Losing without the band's help

[lellow 1,713]

For those who don't know me, my lapband successfully helped me lose a lot of weight. I had 3 stress-free maintenance years and then about 14 months ago, it sprung a leak. There have been two attempts to fix the leak (revisions), but I'm still leaking today.

In the first 7 - 9 months after the leak started, I gained weight. About 33lbs in total. In January or so this year, I decided that enough was enough and started calorie counting to lose. I've lost about 13lbs since then, almost all of that in the first 6 weeks.

Also in early Jan this year, I fell on my butt while roller skating and fractured my tailbone, and was in consistent pain for about 8 weeks (and just starting to be pain-free now). This meant that I could not exercise, and only got the clearance from my dr to walk for fitness in the last two weeks or so.

So where am I now?

My weight loss has slowed right down in the last two weeks. I'm talking a lb in the last 2 weeks, and that keeps coming on and off. I am eating about 1000 calories a day, with one 'off' day where I have calories that is still lower than my BMR. I am now walking about 7000 steps a day, and raise a sweat when I do, but the scales aren't really moving.

I belong to another weight loss forum and they advocate increasing my calorie intake to at least my BMR but as a bander, I know I maintained my stable weight for 3 years by always being under my calorie requirements.

So here I am, as a bander who is losing without the help of a band now, asking for advice from other banders. What SHOULD I be doing? Be in calorie deficit still (1000 cals or so a day?) or increase? I can't increase my exercise just yet, as walking takes time and that's one thing I struggle with, with work. I could burn a lot more cals in a shorter time with different exercise, but I don't have that option just yet.

[DELETE THIS ACCOUNT! 12,703]

I can only speak for myself, but my weight loss stalled considerably and I increased my calories to start it up again.

I'm just copying my blog entry about it here, I hope you don't mind. It may help a little.:

I wanted to share my recent experience with calories with everyone in hopes maybe the information can help someone else.

My weight loss had seriously slowed down. To be honest, I spent about a month getting very frustrated because I'd slowed a lot (for me, anyway). I was eating around 900-1000 calories a day. I knew I couldn't lower my calories any further so I figured "ok, let's increase a little and see what happens". I raised my calories to about 1200 a day and sure enough, the weight started falling off again.

July weight loss, on 900-1000 calories: 7.8 pounds/1.95 pounds per week

August weight loss, on 1200 calories: 17.8 pounds/4.45 pounds per week

Needless to say, that's a pretty big difference!

So for anyone who's struggling to lose and eating under a 1000 calories a week, don't be afraid to play with your caloric intake. Raise it a little and see what happens after a week or two. It's worth a try, especially if it works!

[lellow 1,713]

Thanks for your reply, Missy. Yesterday I upped my cals to 1200 cals and it's actually harder than I thought if you don't eat 'rubbish'. It's actually quite a lot of food.

My BMR is 1714 cals a day and I keep getting told I should at least eat my BMR in cals per day, but that seems a lot to someone who ate like a bird for almost 3 years while banded!

[DELETE THIS ACCOUNT! 12,703]

Thanks for your reply, Missy. Yesterday I upped my cals to 1200 cals and it's actually harder than I thought if you don't eat 'rubbish'. It's actually quite a lot of food.

My BMR is 1714 cals a day and I keep getting told I should at least eat my BMR in cals per day, but that seems a lot to someone who ate like a bird for almost 3 years while banded!

That does seem high. I don't think I could eat that much!

I do know this, calories and pounds really are simple math. 3500 calories make up one pound, so to lose a pound a week you have burn 3500 calories more a week than you're consuming.

Here's a simple calculator that might help. It's a calculator to tell you how much you need to consume to maintain your weight. So, if you find that number, you can deduct to see what you need to eat to lose. For instance, if you are aiming for a pound a week, you'd subtract 500 calories. 2 pounds a week would be subtracting 1000 calories.

http://www.caloriecontrol.org/healthy-weight-tool-kit/weight-maintenance-calculator-women

[lellow 1,713]

Hi Missy,

based on that I consistently am in a 3500 calorie deficit a week (I track my exercise and eating separately so as to not eat back my calories, but added together it's at least that) and have been since the beginning of the year. Albeit I lost more than a 1lb a week to start with, I am definitely not losing a lb a week now.

I'm hoping this is a temporary plateau. I'm seeing my dr in a week about a full band replacement and I guess I wanted to get a grip on this whole weight thing before that time....

[SunshineTexas 20]

Just curious, is a leaky band common after years?

[DELETE THIS ACCOUNT! 12,703]

Just curious, is a leaky band common after years?

Slips are actually a lot more common than leaks, but they are a possible complication.

[lellow 1,713]

common? I wouldn't say so, not according to my dr. But I guess it just has to happen to you and it will feel pretty common.

The thing about leaks though is they're normally easy to resolve. They're not usually a result of user error and once you replace the leaky part of your band, bam, bob's your uncle and you're back on track. Unless you're me, that is.