Weight lost on pre-op diet: 17.5 lbs (1.6 lb/day).

I gained 1.2 lbs during surgery. Probably swelling plus the weight of the band itself.

Weight loss with lap-band in 3 days: 6lbs (2 lb/day).

In all, total weight loss is 23.5 lbs, but what's truly amazing is how effortless weight loss is right now. Tomorrow I will be under 230, which is what I weighed in the middle of grad school.

To me, the lap-band is magical. I know what it does, but there's something else it does which the doctors don't advertise. It somehow makes it easy for me to listen to my stomach. My stomach tells me things, and I never could listen. I always wanted the last few fries on the plate. Or had "room for dessert". Somehow, the lap-band opened up a connection between my brain and my stomach.

Actually, maybe I could phrase it this way. The lap-band doesn't make me realize when I'm no longer hungry. It makes me realize when I'm full. There's an important distinction. When you're "not hungry", you can always eat if you want to. It becomes a matter of willpower. And since I am overweight, I already know that my food willpower is ... "limited".

But when you're "full" rather than "not hungry", there's less willpower involved. I can FEEL my stomach is full. and it FEELS like I shouldn't be putting anything more in my mouth.

My only regret is not doing this sooner. I should've done the band years ago.

I see tons of people on the forum who have lost 100 lbs and more. Even though I may not talk or interact with them, I definitely take notice. I totally understand where that kind of weight loss comes from.

Whoever this Mr. Lapband was, he was a genius! :frown:

Apologies!

AIG = Big insurance company that received bail-out money.

CDS = Credit default swap.

Courant = Mathematical institute of New York University.

Almost as arcane as Aussie slang. :-)

17 lbs speaks to me. :-) Just out of curiosity, do you think equally well in kg and lbs? In the US, all applied math, science and most scholarly engineering is done in SI (metric) but in day to day life we pretty much exclusively use English units.

I take it a lolly means "candy" and not "lollipop"? My friend calls everything sweet a lolly. It throws me for a loop.

Hi Caffeine

Aussie slang? Arcane? My poor international students have trouble getting their heads around it.

Yep, lolly means candy, and lollipop means lollipop. I think better in metric for weight and distance, but am still familiar enough with 'the old way' to quickly convert it in my head. Height I understand feet & inches better. Weird, but I'm not young so I learnt English style at school, and have had to convert for work.