Cocoabean

30 pounds in 6 months is 1.25 pounds per week. Bandsters can expect 1-2 pounds per week. You are right on track! Keep up with what you are doing and the rest will come off as well. My loss rate was an average of 0.75 per week. Yep 3/4 of a pound. But you know what? Over the weeks and months it became 70 pounds. Time goes by, the pounds add up. 30 pounds is 3 bags of potatoes! That is no small feat. You are doing well. Keep it up! Edited because it was 6 months, not 60! Yikes!

Welcome! It is a long journey, but sooooo very worth it!

Welcome! This is a great place to come for information and support! Ask as many questions as you can think of. The more informed you are the better. There is lots of information on this site. Look around and learn. Congratulations on your decision to get healthy.

Hi Rachel, This is a a great place to be for support! Welcome! Ask any questions you might have. There are lots of people here with a wealth of information and experience. Congratulations on your upcoming banding!

Melody, you go girl!! See? we go up, we go down! It was just an anomaly! Jackie, sorry about your dad. My MIL has had pneumonia 3 times over the past year. It really does sap their strength, and is very hard to watch. Here's hoping he feels better soon. Glad you are still eating well. Journaling can take a back seat, but your nutrition shouldn't. I got our taxes done today. I also do my MIL's taxes. I have quite the feeling of accomplishment. Yay! My band has tightened up on me. It's better than it was a few days ago after the stuck incident. But it is strange how fickle the darned things can be! Ah well, a bit more restriction going into a cruise is a good thing, I am thinking! It's very cold here. Snow level is down to 1000 feet! Wowser! We never see that. It's crazy!

There is a big difference between a clear liquid diet and a full liquid diet. Ask your surgeon's office which you should be on. Then do a google search on clear and full liquid diets. Each doctor is different and they have their reasons for their orders. I had 3 days of clear liquids then 4 days of full liquids. I was able to slowly start back to whole foods after a week. A friend of mine was on clear liquids and shakes for a month. She had a hiatal hernia repair at the time of her banding. I did not.

Mattie, perhaps your surgeon has found there is really not much of a difference in reality, but that many patients want one or the other for some reason. Thus he lets the patients decide. Sort of like the bank saying we will finance you for a Honda or a Toyota, both are good cars of about equal value, you choose which you want. Also in today's medical world (at least in the States) patients are expected to choose their own treatments. Doctors put their recommended treatments and all options out there, and leave the final decision up to the patient. We've been through a lot of this recently with my MIL. Her health is failing. The doctor has stated what he thinks is the best course of action, then offered other alternatives. Unless a treatment is wrong, such as taking out your appendix to treat a broken leg, doctors should listen to what we want. At the same time, we should listen to what they are recommending. That is one of the best ways we can make an informed decision.

Some people take more than that. Each person is different. Keep getting fills.

It's hard to accept, but have patience. This journey is a marathon, not a sprint. You did not gain the weight over night. With the band, it doesn't come off over night, either. I lost an average of 3/4 of a pound a week when I was losing. I felt it was painfully slow, but it got me there. You will get there, too. Keep your chin up! One of these weeks you'll get on the scale and be down 4 pounds at one swoop when you least expect it. Keep doing what needs to be done, the rest will follow.

I'd suspect that most surgeons have done more bypasses than bands unless they have chosen to specialize in bands only. I say that because bypass has been around much longer. You might speak with the other doctor, and see what he has to say about it. A 2nd opinion never hurts. I may be wrong, but I think leaks mostly occur early on in the healing process. While they sound terrible, what scares me more about the sleeve is the fear of a stricture. But there have been many successes with a sleeve procedure. Just keep asking questions.

Lap-Band® Surgery - Best Way to Loose Weight I love that line the best! I have a hard time taking something serious when the grammar is so horrific that it is nearly incomprehensible. Perhaps the site is written for another country and translated into English?

3 g of fat is 27 calories. All other things being equal. Is the extra creaminess and flavor worth 27 calories? Also, fat can help keep you satisfied longer. It might be a trade-off you are willing to make. Not having the labels side-by-side, there may be other differences as well.

Add me to the flying squirrel club! I wave once and it keeps on waving for 5 minutes!

You may have answered your own question. You said losing weight was so hard. Why was it hard? Was it because cutting your portions was difficult? Did you stop eating when you were still hungry? Did you want to graze on foods all day long? You gained weight when you were pregnant, as you should. But you continued to gain after you gave birth. Why? Was your diet attempt prior to getting pregnant your first try, or just one of many? There are many variables. For almost all of us, we can lose weight on our own. Keeping it off or even keeping up with a diet for a long period of time is the challenge. Hunger overcomes willpower. Any WLS should be a last resort. If you do not believe that you have given diet and exercise you full effort, you certainly should. My experience with the band is that I get full on smaller portions and I stay satisfied for a longer period of time. I can still eat most foods that I could before getting the band. I have to choose what goes in my mouth. I also sometimes fight the urge to graze. The band helps with this in that I am not always hungry when the urge hits, so I can better fight it off. I don't do a formal exercise routine, I am more active than before, but that's about it. I will tell you that I have been banded for three years. This is the longest I have ever gone with my appetite under control and my weight went down for the first two years. I have been maintaining for about a year now. Maintaining easily at that.

Find out if your surgeon does ALL of the procedures or just specializes in one. My surgeon did both bypass and lap-band. We spoke about the advantages and disadvantages of both. I was leaning towards a band, but I was open to what he had to say. If he had sound medical reasons why I should go with another procedure, I would have carefully considered that. He said that he does not do bands on diabetics due to the fact that bypass is such an effective treatment for diabetes immediately after surgery. But since I was not diabetic, and that I had a relatively low BMI that I would do well with a band. And I have done very well with my band. We should be able to work with our surgeons to make a decision. They are on our team, at least, they should be.

I came up vit D deficient. So I take that and Iron as I am also anemic (you most likely would not be anemic). Vitamin D happened most likely because I quit drinking so much milk, so I take a little supplement in addition to my multi. I also take a pro-biotic twice daily. That's due to a c. diff. infection I had last year and my PCP wants me on that forever.

San Diego area here, 3 years banded.

I believe they do remove the 75-80% of the stomach that is cut away during a sleeve procedure. Please research "strictures" about the sleeve. It is an uncommon complication, but scares the heck out of me. Also speak with a bariatric surgeon about the insurance, they usually know if a procedure is going to be covered any time soon. I have BCBS Ca HMO and they do not cover the sleeve. You might pop over to verticalsleevetalk and see what they have to say. Just a word of caution, they are several people who've had bad band experiences there. Not everyone with a band has had a bad experience, but it is a great place to get sleeve info!

Do NOT proceed with any bariatric surgery procedure unless you are sure. Without total commitment to what you are doing, you will regret it. Learn as much as you can. Keep asking questions. Having a band or any bariatric surgery is a huge change. If you are not committed to it, then any time you have a problem will seem insurmountable rather than just a speed bump along the way. As a note, I do not journal my food. I have kept a journal for 3 days since being banded. That was just for curiosity's sake to see how much I was consuming while maintaining my current weight. I lost all my excess weight without journaling. The band does help me cut down on my portions. I can no longer eat the quantity of food in one sitting that I used to eat. This isn't true for everyone. It also keeps me satisfied between meals, so that I am less likely to snack. Does that mean I am not tempted to? No. Does it mean that I am unable to eat between meals? No, there is room to eat foods between meals. But the fact that I am satisfied makes the battle easier to win.

We leave on Wednesday! Soooo excited. Got stuck on cereal last night. REALLY? Cereal? Come on! I mean, that is usually my fall back food. We had steak for dinner, I cut that into the tiniest pieces known to man. It went down ok. I only ate about an ounce of it. So I was hungry again by bed time. So fixed a bowl of cereal for a snack. Yeah, no go! Blah. Gonna do liquid and mushies today, and hope things calm down. Last thing I want is an unfill before a cruise! Yikes! And trying to fit in a unfill appointment between now and then...ugh. But the "meatloaf incident" was a bad one, I guess. This are irritated. I have a sore throat today, I think from the yakking. (It better be!). Now that I have my new computer, my DH stole my iPad today...what a jerk! I'll get it back though.

Well done, Cliff! If your thyroid is treated and stable, you should continue to do well! I have just a little bit of thyroid function after having an overactive nodule radiated. I have to slowly up my dose of synthetic hormone as it has died off. But I lost the weight. Keep getting your levels checked periodically and adjust dosage as needed.

Ok, I can tell I am getting ready for a vacation. I got stuck on meatloaf yesterday. (Yes, I know ground beef can be a hard one to eat...should NOT have taken that last bite, dork). Then this morning, I got stuck on graham crackers and Peanut Butter. Sheesh. Just when Bandit was behaving so nicely. Guess I better pack my shake mix. Cruise and tight band do not mix, I am thinking.

Every doctor you go to has a financial interest in you. You are paying them. Granted, not every one is a surgeon, and the OP could seek the opinion of primary care and other doctors for their opinions of this treatment for obesity. But a PCP may say, see me monthly and I will oversee your diet, and you can work with the nutritionist in my group, and use this diet food I sell, too. That is a financial interest in a patient not having this procedure. It works both ways.

Do you snore? That is one sign of apnea.

Melody, my surgeon posted a link to this article on his facebook page: http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/650137.html Just something for you to ponder.