Looking for honesty here...

[alotlessofme 3]

I don't always make the mark. chocolate is my absolute weakness. So, I eat chocolate. I don't want to live life deprived. I do make sure I walk two miles at least 3 times a week; in addition, I weight train. It's slow but we have to make the best of the tool we chose.

[Foxxy 0]

I just had a discussion with my cousin on Sunday that I told about my surgery last month. He asked why and I told him so that it can HELP me to not only lose weight but also keep the weight off, and he asked me "Well, what's going on? Why are you still fat????", like I should have been a bean pole or something. I kind of laughed because I knew that there was gonna be someone that would say something like that, but at the same time, I understand why people would think that! I guess because of the Gastric Bypass and the dramatic weight loss that happens right after the surgery and thats why people think that any type of weight loss surgery should have that type of result.

[jetsy62 0]

My mother told me last night that those people on the Biggest Loser lost more weight than I have so the band is not working! There you have it.

[Marmite_crumpet 0]

My mother told me last night that those people on the Biggest Loser lost more weight than I have so the band is not working! There you have it.

It is exactly that sort of comment that made me decide not to tell everyone about the band. Who can be arsed trying to explain to the ignorant? (No offence to your Mother!)

[LapBandChic 0]

I was not fooled into thinking the weight would magically disappear. Actually when you look at the big picture it takes time to learn good nutrition, build exercise habits, retrain your brain, and let your body adjust to the changes on the inside and the outside. This is a big deal. My surgeon and his team head up the Wellness Center and they are really good at making sure I understood what I was committing to. This LapBand is an amazing tool and it's saved my life. PROGRESS NOT PERFECTION is my mantra.

[sweetheart181 10]

I didn't think i would loose the weight very fast at all. I was told by my surgeon that on average lap-band patients loose about 50% of their excess weight in the first year. So I assumed that I would loose just that 50% which would have been about 75lbs. Well I ended up very lucky. My surgeon is very aggressive with fills so I was only in bandster hell for about a month and since then I have lost consistently. I'm now a little more than 6 months out from surgery and I'm 33lbs away from my goal!

[TaraBell 0]

i knew in my head that the weight wouldn't fall off immediately, but i did kinda expect that when you go from eating 2500 or how ever many calories you eat when you're not dieting... to less than 600 a day, i did expect to lose more weight in the pre-op/post-op stage before i started adding solid food to my diet.

Some people do, i didn't. i'm still struggling... i was banded march 30, 2009 and only lost 7lbs pre-op and have only lost another 10 or so since then... it's very frustrating for me. I got on the scale last night at support group -- that I was a speaker at, and had actually gained 2lbs... this journey is very hard for me right now. it's hard for me to stay motivated when i'm not seeing any weight loss or in the case of last night, a weight gain.

i knew it was going to take a long time to lose the weight, i just wasn't prepared for the reality of the slowness.

i hope that soon, i will start losing consistently and i hope that when you have the surgery, you lose in a constant manner.

I feel the exact same way. I was banded Jan 16th, 2009 and have only lost 29lbs. To be completely honest, I really did think that I was going to loose at least 50lbs in the first 6 months. There are so many great stories on this forum from people who have lost that amount. Not the case for me.

I hadn't lost anything since my first fill, until I lost 5 lbs between fill #3 and fill #4. I have not lost anything in the 4 weeks since my last fill so I scheduled my next fill for Tues. I am truly hoping that this next fill will do the trick. I am exercising, and eating Protein and healthy foods, the weight just is not coming off.

29lbs in 6 months def does NOT live up to my expectations. Some days I wish I pushed for bypass. There is nothing I can do now except keep on trying.

[LLD829 0]

I have had my surgery done here in Germany while we are stationed here, so Im not sure if mybe there was something lost in translation between my dr and me, I knew it would be slow and I was cool with that,Im not a big fan of the loose skin and wanted to be able to tone as i go... I was banded on june 5th of 09, and yes i was too hoping that when I woke up I would be skinny and tone but we all know thats not happening! what I was not prepared for was that I dont really feel much different than I did befor the surgery, minus the scares and soreness that is now going away too.i have had no trouble talarating any foods that i want to eat, except for liquids, seems like they sit in my stomach, heavy feeling almost. has anyone else experienced this feeling, the food part is not the problem. do you think that after the fillings start that I will see a difference then?

[The Violet Rose 0]

I knew it would be slow and in the beginning I was saying I should have had the bypass. At the same time who want the hanging skin??? So right now I'm happy seeing the weight trickle rather than not at all. I try to make my goals ten pounds at a time so that it don't seem so big. Eventually, hopefully in a year I'll have another 70 off reaching my goal. It's slow but I didn't gain all off this over night.

Sorry to tell you this love, but I lost about 415 pound over my life time, some quick, some slow. You ALWAYS get loose skin. Skin can only retract marginally. If you are losing more than 50 lb, you are going to have some sag. After my intial weight loss after the band, I could pull a pleat in around my waist 3in deep!

[The Violet Rose 0]

My mother told me last night that those people on the Biggest Loser lost more weight than I have so the band is not working! There you have it.

Don't be disheartened. The Biggest Loser is an idiotic and flawed weight loss program that is a guarantee of weight regain because of the ridiculous and impractical levels of exercise and excessive restrictions. What we are goin for here is long term sustainable losses. That doesn't happen quickly. Next time someone hassles you about Loser, point out the holes in the program. You don't have a problem.:wink2:

Edited June 17, 2009 by The Violet Rose
poor spelling

[The Violet Rose 0]

To all who responded, thank you! I love a good discussion and you all certainly have provided one.

After reading them all, I think that we all are looking for the one thing that will make this journey to weight loss more successful. We hope to finally reach the weight we know is good for us yet we still bring with us some heavy (no pun intended) baggage. It is hard to forget the many times we have lost and then gained, watching all our good intentions fall to the wayside, and then look at something new with any degree of confidence. We have beaten ourselves down so often that we have a hard time getting ourselves emotionally positive. I understand this only too well. That is why I asked for honesty and you all replied.

So here is what I am taking away from this discussion -

I am looking at this as personal challenge and a do-over. I will try not to expect fast weight loss and will work to make this tool a success. Yes, I have failed in the past but those days are gone. I have proven I have the skill set to lose weight, now I will have the tool set to accomplish it. It may take me years, but hey, I wanted more years of life anyways, right? What better way to use those years than to better my life?! You folks are great support and a good sounding board to find my path. Thank you all!

Elgrad

The yo-yo thing gets old and banding may not be the end of it. It wasn't for me. To be frank, I've been at this so long, that I am well and truly over it. Weight loss helped my health and I got pregnant but in the process it half destroyed my life. My personality changed. I hated the person I became. My husband became really jealous (there's a big age difference between us) when I got down to a size 8. Thinness brought as many problems as it solved. Losing weight doesn't fix anything but you weight. For newbies out there, try and remember than. This is an important fact that isn't put about much in these kind of arenas.

[Catherine55 43]

On the slow weight loss front -- I think that a lot of the complaints we see are from people who are newly banded and are in Bandster Hell. I knew at the outset that my loss with the band would be slow and steady -- but I had no idea that there would be a few weeks where I would have no restriction and be able to eat what I wanted at the outset of this process (aka Bandster Hell).

As for slow loss, I get a little frustrated now and then that the scale does not move more quicky (I've lost about 1.4 lbs per week on average), but then I remember that the scale is moving and remind myself to look at how far I've come. I'm down 46+ lbs with 30 more to get me to goal.

Catherine

[snereb27 0]

I was not fooled into thinking the weight would magically disappear. Actually when you look at the big picture it takes time to learn good nutrition, build exercise habits, retrain your brain, and let your body adjust to the changes on the inside and the outside. This is a big deal. My surgeon and his team head up the Wellness Center and they are really good at making sure I understood what I was committing to. This LapBand is an amazing tool and it's saved my life. PROGRESS NOT PERFECTION is my mantra.

i love this post because it's a great way to think...i am learning to retrain myself... thanks for the reminder!

[snereb27 0]

I feel the exact same way. I was banded Jan 16th, 2009 and have only lost 29lbs. To be completely honest, I really did think that I was going to loose at least 50lbs in the first 6 months. There are so many great stories on this forum from people who have lost that amount. Not the case for me.

I hadn't lost anything since my first fill, until I lost 5 lbs between fill #3 and fill #4. I have not lost anything in the 4 weeks since my last fill so I scheduled my next fill for Tues. I am truly hoping that this next fill will do the trick. I am exercising, and eating Protein and healthy foods, the weight just is not coming off.

29lbs in 6 months def does NOT live up to my expectations. Some days I wish I pushed for bypass. There is nothing I can do now except keep on trying.

i have my second fill next week, hopefully after both our fills, we will see a little more success... we're in this journey together, we'll just have to push each other on! We can do this! :wink2: