I am at 177 and I asked my doctor what he expected for me to lose and he said twenty more pounds. I would still be around 160.I was hoping to be off insulin. I was hoping for 150 minimum 135 is my GOAL.I was hoping to be at least a size 12. Im not giving up that easy.He said the smaller you are when you have the surgery the harder it is to lose. WHY.

I do not mean to sound ungreatfull but this surgery cost $45000.00 and I want to be Healthy.Does he have all the control on how much I lose or is it truly up to me? If it is up to me. See ya below the 150 mark

You've done a great job. There is a chance that what you want your body to be at and where your body is comfortable are two very different things. That doesn't mean you can't slowly lose more weight, but perhaps your body has lost all it wants and the process slows down dramatically. I've seen that happen with RNY patients also.

My daughter is 35 and is a diabetic. She is 5'5" and 120 lbs. Nothing prepared us for this diagnosis. She had gestational diabetes when she was pregnant but the dr. assured us it would probably go away. It didn't. She is now on insulin every day, so your weight doesn't have everything to do with your being a diabetic. You may lose 20 more lbs. and still be diabetic. Some things you just may have to adjust too. People equate diabetes more with being heavy, but the truth is it can strike anyone. My daughter works out and runs and eats healthy, but the disease got her anyway, and with no family history that I know of.

Good luck to you, and congratulations on that great weight gain. Those elusive 20 more lbs. may just be your body telling you it is content where it is.

I think perhaps your doctor was sharing his expectations??? As long as you have restriction... you burn more calories than you take in... you should lose weight. THe beauty of the band is that it can help you lose over a long period of time.

While diabetes is not always weight related... I am pretty sure being obese is directly related to developing type II Diabetes. I have seen many that have been able to go off the insulin and take only the oral medication... and some have been able to stop the medication completely.

Anyhoo... as you lose weight... your caloric intake has to decrease even further to lose weight. THe good news is... the smaller we get... the easier it is to move and exercise and burn the calories we do take in.

Wishing you the best and it sounds like you have been a success already.

Holy crap, you paid WHAT?!??! for the surgery? I hope that is a typo. $45k????

I was lower BMI and I think the last 20# is the hardest to lose. The first 1/2 was a breeze. Now, fat is being stubborn.

He said the smaller you are when you have the surgery the harder it is to lose. WHY.

You're like an onion. Take off the few outer layers and there's not much difference. Get closer to the core and take off a layer, and dang - that's one small onion!

I don't know that it's up to him. He should be talking with you about this, what you want to weigh, why, what's realisitc for your build, etc. It should be a conversation, not him writing a prescription for your weight.

Does he have all the control on how much I lose or is it truly up to me? If it is up to me. See ya below the 150 mark

Of COURSE it's not up to him! We all know the "magic" formula for losing weight--diet and exercise. If you want to lose more weight, you know what to do. Why think it's up to your doctor?

At one point my doctor said that I may have lost all I'm going to with the band, and I recall feeling a bit like you do. But he may be right--my band may have done all it's going to do for me. That doesn't mean it's leaving me totally defenseless, though; the capacity I had before banding will not suddenly return just because of some words my doctor said. I'm still eating a fraction of what I ate pre-band, so the weight will stay off.

And if I want to lose any more, I know how. I've always known how, and so have you. It's always been, and always will be, completely up to us.

weight's a funny thing.

You might not have the extra fat you think you do. The scale is a known lier and deciever. To get a much better idea of what you can realistically lose and realistically weigh, you must have your FFM figured out. Your fat free mass, or you FFM will tell you what you weigh without the fat, simply the weight of your bones, muscles, tissues and anything that isn't fat.

There is NOTHING wrong with being a size 12. We have this national obsession to be a size nothing or a size 4 or something completely unrealistic. If you have an athletic build you will weight more and be phsyically larger than a waif. But you will be so much more healthy than a waif.

And that's the goal, to be healthy.

He may just be saying that he's not going to give you a tighter fill just to get you below 150. But if you have sufficient restriction, there's nothing keeping you from doing it! You could even do it without sufficient restriction -- I couldn't, lol, but you can!!

If I ever lose my weight, I'm going to be having this same discussion with my doc. He said 190 would be great. I'm going for 130, lol. But as long as my band keeps me from OVEReating... I'll get there eventually!

The truth is, he CAN'T stop you... if worst comes to worst, you can go to an "a la carte" doc & get another fill.

All that being said... you might want to camp a little while at his "magic number"... get a feeling for it, see how it fits you. Take some pictures there. Keep a food & exercise diary there. Then, after you lose more, you can remember what that felt like & how much you were eating & decide which way you want to live. I've got to think that eventually I'll get to a number where being smaller takes too much exercise & too little food, hehe. So then I'll be done.

Good luck & congrats on all that weight gone!!

Yes my insurance Paid fourty five thousand. No wounder insurance is so high.How can they offer a cheap cash price and charge the insurance companies so much. On the other hand if you go to the emergency room and have insurance they only have to pay part of the bill. If you are paying cash it is the full amount. Who makes these rules.