I had my lap band surgery 7 months ago. So far I've only losst 11# and am unable to lose more, but I haven't gained either so that is something. I am 76 years old and have arthritis in my knees so unable to do a lot of the exercise that they recommended.

I do have a trilevel home which has 10 stairs up and 6 stairs down and I go up and down them about 12 times a day. I walk my dog every day for about 20 minutes. I have also started using my rowing machine twice a day.

Before the surgery I ate about 1200 calories a day and that is about what I eat now so maybe the reason I haven' t had better results. (Most of the people in my support group ate about 3000 calories a day and are much younger)

For the first 6 months I wrote down every mouthful of food that I ate but after 6 months with no success I have stopped doing that as I eat the same foods every day. In the morning I eat a cup of cut up firm tofu with cranberry sauce on top of it. At about 2:pm I eat a cut of edamone and I have either a cup of tomotao Soup or clam chowder with osyter crackers. That is all.

Can anyone tell me if there is anything else I can do to get this weight down?

As I paid cash for this surgery I am

Sort of discourged in California, Cherub

I'm thinking since you used to eat 1200 calories a day and still eat that amount, you won't lose weight.

It is basically math. You have to burn more calories than you take in to lose weight. If you eat the same amount of calories that you burn daily, you will maintain that weight. If you eat more than you burn... you will gain.

Have you met with a nutritionist? Seems like you need to jazz up your diet. Also add exercise to burn more calories than you take in. Even if you do chair based exercises, Anything to move, get your heart rate up and burn calories.

Good luck to you....

I would eat more chicken and fish.

Hey,

I lost 7kg after my surgery and then i became stagnant for a long time. I went to the dietician and she said it was because i was doing the samethings and i needed to mix it up because my body had become used of them.

instead of eating the same food every day you should try some different things like tuna salad for lunch and some meat and vege for dinner. and with exercise try and increase your walks to 30mins a day and change the route to include some hills.

i know having arthritis in the knees would make it difficult but im sure if you go to a physio im sure they can give you some exercises that reduce the impact on your knees.

my mum have knee troubles and she finds swimming and Water arobics good.

dont get discouraged and keep trying that day will come soon where it all kicks back into motion and you lose more weight.

I'm thinking since you used to eat 1200 calories a day and still eat that amount, you won't lose weight.

It is basically math. You have to burn more calories than you take in to lose weight. If you eat the same amount of calories that you burn daily, you will maintain that weight. If you eat more than you burn... you will gain.

Have you met with a nutritionist? Seems like you need to jazz up your diet. Also add exercise to burn more calories than you take in. Even if you do chair based exercises, Anything to move, get your heart rate up and burn calories.

Good luck to you....

I agree with you! I have already figured this out and I have added exercise to my routine since I had liquid cartlidge put into my arthretic knees, but still no change. I'm a retired RN who has taught nutrition classes and yes I have met with a nutritionist several times. I try to get 60 gms of Protein each day so as not to eat away at my muscles. I come from fat relatives on both sides and they think that my genes have something to do with it. When I was younger I line danced, round danced and walked 10 miles a day at my job and jogged after work. Now since I have gotten older, the arthritis has kicked in, cutting down on all that and I'm sure that is the reason. But I am doing chair exercises and I have a rowing machine which I do 3 times a day.

The reason I got the lap band is because I had tried everything else. I went to MediWeight 2000 and lost 40# over a 7 month period but that was 20 years ago, when I was younger. I paid $13,000.00 out of my own money to get this operation so you can see I was serious and I followed all their rules to the letter. My doctor is puzzled too. Right now I can't even eat anything solid so it's all liquids at this point but I have another appointment with the dr. so he will pull some Fluid out of the pouch as we feel there is something stuck.

Before I had the lap band surgery, I had a tummy tuck, a butt lift and several liposuctions. This lap band was my last resort.

Thanks for the reply. Have you had the surgery yet? If not I can tell you it's a piece of cake. I had no recovery time. There was nothing to it. If you have, how much have you lost and how old are you? I would love to hear from you again.

Huggs, Cherub

Cherub - I have no advice for you as I am in the same boat (7mos post op and NO loss) but I must commend you for being 76 and knowing your way around a computer so well!! Please don't take this the wrong way... my parents are 60 and they are lucky to be able to check their email!! lol

I would eat more chicken and fish.

I was eating those things for a while but now I can't eat ANY solid foods so going to see the doctor and have some Fluid removed as feel there is something stuck in the pouch.

One member said that I should not be eating the same athings all the time as my body gets used to it. Maybe that is the answer and after I see the dr and he removes some of the fluid, I'll try to mix up my menu a bit.

Thanks everybody. Cherub of Calif

Cherub - I have no advice for you as I am in the same boat (7mos post op and NO loss) but I must commend you for being 76 and knowing your way around a computer so well!! Please don't take this the wrong way... my parents are 60 and they are lucky to be able to check their email!! lol

Thank you for your comments and no, I did not take it wrong. After I retired from nursing, I took a computer class and learned to build computers and to pass the class we had to build a basic computer from the motherboard up in 30 minutes, so then I helped my kids add things like hard drives, memory, etc. to their computers. [That's a switch, huh?]

I run two computer graphic tag groups and love it.

I'm trying to spend less time at the computer and more time exercising as I know that's one of the reasons. I think that all the litature that you see on lap band surgery tells all the success stories and none of the failures and that may not be a fair picture. Most all of the success are with young people who are pretty much way overweight.

The ones in our support group where about 250# when they started.

One good thing that happened is that after 5 days I could stop taking my blood pressure meds. I take my BP every day and now I'm running around 110/60 and before, even with BP meds, I was 125/75 so this is a plus and I'm not hungary all the time like I was before.

Thanks again for the reply. Huggs, CherubofCalif