:think Hi Everyone ,its been a while since i have been on,about 6 months actually. Last October i had to get a new band put in because my first one slipped and was giving me troubles and now ever since then i feel ive had nothing but dissapointment!! :huytsao i have not lost anything since then and if anything i have put on!!! the band i now have is a bigger one to my first one but i am sooooo dissapointed i keep thinking that these last six months i could have possibly been at my goal weight but instead i have gone up some,only a few kilos but its not right and i dont like it!! :angry i guess i have also been dissapointed in myself aswell because eventhough i exercise i still get no results!! :girl_hug: has anyone else had this? i just dont understand, i sort of blame it on the first band!! if it wasnt for that one playing up i wouldnt be here!! i know i sound stupid but i cant help feeling that.:think

Hi Phili.

You don't say anything about having had any fills. Have you had one (or more)? Do you feel restricted?

Hi Chickie!

Yes i have pretty much had a fill every once a month since the new band and only feel restricted sometimes. i still only eat small amounts of fodd but i just dont get why this is the way it is. my doctor did say that it is a bigger band than the previous one but i still cant help feeling dissapointed:think

Ok, I just read that you have the 12ml band. How many ml? Do you have room for another fill?

You also say you are eating small amounts and exercising, which is wonderful! But to help you out, can I ask what exercise are you doing? How much are you eating, and more specifically what are you eating? Are you tracking everything you eat on www.fitday.com or www.sparkpeople.com or any of the other online weight tracking programs (or keeping a journal)? I know that it has helped me immensely to see what I'm eating. We'll all help if we can, I can only imagine how very frustrated you must feel right now.

Hi Girls, thank you both for your replies to this!! yes i do havethe 12ml band now and just last week my fluid levels in it are now 10ml. My doctor said that i should feel restriction now but not to be really surprised if not, he says even though its a 12ml band it can allow for more fluid to be put in. does that make sense?!! as for the exercise i walk 4 nights a week, the last couple of weeks have been up and down as lack motivation and my friend that i go walking with has gone overseas for 2 weeks.:omg: I admit im not very good on my own i do lack alot of motivation, my job really takes up alot of my time!! and for the food intake, well bythe time i get home from work i usually eat from the microwave,what i mean is all my food that i eat is microwavable as it is quick and easy for me!! fish portions, eggs,mash potato,tuna balls,cheese, stuff like that, i do admit that i do like to have chocolate as well:hungry: . i do not have any of the online trackers are they really a good idea? can others see your profile on that? i dont like the idea that someone could see what i eat and what my weight is, im funny about that,especially about the weight!! does this explian a bit more?:help:

It sure does help, thank you for explaining. I do not know a lot about Sparkpeople, I have signed up for it and tried it out, but I didn't like the format (though it is really nice looking) as I work nights and it structured your food into the daily meals. Which for any normal person would work great. They (sparkpeople) also email you tips and newsletters. I don't like that, but I can see how that would be great for some folks. I use www.fitday.com and I love it. They are both free services and are private, no one can see your profile, it's sort of like a virtual journal. You can track your food intake and your activities and your weight and other things. It is VERY helpful! I don't think I could have lost the past 40 or so pounds without it. I do not count calories, but as long as I put in every single bite, I find it keeps me in line to about 1500-2200 calories a day (I'm not yet banded). Before I started using it I was easily eating 2500-3000 a day. I also have changed my food choices and I avoid as much refined, simple carbohydrate as possible. Anything with high fructose corn syrup or enriched flour is a no no. I try for whole grains and instead of mashed potatoes, if I feel I need a starch I'll have sweet potatoes. You certainly can eat through your band with a lot of the higher calorie mushies, you won't ever feel full from what I understand about how the band works. Do you drink with meals? Remember they say that washes the food out of the pouch and so your satisfied feeling doesn't last. Do you eat Protein first, then veggies, then carbs? I know some do not feel that makes a difference, but some do, I figured it was worth a try, and for me it does.

Hope this helps.

www.dailyplate.com is also a great place to track calories. I used to be a fitday fan, too, but I like this site a little better...it has a better database of restaurant and name brand food. And yes, you can certainly remain anonymous. Keeping track is highly recommended.

Oooo, thanks! That's the other one I couldn't remember. I'm off to join it and give it a try. I like fitday, and I like it a lot better for my lifestyle than sparkpeople, but I'm happy to try something else.

I like the idea of tracking on Spark People, Fit Day, or that other site, all your food and exercise. Every. Single. Thing.

You will be surprised just how quickly it all adds up.

In the meantime, maybe kicking the exercise up a little? A power walk? Walking a little longer? A skipping rope for 5 minutes a few times a day? (the rope is fun, and burns quite a few calories)

Hi girls, i have just registered myself on two of the weight sites, the food counting ones!! anyways i am going to see which one i like better and go from there, i do hope this does make a difference because i really want this to work!!!

Yeah, when you say walk, what do you mean?

People's interpretation of walking for exercise is different, but basically if you arent sweating, finding it hard to talk and buggered afterwards then you're not really working hard enough.

For many people they have to push harder and run once they get a real power walk under control.

Really vigorous exercise makes ALL the difference and five or six days a week over four will make a really big difference too.

You'll come to love it, honestly!

Many thanks for the links to the online meal trackers!!

Hi Jachut,

I do honestly say that i do lack motivation doing exercise, now that my friend is gone for 10 days i dont think i will be going:rolleyes i really do need pushing in that department!!!:censored: when we do walk we walk for about half hour 40 minutes and we walk fast but there is no sweating unless it is hot!! i believe that we walk fast, my friend is not a slow walker and if anythig i walk faster to keep up with her!!:faint: im just scared that even though i have the band my weight is going to slowly creep back up again!!:cry

Hi Phili,

So sorry to hear you are not seeing results yet. I thought it may help you to know that the first 6 months for me were a huge dissapointment too. I was having fill after fill and I'd have limited restriction for a while and then nothing. I too also put on weight. I went back to my doctor to complain and she replaced my saline fill with a thicker fill called Omnipak. She put less in than I had of saline and by God did it work!! The difference was like night and day. I now know what real restriction is. This was last October and since then I have lost 10 kg. Ask your doc about Omnipak because it was the answer for me. Cheers, Fleur xx

Hi Girls, Thanks for the opinion on the omnipack Fleur, i see my doctor in about 3 weeks so i will ask him then and hopefully he will have that coz i really do feel like i am at a dead end now!! it does get me down. hopefully things will change:nervous