gingerbug

My body is refusing to participate. It would appear that despite 1-2 hours at the gym 6 days a week, my body is determined to stay right where it is at.

The biggest thing for me is it takes the guess work out of how many calories I burn. I already track what I eat so it makes sense to track what I work off. It was really eye opening, it appears that I burn less than what I thought I was going by the online calculators for the activity I was doing. It also let me zero in on what was really getting those calories burning. Running and sweaty, uphill vigurous walking burn tons of calories for me as does pulling a wagon with 80 pounds of children in one hand and hold a leash attached to an 80 pound dog in the other for 4 miles, LOL. Just knowing how many calores I was burning made me more aware to keep moving. When you upload the arm band to the computer it shows it as a graph with spikes with your activity throughout the day. What is fun is that you can hold the mouse pointer over the minutes of the day and see hoe many calories you burned that particular minute. Then you see a flat line where you can tell you were sitting on your ass for an hour watching tv. Fear the flat line!!! LOL, I do not want to upload my armband and see no spikes! It becomes a challange to create as much movement as possible throughout the day. It also tracks sleep at night and can tell when you wake up and tells you the quality of sleep you get so that is cool, too. I also found that when I compared my calorie intake against what the armband said I burned, the deficit coincided ON THE NOSE with what I lost with the exception of when I was menstrating or had way too much sodium. I tended to ccatch up later, though.

Absolutely. It is cool when you upload all your information to your computer and you can see minute per minute how many calories your burn. Also, rocking music really helps with the treadmill.

Thanks for clearing that up for me, is that the same standard in the US or just Mexico. I would have no problem going to mexico, though, if needed. Are there aftercare issues? It is a relief to know that there are options.

I got a book from my doc that was required reading and it had a huge section on eating post band. To sum it up, lean protein first, veggies second, and starches third. Not a low carb diet but for sure a low 'bad carb' diet. 4-6 ounces of food at each meal, no fluids with meal and for an hour afterward. I am in maintenance now and have a goal of 1500 calories between 4 meals a day.

I plan to watch this thread! It is nice to know that this is an option if the band starts to give me problems. So far, it has been great for me but you never know. So docs have no problem changing to the sleeve even if you have lost your weight?

Why would you lose weight for only a year? I am over a year out and I am still losing. Honestly, the best thing you can do is track what you got going in and out. What it comes down to, if you consume more calories than what you burn, you will not be losing. I know this is elementary but using the band as a tool to keep yourself as full as possible for as long as possible will yield the results you are looking for. I have never heard of a 12 month window of opportunity to lose weight with the band. I am still losing. Yes I have to bust my ass but it is worth it. Oh, and I would for sure be looking into an unfill. Can they check your pouch under flouro?

Keep track of your sodium. Especially after a fill when I am on liquids I find that I have way too much sodium and I tend to gain right around 3 pounds. Are you tracking calories and exercise? It is important to keep tabs on what is going in and out of your body.

I chalk it up to 'it takes all sorts of people to make up the world'. Honestly, I find it somewhat entertaining and the couple of people who are bordering on toxic made it to my ignore list so that helps. The rest I take with a grain of salt.

:confused:

Happened to me twice. Once I needed an unfill and the other time I had to go back on liquids for 4 days, I think, cause they suspected it was just irritated. I did my 4 days of liquids and was just fine. That is just my experience, you may want to give liquids a try or check with your doc.

Took me just over a year to get to goal and it was a lot of weight to me, maybe not so much compared to others. Transitioning to maintenance is easier than I thought. As for junk food, I lose my interest after a couple cookies. It is just not the same as it used to be.

Can you get in to see a therapist? I look at therapy like I look at oil changes - it is something you need to do every once in a while to keep things running smoothly.

I completely understand. I dont think I will ever get used to it.

All my fat clothes go away the INSTANT they start to not fit me! When I shop I keep an eye out for clearance clothes and I try on my current size then try to get a size down as well.

That is right, it is all about the exercise! Exercise is my insurance that I wont go back to where I was.

I was chatting with a woman from my 'women on weights' class and while I was busting through my bicep curls, I mentioned that I had lost 118 pounds with the help of the lapband. She tells me she was shocked because you dont look at people who are thin and think that they used to have a weight problem. I almost passed out cause, to her, I had rated as thin. Imagine that. Me being so normal looking that people cant tell I may have once been fat. Blows my mind.

You are welcome, I credit my last 14 pounds to the gowear fit!

That is seriously, the best feeling ever. Oh, and for the first time in years I dont dread buying a swimsuit.

Check out the Gowear Fit, made by the same people with a lower price tag. Yes, it has helped me A LOT, especially as I got towards the end of my goal.

I feel the need to add that water aerobics is NOT a cake walk workout. I have had my ass handed to me in water aerobics.

I avoid the rice and the seaweed and I am fine. I tend to eat just the fish itself. I dont get to go out for sushi as much as I would like but when we do go, it takes us a while to eat anyways. I always get some hot saki to start with and take it slow from there. I might be able to eat a piece with rice on it but not much more at my current restriction level.

I had the same issues every other morbidly obese adult had with knee and foot and a host of other aches and pains. I started on the elliptical, barely moving, it seemed. Now I run, do tae bo, lift free weights, do spin class....and I PUSH myself. Hard. Every.single.workout. What used to be 'pushing myself hard' in the beginning barely registers now but at the time it was hard and each workout I got stronger and all thoses obsticles that were there went away. Part of it was my physical condition improved making my body more efficient and part of it was the phsychological roadblocks I put up for myself. I HATED working out, omg, I had convinced myself for years how much it sucked. Now, it it the one thing I do 6 days out of the week, no exceptions. I would rather my house be messy, laundry be piled up, and the fridge be out of milk than miss going to the gym. My point is, it does not matter what you can do, it is the effort you put into what you are capable of doing and the drive you have to push yourself that matters.

:tt2::rofl::thumbup::rofl: