AXA

On my off day, I tend to eat a lot of fruit, toasted wheat bread, and cheese so it's still healthy, just a lot of carbs (normal carbs for me is under 100g daily). About one day a month, I overload on sugar. Everything I love is a slider food: chocolate pudding, chocolate milk, juice, ice cream, bananas, strawberries, fruit smoothies, muscle milk light, and cookies. So it doesn't really put pressure on my pouch since it all just slides through. Notice I don't have french fries, donuts, and fast food on the menu. When I read about this diet, I thought first, it won't work, and second, it's unhealthy. However, I did it for my pre-op diet and dropped 8 pounds quickly and easily. Then, after surgery I thought I wouldn't have to do that diet anymore. Wrong. Lapband doesn't work for me without a diet so I went back on it and lost 25 more pounds in just the last two months. It tricks my body into thinking that it's not going into starvation mode so my metabolism doesn't downshift.

Was this after you ate (within 1-2 hours)? If so, take a walk to help the food go down. Next time, cut you food up into tiny bits and eat slowly. If it's not food related, go see the doc.

I eat the same...about 800-1000 calories and 80-100 grams of protein for 6 days. On the 7th, I eat as much as I want. I track it on myfitnesspal. I've had over 3,000 calories on my day off and I still lose about a pound a week. If I don't have that one day a week, I can't sustain the diet. There are a lot of names for this kind of diet: calorie cycling, the Spike Diet, the cyclic ketogenic diet, slow carb diet (that's my fav). If I could do it with just 100 extra calories on the 7th day, I'd probably lose 2 or 3 pounds a week but there's no way I can stick to strict diet for that long. Good for you for sustaining that.

Weight-loss surgery is as controversial as abortion. Lots of people have lots of different opinions. You should read the forum a week back or so when we were all writing why we had lapband surgery over gastric bypass. Gastic bypass people would be so offended at what we wrote with us choosing not to get THAT surgery because of it's severity, non-reversibility, and side effects. So the same goes for people who would choose a less invasive way to losing weight than the lapband. People are just thinking of themselves and what they would do when they say negative things. The way I handle it is just not to tell anyone. Everyone seems to support me eating less, cutting carbs, etc. I think people like to support others in getting healthy . . . people just don't all agree on how that's best done. I think social acceptance of the Lapband and other WLS will happen some day, but we aren't there yet.

Yes, on special occasions only. I have no problem with them and can't tell the difference post-band from pre-band. My doctor doesn't like drinking because he thinks that his patients might just exchange one addiction for another. At his monthly information meeting, he showed statistics that showed while people who had weight loss surgery had lower rates of diabetes, high blood pressure, and even cancer, they had higher rates of alcoholism, drug abuse, and suicide. He also says that alcohol are just empty calories and slow weightloss. With that in mind, I still drink at special occassions.

It means that your band is tight around your stomach and you physically can't eat more than a certain amount. I can eat about a cup of food per meal. I'm still hungry (not everyone is, might just be me) but I can't get one more bite down because it's like the gas tank is full and topping it off is just going to cause a spill.

My husband knows and one of my brothers. That's it. I haven't told my parents, children, friends, coworkers, or anyone else. I figure it's no one's beeswax! I didn't feel compelled to tell anyone that I had a hernia operation or the results of pap smear either. I figure this is a medically necessary operation to make me healthy and sharing it with people is not something I have to do. Another reason that I didn't tell everyone was in case it didn't work. And it didn't work at first (first 3 months) so I was thankful I hadn't told and I only got grief from my husband ("you should have gotten the other surgery"). A girl at my support group had told everyone and then, four months in, she hadn't lost a pound and she felt guilty and ashamed around all these people who knew she had the surgery. She told us that everyone must think that she's still overeating, not exercising, or not trying. We gave her similar advice to what you get on these forums (track your food, lower calories, lots of Water, exercise, talk to doctor) but she never came back to the support group again. I felt so bad for her. I had a similarly hard time at the beginning but at least there weren't people around me with expectations! Telling people about it is such a personal decision. I think people should do what's right for them. I don't criticize those who tell the world or those who tell just a few. No one should feel bad about what they decide to do because there is no right or wrong answer here.

Wow. I wasn't going to answer because I don't have the experience you do but then I thought of something someone said to me once, "take care of your health, because once it's gone, it's gone." You need to get healthy whatever way you can. Stress is a killer too. Go to the doctor, get advice, and do what you need to do. . . whatever that is.

Slow start? What are you talking about? You are right on target. Go to Lapband Complication forum under Struggling and read about people who lose nothing or actually gain weight. Typical weight loss is one pound a week. You're halfway through the year and have already beaten that! Be happy with yourself!

Just eat the hamburger part, not the bun. That way you feel like you are having a treat but you are only having the protein.

Surgery side effects. Your body is healing. Take it easy. Drink liquids. Call your doctor and describe your symptoms just so they know and can advise you.

I eat under 1000 calories a day, under 100 carbs and 60-100 protein. If I eat any more than 1000 cals or 100 carbs, I don't lose weight. It seems like a crazy-low amount of calories to live on but the people in these forums were the ones who let me know that is what you need to do to lose. On Saturdays however, I eat as many calories and carbs as I want, then I get back on my regimen for the next 6 days. It keeps my cravings at bay and keeps my metabolism from slowing down. I have no idea why my high calorie Saturday doesn't derail my weightloss-but it doesn't (but I make sure I don't weigh myself for the three days after).

I only lose on the lapband with strict dieting. I didn't think I'd have to. The difference is that I can stick to the diet a little better and when I fall off the wagon, I can't do too much damage. As you've read in all these posts, we are all different. I really thought my experience would be just like those people who's weight just "fell off" or who found that magical green zone. Nope, no such luck. Just keep trying new things and read all the advice people give you. Something is bound to work eventually.

My doc tells me that it can put air bubbles in your stomach and/or have you get used to consuming too fast. I use straws occassionally with no ill effects but I generally try to avoid them. For shaved ice though? Definitely I would use a straw!

I found it very hard to follow all the rules before my surgery. Why don't you just pick one or two that will really pay off for you later? The major thing I did was quit diet soda. That was huge for me because I was so addicted. I replaced it with drinking lots of Water. So, then, I followed two rules! That's enough. It's good that you know what the rules are but just do what you can right now. It's better to succeed with one rule than to fail at all of them all, right? The exception to all this is... when you do get scheduled for surgery, concentrate on doing well on your pre-op diet because it really will make your surgery safer if you can reduce the size of your liver.