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I posted a similar topic last night because I'm day 18 of a three week liquid diet and I've only lost 9 pounds. 8 the first week, which is mainly water weight I'm sure, 1 pound the next week, and so far this week i've been up and down one pound. So I feel your frustration! I personally have never at any regular food since 7 PM the day before my liquid diet! I've been determinded to stick with it and not let myself cheat even a little bit, I've even tried to get back into a daily exercise routine that I've let myself slip out of the past couple of weeks. So to me, it's super frustrating to be working so hard and suffering through this miserable liquid diet, with little results. Everyone keeps reasurring me that it will happen and to not let myself be discouraged. I'm going to start tracking my measurements too, because a lot of people say there will be success from loosing inches even when you're not losing pounds.

"Ask for your limitations and they are yours" Richard Bach-Illusions.

What you're are going through now has very little to do with post op success. You're comparing apples and oranges. 5 lbs in a little more than a week? That's huge. But again, one month post op you'll be eating solid foods. Once you find your green zone you won't feel that hunger or frustration.

But you really should evaluate if you are ready for this? If you're ready to throw in the towel after 8 days of a little sacrifice, you may not be ready for the band. There can be times during your journey that you may not lose weight for a month or two. And you will have to avoid certain types of foods to succeed.

Do you want to be thinner? How badly do you want it? That's a question only you can answer?

tmf

The thing that the band does for you that the pre op diet wont, is that you wont be hungry, even at social engagements or other testing moments. You are able to make better choices b/c the thoughts and obssession about food is removed. I was very frustrated with the pre opt. I then lost 10 lbs. The first week after surgery I lost 10. Then nothing for almost three weeks when I started eating food. I started to think it was a big joke. Then I got my first fill and second fill and started dropping 2.5 lbs or more a week very easily. It all was that eating very little was very satisfying. Also, I only thought about food when I was having physical signs of hunger. Also, having 25 + lbs off and people noticing has been a great motivator to continue the daily journey. It me, the band is a partner now. But it took a month for me to start feeling that way. My Dr is fast will fills. I am at 6 weeks and already at 5cc. They want to reach green zone faster. So I am happy for that. But the pre op and the month or so after is banster hell, and I am just now the other side of it.

Hope that helps.

The band isn't a magic cure. It does take work. It's a tool but you have to be willing to do some work yourself. If it's this bad for you and you don't even have the band you may want to opt for the bypass instead.

The band isn't a magic cure. It does take work. It's a tool but you have to be willing to do some work yourself. If it's this bad for you and you don't even have the band you may want to opt for the bypass instead.

Yep, and bypass will take some work as well. There is no magic cure for obesity for most people it will be a work in progress their whole life. You'll get out of it what you put into it.

This is why I don't agree with pre-op liquid diets. I watched my friend go through it and he was miserable for two weeks... Our health network makes us lose 10% of our weight and take however long you need to...prolongs your approval until you meet it to give you incentive and time to decide whether you are up to changing your healthy eating habits. I won't say I liked it and I won't say its been easy (it hasn't) but I think I'm definitely now able to make good choices which will set me up to being more successful post surgery. However I do know alot of people dropped out because they just couldn't make weight.

The Pre Op diet is not something you are given to lose X amount of weight! It is given by the Surgeon in order to get your liver to shrink and for it to lose size. It is much easier to flip around a smaller liver that has been shrunk with a pre op diet and the Dr has a easier time to manuever it. Mine told me if he went in and I had not followed the diet he would know and close me back up. I did 2 weeks on liquids alone and did not cheat once. For me personally the pain of having him not perform the surgery to my non compliance was enough to keep me on track.

The band is a tool/your partner/but will not do the work for you. Your body has to detox itself, your probably trying to break addictions that you have had for years. Your body will cleanse itself in various ways and also try to trip you up.

If I understand correctly you say that your family events center around food. Do many of your family members have weight issues? If your finding that you have a rough time, maybe go a bit before or after or just opt out for a couple of weeks during this phase. Not saying that your family members will do this, but watch out for others who will try to drag you off your track. Unfortunatly there are people we know or family that will try to get you to eat. Sometimes misery loves company! You might encounter people that do not have your best interest at heart, or hope deep down that you fail. It is sad but true!

Figure out if your ready to take this on, do it for you and not for anyone else. Gastric Bypass might be the way for you to go if you do not think you can work the band. However, like the guys said it all takes work. Good luck

I don't disagree with the preop diet as I know it has a purpose but I do disagree with the 6 month supervised diet. My center required me to lose 5% of the weight before they would do the surgery however my insurance required 6 months of supervised diet.

My Surgeon told me he feels that is unreasonable as most people cannot lose and maintain that long and he would rather just do the surgery while true weight loss is occurring.

The preop diet is the worst part. People lose weight at different rates. I happen to be an oddball who can go weeks without losing anything and then, all at once, 5 lbs will disappear. It is so strange that I often wonder if my scale is broken but I have purchased several and its always the same. I agree with the previous poster who said that lapband helps with obsessing over food. This is the number one reason why I would get a lapband again, even if I never lose another ounce. The preop diet offers this benefit as well. I felt like it reset my body. It was hard...the hardest part... but you can get through it.

Thanks to those of you who had some encouraging words to say and shared your experiences.

I see mine as a long term sucess; I can tell you that I've working out in the gym doing one hour classes 4-5 days a week, some times I stay for 2 clasees= 2 hrs workout for almost a year now and I have only lost 22 pounds so sar and I am so happy about it. It is like my trainer always says, it took more than a month-more two months -more three months to put the weight on, so don't expect to lose it in a month or two, its going to take time for your body to use all accumulated fat. Thats whats keeping me motivated. My goal is to lose an extra 75-80 punds and I dont care if that takes me two to three years to acomplish.

I know that for most of us we're doing the band to help us lose substantial weight, but I am surprised almost daily at how obsessed so many are with the scale. I've only read one bander who said they don't even own a scale. I have one and I have it up on a high shelf and I literally only let myself weigh myself once a month, always on the first. The reason for this is that we are SO much more than our weight. I know we all want to lose weight, I certainly do. But that stupid scale just seems to have so much power over our happiness and I want to punch it in the face.

I once did weight watchers for 9 months - my sister lost 70 pounds and I lost 4. FOUR! I didn't give up, I didn't stop going, I didn't even cheat but I did go through serious depression. A month after quitting I took a boot camp class and lost only 1 pound but 12 inches in just a month... And that's when I stopped letting my weight rule my life. I'm getting the band to get healthy but it won't matter (too much) what I weigh - if I am healthy, I can wear cute clothes, I can live long, enjoy my family, etc. then I won't let myself obsess about what a scale says.

My advice? Throw that thing out. Take your measurements if you must track something. Track your food, your calories, your dress size, whatever but don't weigh yourself every day. You'll be so much happier. And I believe the band WILL work for both of us so don't give up, please just don't. Hang in there. I wish I could give you hope. At the very least here's a virtual ((hug)).

Also, I'm not giving up. I'm simply saying, If I'm eating 800 calories a day and THAT hardly causes me to lose weight, then what the heck will? How much is a band going to do that self-restriction and 800 calories a day does not do? The point is, if THIS doesn't work, then is is really a good idea to have surgery and a foreign object placed in my body? If a liquid diet does not work, then realistically, can I expect eating small amounts of regular food to work? That's my point.

If you're doing only 800 calories a day there is probably a good chance that's your cause of slow weight loss. If you're putting your body into starvation mode it goes on defense and tries fight back. The main way it does this is to protect its fat stores. What ends up happening is the body will use lean tissue or muscle to provide it with some of the calories it needs to keep functioning. This directly leads to a loss of muscle, which in turn lowers metabolism so that the body needs fewer calories to keep going and and the weight loss slows down....

No offense Mom but you are confusing many different issues here.

1st. I haven't seen your Drs orders but almost always this pre-op diet is to shrink your liver not a rapid weight loss program. Read Pandora's response above.

2nd. Jim is right about your metabolism slowing down if you starve it. Again, is this a weight loss program or liver shrinkage program?

3rd. In this pre op time, you will be losing mostly Water and not fat.

" If I'm eating 800 calories a day and THAT hardly causes me to lose weight"

4th. It appears you don't understand the basics of weight loss math? It takes 3500 burned calories to equal 1 lb of weight loss. If you consume 1000 calories per day and burn 2000 calories per day, you will burn 1000 X 7(days) =7000 more calories than you ate in one week. That's 2 lbs on a good week. 5 lbs of real fat loss in one week is unheard of so you must know that most of that is water loss and that loss will continue for about a month post op. You may need to lower your expectations?

5th. You seem to be making an argument for not choosing the band and if you really are this adamant, you should hold off on any WLS till you are ready to make a full commitment. Otherwise you may fail. Most all of us will swear that it does work but you've got to commit to it.

tmf

The pre op diet is nothing like life after the band. While we all follow the same basic rules, different things work for different people. Personally, I refuse to live a life of deprivation just because I have the band. I'm going to make good choices the majority of the time, but I am also going to allow myself treats in moderation. I am not giving up my social life. However, like the above poster said, the band can't do all the work for us. You have to be willing to exercise and make better food choices or it wont work. As much as we would all like fast results, weight loss is only 1-2lbs a week with the band.