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Maggie, that's the blogger! I love her and I believe she actually lives here in my town. Even my nutritionist and nurse said that since we can't eat very much, we might as well make it taste good. I'm trying not to look at many recipes right now since I am still a ways out from normal food, but I will definitely look for ways to make our meals healthier and pouch-friendly. I don't want to cook two dinners every night. Maria Surgery 9/10/12

My surgeon said unless you are at like 9.5 cc in a 10 cc band, there is nothing to be concerned about filling it up. It's there, fill it. I read in a lapband book not to drink for 2 hrs after a meal - its really true for being fuller longer.

Cidmore- after hearing, watching and reading about what fast food restaurants put into their chicken and beef products, one would be smart not to touch those with a 10 foot pole. Eg. McD and their "pink slime" to make the chicken and beef safe enough for human consumption. Not to mention all the injection of GMO into the animals to make them grow bigger and faster. No thanks!

for those that don't know me...i had my surgery on 10/06/2008...i started at 296...i'm down to 165...have gotten my weight down to 152 in a very un-healthy way..165 is my bodies happy weight...around that time of the month i may go to 168..some weeks i'm in the low 160's...i lost 136 pounds in 11 months...and have had a mini tummy tuck...the muscles that are shown in my pics are not from plastic surgery...a tummy tuck does not shape ur abs...an arm tuck...does not give u muscle...any type of leg tuck...doesnt build muscle as well...for those that do know me...where have i been???????...here is a letter i wrote my dad this morning: i'm going to call u soon...i just wanted to tell u how i've been feeling...i'm lost...i was miserable fat and now i'm miserable thin..i've become selfish...self-centered...angry...and i have a huge chip on my shoulder...and yes...i'm still a good mom and take care of ty that will never change...itz my fault and i take responsibility for letting my image get to my head...i've been on both sides of the fence and at this point i don't know which is worse...i want to b in the middle...but i can't find it...i went from the bottom 2 the top quickly...almost like becoming famous...i don't hate my body...in the begining i did it to please society...now i enjoy eating healthy...exercising and i've taken up weight lifting as a hobby...but i hate the attention...i hate being pretty..on the weekendz i go out without makeup on and wear a hat to cover my face...its non-stop...men look at like their hungry...i don't show my body off anywhere...i don't know who to trust..i dont know who likes me 4 me...i was dating an ex-professional athlete...i was in the spotlight...i loved it...now i'm suffering the consequences of being in the spot-light...i'm not use to the attention...didn't know how to handle it...still don't ....so now i just hide from it...i completely seperated my self from "her"....(the fat girl)...i killed "her"....i hated "her"...i am "her"...i am building a relationship with her...i have to learn to love her...because her is me...i'm just in a smaller body...i pushed every1 away...it was my turn...i was the super bad beauty...went thru an aneroxic/belimic stage...over exercised myself...started taking laxatives...never threw up on purpose...took so many laxatives my intestines burned...i was gray...i looked like death...i was killing myself to b thin...i stopped...that was selfish to do to ty...to jeporadize my life to b thin...i almost feel like these r surgicial eating disorders...even if u take care of urself and don't over do it like i did...ur not healthy...ur mal-nourished......the doctors tell u its normal to lose ur hair...its normal to throw up if u eat too fast...dont chew well enuff...or drink after u eat...does that sound normal to u???yes those r side effects...but those aren't nomal eating habits...if i don't take iron pills...my legs bruise...like i've been in a car accident...there is a trade-off...fat and unhealthy...thin and unhealthy..society is cruel and its real cruel to fat girls/women...i've lost friends...bcuz i've become a threat..its hard for me to date...bcuz its assumed i'm going to cheat..so far this has been a lose-lose situation 4 me...do i regret it...no ....do i regret how i handled the change and attention...yes..do i take full responsibility for the monster i've become...yes...do i want to go back to being un-known...yes...am i taking steps to do so...yes...i haven't lost being responsible..but i lost my mind to an extent...i've been offered clothes...shoes...credit cards...vacations the whole 9 for a piece of ass...i never have and never will trade myself for sex...that is disgusting in my opinion..i don't sleep around at all...right now i'm broken hearted over the athelete...don't know if he liked my person or the way i looked...i became shallow too...i would only date the best looking dudes with the nicest bodies...but when i do start to date again...i'm going to look at the person...i want my person looked at...i'm not a bad person...just a lost person...my surgery got exposed in a cruel way...i kept it a secret...i wouldnt tell the guy i was dating what the scars were from...why he never saw me eat...u really can't tell from my body anymore...i lift a lot...and i'm muscular now...the body for me was easy to fix...the mind has been a struggle...

Olivia I hope things went well today! I've been thinking about you today and hope you're doing well. I'm freaking miserable today!! This all liquid diet is killing me. I've been doing the two protien drinks and a healthy choice steamer for the pasts 10 or so days prior to today. Thank goodness I just have a few more days.

I have heard the same thing about people knowing others who died from the surgery. Myresponse is well I know people who have died from being fat so now what. I am having surgery 12/10 and I am anxious for a new life and that's all that counts.

I didn't have good responses either. I have five sisters, and my husband, and his siblings (13 including spouses). My older sister says she was upset because I would finally look hot she has always told me I would be the prettiest but because I was fat Im not (cruel I know), and that somehow bothered her, my other sister said she wouldn't be able to look at me and think I worked hard and lost my weight, she said she could only look at the doctors for my success, my mom tried discouraging me after my other sister said stuff, my husband was mad for a while til something changed his mind. The only ones supportive from the beginning were hubs mom and sister and sister in law (she had the roux en y bypass). My doctor has lost 2 patients in 10 years, one to a heart attack and one to a leak. He has not lost a patient in 4 years. You always acknowledge the risk. Also after being your weight for so long they probably fear who you might become, and how this surgery well impact you and your life. So don't sweat it just let it roll off your back and move on. People who love you are going have to adjust to a big change, and thats normal took get reactions, like that.

Hello, hello, It's already 2021 end of February. How are you ? At the beginning of last November, in 2020: I had seen Dr. Kevin Dolan twice and he was insistent I needed my lap band removed. He had gotten on the telephone to my wonderful Gp several times and had discussed with her the difficulties I was having which were: vomiting, pain wasn't able to eat sometimes for about two weeks. BUT my private insurance had lapsed. I immediately rang and had it put back on. Dr. Dolan said that my lap band had slipped but boy, I didn't realize how ill I actually was. I went to the hospital emergency twice, the first time with my Mum and emergency Doctors told me to go home and the second time, they admitted me........after my boyfriend was screaming that no one seemed to be hearing my problems, All of a sudden, everything changed and a wonderful surgeon came to see me that I was to be operated on within 2 hours. My Mum and son went to get something to eat and came back to an empty bed. The surgeon was WONDERFUL: Dr. Foo was his name. He said that I was that far away from developing a huge hole in my tummy from an eroding lap band. Fortunately, he had removed all erosion from my tummy. PROBLEMS: from 2 November to 20th Feb 2021 Gained 10 kilos !!!! How has this happened ??? My Psychotherapist and I are definitely discussing me getting a sleeve. Dr. Dolan offered to give me a gastric sleeve. I have scars all through my Tummy, I can see Dr. Foo or Dr. Dolan, does anyone have any comments ?? Thanks for reading: Annie

I was the same way! I made my first appointment back in January 2018 had my gastric sleeve in March 2018. Reached my goal in January 2019. Best decision I’ve made! Good luck to you.

Wowzaa...Friday sucked. Flat out one of the top (bottom) ten work days I've ever had. In one decision, I cost my struggling company about $40k that it sincerely doesn't have. I was a basket case on Friday and it took me long into the weekend to get a grip on my mood. Objectively, I knew about 2 hours in that it wasn't truly my fault and about 4 hours in I had determined that with the information I had at the time, I would make the same decision every time. But it took me about 24-30 hours to adjust back from my bad attitude. I was mad at EVERYBODY although I did do my darnedest not to show it. I slipped a little, but my truly awesome friends rallied and even tried to cheer me up with crazy You Tube videos. :thumbup: But by Sunday, I was all better and today is just another new workday. I have a lot of responsibility in my job and a lot of high expectations. Occassionally, I'm going to make a mistake and that is just part of life. The good news is that we may have legal rights to retrieve the money so that would be even better!! Regardless, we have all learned a lot from this experience. Moving on to Sunday...I went shopping. (Sidenote: finallyincontrol, I think you were the one that said that I love to shop? I thought of that repeatedly during the day. HA!) I now have plenty of clothes to get me through the next 20-30 pounds, I think. One of my friends here at work told me I look very SLENDER in the outfit I'm wearing today. ME...slender? Uh, okay. Huh. I will take it!! I figured out last night that I wasn't going to be down this week at my Monday morning weigh in. I even had a fill this week...a teensy weensy one, but a fill nonetheless. I ALWAYS lose a couple of pounds at least on a fill week. But I guess I have reached my first dreaded plateau. Y'all know I'm not one to sit around and find out. So...yes, I have a plan! I ordered a Body Bugg last night and it should be here sometime this week. I'm committing to a new 8 week plan. I'm not technically starting until next week since I don't have the bug which I have already named Jax (after the badass biker on Sons of Anarchy). I was going to name it Bicho (meaning bug in Spanish), but I was afraid that everyone would think that I was calling it a bitch. :smile2: I will use Jax to accurately determine calories burned during the day as well as log my calories consumed. I'm committing to using Jax for calories burned for 8 weeks. I'm committing to recording calories consumed for 4 weeks, because I honestly don't think I can get myself to do more. Hopefully after 4 weeks it will become habit, but committing to 8 weeks for something I absolutely hate to do is too overwhelming. Additionally, I'm committing to doing 20 minutes of beginner yoga 4 times per week. At least 3 of those times must be in the morning before work (because I think it would be really beneficial). Honestly, using Jax for calories burned is a no brainer. Once I got over the thought of spending $300, using it will be no big deal. Getting myself up (just 20-30 minutes) earlier in the morning is going to be a little more challenging, but I used to do it all the time. I know that once I get through a couple of weeks, I will be able to do it. Recording my calories consumed is going to be the real challenge here. Technically, it was supposed to be part of my first 8 week challenge, but I gave it up after a day and decided that I would only do it if I gained weight. I'm such a sucker to myself!! But I thought if I lowered the committment to 4 weeks, I might at least get out of the gate. I'm going to visit my brother and his family for Labor Day. They know I'm doing this and saw me at the highest at Christmas and then again 40 pounds lighter at my grandmother's funeral. There are over 5 weeks until that vacation and I would very much like to lose 10 pounds. That is a lot for me since I typically average 1.8 pounds and I seem to be slowing. BUT it is very doable. That would put me at around 70 pounds lost and only about 15-20 pounds from my lowest weight ever as an adult. I can do this! Thank you all for your good wishes and support. It makes ALL the difference in the world!

Tried on a size 16W jeans...Got them on but couldn't close them...OMG it's looking good....I have another goal, to get into those jeans by Sept 1........Still loosing weight on first fill....(6/21/10).:cool:

Hi Finsmama! My name is Karen, I'm 43 years old and have struggled with weight all my life. After must research and discussion with my surgeon, I was just banded today! I was nervous as it got closer also, but knew that this was something I had to do if I was going to lose and keep the weight off. I was at the hospital at 5:30 am this morning and home by 10:30! I was groggy from anesthesia for a few hours, but tonight after a quiet day, I feel pretty good. My pain level was not over a 4 on a scale from 1-10 and I think that is just gas pain. Everyone is different, but I honestly didn't have must pain. I drank plenty of water, tea, and chicken broth and took the minimum does of pain meds and did some walking. I think after a goodnight sleep, tomorrow will be as good day. I'm returning to work on Monday. If your surgeon seemed rush, maybe ask her to take time to talk with you about any questions or concerns you have so that you are clear on the procedure, diet, and lifestyle changes. I have been reading the post on this forum for a while trying to decide if it was something I wanted to do and be committed to. There are many helpful people telling their stories here, they didn't know it, but I enjoyed reading about them and learning about real experiences. I registered tonight because I saw your post. I hope it helped you in some way and can help you decide if it is right for you. Good luck in whatever you decide to do!

I'm a woman and I love lifting heavy. I am doing it now to build more muscle before my surgery. Intermittent fasting also helps. Not sure it works with WLS, but I think I read someone doing IF and weights too. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App The only way to build muscle requires the intake of carbohydrates with the Protein. And also try carb cycling. One day higher one day lower. it plays with the insulin levels on your blood and helps promote muscle growth. Lot of this. Carb cycling throws your body into a guessing game and can help break up plateaus. Do your weights on higher carb days and cardio on lower carb days. If you can't break it up at least save cardio for the end. My rule of thumb when lifting is that regardless of how many sets you do (3x10, 4x8, etc) you do not want to be able to get all of your reps on the final set. People think if you can't get all your sets you're lifting too much. The idea is to keep at that weight until you can do all those reps. Once you don't feel challenged then go up in the weights (only 5-10# depending on the lift you're doing).

Still here, still queer! Anyway... I'm disappointed that I didn't make my goal of 200lbs by today. I'm 3.8lbs shy but I know why 😬. Overall I am happy. I weight in a 255 on my surgery on 1/15/19. Today I'm 203. That's 51.2lbs in a little over 2 months!😀 I restarted my whole journey on 6/7/18 weighing in at 280. So altogether I've lost 76.2lbs! 😍 I lost my preop weight doing IF. I tried doing in for a while after my sx. It isn't compatible while my stomach is so restriving. Besides I eat so few calories (around 600 a day) I don't need IF yet. Now when I start upping my calories after 6 - 9 months I'll definitely be back to IF! I lift weight 3 to 4 days a week. I don't do cardio. 😞 I need to hop on the elliptical regularly. Once spring actually sticks around I'll try my feet at jogging!

For me its more of a size then a weight. I would like to get down to size 8/10. If thats at 200lbs great, if thats at 150lbs that even better.

My doctor and dietician weighed me everytime I entered their office. I was right on the edge so I had to gain 30 lbs during my 6 month eval with the dietician to make the requirements for the insurance company. All worked out and a month later I was approved but this was a battle. From the first doctor's appt to surgery date was 1 1/2 years. I was put on the pre-surgery diet 10 days before surgery and it wasn't hard at all because he allowed me to eat a small piece of chicken and a small helping of mashed potatoes or rice once a day, the rest of my meals were liquids. It wasn't that bad. Good luck to you.

10/17/08 Here is my "Ah-ha" moment. (a bit lengthy) I have just realized that eating is not supposed to be fun. No...I know what you are thinking. Well I know if it was me two weeks ago I would be thinking that it may not be fun, but I enjoy it. I always saw eating as fun. Entertainment. I used it as a reward for myself or a consolation. I would put the kiddos to bed when they were little and then sit down with my favorite show and a plate of garlic bread and enjoy. If work REALLY sucked I would come home and sit down and eat ice cream or pick up McDonalds on the way home because I "deserved" it. Eating is not supposed to be fun. I thought going out with friends and having fun equaled eating. I started my pre-op diet on Monday. I started it earlier than I needed to and I have lost 8 lbs since last Friday. Wow I felt great...but I had that nawing desire for a last supper. Come on surely some of you can relate. That last...I can't eat this for months......can I ever eat this with the band......last supper. As of tomorrow no bread, pasta, rice or potatoes. I ate great all day. I went grocery shopping and did it. Guess what. IT SUCKED!!!!!! I had garlic bread and frozen pizza. (My staple) Not only was the garlic bread not satisfying, but the pizza tasted...well, flat. That is the only way I can describe it. Flat! It tasted worse than ever before. My taste buds would be much happier if I had eaten veggies and chicken breast. I wish I could puke. I hope I remember this feeling forever! So not worth it! I know that I will want crappy food again. But I feel like I am a step ahead of where I was before. Now listen to this. Are you ready? Eating is for survival. It is to get enough nutrition to live. That is its main focus. I know this sounds simple, but I have been oblivious to the obvious. (Try saying that three times fast.) It is not a reward. It does not console us. It doesn't take away boredom It doesn't listen to our problems. It is a fair weather friend....actually not even a friend at all. It is that bi*chy girl in jr. high that we thought liked us, but only pretends to until she can stab us in the back. I am ready now. I am ready to start the rest of my life. I am ready to try to forget this "last supper". Actually I guess I want to remember it forever.

10/17/08 Here is my "Ah-ha" moment. (a bit lengthy) I have just realized that eating is not supposed to be fun. No...I know what you are thinking. Well I know if it was me two weeks ago I would be thinking that it may not be fun, but I enjoy it. I always saw eating as fun. Entertainment. I used it as a reward for myself or a consolation. I would put the kiddos to bed when they were little and then sit down with my favorite show and a plate of garlic bread and enjoy. If work REALLY sucked I would come home and sit down and eat ice cream or pick up McDonalds on the way home because I "deserved" it. Eating is not supposed to be fun. I thought going out with friends and having fun equaled eating. I started my pre-op diet on Monday. I started it earlier than I needed to and I have lost 8 lbs since last Friday. Wow I felt great...but I had that nawing desire for a last supper. Come on surely some of you can relate. That last...I can't eat this for months......can I ever eat this with the band......last supper. As of tomorrow no bread, pasta, rice or potatoes. I ate great all day. I went grocery shopping and did it. Guess what. IT SUCKED!!!!!! I had garlic bread and frozen pizza. (My staple) Not only was the garlic bread not satisfying, but the pizza tasted...well, flat. That is the only way I can describe it. Flat! It tasted worse than ever before. My taste buds would be much happier if I had eaten veggies and chicken breast. I wish I could puke. I hope I remember this feeling forever! So not worth it! I know that I will want crappy food again. But I feel like I am a step ahead of where I was before. Now listen to this. Are you ready? Eating is for survival. It is to get enough nutrition to live. That is its main focus. I know this sounds simple, but I have been oblivious to the obvious. (Try saying that three times fast.) It is not a reward. It does not console us. It doesn't take away boredom It doesn't listen to our problems. It is a fair weather friend....actually not even a friend at all. It is that bi*chy girl in jr. high that we thought liked us, but only pretends to until she can stab us in the back. I am ready now. I am ready to start the rest of my life. I am ready to try to forget this "last supper". Actually I guess I want to remember it forever.

This is kind of cool...I've never had a blog spot. Surgery was Tuesday 2/2/10. Today is Saturday. It seems that my Dr takes a little different approach to the pre op diet and post op diet. It has me a little worried that I shouldn't have eaten those few bites of meat. I did a pre op low carb diet for 4 weeks and I lost 15 pounds on it. Then I had to go only liquids for 2 days before the surgery. I'm on soft foods right now, but we don't do weeks and weeks of it. He said that he's found that he doesn't like putting up diet rules that set you up to fail and if you follow his recommendations on the low carb for 4 weeks, that that is plenty to get your liver ready. And my liver was ready.

I don't know whether I am truly depressed or if I am just going through withdrawals. I got banded on 4/1/10 and today I am hungry. I can't stand to be in my kitchen and I probubly wont start cooking again until next month, when I can eat solids. I am schedule for my first fill on the 14th but I am tempted to go in before then. My husband thought that me being hungry was all in my mind, but it's not. My stomach is growling. Does anyone else feel this way?:tongue:

So, I got a speeding ticket this morning. Isn't that super awesome!! :thumbup: Honestly though, I was going 76 mph in a 60 mph zone, so I totally deserved it. The only thing that makes me mad about the whole thing is that that motorcycle cop is there EVERY morning and I KNOW BETTER! Oh well, it is what it is. I'm feeling much better today! The respiratory infection has faded for the most part. Jazzercise was tough last night, but I definitely felt better when it was over. It is nice to be in enough shape that I don't feel like I'm killing myself the first day back after a break! Today I'm taking it up a notch and I'm doing my 2 mile hill run at lunch and Jazzercise tonight. I only have a non-running lunch work out tomorrow (maybe the bike?) so I should be able to push it out today. I was hungry yesterday. After breakfast, it didn't take too long until I was hungry for lunch. We went to Mi Cocina to meet my parents and I was worried that I would need to eat too much. But my mom & I shared a nacho plate and I ate three nachos with sour cream and guacamole. So, not too bad. In fact, it held me until very late in the afternoon and I didn't get hungry until about 4pm when I had some greek yogurt. I was a little hungry when I went to Jazzercise, but it wasn't horrible. When I got home, I fixed goodies for dinner. (My niece's favorite meal is what she calls goodies, which is bascially a collection of snacks, like apples, pretzels, peanut butter and cheese.) I had just less than a 1/2 c of potato salad, a boiled egg, 10 crackers and 5 pieces of cheese (roughly 3 oz, I think.) I finished the potato salad and egg, but I left 2 crackers and a piece of cheese. I didn't seem to have any "restriction" in the sense that there was no issues with anything going down, however, I did have "restriction" in the sense that I was full after eating a reasonable amount of food. So, I did well yesterday. The trick is stopping when I'm full. I've not been good at that historically and is something I need to work on. So, goals for the week...drink water! And stop eating when I'm full. PS: My new item of the day that I'm wearing...electric blue flats with a row of sequence around the top. Very flirty, but practical too. Have a great day!!

There's a thread on here about taking the easy way out and how many people who have not had WLS or any type of weight problem see it as a shortcut. But for me personally, I almost feel like I took the hard way. Let me explain: I feel like with all of the fad diets, crazy exercise routines, weight-loss pills, "miracle" cures, weight-loss is even harder, even for the average person looking to lose 10-15lbs. While I do love my band and wouldn't trade it for the world, I almost feel like it sort of blinded me to the reality of healthy eating and nutrition. I hopped on the low carb band wagon really hard. I ate no fruit, no high carb veggies, was strict strict strict until about 3 months ago. During the first 6-7 months I lost amazingly, and I am glad that I rarely hit a long standing plateau, but at the same time I feel like I was almost put behind a mask; my brain went into this "food is evil; carbs are evil; high calorie foods are evil" way of thinking and now that my weight-loss is pretty much in a range I can deal with, it has been hell trying to break these thoughts. I never thought it would be hard to tell myself it's okay to eat carbs. It's okay to eat chocolate. I can eat anything I want. But the fact is that food is not evil. Food didn't make me fat. In my case, overindulging with little to no exercise made me fat. Yesterday I had an Oreo truffle; that's right. A bunch of freaking Oreos mixed with cream cheese and covered in white chocolate. I ate it; devoured more like it and then I felt an immediate sense of guilt. Why? Why does eating something sweet make me feel guilty? I'm not sure. But within a few minutes I came to my senses and realized that ONE truffle was not going to kill me. I was not going to gain 5lbs from it. It's funny how I've gone from being a food lover, to a food hater, and nowadays I am slowly, but surely, training my brain to realize that no food is bad. Nothing; none of it. And plenty of people on here will disagree, but I've allowed more "junk" food into my diet and I love it, but the sense of guilt still lingers. I can't wait until the day where I feel skinny, can eat whatever I want, and not second guess my choice.

This morning my scale read 156.5 lbs!!! In 7th grade I remember going to the doctor for my period cramps and weighing 160 lbs. My weight went up from there and fluctuated from 160-180 throughout junior high and high school. My lowest being my sophomore year when I was so nervous about starting a new school and a new dance team that I stopped eating and weighed 158 lbs at Homecoming that year. I cannot believe I've reached this point! I've really been reflecting on what Chancie wrote in a post this morning about being in denial while overweight. That was me, that's why when I saw pictures of me on the beach last spring break I was so shocked at how I looked, I never really saw that girl in the mirror, just thought I was smaller I guess. Now the opposite is sort of happening, when I see myself in pictures and compare to the before's I'm a little shocked at how much I've lost, but on a daily basis I still feel quite large with so much extra weight to lose. I really need to get back to buying new "goal" clothes and taking pictures more frequently because it sort of forces me to feel better. It's really hard for me to accept compliments about the weight loss in real life and they make me uncomfortable, but I've always been this way (about any compliment said to my face) and have gotten pretty good at changing the conversation in a different direction. Don't get me wrong, I am pretty self-centered and a bit spoiled, but realize that there are many more important things than myself, so when I get a compliment for something I always want to give credit to everything/everyone that has made it possible for me to reach a goal or do something well. In this case, the sleeve is 90% responsible for my success. Sure I'm exercising and eating less, but in the past I've done these things with only 10-20% of these results. Well, just my ramblings on a snowed in Saturday. We've been issued a blizzard warning, but so far still have power, Internet, and satellite.

This is something I read before I decided to have surgery. It was what helped me decide that this was the right option for me and I wasn’t doing anything less than what I deserve. It still rings true for me today. “This is a huge rant topic for me, so I will spare you all the long ALL CAPPED emphatic response LOL. This is my single question back to anyone who says I took the easy way out: Why should I NOT take the 'easy' way out? Seriously -- this is not a rhetorical question: Why not? Fat is not a moral failure; I didn't do anything Bad or Wrong, and I don't 'deserve to be punished' by doing it the "hard way" over and over and over again. The end.” That being said having the vertical sleeve gastrectomy was and is the best thing I have ever done for myself. I have never felt so good and been so happy. The weight loss has slowed, but it is still coming off every month. I had a small stall again this month where I didn’t lose for two almost 3 consecutive weeks; however I knew that I was still losing because in those weeks I had lost a complete jean size even when the scale didn’t move. StartWeight: 273 lbs. **Goal Weight: 157lbs. Pre-op:--- 6 lbs. lost Surgery Weight: 267 1 month: 247 -- -- bmi 39.0 -- -- 20 lbs lost 2 month: 238 -- -- bmi 37.3 -- -- 9 lbs lost 3 month: 229 -- -- bmi 35.9 -- -- 9 lbs lost 4 month: 220 -- -- bmi 34.5 -- -- 9 lbs lost 5 month: 212 -- -- bmi 33.2 -- -- 8 lbs lost 6 month: 207 -- -- bmi 32.4 -- -- 5 lbs lost 7 month: 201 -- -- bmi 31.5 -- -- 6 lbs lost Lost since surgery: -66 Lost Total: -72 lbs. Overall Goal Weekly Break Down, lbs. lost pre-op week: 6 lbs week 1 -- 8 lbs. 2 - -5 3 - -3 4 - -2 5 - -2 6 - -3 ~2 months 7 - -3 8 - -1 9 - -2 10 --6 ~3 months 11 --0 12 --2 13 --1 14 --3 ~4 months 15 --0 16 --4 17 --2 18 --1 ~5 months 19 --1 20 --3 21 --3 22 +1 ~6 months 23 --0 24 --3 25 --2 26 –1 27 --2 ~ 7 months 28 --0 29 --0 30 --4 StartJean size: 24/22 Current Jean size: 14/12 *I have lost over ten jean sizes. This is amazing Start Shirt size: 3x/2x Current Shirt size: xl/L Inches: Neck Start: 16 Last: 14 Recent: 14 Loss: 0 Total Loss: -2 Upper Arm Start: 15 Last: 13 Recent: 13 Loss: 0 Total Loss: -2 Forearm Start: 11.5 Last: 10 Recent: 10 Loss: 0 Total Loss: -1.5 Waist Start: 49 Last: 39 Recent: 38 Loss: -1 Total Loss: -11 Abdomen (belly button) Start: 55 Last: 45.5 Recent: 44.5 Loss: -1 Total Loss: -10.5 Hips Start: 55 Last: 47 Recent: 45.5 Loss: -1.5 Total Loss: -9.5 Bust Start: 54 Last: 45 Recent: 45 Loss: 0 Total Loss: -9 Chest Start: 44 Last: 37.5 Recent: 37 Loss: -0.5 Total Loss: -7 Thigh Start: 30.5 Last: 25 Recent: 24.5 Loss: -0.5 Total Loss: -6 Calf Start: 17.5 Last: 15.5 Recent: 15.5 Loss: 0 Total Loss: -2 1st month loss: -19.5 in 2nd month loss: -9 in 3rd month loss: -13.5 in 4th month loss: -6 in 5th month loss: -2 in 6th month loss: -6 in 7th month loss: -4.5 Total Lost: -60.5 inches Christmas Goal: Start weight 207 Goal weight 193 7 ½ weeks to goal –14 pounds total = 2 lbs. Per week Right on track, halfway through time halfway through weight loss to goal