2muchfun

Considering your food choices, 5 lbs is incredible. Sweets will cause your body to retain Water as well as add fat if you eat too much? You can only expect to lose 4-8 lbs a month with the band. In the first few months most of the weight lost is fluids. After that if you can lose 4-6 lbs a month you are doing wonderful. Do you count the sweet calories in your 1200/day? If you're getting lots of calories from sweets you aren't giving your body fuel to work out or lose with. tmf

Like someone pinched me gently.

OK, here's one that you don't hear often: Get back on the band program or you might not live very long? If that doesn't motivate someone then I don't have an answer either? Heart disease, diabetes, stroke, joint degeneration, cancer, depression: These words are true whether you're thin or fat, but the odds of not hearing those words are much better if you are thinner. tmf

liquid diet for 24 hours, then soft foods, then get back on that damn horse! (sound of whip cracking) Stay away from slider foods, and find a reason to be thin again. For, your kids? Your husband, boyfriend, family, or most of all, you? tmf

Yum, Protein shakes. LOL Well, let's pray you don't need a fill and avoid bandster hell k? tmf

You're taking the right first steps. I'd recommend you google Bariatric docs in your area and attend several(not just one) seminars to get a feel for what's to come. Good luck. tmf

Your lower body has much more muscle mass than your torso. Lunges, squats, both with or without weights. Lay on the floor on each side and do side leg lifts, on your back and do leg lifts, on your stomach and do leg lifts to work your glutes. Add small weights to your legs if you can. If you can do 2 or 3 of these for 15 minutes, your heart rate will soar and you be strengthening all your muscles and, this will increase your metabolism for hours afterward. Go to youtube and look up Squats and lunges for women. There are so many videos to choose from. I find the lunges to be difficult so I use a small chair for balance. I have bad knees so I also have made some small changes to accommodate my bad joints. Good luck. tmf

Oh yes it is so normal. Took me 6 fills to find the green zone. The first 3 I was like you but the next 3 seemed to help me not be so hungry and I started to lose weight. You'll find many others with similar stories. tmf

And do you keep a journal? We'll need to know more to help you Sandy? Do you feel like you are using the band as a tool or are you eating around your band with slider foods? Losing weight is basically a mathematical equation if you use the band properly. Consume fewer calories than you burn. Most of us use about 2000 calories per day or 14,000 per week. If you can just cut that to 1500 you will burn 7 X 500=3500 calories burned or 1 lb of fat lost. If you ramp up your exercise program just a little you can burn an extra 300 X 7=2100 calories per week. Those two would add up to about 6 lbs per month. Now if it were only that easy no one would complain. But we all know that medical issues and family issues can derail the best plan. But, still we should all be able to lose 4 lbs per month if we follow the plan. And I looked at your profile and it seems like somewhere along the line you were doing well? What happened? tmf

Aint it great to be a loser?

Make sure you aren't eating slider foods. tmf

You are such a showoff!!! Aint it great?

My wife had Pneumonia back around Xmas and it affected her asthma so the doc put her on prednisone. She gained about 12 lbs in two months but lucky for her she wasn't overweight to start with. But she was eating twice as much as I was. Of course, I was newly banded but still, she attacked food like a May bear. How does one find the motivation? If that could be answered easily no one would need a band. A change back to the lifestyle you created when you lost all the weight but it's all in your head. Maybe drop some dollars on a psychologist who works with people like us eh? Shrinks can be very helpful but some are just plain turds(sorry). We've had to work with a few with our son when he was in middle and high school and some of them suck! tmf

Sojourner, have you lost all that weight(58) since surgery? Or is some of it part of pre-op? Either way, it's outrageously fine. I'd like some of those complications. tmf

You can count yourself as one of the lucky ones because at 3 weeks out I was super hungry and I could eat just as much as I could before surgery. That's why I needed 6 fills to get to this point. And of course, my surgery was 11/28/11 so I was hungry right in the middle of the Holiday season. But, through will power I managed to not gain any of the 12 lbs I had already lost. Sounds like you are right where you need to be. tmf

Read Helen Bauzon's magazine article just to the right of this post. Also read the comments as some people are skeptical? tmf

Most docs won't see you if you didn't have your surgery with them. But look around, some do and you just have to find the right one. The attitude your doctor has seems out of character? You've lost a lot of weight and don't let them tell you different. Sometimes you have to be very aggressive with some of these docs. They get this God complex you know? Demand a fill if they say no. Call them up and tell them you want an appointment in the next two weeks. All they can do is say no. tmf

All Docs are different. Probably yes. If you are losing weight and it's because you feel full or are easily satisfied with 1-1/2 cup of food the doctor may not give you a fill since you are already feeling restriction or satiety. But if you are losing weight out of sheer will power, I don't see why the doctor would not give you a fill. Just make sure the Doc knows how you are losing? You should now be at a point where you are in bandster hell and are very hungry all the time? Let the doc know. tmf

You need 4-6 weeks to heal. When you feel like you are healed and you are eating everything in sight, no harm in calling your doc and asking to come in sooner. Your Dr is the only one who knows what you look like inside and how much trauma he/she did to your stomach. tmf

Almost everyone experiences what you are going through. It's called bandster hell and it will stalk you till you find restriction or satiety. Dr's usually don't add much saline to the band as this is your healing time. "IT'S JUST A DIET TILL YOU FIND RESTRICTION" tmf

Mis73 is right on this one Sara. Fills are a trial and error process. It's also a very good way to get to know how your band will work with your stomach by trying out new foods and new methods of preparation of foods. tmf

I'm only 6 months into this journey and so far I'm quite pleased. I don't think anyone told me that this was a magic pill. I know they didn't. I was told many times how difficult it would be and how much weight I could expect to lose. I chose to wear my rose colored glasses and hoped I would be one of the bandsters who lost 10+ lbs evey month. That hasn't happened as reality has now set in and after being on this forum I now understand so much more. Your journey sounds different from most I've heard. It's still hard to believe that somewhere at some other seminar, support group, nutritionist or this forum that someone didn't mention how hard this is going to be? I know that I too am guilty of hearing what I wanted to hear and I really believed this would be easier than it has been, but I was told and I read it here and saw it on youtube as well as from two nutritionists that this would be difficult and it was up to me to make it work. Some Dr's are asses and sounds like you found one. That's really unfortunate but some Dr's will take on patients who have had surgery elsewhere you know? tmf

Banded 11/28/11 and lost 12 lbs the first month. Then nothing till early April(3 mos). I've now lost 31 lbs since surgery. But the next 19 didn't happen till I felt restriction. I've had 6 fills. I didn't feel any restriction till my 4th fill late March. But I could still eat much more than a cup of food. Some foods would get stuck and I found I couldn't eat as much. Then fill 5 and 6 really squeezed the tummy. I may be a little too tight right now and I'm trying to re-learn how to eat with this band so tight and if I can't, I'll go back for a very small unfill. No one told me(or I wasn't listening) about bandster hell till I was in it. I went 3 months feeling just as you do. But, now I'm losing weight and you too will be here. You have no other choice but to be patient. Or, you could throw in the towel and give up? You don't sound like a quitter to me? You're just someone who is venting and Nikki I hear ya. I never vented here but I did at my support group and to my poor wife. Waaaaaaa! LOL.. I can laugh about it now but at the time I was angry and disappointed. I think we all have this idea that we are going to be the exception to the rules and drop 10-12 lbs a month and by the 4th of July we'll be back in our college clothes. HA! You can do it girl and you will. tmf

Banded 11/28/11 and lost 12 lbs the first month. Then nothing till early April. I've lost 31 lbs since surgery. But the next 19 didn't happen till I felt restriction. I've had 6 fills. I didn't feel any restriction till my 4th fill late March. But I could still eat much more than a cup of food. Some foods would get stuck and I found I couldn't eat as much. Then fill 5 and 6 really squeezed the tummy. I may be a little too tight right now and I'm trying to re-learn how to eat with this band so tight and if I can't, I'll go back for a very small unfill. So, I too spent 3 months in bandster hell and I too was frustrated. And I've read many similar stories from other bandsters so let us know how that next fill works for you? I'm betting it's going to make a difference and you'll be back here asking for advice on how you you can survive on so little food? tmf

Sojourner, For many of us the proper fit and compliance is elusive. 6 fills for me and the last one was just a little too much so I may have to get a small unfill. tmf