How does your weight on the day of surgery compare to your weight on the day of your first fill? More? Less? The same?

When you were unbanded and no restriction where you a hardcore rule follower? If so, did you always follow your diets and lose weight?

I lost 26 lbs. between surgery and first fill. That was over a 12 week time frame too. I'll take it anyday!

I am NOW, but I just got my band. I followed the liquid pre-op diet to the letter and am following the post-op diet as well. I am drinking in a way that still allows me to lose weight. I am being VERY careful. BUT, I also know that there will be a period there where I don't have much restriction. That makes me nervous, especially since the week before my first fill, I'll be on vacation. I'm just doing the best I can day by day and going from there. I don't judge anyone for not losing before fills.

I did really well pre-surgery on the liquid diet... didn't cheat once and it wasnt' that hard.

Something hit after surgery (like two days after) and I was starving and depressed because I was starving. I didn't really cheat (that's a joke with P'nut) beause I had my doctors permission (so it's not cheating is it?) and he let me move to mushies early.

He did explain that the liquid diet was too heal and limit the opportunity to throw up and cause the stictches to tear. But he said since I was so hungry and started at a lower weight then most peope I could move to mushies on day three...

I did... and I didn't tear my stitches and have followed the rest of the rules ever since. I'm not really a rule breaker I just like teasing because I don't think some people (the ones that had restriction right away) understand that if there isn't restriction it's harder to have that willpower... I mean that's the reason we had this surgery because each and everyone of us must have lost the motivation to continue whatever weight lose program we had done in the past and decide the "Band" was what we needed.

We choice the band because we "wanted restriction - the comes from the tool that helps us eat less"

Before the band, no I wasn't a rule follower with regards to eating properly. Not following healthy "rules" got me where I am today...err, where I was before surgery. There are other areas in my life where I latch on to something and will hang on for dear life. It seems after being banded I have displayed some pretty strong self control. I don't really have any restriction. I am dealing with head hunger every single day. I'm just in the right frame of mind at this point in my life to make this work. Ask me again in six months and I may feel differently. I don't know. I just know how I feel at this moment. Right now I'm in it to win it. I don't want to be sick and tired any longer. I'm over having type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure. I'm over feeling like crap. I'm over not sleeping well. I am in the absolute right frame of mind to make lifestyle changes. I'm doing everything in my power to stay motivated and on track. Support groups, individual therapy, this board, etc.

Wow, I wrote a lot.

Call me a rule follower. I lost about 2o lbs before me first fill.

Follow the plan, stay focused and you will win this battle. thats what it is so stay focused

Losing weight before your first fill is due to restriction... You friggin moran.. (I'm just teasin' - a little grouchy cuz it took me three months to get restriction and YOU PEOPLE got it right away...)

I'm not really calling names.. that was a "YOU MORAN... to the band gods who made my band wait for fills to work)

I don't know if I had restriction because I was pretty much on liquids for 5 weeks but now I am on food and at week 7 and I've only PB'd 4 times since surgery day due to medicine twice and 3rd and 4th time the chicken was grilled and too hard and I couldn't get it past my adenoids. I was so used to not eating that I felt my espophagus was too narrow for anything solid. It was almost like I needed to retrain my throat how to swallow solids. But since then, everything is going through. I don't have any restriction. NONE! I'm just being very good and not overeating or eating anything bad, (cept I did have reeses ice cream last Friday, small lil cup) small but bad, yes.

My weight loss, in the beginning was been due to liquids and exercise, but now my weight loss is due to exercise and proper nutrition, as it should be. I know that the band works with fills and all and the bands purpose is for restriction but I've decided to take another approach. I have decided to wait as long as I possibly can to get a fill. I think that by not getting a fill I can completely rely on myself to lose my weight by retraining my brain to eat right, the right portions and exercise. If I can do this consistently without a fill, then I will know that I have successfully changed my eating behavior and food lifestyle and have retrained my brain. When I reach my goal, I may decide to get a fill but if I stick to this the way I am trying to, then I won't ever need a fill.

5.5 months out, no fill and down 65.5 pounds and counting.

I was down 36 pounds before my first fill. My doc was impressed..

But my doc only put .05 cc in and i have the bigger band i think the 10cc ( i dont know I have to ask the doc which one i have) But u am counting down the weeks till my next fill because I am hungry again

<TABLE id=HB_Mail_Container height="100%" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0 UNSELECTABLE="on"><TBODY><TR height="100%" width="100%" UNSELECTABLE="on"><TD id=HB_Focus_Element vAlign=top width="100%" background="" height=250 UNSELECTABLE="off">had surgery april 4 lost 17lbs haven't lost any since had first may17 still no restriction have to go back june11 maybe the second one will work never been sick eat anything </TD></TR><TR UNSELECTABLE="on" hb_tag="1"><TD style="FONT-SIZE: 1pt" height=1 UNSELECTABLE="on">

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

Totally lost weight. Haven't had my first fill yet. The first week was harder mentally for me. I wanted to eat because I was like almost afraid not to, but I sure wasn't hungry and if I pushed it too hard- ick- I felt yucky. My husband and I were staying in a motel so he was ordering room service- I actually licked the sauce off one of his buffalo wings they smelled so good. Wanted to eat it because it was there- not cause I needed it. It will take some time to train myself to eat for fuel, not for fun.

I too am a self proclaimed rule follower. I didnt have much restriction a couple weeks out of surgery and every day has been a struggle for sure. I have somehow managed to loose 20 since surgery 5 weeks ago. I just got my first fill Thursday and am on liquids so it's hard to tell how much more restriction I have as of yet. Hoping I'll be able to tell a significant difference soon.

I'm confused. Is there restriction in the post-op but prefill stage? I am five weeks post-op -- my first fill will be tomorrow -- and I have not experienced any feeling of restriction or of being full. Unlike tellymelly, I have never had a PB. Yes, I have lost 32 lbs., but I attribute my entire weight loss to will-power: I have followed the dietary guidelines to the letter. At this point, I don't yet feel any help from my unfilled band. Am I supposed to? I feel like I always feel on rigid diets, that I'm in a state of semi-starvation. Am I hungry? I honestly don't know. I've lived so long as an overeater that I'm not sure that I can identify hungry and full.