I probably won't be posting anymore since I'm so frustrated with my progress. Why can't I get enough restriction that I'm not hungry? I get stuck almost everyday but once I get passed that I can eat a pretty good amount & STILL be hungry but stop. I've been banded over 5 months & have lost only 17lbs. I try to eat reasonably but can't stick to a meal plan when my hunger is stronger than my willpower. I don't think my band has slipped because I do get stuck alot & have 7.6cc in a 10cc band so that's pretty tight I would think.

I exercise 5 days a week doing weights & cardio & will continue to do so since I feel this is the only reason I have lost at all. I'm so very upset that I am going to stop trying on the food end. I not only lost a lot of my 401K in the financial crisis but feel I threw away 14k on this stupid surgery.

Sorry to bring anybody else down & promise not to vent on here again but if anybody has one last bit of advice or similar experience & recovered to reach goal please advise me. Thanks & good luck to the rest of you.

hi!!

please dont give up! 17lbs lost is better then 17lbs gained. have you tried talking to a nutritionist or keeping a journal of what you are eating? maybe you are not eating things that will keep you full longer and that is why you get hunger?

sorry i dont have much advise but just keep strong and you can make it work

Here's a big one... are you eating a lot of carbs (potatoes, bread, pasta) or a lot of liquid calories (soda, juice, ex.)? Liquid calories go right through the band like it's not even there. Carbs on the other hand tend to cause most people to gain weight. Just don't COMPLETELY avoid carbs, just cut back.

Don't stop posting! We're here to help you.

I understand and can identify with how you feel. I also paid out of my own pocket for my surgery. It has been 3 months and I actually weight 2lbs more than before surgery. The depression of the band not working has enabled me to eat more and more. I got my first fill thinking I would finally have help in this journey and that the band as a tool would work and NOTHING! I got absolutely no restriction. After demanding it..I got a fill again two weeks later which was yesterday..I felt restriction for the first tim ever. Today I don't feel nearly as restricted as yesterday and I am hoping for the best and that the restriction hasnt already past. Is that crazy or what? I know that sometime the band doesnt work for everyone and I just hope that I am not one of those ppl. Please don't give up. Even if you have to fight on your own. That is what I have had to decide to do, with our without help of the band, I must lose this weight..You can do it. Don't stop posting. There are ppl here to help you.

I probably won't be posting anymore since I'm so frustrated with my progress. Why can't I get enough restriction that I'm not hungry? I get stuck almost everyday but once I get passed that I can eat a pretty good amount & STILL be hungry but stop. I've been banded over 5 months & have lost only 17lbs. I try to eat reasonably but can't stick to a meal plan when my hunger is stronger than my willpower. I don't think my band has slipped because I do get stuck alot & have 7.6cc in a 10cc band so that's pretty tight I would think.

I exercise 5 days a week doing weights & cardio & will continue to do so since I feel this is the only reason I have lost at all. I'm so very upset that I am going to stop trying on the food end. I not only lost a lot of my 401K in the financial crisis but feel I threw away 14k on this stupid surgery.

Sorry to bring anybody else down & promise not to vent on here again but if anybody has one last bit of advice or similar experience & recovered to reach goal please advise me. Thanks & good luck to the rest of you.

Have you talked to your surgeon? If you honestly think your band has slipped, you need to have that checked out under x-ray or flouroscope. I'm sorry you are struggling so much, but you do have this band inside of you, why not try a little harder to see if you can't get it to work for you?

Good work on the exercise. Keep it up. It will help you in many ways.

I probably won't be posting anymore since I'm so frustrated with my progress. Why can't I get enough restriction that I'm not hungry? I get stuck almost everyday but once I get passed that I can eat a pretty good amount & STILL be hungry but stop. I've been banded over 5 months & have lost only 17lbs. I try to eat reasonably but can't stick to a meal plan when my hunger is stronger than my willpower. I don't think my band has slipped because I do get stuck alot & have 7.6cc in a 10cc band so that's pretty tight I would think.

I exercise 5 days a week doing weights & cardio & will continue to do so since I feel this is the only reason I have lost at all. I'm so very upset that I am going to stop trying on the food end. I not only lost a lot of my 401K in the financial crisis but feel I threw away 14k on this stupid surgery.

Sorry to bring anybody else down & promise not to vent on here again but if anybody has one last bit of advice or similar experience & recovered to reach goal please advise me. Thanks & good luck to the rest of you.

I feel your pain sweetie! I've been the same weight for 5 months. I do have restriction. I'm at the 'sweet spot' that they describe. Yet I've not lost what I thought I would or what the surgeon sez I should have lost!!!

I have HAD it. However, I don't think I would have lost what I have lost w/o the band. Period.

I think they need to add an additional survey/form whatever you want to call it to your registration pre-surgery stuff. The questionnaire should point blank ask you "Can you lose weight on a diet?"

If the answer is NO. Then this should be investigated further. Because people know if they can or can't lose on a diet. I'm one of those who can not.

They should then ask what your pre-surgery diet was like. They can tell if you are eating a lot or little. Because in my year of lap band I've developed some theories. And I feel if you are a junk-food, high calorie eating person then you are going to lose big with the lap band. If you are a moderate eater with occasional junk-food then you will lose moderately. And if you eat small meals, rare junk-food, overall good healthy eating, then you will not do well with the lap band.

I was somewhere between moderate to healthy eater. So I lost little to moderately.

You will find little support for your troubles here. Some want to study your diet. Some want to kick your arse into high gear. All of which I have done here, there and everywhere. None has moved the scale AT ALL. Those that are successful are in disbelief of what you tell them. Heck I'm in disbelief, I BELIEVED I was going to succeed where other things I'd tried had failed.

Now I have just joined Weight Watchers, literally today, and I will use it if I lose but if after a month the scale is not moving, I'll go on to something else. I WILL LOSE THIS WEIGHT. One way or another. I'm hoping to do this for a few months, then go back to the 'lap band' way... maybe shake up my routine, fool my body, but I can't just keep doing the same thing.

The up side is that after 5 months of a plateau, I have not gained. Praise the lord. The downside is that my daydreams of one year out of lapband to be 100 pounds thinner are up in smoke.

I hope this helps... because you are not alone. Most of 'us' are in the closet because others failing do not want to admit it and are still struggling, and newbies or those who have not had the surgery are usually the ones to answer you first. Then the rare birds who have lost quickly (probably big eaters pre-surgery) will try to help you but become stunned when you don't lose with their ideas.

And when you go from feeling in need of help, to being angry (as I am) no one wants to touch you.

Hand in there, keep coming here and finding people like me, and don't give up. Just move on to plan B.

{{{{{{{{{{{ HUGS }}}}}}}}}}}}}:smile:

Edited October 23, 200817 yr by I_Said_NO
typing with 4 year old running around me... LOL

Sorry to bring anybody else down & promise not to vent on here again but if anybody has one last bit of advice or similar experience & recovered to reach goal please advise me. Thanks & good luck to the rest of you.

don't be sorry - that's what this place is for!

vent away - not everyone has great success out of the gate, me included! my huband just about got to goal before i saw 25lbs GONE, but i didn't let the noise of him or anyone else in comparrison distract me. i just kept plugging along.

i suggest you start journaling your food, till you see it in writing - will you really know where to make adjustments.....

good luck to ya!!!

don't be sorry - that's what this place is for!

vent away - not everyone has great success out of the gate, me included! my huband just about got to goal before i saw 25lbs GONE, but i didn't let the noise of him or anyone else in comparrison distract me. i just kept plugging along.

i suggest you start journaling your food, till you see it in writing - will you really know where to make adjustments.....

good luck to ya!!!

luluc...I read your food diary everyday along with many others & think to myself...NO WAY! You're whole day's menu could be one meal for me. Could you eat that little if you were hungry all the time? I thought that was the purpose of the band. I have kept a diary & see a nutritionist but the point I'm trying to get over is that my hunger is not controlled enough for me to be able to make wise choices enough to lose. I don't drink with meals or drink much of anything except Water (lots), get my Protein 60-80 grms but my cravings are just too hard to control & I usually end the day with all kinds of crap. Please tell me I'm not crazy but isn't the band's job to control hunger? I know I have a responsibility as to what I put in but if I wasn't always hungry it would be easier to control that aspect. I don't want to live on a diet anymore.

luluc...I read your food diary everyday along with many others & think to myself...NO WAY! You're whole day's menu could be one meal for me. Could you eat that little if you were hungry all the time? I thought that was the purpose of the band. I have kept a diary & see a nutritionist but the point I'm trying to get over is that my hunger is not controlled enough for me to be able to make wise choices enough to lose. I don't drink with meals or drink much of anything except Water (lots), get my Protein 60-80 grms but my cravings are just too hard to control & I usually end the day with all kinds of crap. Please tell me I'm not crazy but isn't the band's job to control hunger? I know I have a responsibility as to what I put in but if I wasn't always hungry it would be easier to control that aspect. I don't want to live on a diet anymore.

i struggled with hunger as well in the beginning. i had portion control issues mostly - not really a sweet or junk food person. i had 8 fills with 8.5cc in my 10cc band before i was really able to check the hunger.

my meals were MUCH larger then than they are now. i set some rules for myself: every meal measured or weighed / only used a salad plate / never ate after 7pm / made sure i got in 4-5 days worth of exercise.

i've read a lot hear about head hunger; i'm not sure that was my issue early on, i felt physical hunger. but i sorta stuck to my personal rules, and before long - it didn't take much to fill me up. my average is 1100-1200 calories a day - maybe your not taking in enough??? when i was under 1000 per day....my weight loss halted. just a thought.

dont give up try not to eat to many carbs drink lots of water

luluc...I read your food diary everyday along with many others & think to myself...NO WAY! You're whole day's menu could be one meal for me. Could you eat that little if you were hungry all the time? I thought that was the purpose of the band. I have kept a diary & see a nutritionist but the point I'm trying to get over is that my hunger is not controlled enough for me to be able to make wise choices enough to lose. I don't drink with meals or drink much of anything except Water (lots), get my Protein 60-80 grms but my cravings are just too hard to control & I usually end the day with all kinds of crap. Please tell me I'm not crazy but isn't the band's job to control hunger? I know I have a responsibility as to what I put in but if I wasn't always hungry it would be easier to control that aspect. I don't want to live on a diet anymore.

LuLu or Crazycat, where do you read food diaries? I would love to see how I compare... thanx

I Said No...you can find it under Food & Nutrition, there is a thread "what did you eat today" or something like that. It's very long so I start from the end first & work back since that makes it current.

Judith - I couldn't agree more with you about many people on these boards being judgemental and often critical. These boards should be for advice and encouragement. Like you my eating pre-band was not that bad. No fast food. No 12 cans of coke a day. Not much in the way of junk food. People who had that kind of eating patterns will lose much more weight and faster. I am losing slowly and that is fine with me. I had lost nearly 40 pounds with my own dieting (since 2005), then the 6 month diet and pre-surgery diet and another 20 post-surgery for a total of 60. Don't forget that the more weight you lose the fewer calories you need to maintain that weight (150 fewer calories for every 10 pounds). Our bodies really fight to keep weight on from our days of when food was scarce.

I only have 3 ccs in my band so far and feel like I have no restriction. Food doesn't even get stuck AT ALL. Don't give up hope though, try drinking at least 75 oz. of water and see if that helps the weightloss. I not only count protein grams but calories as well. Writing down everything seems to help me not over eat and I won't eat anything unless I know how many calories are in it. :smile::redface::thumbup:

Don't give up yet! I saw a post recently where many people said they did not feel any restriction until they had at least 8cc's in their bands. I think you should get more fills. Get them until they work. Maybe you get stuck because you eat too fast or don't chew enough. I know I get stuck when I eat the wrong foods or am really hungry and don't chew as well as I should.

It is too soon to quit - what have you got to lose by getting a fill? Good luck!:smile:

I probably won't be posting anymore since I'm so frustrated with my progress. Why can't I get enough restriction that I'm not hungry? I get stuck almost everyday but once I get passed that I can eat a pretty good amount & STILL be hungry but stop. I've been banded over 5 months & have lost only 17lbs. I try to eat reasonably but can't stick to a meal plan when my hunger is stronger than my willpower. I don't think my band has slipped because I do get stuck alot & have 7.6cc in a 10cc band so that's pretty tight I would think.

I exercise 5 days a week doing weights & cardio & will continue to do so since I feel this is the only reason I have lost at all. I'm so very upset that I am going to stop trying on the food end. I not only lost a lot of my 401K in the financial crisis but feel I threw away 14k on this stupid surgery.

Sorry to bring anybody else down & promise not to vent on here again but if anybody has one last bit of advice or similar experience & recovered to reach goal please advise me. Thanks & good luck to the rest of you.

Hey don't give up!!!!

The surgery you may have paied a lot for and you think it did no justice but let me also tell ya this the band is a tool to help you loose weight if you are not going to do your part it won't do it's part so stop and take a big breath and say to your self I will loose weight and I will work at it remember it is just a tool to help you loose weight so I am not saing that you are not doing your part please don't think that cause you just very well may be doing your part but depression will bring you down and keep you from loosing the weight ALSO SOME HAS TOLD ME THAT THEY GAIN WEIGHT FROM THE BAND BEFORE THEY START LOOSING THE POUNDS

So you may just be upset for nothing you may go weigh in nest week and see that you lost 5 or 6 pounds and the same every week so just relax take it easy and you will soon get there and if you don't soon I would contact your doctor and talk with him or her about it may be that your band sliped but Please don't give up were all pulling for ya :smile: