No Weight Loss After Lap Band Surgery

On march 15th, 2011 I had my lap band surgery... that was the biggest mistake I made. I fully regret it and now I fell into such a bad depression.

I don't know what to do, the doctors keep making excuses why I haven't lost anything. I've changed my diet drastically, I no longer use sugar at all, I drink a litre of water daily, I exercise, I count all carbs & sugar on everything. I even started the dukan diet.

I've gotten the band adjusted & now I can't swallow pretty much anything. The food comes up & it's so hard for the food to go down my throat. When it does, it comes back up.

I don't care what the doctor say... either they made a mistake somewhere & don't want to admit IT or something is wrong with me. Now I'm pretty much in good health so something is wrong with the band.

People comment that I must be eating all the wrong things... even my husband thinks I'm eating too late at night.

What do I do? I'm so frustrated and I cry every day. I don't want to look like this anymore...please help.

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No Weight Loss After Lap Band Surgery

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Jul 26, 2011

Also consider this
by: Beth, Who Hid the Donuts?

I agree with everything Lonicera has said, and I thought of a few other things.

First of all, you haven't had surgery all that long ago. I know it seems like you have, but oftentimes the first couple months are just healing time. Some don't really lose during this time for numerous reasons, some of which include after-surgery bloat. We have often told people not to expect any weight loss during the first couple months after surgery and that, if you do, it's a bonus. Everybody's body reacts differently to surgery recuperation.

Secondly, you said your husband has been commenting on your eating too late. How late are you eating? If he's commenting on this, maybe there's something to it. There are still the "diet" rules that should be followed. For instance, I don't eat after a certain time at night or within a certain number of hours before I know I'll be in bed. I do this not only for the "diet" rules that say you shouldn't eat too soon before bed, but also because if I do, I am almost guaranteed some reflux problems.

Also, counting calories and carbs is very good, but can you estimate how much food you're eating? I ask because my dinner might consist of 2 to 2 1/2 ounces of protein and about 1/2 cup of veggies and a very small salad. It's possible that your reflux or burping up of food is because you're eating too much and it's having a hard time going down. For me, when I'm at my "sweet spot" with my band, I really don't feel hunger OR fullness, so I had to be careful that I wasn't eating so much that it was literally sitting in my esophagus.

Additionally, I am of the belief that we should not rely so much on the scale. Granted, we do use it to gauge how well we're doing, but you MUST include keeping measurements of your body as well. I've had times when I was literally despondent because the scale hadn't moved for two months, but when I looked at my measurements, I had lost numerous inches! That led me to adopt the joke that I could handle being 300 pounds if I could only fit in a size six. :)

The fact is, if you're exercising as much as you say, you ARE building muscle -- and muscle weighs more than fat. Do your clothes fit differently? Do you notice your pants fit differently? Or are you only looking at the scale? Please do yourself that favor and start logging your inches. I often did it bi-weekly or monthly. You may be surprised what you find.

I hope you can fill in some of the blanks to help us help you, and take an honest assessment of all the actions you're taking and things you're doing (or maybe not doing) that might need a bit of tweaking. I hope this helps a bit.

Related Pages: Free Diet Journal, Exercise for Bariatric Surgery Patients

Jul 26, 2011

Don't write the gastric band off so quickly...
by: Lonicera The Bandit

You don't say how old you are, so I'd have to start with the obvious question - are you sure you're not pregnant?

Next - you're being far too impatient. Our metabolisms are all different, and it may be that yours takes longer to make your body shed weight. It took me a couple of months before I felt anything was happening, and almost the hardest thing was to be patient, and just keep following the rules. If you take a relaxed attitude to food from now on, there will be no need to try special diets - the only commitment from you is not to sabotage it with chocolate, confectionery and icecream.

If after only four months you already feel over-filled and get stuck, it sounds much too soon (how many fills have you had in that time?) and there's a possibility that it could have slipped. Perhaps for your own peace of mind you should ask them to x-ray it (or whatever the procedure is) to check it out. With the band, the only way to identify when something is wrong is patiently to cross off one possibility after another, and see what you're left with.

If you're throwing up food there's two important factors to bear in mind: one, you're probably not chewing it enough - it's got to be sludge when you swallow it; and two, the first episode inflames the area, and is very likely to cause you further problems - and if you're still trying to swallow mouthfulls which are too ambitious for it, then it'll get more inflamed, etc etc. You have to slow right down and drink fluid only for at least a day. So many people get an un-fill (or de-fill) without realising that all they needed to do was wait a bit.

You've waited this long to sort your life out, you've gone through the stress of deciding to have the band and the operation, the problems afterwards... so you can't give up after just four months.

Why not write back at some point and give us an update? It'll be nice to know how you're getting on.

Good luck!

Lonicera The Bandit.

Related Pages: Bariatric Eating (How to eat), Bariatric Diet (what to eat)

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