, but in reality...it was less painful than my lapband because they didn't have to cut through the muscle. I don't know how a hernia would effect that pain. Now here is a downside to the PS. I have talked with many PS'ers here on LBT and at in person support groups and the biggest problem comes way after surgery in the form of lack of motivation. Here is why for me...I didn't (wasn't allowed to) workout for 6+ weeks and yet I looked a hell of a lot better than I did before surgery. So why should I work so hard when I look better. Well as a result there seems to be a 10-15 pound weight gain that occurs. I think if you go into surgery KNOWING this you might be able to work through it. I need to have 1 more surgery ( breast reduction and reverse tummy tuck to remove remaining excess skin at the top of the torso) and I know that my mental state will be MUCH different than it was the first time. Let me know if you have any further questions. You can PM me for my email addy if you want. Karri

Heather, what was your weight gain like in previous pregnancies? I gained none in my third, like I said, but in my previous two before that, it was only 10 or 15lb both times. I'm just not someone who gains a lot of pregnancy weight. Dont even talk to me about what breastfeeding does to me though, I piled it on then!

green, I am OBSESSED with the scale. I weigh when I wake up, when I use the bathroom and before I go to bed. If there was a scale at work, I'd be visiting it hourly. While on vacation during Christmas, I was practically having withdrawal symptoms because I didn't have access to a scale. I'm afraid if I don't keep a close eye on my weight, it will creep back on me. The last time I put the scale away a year prior to surgery, I put on 30 lbs. I know it wasn't because of the scale, but I feel if I had kept better tabs on the weight gain, I wouldn't have been in so much denial. This is all probably an addict's way of justifying an addiction.

first off i want to say i know this is similiar to the thread "the "voice" is back". i didnt know if i should post this there or start my own, so i started my own just in case. i have another fill scheduled, but its not for a couple weeks. i am just out of control. i cant stop snacking. i tell myself stop! no more. and i throw whatever it is away. but then, shortly after i find something else in my hand on its way to my mouth! it is driving me nuts. i feel hungry all the time, even though i know i am not. i had a hysterectomy in october. i am now on replacement hormones. would/could these be having an effect? i am also on an antidepressant. it used to be if i forgot to take it i could tell because i would want to eat everything in sight. maybe it needs adjusted now too? this is all so frustrating and upsetting. i was a slow loser, but at least i was a loser. now i am a fast gainer. and its making me more upset and frustrated which in turn makes me want to eat more...its a bad cycle i have fallen back into. and on top of that my back is killing me again. is that from the regain too? i dont know! but i know by the time i get home from work i can barely move some nights. and then its take care of the kids-dinner, boxing practice, baths-i just have no energy. i collapse on the couch when i get the baby into bed! my house is a mess, i am not cleaning like i should. i barely exercise anymore. and i know all this is part of if not the problem with my weight gain. but what do i do? instead of getting up and doing something i sit and whine. i have an appt for the regular doctor this thursday to see about adjusting my meds. i hope that will help. anyone with any advice please please respond. even if its a kick in the butt, i need that too!

Depending on your insurance, you will have to do a 3 or 6 months supervised diet. My PCP followed me during mine. She said the diet wasn't so much for weight loss, but the insurance company is seeing whether you make the effort and keep your monthly appointments. The doctor who is doing my surgery (tomorrow!) did require that I lose any weight gained from my initial appointment with him. Meaning, when I had my first office visit on May 16th of last year, I weighed 242. I had my appointment to schedule surgery about 3 weeks ago and I weighed 248. I had to lose 6 pounds by today. I went to the office to weigh in today and weigh 240, so I am good to go! Good luck on your journey.....

I think the fact that the baby is growing is very comforting to you and the doc. However, unless you had a loss due to morning sickness in the first few months, I can see your doctor's concern. On the weight watchers and other dieting websites, they say that the guidelines/instructions for following such programs during pregnancy are really for 2 things: 1. Possible loss during the first 4 months of pregnancy 2. Maintenance during the last 5 months of pregnancy So, even most diet programs have a reasonable expectation that you should not be in a loss mode after a certain point. I think that if you're eating a large amount of fiber-rich foods, that can certainly contribute to weight loss, simply because that has always been the case for me. A little fat and fun food is what pregnancy is all about, so maybe treat yourself to a big, guilty meal once a week and try not to worry about the weight gain. Remember if the baby weighs 7 lbs and you retain roughly 3-4 lbs of amniotic Fluid and breast milk, that you will have lost 12-15 lbs by the time you leave the hospital just thru delivery! And don't worry Fairy, I'm only 11 weeks and up 9 lbs....eek! However my gains have stopped these past 2 weeks, thank goodness. Hugs.

My sugar binging is definitely out of control, and it's the vicious cycle--upset about my weight gain, eat because it doesn't matter at this point and I want to sooo much, repeat. I decided (last night) that today I will stop with the sugar binging. But I had 1 cookie left from WalMart, so I had that for breakfast with a small glass of OJ. :ohmy: No more sugar overloading!!! I just gotta break the cycle. :laugh: I was laying on my side this morning, and rolled onto my stomach--which isn't very comfortable anymore-- and Carson kicked BIG TIME. He made my whole torso move with one hard kick. I see who's in charge here.. tons of bad food, not laying comfortably.. :wink2: Good luck at the doc Jenn! Denise if you decide you can afford it in the next couple of months, let us know.. love to have you there (doesn't matter how often you post!!) Alabama in June is HOT & HUMID. Keep that in mind, and we're going to be SO THANKFUL to have the lake right outside the house.