Hello,

I gave birth to twins on October 2nd and had gained almost 90 lbs during my pregnancy. While I have lost almost 40 lbs I still have 50 to go and am getting very anxious to get to a decent weight.

I'm working with a trainer for exercise who is very much against getting the lapband because essentially she believes my problem with my weight stalling is not eating enough rather than not eating alot.

My question are these:

1. How successful have people been with the lapband and losing about 50 lbs?
   
2. Has anyone had their weight loss stalled because of not eating enough?
   
3. How fast can someone expect to lose 50lbs?
   

Any insight into this would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Politisa,

I see you've posted this in the low BMI site too, and have had lots of lookers but nobody answering.

I was high BMI and in a different situation, but I'll try and give it my best shot.

My friend that I got banded with had 70 lbs to lose and was very successful with it. Some time after she had reached her goal weight her band slipped and she had it removed. She's finding it a struggle to keep the weight down but she's managing by exercising like a fiend and eating very little. I have to point out that she's self employed with teenagers so she has the time to spend 2 to 3 hours a day exercising. I think it may be quite different with young twins. (Congratulations, by the way!)

I have heard of people hitting plateaus in their weight loss by eating so little that their bodies kind of go into a starvation protection mode. I also know that certain foods take quite a bit of energy to digest, so if you eat tons of broccoli, say, you should lose.

The speed of losing 50 lbs on the band? It really depends on the person. It is possible to "eat around the band" and even gain weight, for example if you suck on milkshakes all day.

In your case, two things come to mind.

First, people who are not heavy have no idea of the physical and psychological burdens that obese people deal with. It's very easy for people to state that if you just eat and exercise right you will reach your perfect weight. While that does happen sometimes, often things are a lot more complex than that. A lot of well meaning people discourage obese people from getting bariatric surgery.

Your weight gain is fairly recent and it's entirely possible that you will lose it naturally, although not as quickly as you may like to. On the other hand, many of us who are obese had the whole thing begin with our gain during childbirth.

Keep reading posts. Hopefully others will put their two bits in and give more information to help you out.

Keep us posted on how it's going for you. All the best!

I am a mom of 3year old twin boys...and a 6 year old daughter.

I am also about 5 months post op and the Band has helped me. The weight is coming off slowly just because my days are busy with the kids and i can only find 3-4 hours a week to work out ( usually before anyone wakes up). In total i have 100 lbs to loose ( cannot blame it on my pregnacies) I have lost about 30lbs.

How fast you can loose it depends on your body, you wouldnt want to loose it too fast.

it is a huge lifestyle change... a challenge for me has been keeping to my new eating routine while also making meals for my kids and husband.

Congrats!! twins are a blessing.

Good luck

You are within 6 months of a twin birth. It took you almost 10 months to create those miracles; please give your body at least TWICE that time to return to "normal."

The postpartum body, particularly if nursing (but not only then), can be fickle about giving up weight. That weight was gained for a purpose, and the body knows it; it does not always let it go easily---but it will let it go.

You will find doctors who will band non-morbidly obese patients. (Insurance, however, is not apt to cover this.) And I'm not suggesting that this is wrong to do. But if you were normal weight--or near normal weight--prior to pregnancy, I think it would be prudent to see where diet and exercise alone will take you.

The band will require of you the very same diet and exercise commitment. It won't accelerate your loss in and of itself. What is does is make the loss POSSIBLE for those of us for whom limiting portion was found, over a period of years, to be ineffective.

If you can do that without taking yourself away from your infants for a couple of days (and then being restricted from lifting them for a period of time), why subject yourself to a surgery that will permanently change your body. (While it can be removed, it is not designed with that in mind.)

A few lapband vets have told me that when their weight stalled they upped their Protein intake for a few days and that helpped them break their platue.

Before my band I was also told I was not eatting enough. I couldn't lose the weight. Then I met my surgeon and he put me on low carb. I lost 18 pounds in 2 months pre-op. That was only with 2 days of Clear liquids. It does knock the weight off. This is just what works for me. You may want to try it for a week or so to see what happens. My MIL tried it and lost 4 pounds in 2 weeks. I think that was great but she wasn't satisfied with it so she stopped.

Don't be so hard on yourself. It will take time and you have done so well. Losing 40 pounds is awesome. In the time you lost 40 I have lost 28. It took me about a year and a half to lose my baby weight when my son was born. I had gained 65 pounds. Congratulations on you new little ones.