Has anyone else found thats it hard to lose weight? I have gone back and forth 5 lbs, even after fills. Now I am stuck at my current weight for about a month. Any suggestions on how to break through this plateau and move forward? I know exercise is a huge issue and I have problems doing much because I have spinal stenosis and am disabled. Any suggestions will be appreciated!!

YES!!! I have been working on losing weight seriously since 2006! I hit several plateus and gained before I was banded in 2009, and have hit another plateu and gained again over the last year. I'm always exercising hard, but the weight hasn't dropped off for me nearly as well as I see a lot of people. I gained 20lbs over the past year! But I am fully taking the blame this last round. Sometimes taking a break or switching things up helps, but never give up!!!

I went away on a 5 day vacation in Feb and went up 5 pounds. I battled those 5 for 2 months up and down. I was eating more calories than I should many days of the week. I came home from vacation and continued to act like I was on vacation! I'm not talking a lot of calories, like 1600 a day. But that was enough to to maintain my weight.

There is a good article I saw today on here regarding this.

http://www.lapbandta...oss-plateau-r67

My #1 thing though is journaling. Are you keeping track of every bite that you take?

No I dont keep track. Im sure I am eatting more calorie wise then I realize. I was given a great sight by one of the nurses at the hospital where you can track your food. I will post the sight for those who would like to have it.

I agree with Holly, tracking what you eat will really help you see not only how many calories you're eating but what foods in particular may be hurting your weight loss efforts.

I use an app called Lose It that I just love. It syncs between my phone and the PC and it makes logging what I eat very easy.

btw, I should also add I understand the issues with exercising. I am disabled with Multiple Sclerosis so I can really relate to how hard it is to "move" when you body just don't want to cooperate.

I would suggest for exercise you look at an exercise bike , maybe a recumbent one and just do it at your own pace, also just walking around move when u are even sitting down, hands or light dumbells, u dont need to put any pressure on your back .. my back was bad when i was at my heaviest and the exercise bike was really the only thing i could manage as it was still sitting down .. good luck

Could you do any water based exercises? My pool has belts that act as a floatation device so you can move your arms and legs and not have to keep yourself afloat.

Regarding food choices: I try to not buy or eat anything that I would be embarrassed for my doctor to see me consuming.

Are you weighing/measuring your food. I highly recommend using a digital food scale to measure your protein (my doctor says 3 oz). You are almost guaranteed to underestimate your serving sizes.

I use MyFitnessPal.com to track my calories and exercise. I noticed I was losing better when I was tracking more faithfully. I'm getting back into it now.

I really like the article Holly Dolly posted.

With exercise, just moving as much as you can as opposed to not at all will be good. Sometimes I will sit in my chair and wave my arms up and down like doing jumping jacks, or seated leg lifts. Even in the elevator (if I'm alone because I don't want people to know how nutty I really am, LOL) I will do standing crunches. Going from the bottom floor to my office at the 12th floor you can get a nice quick ab workout in because the elevator is super slow! Anything to raise your heart rate I think would be better than nothing.

Me! I'm battling the same 5 pounds. I track and weigh and measure EVERYTHING! It's so annoying to still be working on the same 5 pounds.

Seems like everybody hits a weight loss plateau sooner or later. Soooo frustrating.

I don't know enough about spinal stenosis to know what exercise is appropriate for you, but surely the doctor (orthopedic?) who monitors your spinal problem could recommend something? A physical therapist that I've worked with in the past has mentioned that Water exercise can be very helpful and my mom participated in a chair exercise program for a while.

Also, I just wrote an article called Breaking a Weight Loss Plateau. You can read it here:

http://www.lapbandtalk.com/page/index.html/_/plateaus-and-regain/breaking-a-weight-loss-plateau-r67

if you join www.myfitnesspal.com add me. My name is holbraden!

Wow you all have lost so much weight! Im jealous!! I was banded on Oct 10, 2011 and Im only down 28lbs! What is your secrets? Especially you Mis73?!! Congrats!!

I was banded December 6 2011 and only down 23 lbs, I need something. I am so jealous also. I keep hearing , it wil come off..but it does not for me!

LouAnn- I could really use some help.. I was banded Oct 6, 2011 and I'm down 35lbs..I'm so frustrated.. I have been banded about 5 times and I'm still struggling.. I feel like a complete loser!! Finding so hard not to get discouraged. How do you get back the motivation???

Jessie Ahroni's book, Laparascopic Adjustable Gastric Banding, has an excellent section entitled, "How Can I Tell If I'm Perfectly Adjusted?" While I'm not sure there's such a thing as "perfect" adjustment (for me, "almost perfect" works very well), Jessie gives helpful lists of questions to ask yourself to determine if you need an eating adjustment, a behavior adjustment, an acitivity adjustment, an attitude adjustment, or a band adjustment. There are dozens of things that can affect your weight and though not all of them are within our control, quite a few of them are. I like re-reading Jessie's questions because she reminds me of things I'd overlooked or forgotten.