I'm not Losing!

I had the band surgery on June 29th of this year.  It was a last ditch effort of a life time of dieting.  I couldn't even remember all the diets I had been on, but I remembered my first throid test at the tender age of eleven, because my father couldn't understand why I wasn't losing on just one meal a day. I was maybe five pounds overweight back then.  Flash forward to 2007.  I weighed 224 when I had my surgery.  At my six week check up I was down to 200 lbs.  the next two weeks I was up to 202 and had my second fill. ( I was up to 2ccs, half of what my band will hold) The scale hasn't moved from that point on.  I'm starting to think I should have had the Gastric-Bypass because the band doesn't seem to be working for me.  I eat three times a day.  for breakfast I have a protein shake, for lunch I have a salad, which consists of lettuce and finely graded cheddar cheese and very little Ranch dressing (so little that most of what I eat is DRY) for dinner I have Cream of Wheat or a second salad.  I would try some meat, but I'm broke till my next paycheck and this is the only food I have.  i have been going to the gym every morning for the last week and a half, walking on the treadmill and yesterday I started weight training.  I weighed myself this morning, nothing had changed.  I think it's a little early to be reaching a plateu.  I always heard that band people have a 12 to 18 month windoe to lose and then they usually gain some of the lost weight back and really have to diet and excerise to keep the weight off. I am very discouraged and wondering what have I done to my body, having this surgery and no better off then I was before.

Why isn't this recorded on the message board?

Maybe I'm the only one that is going to answer my own post, kinda funny;  maybe it's just too negative for people to deal with. My daughter took me to lunch and I had the first meat I've had since my second fill.  I feel so much better!  I had about three fourths of a beef pattie with melted cheddar cheese.  The first couple of bites I didn't think I was going to be able to eat any more, but I waited about five minutes or so and took a small bite and it went down okay.  Whoever goes out to eat with me will need a lot of patience.  It took a long time to eat the amount I did. (but that's good!) I put the rest in a box, and truth be told,I probably should have stopped half way through and saved the rest.  I think it would have been enough.  So now I'm going to keep track and see how long it takes for me to get hungry again.  I feel like downing a ton of water, but I have to wait on that for about a half hour. I feel better than I did in the above post.  Sorry gang, but it's really hard not to wonder why the heck I did  this to myself (the surgery), when you don't see results. Another news flash.  I knew the Cream of Wheat was not low cal but I had no idea how many calories it had until I looked it up on line.  Fact is, with the amount I was eating the scale should have moved all right, it should have moved up!  That cereal might be okay for the first few days after a fill, but not after.  So now I have a fresh dose of hope.  We'll see how it goes.

Maybe you should post this on the lap band board? This is the non-surgical weight loss board and I don't know how many lap-banders post here.

Hi there, I am sorry to hear about your troubles. I don't have a lot of experience with wls, but there are a couple of other people on these boards who have had the lap-band and have had some troubles losing weight. My guess is they will respond to you when they see this, as they've posted about some of the same frustrations as you are now. How much time are you spending at the gym?? I know that for myself, I didn't start seeing really positive weight loss results until I committed to 1.5 hours of cardio and also about 15-30 minutes of weight lifting 5-6 days a week. Good luck with everything. I really hope it works out for you!!!!! --Julie--

knowing the "cost" of what you are eating is critical. I look at my menu plan as a budget.  I have 1500 calories to "spend" each day....  If I spend them carelessly, I wont have enough food.  If I dont spend enough I will find myself hungry at the end of the day. 

Even post surgery, people need to know what they are spending.  We must all learn to read labels, measure everything and put it in a journal that tells us how we are doing.  Think of Fitday and the daily plate as the Quicken and Quick books of the eating world.   Imagine if you went to someone for help with your money and they said....  just go out there and try not to spend to much at any one time.  Spend in reasonable portions...  Try to have a reasonable balance between housing costs, transportation costs and entertainment costs... we would all say that is wacko and want our money back... We would want more defined guides and information on how to meet those guides.  We would want to know how to track our spending so that we knew if we were meeting the guides or not.  Why should we feel differently about food? 

1) Do you know you're on the non-op board? 2) I had lap-band surgery aswell, and yes, it is common to hit a plateau so soon.  I hit one for a month straight, about a month and a half in. 3) It doesn't sound like you're eating enough calories and your body might be in starvation mode, where it holds on to it's fat resources for energy (because you're not feeding it enough energy). 4) You're not getting even close to enough protein in, and that will lead to hair loss. 5) Do you have any restriction right now?  Do you feel tight?  Or can you eat however much food you want?

Thanks everyone.  I most have hit the non-surgical by accident.  That would explain why I couldn't find my post on the Lap-Band message board  Ha! I'm a bit ashamed of my whinning, but thanks so much for caring to reply anyway You guys are great!  Good success to all of you.    I hope you all do well without surgery.  I'm 56 and after years of dieting and the opportunity (sp?) of insurance helping out I thought " why not, I've tried everything else."  I think it is helping because (before) I was so discouraged I stopped dieting for almost a year and regained weight to the tune of 40 pounds.  What I didn't realize is that when you do that you can't always get back on the wagon any time you want.  It's sooo much harder!  The band is  not letting me eat whatever and how much, I want.  i guess I'm the type of person where pain is a great motivator to clean up my act.   Well, I may visit back here again some time and see how you all are doing, and let you know how my journey is going. Take care!