Ok so band date was 8/10/2010. I did ok the first few months- lost 1-4 pounds every 4 weeks... Now I am just about 6 months out and I can not seem to loose weight. I keep fluctuating up and down 2-3 pounds but I am still up from my last fill. I am going in for another fill on Wednesday. Physically I am really not hungry most of the time. I find myself grazing and just eating to eat...Which is likely the cause of my gain. I just recently got a gym membership...no weight loss there... I do feel like I am loosing inches but no pounds. I ordered a food journal that should be here later on in the week so I can keep track of what I am eating... hopfully seeing this will help me with my eating habits..I am fustrated and there are days where I totally give up and then other days I am like using the band like it should be...since the operation I have only lost 25 pounds. I feel like it should be more...

Anyway-- I am just looking for any advice... what you eat, how much do you exercise- how often, how do you deal with the mental aspect of eating.... just anything...I feel like I have failed...

Tally,

I know what you're talking about. My weight loss kind of came to a screeching halt over the last few weeks. But what I've found is that if I catch myself grazing, then I stop and make a conscious effort to eat until I'm full at each meal, and then drink a lot of Water. This seems to help me stop the between-meal eating.

I'm at the "time to re-focus" point where I'm actually walking twice a day instead of once, and I'm paying very close attention to limiting my calories and try for healthier eating. My surgery was almost a month after yours... so we're not too far apart, but I think I have more to lose than you.

Good luck to you - or should I say - Good luck to us both!

I am going in for another fill on Wednesday. Physically I am really not hungry most of the time. I find myself grazing and just eating to eat..

Anyway-- I am just looking for any advice... what you eat, how much do you exercise- how often, how do you deal with the mental aspect of eating.... just anything...I feel like I have failed...

Tally,

The band, even when it's overfilled, won't stop you from grazing and eating just to eat. That part is up to you.

My Breakfast is either 1 egg and 2 slices of bacon or a low cal/low carb Protein drink...depending on whether I'm tight in the morning. lunch is 3 oz of protein and 1/2 cup vegies, dinner is the same but I might (not always) also add 1/4 cup rice or Beans. I don't do wheat products because they seem to rev up my insulin production, causing cravings, and I don't do artificial sweeters (or sugar obviously) because they give me cravings for other sweets.

I do about an hour of cardio at least 6 days a week. Right now it's Tae Bo because it's fun and if it isn't fun, I won't do it. The biggest thing I've discovered is that I need to keep my hands busy. Even sitting and watching tv at night. If I just sit and watch tv, I get a serious compulsion to graze. If I do needlepoint or quilting or something else that keeps my hands busy, I don't seem to have the slightest interest in eating.

You haven't failed!! The band helps by removing the hunger...but we still have to work on changing a lifetime of bad eating habits...and that doesn't happen overnight. Just don't give up! Every time you fall of that wagon, don't go off on a regretful binge or wait until after the weekend or after the holiday, etc. Get right back on. Recommit. You can do this!

.

You have gotten good advice from the above posts. That is great you are going to journal and have joined a gym. I workout about 5 days a week. I believe snacking is ok and long as there planned into your calories for the day and fit into your food plan. I love to snack on nuts, low fat cheese sticks, berries (they are low in carbs). You want to eat lots of lean protien and veggies. As I was loosing, I stayed away from high carb fruits, veggies and anything with flour. Good lean sources of protien are ground turkey (make sure it's just the white meat- no skin), chicken breast (I love perdue perfect portions), lean pork loin (they come in different flavors, you just bake it in the oven for about 40 minutes), chicken sausage (I buy the flavored pre-cooked kind. Just wrap in a wet paper towel and cook in the micro. for about 2 minutes). I recently discovered frozen veggies that come in single servings (I think it's green giant- they are called just for one- I like the broccoli and cheese- 40 calories). Hope this all helps and best wishes.

Don't give up...you have not failed! It does not sound like you have the proper restriction level yet and your upcoming fill will help with that. I am at my sweet spot and simply cannot overeat or over-graze anymore. Haha, sometimes I get "in a mood" and want to be a little naughty so I will get a bag of chips and sit down in front of the tv. In the old days, I would eat until I literally felt sick, and that usually took almost the whole bag of chips. Now...I can eat about one handful and my band signals "thats enough" with some small burps to let me know if I keep going, it's going to be ugly. I have learned to listen to that band, finally. Sometimes I'm a little sad that I can't eat more, but I'm getting over that, too. I am not as diligent with a strick "bandster" diet every day. Most days I eat what I feel like eating, but in very small portions. The one thing I do very consistently, however, is make sure I have at LEAST 60 grams of protein a day. Number 1...it really does help with the full feeling. Number 2...I don't want my hair to fall out...Number 3...because I can eat so little now, if I get that many grams of protein, it doesn't leave a whole lot left for other stuff. This seems infinitely easier than journaling and obsessing with my food choices (that's how it feels to me when I journal). I don't want to be obsessed with food. I want it to have its proper place in my life! I am also in a 1/2 marathon training program and run 3-4 days a week and strenth train 2x a week. The high intensity workouts are the basis for my success. I wouldn't be able to be so laid back about my diet without all the training. It's paying off for me...I'm approaching the mid 180's with my weight and getting close to being only 30 pounds from goal. I can't explain how unbelievable it is for me to actually be able to write that. You can get there too...I can't stress enough how important it is to keep up with your fills. I was getting very discouraged and then when restriction starts happening...it all clicks. You are just not there yet...hang in there!

I disagree with the idea that you need a fill, though you know better than I, obviously! If your current level of fill is keeping you from being hungry, but your problem is eating when not hungry, then I would suggest some practice of mindful eating rather than risk over-filling your band.

This is what I mean by mindful eating: Forcing yourself to carefully consider the motivation behind every food choice. So, for example, when I go home this afternoon and I'm tempted to pull out the crackers and dip I have left-over from my SuperBowl party, I will ask myself this: "why do I want to eat this? am I hungry?" If the answer is no, I will make the choice not to eat it. If the answer is yes, I may eat it, or I might follow-up and ask if I could eat something else that would be a better choice.

I know people differ on this, but for me, my long-term success is going to be dependent on me learning to look at food and hunger differently than I ever have before. In other words, make a permanent change in the reasons I eat. Otherwise, I know that I will eventually find a way to "outsmart" my band and gain it all back, whether because i choose to eat a lot of sliders or because I eventually stop maintaining the supertight fill level that would prevent me from eating or make it very uncomfortable or embarrassing (i.e. PBing and sliming all the time). For me, personally, I want my band to work by making it easier for me to make good choices because I'm not HUNGRY, not because it physically prevents me from eating food. I know others use their band in different ways so I'm not saying mine is the only way-- but I am saying that I believe that changing the psychological and behavioral approach to food is just as important as reducing the amount we eat in long-term success.

Good luck to you-- just don't give up!

Ok so band date was 8/10/2010. I did ok the first few months- lost 1-4 pounds every 4 weeks... Now I am just about 6 months out and I can not seem to loose weight. I keep fluctuating up and down 2-3 pounds but I am still up from my last fill. I am going in for another fill on Wednesday. Physically I am really not hungry most of the time. I find myself grazing and just eating to eat...Which is likely the cause of my gain. I just recently got a gym membership...no weight loss there... I do feel like I am loosing inches but no pounds. I ordered a food journal that should be here later on in the week so I can keep track of what I am eating... hopfully seeing this will help me with my eating habits..I am fustrated and there are days where I totally give up and then other days I am like using the band like it should be...since the operation I have only lost 25 pounds. I feel like it should be more...

Anyway-- I am just looking for any advice... what you eat, how much do you exercise- how often, how do you deal with the mental aspect of eating.... just anything...I feel like I have failed...

You are down 25 pounds in 6 months. That's an average of 1 1/4 pounds per week overall. Your last fill was about 4 weeks ago. Bandsters can expect 1-2 pounds per week AVERAGE weight-loss. You are right on target, even if on a plateau.

Sometimes our bodies take a while to settle into a weight. I know mine did. I would lose some then stay the same for a while, then lose more, then up a little bit. But overall the trend was downward.

Journaling is a great idea to see exactly how much you are consuming. As a previous poster said, if you are eating when not hungry, another fill might not help with that, but then again it might. When my band is at the right adjustment level, I don't seem to focus so much on food. This keeps the desire to graze at bay.

I'd suggest you take your measurements. Often when we aren't losing weight, we are losing inches.

What were your doctors orders for a food plan? Were you given one? I wasn't. Many are given a low carb diet plan to follow which seems to work well.

For me. I don't do much meal planning, but generally.....

Breakfast either packet of instant oatmeal, a couple of graham crackers with peanutbutter, a Protein bar.

lunch half a sandwich and salad, weight watchers frozen meal, half a meal from cafeteria (save other half for next day), sometimes cup of noodles--yeah, great nutrition there!

Snacks (planned eating, not brainless munching) banana, avocado, apple, string cheese, cashews, almonds

dinner meat of some sort (3-4 oz), veggie side dish 1/2 - 1 cup), starch side dish (however much room is left in stomach).

Someone once said to judge how hungry you are by whether or not you would eat a can of green Beans. I often think of that when evaluating if I am truly hungry.

I hope this was helpful.