Jodi_620

I am not a believer in the starvation mode thing either. When we are overweight, we have fuel to burn and spare and when our body is working properly, the fewer calories we take in the more fat we should burn. In the studies I have read starvation mode doesn’t seem to be something that should happen to an overweight person who has more than enough fuel to burn. With all of my metabolic problems, at times I was eating 800 calories per day and exercising during my weight loss phase, others in my support group were too and other than the typical plateaus, the weight kept coming off with no sign of the starvation mode. Did you lose 10lbs overall (including pre-op diet) or 10lbs. since being banded? The first four weeks or so are for healing and no weight loss is expected. Then you have to work your way up to the right restriction. Once you start seeing restriction you should expect to see at least 2lb a week loss. There will be weeks where you lose more and weeks where you hit a plateau but on average 2lbs per week is good. “I eat very little” is not enough information to decide where the problem is. How many calories are you eating per meal? How many meals per day? Any Snacks? At this stage, Ideally you should be eating around a cup of food or less, three times per day. I am sure your doctor gave you a calorie goal and you should be meeting that. The food should be lean Protein and high Fiber fruits and veggies and whole grains in that order and for weight loss avoiding the butters, salts, sugars and fatty/fried foods. It should be solid food that will fill you up and keep you full. If you are eating all the right foods in the right amounts and getting some cardio in then you should speak to your doctor to make sure there is no underlying metabolic condition. If you are eating more than the amount mentioned and/or are getting hungry between meals then you are not at your sweet spot and could use another fill.

Yes, that is something my surgeon pointed out at the seminar. Save all the receipts from your pre-op release, through surgery; surgeon, anethesia, hospital bills etc. and deduct all of it including prescriptions and other related costs too. Even though my insurance covered most of it, I still deducted my portion...every little bit helps!

It really isn't a "feeling". It takes a few days to a couple weeks to know for sure. But the green zone (or sweet spot) is when you reach restriction that allows you to: Be full on a small amount of food (around a cup for me) Stay satisfied several hours until your next meal (5+ hours for me) Are consistently losing weight (when I was in weightloss phase, at least 2 lbs per week

I am not sure what you mean when you say you get no nutritional value, that doesn't sound right; what kind of liquids are you on? In the beginning right after a fill I would feel a pressure in my esophagus which made me want to swallow. As the swelling goes down, that pressure is relieved. It is when you can't swallow that you should worry.

Your goal is absolutely not unrealistic and I am proof of that. I am also 5'4" and i started out heavier than you at 234 pounds. A few weeks shy of a year I was at your goal weight. You can do it and make him eat crow! It could be that he is a little threatened by the idea or maybe he doesn't have enough faith in the band and doesn't want you to be disappointed. You should talk to him.

It is extremely rare to feel my stomach growl anymore. I just get that empty "out of fuel" feeling. Weak, irritable, lack of energy. The biggest contributor to head hunger for me is eating just a little junk that I know I shouldn't. Processed junk food, white starches and too much sugar get my blood sugar levels spiking and then I crave more. Fresh meats, colorful non-starchy veggies, unprocessed dairy, fresh fruits and fresh whole grains will keep you full and not add to head hunger. Stress is another contributor, when I am stressed and I feel like eating I take a walk. Just a short walk does wonders.

The death rate for this surgery is extremely low, .01% much much lower than the death rate for obesity. All of the tests will determine if you are at too high a risk to have the surgery. There certainly are no guarantees but the risks are very low. I did not have an encoscopy, just a barium swallow so I can not contribute anything to your concerns on that.

I agree with Jachut. Choosing a good quality frozen yogurt is not wasted calories and in my experience , at restriction is no less filling than regular yogurt; pretty much the same consistency; just frozen. I also don't choose fat free in any food product for the reason Jachut gives. When you choose lowfat, you often get additives like sugar or fructose corn syrup which add calories and take away from the natural flavor. Frozen yogurt is typically lower fat anyway, just watch the sugar content.

Like everyone else said as long as you understand the process and are sure that it will work for you, your age should not stop you. You have no idea how I wish the band was around when I was younger.

I agree. At 5'4 my normal BMI weight would be 108-145. At 125-130 I look fine, feel fine and can enjoy eating good food and living a normal life without having to spend my life obsessing and struggling over exercise and food to maintain. THAT should be every person's goal. While 120 would be sooo cool, I don't want to have to be at a constant struggle to get there and stay there.

I agree that BMI is a good guideline. Getting below 30 does mean you are no longer obese but a BMI of 25-30 is still considered overweight. I would say that getting the BMI below 30 is very good but getting it below 25 would put you in normal weight which to me is ideal.

When I met with my psych pre-surgery, she asked what my goal weight was and I said 150. She said I was setting the bar too low but to me at the time the idea of being 150 thrilled me and I couldn't even imagine reaching that goal. I reached that 150 within 7-8 months and realized I could do better. At 150 I was 1.7 BMI points above normal weight. My second goal was 137, a strange number I know, but that put me exactly in the middle of a normal BMI, figured that gave me wiggle room to stay within normal. Once I reached that I was very happy with myself went into maintenance. In maintenance I am somewhat mindful of what I eat (for health reasons not weightloss) but if I want cake or candy a beer or some fast food I go for it. I keep up with my exercise and get a rare fill if I need one but that is about all I focus on. But with my last fill I was still able to settle in at 126. I teeter from 125-130 depending on what I ate and my cycle and I am quite comfortable here. I wouldn't want to be tighter or eat less than I am now, I am able to enjoy my food and maintain a decent weight and that is good enough for me... I would like to hit the 120 mark though if only for a brief while just to say I did. In the beginning it is hard to decide what your goal weight is but once you reach the right weight for you, you'll know it.

Is it that you can't eat these foods or that it is not easy? At restriction food is going to go down slowly and take some work (chewing and eating slowly) but that is the idea of the lap band. If you are taking small bites, chewing well and eating slowly and absolutely can't get these foods to go down or stay down then I would say that you may be too tight. Either way, you shouldn't revert to slider foods just because they are easier (chips, ice cream, broth). eggs should not be an issue at all, though I am often too tight to eat them in the morning. meats cooked tender should not be an issue. Non-fibrous veggies should be fine. Soft fruits too. Beans are a healthy and easy to eat food. If you are like me you may start out your day tight and get looser as the day goes on. For Breakfast I have fruit smoothies or yogurt or occasionally I can tolerate oatmeal. For lunch I do Soup, chili, fish and other soft solids. Then for dinner I can tolerate the denser foods.

I hate Protein shakes too and I vowed never to drink another one once I was on mushies after surgery. The thought of them makes me gag. Although if I had to, I could handle the Naked juice protein fruit smoothies. The push for protein by my doc was more because of fast weightloss, basically you need to keep up your protein intake so that you do not lose muscle along with the fat. There could be other reasons why you are shedding. I have had four surgeries now and I have lost hair after all of them so I know it was not about protein or weightloss, it was due to the anesthesia and general shock from surgery. If that is the case for you, you should seeing a slowdown of loss soon then regrowth. Also, make sure that you are getting a lot of Vitamin B and Biotin. If you can't eat meat, eat Beans, nuts, tofu, eggs, fish. I add beans to most of my meals, lots of Fiber and good source of protein.

I recommend avoiding the caffein as long as possible. Make sure you are getting enough nutrients and taking your Vitamins. Drink plenty of fluids to stay hydrated. And exercise works wonders for energy!

The band did its part by keeping me from feeling hungry or overeating. My part was to choose the right foods to avoid the head hunger and carb addiction and to stay healthy. I eat fresh unprocessed meats (avoid the sausages, deli meats, hot dogs and other meats with additives), fresh veggies and bakery fresh unprocessed whole grain bread. I try to avoid the foods that come in a box, jar or can because most have additives and chemicals that keep you craving. I kinow that is not entirely possible but less processed food the better not only for weightloss but also for better health. I watched my sugar and starches and went for leaner meats and colorful veggies. I was never told to stick with the 1/2 cup per meal limit past the healing stage, thank goodness for that! I didn't do the intensive calorie tracking and diary keeping either. And yes I weighed myself every day; it did not cause any problems and it helped me to learn how what I ate and how active I was the day before affected what I weight today. I chose healthy foods, made sure I was getting my Protein and veggies and said no to junk food as often as I could. ( Avoiding processed foods makes you less hungry for the junk anyway.) I am told to eat when I am hungry and stop when I am full. I did just as my surgeon said and ate slowly, chewed well, stopped when I was full and ate 3 meals per day. When the weightloss would slow and I was eating more or hungry between meals it was and indication that I needed a fill and I would get one. I kept active in the beginning but no real exercise then about 9 months in started going to Curves. Curves moved to the other side of town so I now do the gym 3 times a week and walk on the other days.

My insurance didn't require any supervised diet for approval and I was just a few pounds within BMI weight to qualify so I did not want to lose too much or I might not have been aproved. So based on that I did not diet until I was approved and was put on the pre-op diet.

I go less which is not an issue to be concerned with. If you are constipated then you need to fix it. Occasional constipation can be treated with non-stimulant laxative but the best and most important for your long-term health is to increase fiber in your diet rather than use quick fixes like laxatives, in other words get to the root cause of the problem for better health. Those fiber powders gave me severe gas so I try to get fiber naturally by adding more whole grains and high fiber veggies. Yogurt helps add Probiotics which are good for digestion and prunes are a good natural choice if you can tolerate them. A good safe laxative to use is Miralax. It takes a few days to get things moving but my doc said it is the safest choice. And of course drink plenty of fluids. Dehydration will cause constipation.

No the reason for not adding these foods too soon is not about stretching your pouch It is about allowing your band to heal in place so that it does not slip. Until the sutures heal completely there is a chance that eating foods like this will cause more stomach churning leading to the band slipping slightly in which case the band might not be as sucessful for you and could even slip drastically and need another surgery. You really should stick with your surgeons plan.

You don't have to permanently give up anything. There may be some things you never tolerate very well and some things that are hard to eat sometimes, those food items seem to vary from person to person but honestly there is nothing I can think of that I absolutely can't eat. I can only eat a little bread, my restriction fluctuates so when I am tight bread is not worth the effort. I can have carbonated soda every once in a while (but I avoid it when I can) and enjoy a beer at the hockey game when I want. My only serious stuck episode was on watermelon and that just completely turned me off so I don't eat it anymore but I probably could. As for eating out, now that I am at goal I often do so without any problem. I can always find something that works for my band, the only problems are the portions; I can only eat around 1/3 of what is typically served in a restaraunt.

Congrats on your first fill! (not as bad as you imagined, right?)

Hmm...three is my magic number too!

LOL, that is cute. Gotta love our little critters

I got my second fill one week after my first. I don't think I really saw any restriction until about my 3rd fill though but a little at a time is best.

Getting stuck should not be your indicator of restriction but rather of how you are eating. Having a new baby to care for I am guessing that you are often eating in a hurry, sometimes distracted and perhaps a little stressed? All things that will make me get stuck no matter how tight or not tight I am. You may need to work on those things to solve the getting stuck problem then get a fill to solve the stalled weightloss prolbem.