I've been in kind of a dream world where I eat pretty much whatever I want. I wasn't measuring or anything because it's not like I could get that much down the hatch. I avoided the obvious dangers - fast food, Cookies, cake, etc. but beyond that I didn't have any rules. I am convinced that my weight loss will slow down any minute now and when that happens I'll probably wig out and figure that I need to start counting calories.

What's everyone else's approach?

It has been 4 weeks since I was banded and I am trying to stay at around 1200 calories. This is as low as I can go without getting hungry. I am hoping that after my first fill I can go a little lower and lose a little faster. There is a great website called fitday.com that allows you to enter your food and it totals your fat, calories etc.. for the day. This is helpful but it can be a little time consuming.

Thanks to everyone for mentioning fitday.com. I had never heard of it until I read this post and I think it's a great resource. Calorie counting is very important in weight loss, with or without the band.

Not really, but I have cut out a lot of things such as sugar, white breads, red meat, caffeine, and carbonated beverages, along with all the junk food, as well as weigh and measure most of my portions.

My most successful weight loss whether with the band or after removal was when I counted calories. It made me accountable and I had to face what I put in my mouth at any given time.

It just keeps us honest with what we are actually eating. It can be an eye opener when you actually count those pesky little critters. SIGH!!