I thought I would start a thread and as we get more Merry Losers than they can copy and paste and add their names.

MERRY LOSERS

Dec 3 - CarolK1

Dec 4 - TXbandit (tentative)

Dec 6 - Sghatl

Dec 7 - Newblew

jen hollers

Dec 10 - HeatherA (tentative)

Dec 11 - ::Tracy::

Dec 13 - Caramel

Dec 17 - 100lbsforsale

MissSac

Dec 18 - Mendypoo

Dec 26 - Miss Polly

Dec 27 - jasmona1214

Dec 28 - The Fox

Please feel free to add your surgery date

Caramel:ranger:

Hello! Thanks for responding. I just had my first fill on Friday, the 11th. I am trying to exercise but cant seem to get into a daily routine of it. Are you exercising? I eat the right things. You were banded two days after me. How much have you lost? Please let me know. Thanks so much for your response! You have been a great relief to me!

Lara

I have lost 25lbs so far and I get my first fill today. I am exercising about 4 days a week focused on weight training. I try to walk a mile each session. I eat decently with lots of room for improvement. I think you are doing fine. Remeber it is a marathon not a sprint. Make sure you mix it up exercising. You need to get some weights in. That makes for better use of insulin and a 24/7 burn. Find a friend to walk or join a gym. Don't be afraid of the shiny gym and skinny spandex. You just do your thing!

I had my surgery on December 4th, 2007 by Dr. David Elliott in Richmond, VA. I have noticed that everyone is losing more weight than me. Please help. I have only lost 14 lbs since my surgery. Its now January 14th.

Lara

I wasn't banded until 12/20 but I have gained 10 lbs the day after surgery and have only lost 5 plus that 10 since. Mine is really slow and don't know if that is because of low a low BMI or not. I am not even close to your loss. Most people keep telling me to wait until I get restriction to worry about loss but don't careless with with eat now. I doubt this helps you but at least you are not alone. :eek:

The average weight loss that the surgeons want to see is 1-2 pounds per week. Some people will loose more and some less. Remember this is an average and not an every week thing. Loosing weight right after surgery (liquid phase) usually only happens with people who are 1) lucky enough to have restriction w/o any fills or 2) count calories until they get restriction. There are several things that can effect weight loss such as calorie intake, sodium intake, Water intake, and exercise to name a few. One of the things that can help is to journal your food intake. Fitday.com has a great free program to do that with.

Some people need more than 1 or 2 fills to feel any restriction. Keep in mind this is a very individual thing and you should try not to compare your weight loss with others. Yeah, I know, it's hard not to do that.

I know that I lost about 14 pounds after surgery while on the liquid phase only to gain 3 pounds of it back when I started solids. This sent me right back to my fitday. On another site it was brought up that people who use non-dairy coffee creamers and drink coffee throughout the day don't realize that they can take in 400 - 500 calories just on that. When you're trying to keep things around 1000-1200 calories a day, it uses up a lot of what you can have.

I hope this helps.

Vicki

Way to go Chris, I am 4 weeks out and starting to be hungry. Also dealling with a lot of head hunger. I am hoping a fill will fix that. For the first 2 1/2 weeks i did great. See Dr. thursday for one month check, but no fill until 6 weeks. How did the rest of you deal with head hunger?

I took the advicve of my boss (the VP) at work. After I discussed my need for a few days off for the outpatient surgery and explaining to him what I was doing, he challenged me to chart my goals. I do this in my job already so it seemed like a logical extension into my personal life. I went to him seeking his support and also to give him a heads up if there were complications. There were NONE thank goodness! He ended up giving me a push to do what I had already considered.

I have now built a chart that shows me everything I am accomplishing. It shows total weight loss, weekly weight loss, weight loss vs. the goal my doctor has set (I've blown past that one!), my % of weight loss (both weekly and total) vs. my goal. I have a measurement tab, and also a Goal tab (where I have listed specific goals with completion dates). There are a total of 7 tabs to this excel worksheet. I shared this with a few close friends and a couple of members of my family. They can't beleive the success I have had and have commented that they wish they could chart various things in their lives. It is relatively simple!

I add this to the growing list of NON SCALE VICTORIES that are available to all of us! The SCALE VICTORIES are important too.

I hope you all are enjoying success and fulfillment in your journeys.

Good luck!!!

Chris,

I love the idea of the excel sheet you have done. Things went well at the dr. I continue to lose. Now will start exercising and should be great. I am so pleased i did this. It is a whole new life for me. Not just a diet. I love it.

there is an excel spread sheet on the MS site that you can download that has 3 or 4 different pages with graphs, etc.--all the formulas are already in it--each time you put in your weight, it changes the bmi, etc

what is the MS site?

if you open your excel and go like you are going to open a new spreadsheat--then the Microsoft Office Online--the template is called "Women's Fitness Chart"--and there is a Men's Fitness chart also.

for the measurement graph, it has 3 or 4 measurments--I added a few more measurements--haven't worked with it enough yet to add the extra measurements to the graph

I was banded on Dec 18th, first fill on Jan 15th 2008 and I am now down 30 pounds. I have been eating healthy and working out like I didn't have the assistance of the band. I wanted to make sure that I didn't "wait for band" and get that healthy lifestyle going now. My master plan right now is at some point to hit a wall and hopefully have the band to help me along by hitting the sweet spot at the right time. It is very hard to wish for just 2 pounds a week but I do understand that Is healthy weight loss average.

As far as my first fill goes I like to provide information to folks that i haven't seen posted before. Let me tell you the Fill needle is not any WIDER that a regular shot needle but damn if it is not alot longer. When I saw that needle I thought I was going to pass out. My fill was 5cc's in a 10cc band and I have a little restriction that happens mainly in the morning and then almost nothing at night. My idea of the perfect fill would be enough room in my stomach to allow me to eat what the food manufacturer considers a normal serving, you know like 3 crackers or two cashew nuts. All jokes aside I do now eat a cup of food at a time and then go back if I am hungry which I usually am but I refuse to take an entire box of chips or candy and plop down in front of the tube like the old days.

I was banded on 12/13 and so far have lost only 11 lbs. I have not had my first fill yet and can eat about 2 cups of food. I really can eat just about anything but breads, sweets, pasta, rice and beef! I have about 70 lbs more to lose before goal. Not sure if that is why I am losing so slowly. I am eating only 3 meals a day and no snacks. Not sure what else to do. I am also exercising 3 times a week. Any suggestions I will be more than happy to follow.

lachanga, no need for alarm!! We all lose at different rates! Men lose quicker than women, generally. Much of my weight had to do with diet soda. I am so glad I was given the motivation to get off that evil crap! Keep exercising. And good luck!!

I am personaly at a plateau. I have been here for 4 weeks now. I am working out 5 days a week treadmil and lifting weights. And I am increasing the speed on the treadmil every day. no holding on...ok very little holding on. yesterday i even added an incline for part of my walk. that was hard. I am not losing weight but I can walk up the stairs with less problems then 2 months ago.

I am personaly at a plateau. I have been here for 4 weeks now. I am working out 5 days a week treadmil and lifting weights. And I am increasing the speed on the treadmil every day. no holding on...ok very little holding on. yesterday i even added an incline for part of my walk. that was hard. I am not losing weight but I can walk up the stairs with less problems then 2 months ago.

Hey, Cerrin - we're living parallel lives. We started at similar weights, were banded a day apart, I'm having my first fill today, too, and I haven't lost weight in several weeks. You're doing much better than I am with exercise (good for you!). I'm starting to do some weights and physical therapy exercises to strengthen the muscles around my arthritic knees and hips. But I'm also feeling much more energetic, and finding it easier to walk than I did just 30 pounds ago, so I'm excited about the future, imagining myself bouncing around with tons of energy by the time I get down 100 lb!

Good luck with your fill today. I'm looking forward to finding out whether I've gained a little or held the same - I got a new scale and I've been +/- 5 lb on it, but I didn't get it til several weeks after my last doctor's appointment, so I have no idea how it compares. I'm also looking forward to possibly having a little restriction!