Jim1967

Here is a write up of requirements. Do you have any medical conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea or cholesterol issues? Believe it or not the more crap you got wrong with you the better chances of approval. http://www.lapband.com/en/lapband_is_for_you/medical_considerations/

Thank you everyone. I do think I am there. I am amazed how long I can go without being hungry and I have had no cravings. I can generally go 4 hours before my belly starts to gowl and when I finally do eat I find my portions are small. Tonight for dinner I had 7oz plain baked haddock and 1/2 cup of of zucchini and summer squash. I took me 30+ minutes to finish it but after I did I felt satisfied. I had a 16oz crystal lite about an hour later and I felt quite full but not to an uncomfortable level. Thank you all very much for the support and encouragement. Carolinagirl you hang in there!! You can do this and it will only get better with time. Just try hard to be patient. I know how frustrating it can get after a month out and no movement but it will come. Once those fills start coming it will be whole new ball game. You'll see....

Exactly!! You need to constantly have that internal talk and ask yourself if it's true hunger or you brain just saying you want it and you want it now. Actually it will be even worse cause instead of the bloat feeling you used to feel you may end up with the feeling that food is stuck or has not gone down all the way. Imagine it being similar to finding out you're way to full too late. I have done this myself and resulted in chest pain and sliming as well as pb. Not pleasant at all. I took a 6 week support class called The Hungry Head which is about binge eating and one thing the instructor said that stuck with me was: "OK, that's enough for now. I can always have more later". Everyone has their trigger foods and for me it used to be cheese its. I could devour a 1 pound box in one sitting while camped out in front of the tv. Now if I were to have them I would take about 10 because...."it will still be there and I can always have more later"\ When I was a little kid at the supper table my father would say "slow down, no ones gonna take it away from you". Well that still applies in some form or another.

If you're doing only 800 calories a day there is probably a good chance that's your cause of slow weight loss. If you're putting your body into starvation mode it goes on defense and tries fight back. The main way it does this is to protect its fat stores. What ends up happening is the body will use lean tissue or muscle to provide it with some of the calories it needs to keep functioning. This directly leads to a loss of muscle, which in turn lowers metabolism so that the body needs fewer calories to keep going and and the weight loss slows down....

That's strange she told you no more protein shakes. My Nutritionist asked me if I liked them and when I said yes she said good I want you to supplement at least one meal a day. Wow next fill is in September? Wonder why they are making you wait so long. I had my first fill 6 weeks after surgery and my second one two weeks later. Must be cause you vomited. They must think your getting plenty restriction. I got 6 cc's in an 11cc band and I am just now getting restriction. Good Luck!! Sounds like you are on your way!

I am not a big fan of journaling especially writing stuff by hand. I find myfitnesspal very useful and easy. You can get it on a smartphone as well and you can use the phone as a bar code scanner and scan food products directly.

I don't disagree with the preop diet as I know it has a purpose but I do disagree with the 6 month supervised diet. My center required me to lose 5% of the weight before they would do the surgery however my insurance required 6 months of supervised diet. My Surgeon told me he feels that is unreasonable as most people cannot lose and maintain that long and he would rather just do the surgery while true weight loss is occurring.

Yep, and bypass will take some work as well. There is no magic cure for obesity for most people it will be a work in progress their whole life. You'll get out of it what you put into it.

Yes, I had some after effects from it as well. Did they give you a Spirometer? I found that helped a lot.

I was banded 3 days after you so I can sorta relate to what your going through right now even though our weight is different and of course I am a guy. I researched for months and continued to educate myself throughout the whole process up till surgery. Last week I posted a rather embarrassing pity poor me rant on my blog. Even though you do all the reading/research it can still be frustrating when the weight loss is slow especially after having gone through surgery. At first I was not tracking my food intake close enough and realized that is where my problem was. I was trying to differentiate between the good food and the not so good food without taking into consideration of portion control. I hadn't had a fill at the time so it was like eating before surgery. Stick with it. Have you had any fills yet? I just got my 2nd fill this past Tuesday and I think I am starting to find that restriction. Time will tell for sure but accountability is all on me not my band. Good luck...

Here is a side by side comparison between the two.. http://www.wlshelp.com/lap-band-vs-realize-band.html

Hi Ladies, I too have Realize band. My surgery was on 4/16/12 and have lost 39lbs. I am now up to 6 cc's in my band. I believe I might be close to the green zone.

Ladies, I sincerely mean no disrespect but I truly believe the original poster who by the way appears to be new to the site was looking for some encouragement that she can find her way and that others know what she is going through. I don't think her intent was to spark a debate about the merits of why a particular person chose surgery. It sounds to me like she needed some positive uplifting and all we have here is a debate, a debate that can go on and on unless you agree to disagree and move on. KRussell the original poster commented earlier about how she could barely bend over and tie her shoes. I can totally relate to that. Also, today for the first time in a very long time I walked up two flights of stairs in my office building. I was a little winded by the time I reached the top but I did it...and you know what it felt damn good. Even my arthritic Everyone is different, everyone has their own circumstances. It's what makes us individuals. Without sounding like a politician I believe the site motto should be "Support your fellow Bandster through and through"

Band will never ever stop you from putting food in your mouth. Only you can do that. Band is either going to allow the food to go down or its going to get stuck and lead to sliming and/or vomiting. That's is part of getting to know the band and working with it....figuring out the signals and stopping before it's too late and you have an episode. Hopefully what I am saying is not coming off as preaching. Being just under two months in I don't pretend have all the answers.

Everyone has their own circumstances for wanting/needing the surgery. Real important thing is we support and encourage one another. That's the whole purpose of this site and the real reason why most of us come here.

Thanks for this because it carries a lot of weight (no pun intended). I cannot base my journey off of someone else just like they cannot base theirs on mine. While yes they are starting out lower than me they may or may not lose as quickly as I because I have a lot more excess weight to drop.

I can completely relate and you are not alone by a long shot. If I am not the heaviest member of this site I must be damn close....and believe me I am not bragging. Sorry to hear you are going through such a rough time. Hopefully you will find a good Doctor who can guide you and get you on your way. My Wife tells me I don't give myself any credit for what I have done so far. I tried to explain to her that there is fine line in accountability. While yea I had a great start I need to keep on myself to make sure I keep going. In 2003 I weighed 394 pounds and went on Atkins and in 19 months I dropped 170 pounds. I was 220!! Well look at me now....it all went to my head and I started feeling comfortable with myself and I let it all slip away. For the life of me I don't know how it happened. I don't know how I gained it all back like that. Did ignore signs, did I not care? I just don't know. Fast forward to 2011 I am up 93 pounds from my original weight. I don't know if any amount of weight loss will be good enough for me now until I break 219. Trust me you're not alone. Everyone has a story....

Thanks Matt. You also, You're doing fantastic. My wife and I do the same thing with the fan and I think I am one of the rare people who enjoy wearing the cpap. I like the crisp cool air in the sinuses. I find it refreshing and almost like a cool winter night. Very relaxing....

That's awesome news. Congrats. I am just curious how much do you have in the band now? I got my 2nd fill this morning and now have a total of 6cc in an 11cc band. I hope this is it for me as well. I am on liquids until tomorrow morning.

Actually I felt more pinching having blood drawn then I do having the fills. I got a fill this morning and as soon as she found my port it was quick and done.

Here is a link to a really decent article on restriction: http://drsimpson.net/fills/Lap-band-eating/lap-band-not-restriction/lap-band-and-restriction.html I find personally I have to do a lot of internal talking between my brain and my stomach. You don't want that feeling of being stuffed but yet you want to feel satisfied so that your appetite is suppressed. As I eat I try to have that internal talk. Is it real hunger or is it head hunger. I also tell myself at times "OK, that's enough for now. I can always have more later". If food hurts going down then you need to reevaluate the issue. Are you chewing food up small enough?, are you biting off more then you can chew? Are you eating slow enough? Or perhaps your band is already too tight. Take a look at that article it's pretty good. I read it from time to time as a reminder I should only be eating enough to be satisfied and not stuffed. A lot re-training of the brain in the way I look at food will probably always be a work in progress. Excessive vomiting can cause band slippage. So avoid that as much as possible. I have had a few stuck episodes because I ate too fast or didn't chew. It's not a pleasant feeling and actually hurts a bit.

Hi Matt, I have never heard of anything like this. I used my CPAP immediately after surgery and had no issues. I did have a lot of gas cramps for about 3 or 4 days but it passed and it's normal but I saw no relative correlation to the CPAP. Are you using a CPAP mask that is forcing the air into your mouth? Maybe that is causing a problem. I only use a mask that covers my nose. Might be a good idea to check in with your Doctor. Good Luck,,Jim

I got my first fill of 5cc two weeks ago and got another 1cc this morning. Hoping to find the green zone soon. Jeez I am already past the half way mark of what this band can hold.