Jachut

Fluids and nutrition is mainly what you need, your body will use its energy stores for actually making breastmilk. If you can breastfeed for a good long time, and keep your food intake moderate with the help of your band it will do GREAT things for your weight! Not to mention you've given your baby a great start in life. Ah, perhaps I got those things in the wrong order of priority, lol. Good luck with it, but personally, I'd be prepared to be completely unfilled to breastfeed, I'm very passionate about it.

I've actually never had a problem with this becuase I'm a carb eater - I've kept up the wholegrain cereals and plenty of fruit. Even in the liquid phase, I was having things like a smoothie with both a banana and a couple of weetbix blended into it - and tons of stuff like vege and lentil Soup. So even with the reduced volume overall, I still managed to get enough fibre in. I think if you make soup and blend it or buy really fibrefull ones (the Heinz lentil and bacon one we have here has 12 grames of fibre in it - look for anything with lots of veges like a minestrone ) you should be able to ward off the constipation and maybe add some Benefibre for insurance. And stay active, exercise really helps.

Yes - exercise! I find after 18 months of banding, I have lost a lot of the intitial enthusiasm etc. I feel normal now and I want a normal life and I just dont think about food much anymore in the sense of eating perfectly, being aware of calories etc. That's what I wanted out of being banded - a normal life and I'm thrilled that this has evolved. But I can see that I would gain weight if I didnt remain aware on some level - becuase now I do make a cake for the family and indulge in a piece, I dont worry about going out for dinner, I let my hair down a bit on holidays. But throughout it all I continue to exercise, I run for an hour most days and do weight circuits a few times a week. It really is key to preventing weight regain. My weight simply never budges anymore, not even by a pound.

I'm actually glad for the fact that I was such a pathetic dieter in the past, lol. I have never had long periods where I've survived on low calories, ever in my life and I really think that's partly why I've been able to lose on such a high intake. I've a whole history of planning to diet, but not actually doing it. I only ever made half hearted attempts, and I dont actually think I"ve ever done a diet that was under about 1200 calories a day. I'd never lost more than about 15lb prior to banding, but then I'd never been overweight enough to need to until the past few years. I wonder if that's stood me in good stead? Its interesting to think about.

I would have to say wait till you're done having kids, pregnancy and breastfeeding wreak absolute havoc on your breasts. And breastfeeding is just so important and so special, it would really be a shame to have your choice taken away from you due to having had surgery - its very very common to not be able to breastfeed after breast surgeries.

I think there's some truth, but a lot of myth surrounding it. I really believe when you drop to like 700 calories a day to lose weight, you can kiss goodbye to EVER eating like a normal person again. I think that's part and parcel of weight loss to be honest. I was discussing this in another post. A woman of my height who does as much exercise as I do should be able to eat over 2000 calories a day and maintain her weight, there is no flipping way I can get away with eating that much. So yes, get heavy, then cut calories to lose and you're stuck with it forever to keep the weight away. I just dont think there's a rational scientific explanation for that. I'm really glad I was happier with slow weight loss and my calories never got below 1500 and now my maintenance level is 1500 to 1800 a day. But for someone 5ft 10, 169lb who runs an hour most days, that's very low to just maintain, technically I should be losing. If I'd dropped to 700 I really believe I'd be maintaining now on 1000, no way do I want to live my life like that forever more. I also tend to lean more towards the camp that does not believe high Protein diets preserve muscle muss, but rather they increase the loss of lean body mass and make you prone to massive regain. There's as much "credible" evidence on the net for that theory as there is in favour, truth is they dont really know for sure yet. So yeah, I dont know if "starvation mode" exists or not, but those are my theories and I've pretty much lived by them, I just think moderation in all things - except for exercise. Exercise like a freaking maniac to lose weight rather than stop eating. It will work. And do it forever and it will keep the weight away. Its much much much easier to make myself go out and run for an hour than it is to not eat a piece of the cake I just made!

I take a completely different approach to eating with the band and dont do Protein first. I value my fruit and veges more than my protein. I dont rely on huge calorie restriction but do a lot of exercise instead to make up the deficit. I lost realtively slowly - 85lb over 18 months. I never lost hair and I also dont have loose skin. I dont take any supplements. I havent died yet from lack of protein. Maybe just lucky, but I do think that a more moderate slower weight loss on a more normal balance of foods, not just focussing on protein is healthier.

I'm sure if I tried to say what Jack did, I would have made it sound judgemental or offensive, lol, but it echoes my sentiments. I think so many bandsters just dont quite make the connection of how much of this journey you have to engineer yourself. It'a a LOT of work, but if you let your band help you it does. But it does less than most of us imagine when we are preparing for this surgery. Which can be a shock, but you CAN do it.

When I got banded, I had all the feelings of "maybe this isnt necessary, I really SHOULD be able to do this on my own". But it was a major reality check to really consider the fact that statistically, it was 99.9% certain that I wouldnt and couldnt do it on my own. I really think I'd try to have the same reality check post banding. Statistically, the weight's likely to go back over time. I really would consider another surgery personally if I possibly could. But in the meantime, I think exercise really comes to the fore as a tool to prevent weight gain. The times in my life that I've been successful in the medium term in keeping off a reasonable weight loss - like over 20lb which is all I had to lose in the old days before babies - were the times when I exercised - and I mean hard - like an hour of hard cardio like running almost every single day. Whenever my life changed and the commitment to exercise waned, that's when I gained weight. Same after I had my babies. First baby, no problem, I continued with a really vigorous walking routine with him in the pram. Second baby, and a toddler as well, the exercise fell by the wayside, and I ballooned. Exercise really is your best defence.

I havent lost a single friend. Its true, if you lose friends over something liek that, they were never true friends, sad as that is.

Wow Julie, Congrats! That's a fabulous victory. I actually think with the chewing and bite size thing, its waiting between bites that makes or breaks things for me. I too can eat absolutely anything, as long as I let each bite go down and see if it settles before the next. But the thing is, Americans and Australians eat differently. You guys cut up your food and then switch your fork and eat with just the fork, dont you? Here, you keep your knife in your right hand, your fork in your left and you cut each bite as you eat it. It slows you right down and that makes all the difference to me. I often get blocked on things that I'm eating with just a fork (and even chunky Soup with just a spoon) becuase you dont have that cutting time in between to slow you down. Perhaps eating with both knife and fork in hand would help some people?

I think its a good reminder that although it seems to be the trend to go nuts on Protein and place it as first priority, its all sorts of imbalances that can cause hairloss - not just protein as people seem to believe. I really think the overemphasis on protein for WLS patients means that they miss out on other important nutrients that are found in wholegrains and *adequate* amounts of fruit and vegetables. All things in moderation (including the rate of weight loss) seems to be the way to go, yet again. I really believe its the best outlook.

Hmm, it is baffling isnt it? One thing I guess is that many people are obese becuase there IS someting wrong with their bodies, this does become apparent when people get banded, lower their intake, up their exercise and still fail to lose. It's also shown by the fact that I know for me, with the level of exercise I do and my size and height, my daily calories for maintenance is something like 2,800. That is patently ridiculous, I would regain all of my weight back in a few months eating like that. I lost well on 1500 a day but now I maintain well on 1500 a day too - I definitely think once you've dropped your calories there's no going back really. When you think about it, a 5ft 10 169lb woman who runs for an hour a day maintaining her weight on 1500 calories a day does not make mathematical sense either. I should be able to eat a lot more than that. All a great argument for not dropping your calories too low if you can possibly avoid it. Like, I may be 169 lb and I'd really really really love to be 154. But I'd rather drop to 1300 calories and take a freaking year to lose that weight (or just accept being 169 for ever, which is quite a nice healthy weight)than drop to 700 and lose it in a few months and be stuck at eating 700 for ever, because it really seems to work that way.

Oh yes, I should clarify - I get hungry like I did before, it gets to meal time, my tummy starts growling, I realise I'm STARVING, but I get the same level of hunger as I did on previously 3 x as much food. Prebanding, if I ate what I eat now, I would be absolutely starving, much much hungrier than I am now, if that makes sense. But hunger, yes I still feel it. Not problematic hunger though.

I reckon! I'm 5ft 10 and 169lb and still in an Australian 14 which is about a 10-12 in American sizes. Its weird how people can weigh the same yet be a completely different shape. I have hips, which keeps me in relatively larger sizes. I disappear when I turn sideways, lol, but am wider from side to side.

None of that is correct. Where do people get this information? Is it from the doctors? If you can tolerate skins you should eat them, they're good for you, contain lots of fibre and a good proportion of the valuable nutrients in the foods. Milk, why on earth would that be a problem? I mean, you shouldnt guzzle a litre of it at a time, or drink milkshakes simply becuase of the calories, but milk isnt forbidden!

I can drink hot or cold all day. I *think* cold tightens me up, but I never tend to drink really cold liquids, I either drink tap Water or coffee most of the time. Its rare for me to drink juice or soft drink straight out of the fridge - oh, apart from a nice cold chardonnay. But wine loosens me up - in more ways than one, lol. If I tried to drink iced water and then eat toast in the morning I suspect I'd notice!

My band doesnt hate bread, thank goodness. But yes, providing you pay attention to where you're going wrong it will get better. Small bites, chew chew chew, stay away from foods like bread if they dont agree with you. I never had an adjustment like that. I never PB'd until after a year of being banded, and I"ve only done it twice in 18 months. But I had a cast Iron gut before banding (I can remember going out for Greek with friends and everyone got foodpoisoning and was vomiting for days, two were hospitalised. Not me, never even a gurgle from my stomach, and I ate the same things). True to form, my band is absolutely problem free, I can eat anything and dont have really tight restriction even at 2.9 mls. Just lucky I guess. The whole family gets gastro, I escape it, every time. But dont come near me with a headcold! Take your time, eat as if you're trying to swallow ground glass and I found the MOST important thing for me to do is not the tiny bites and chewing but its WAITING between bites. Wait for a minute, give the food time to make your stomach and see how it sits before you take another bite. This is what I find hard. Nobody notices the small bites and lots of chewing but when you just sit and dont touch your plate, they comment. And if you're eating during your lunch hour etc, it can be bloody inconvenient to take so long at it. But you have to wait between bites. I find I can get 4 bites of food in and swallowed before I realise the first one is not going down right and then its too late to do anything about it, the golf ball feeling and sliming are inevitable.

I've never had a night time eating problem, my appetite switches off at about 5pm and always did. But I can identify TOTALLY with what you're saying, I did exactly the same thing only at 11 am in the morning. My routine with each of my babies was wake up, rush around, getting older kids ready for school, drop them off, hit the shops, do the shopping, run the errands, do the banking etc, then home, baby would ALWAYS fall asleep in the car. In the olden days, it would be time to hit the couch with a pot of coffee brewed, and a packet of Tim Tams (chocolate biscuits) to watch taped episodes of Melrose Place or bad reruns of Australian soaps such as A Country Practice. With Eliza it was time to muck around on the internet. Always with a gallon of coffee and lots of carb foods. I could feel it all hit my bloodstream and I'd R-E-L-A-X. Nowadays, I'd be more likely to take the opportunity to slip in a workout or paint a few walls (we're painting) or run around doing housework (I could never ever understand people that did housework while their babies slept, that was time to veg out in my opinion). It hasnt changed with banding - I still tend to view food as a relaxant and a way to treat myself, but I have also discovered just how relaxing a good hard run on the treadmill can be and I can now make that choice, knowing that I will feel better after the run than after the binge. Plus being a regular runner, I am so much calmer, more in control and zen about everything that I just plain dont GET stressed out by the morning's activities like I used to.

Yes, and it was a most unexpected benefit. I did not realise how poorly I slept. I had no sleep disorders, sleep apnoea etc, but I just didnt realise how uncomfortable I had been at night until some of the weight was gone. I only had a BMI of 35 when I was banded, I really had no understanding on how even that level of obesity was affecting my body on a day to day basis. I knew I felt crap, but I didnt realise it extended as far as how I was sleeping. Looking back in hindsight, sleeping at a BMI of 35 was like sleeping when you're 9 months pregnant. You wake up because bits are aching - weight through the shoulder girdle and pelvis if you're lying on your side, I tend to sleep 3/4 on my front, lying pretty much on one side with the top leg bent, well my back used to ache because my big gut would twist me around when I lay like that. Lying on my back wasnt comfortable and I've never been a real stomach sleeper. You wake up because you have to wake up to turn over and ease your back, and turning over requires that much effort that you have to wake to do it. It never really clicked in my head becuase of course you dont come right awake, but I started sleeping so soundly once even 1/3 of the weight was gone. And apparently I dont snore anymore, which I am prone to because I'm a mouth breather and have never been able to breath properly through my nose alone. Neither can my kids, we all have buggered up sinuses and allergy problems. But Doug says I dont snore at all anymore. And I actually *can* breath better through my nose, with less fat on my face. It is simply amazing how much being overweight can affect you in ways you just dont realise.

I still get hungry just like I always did, and as often as I always did. I never really had a problem with hunger per se, I cant relate to what people say about always being hungry before banding, becuase I just wasnt inappopriately hungry. I had a problem with portion sizes and not feeling any stop signals. So yeah, I get hungry. When I get hungry I eat. That's what normal people do. What I do that's different is that I eat less and I have trained myself to do away with the bad foods. But its sure MUCH easier when you get full very quickly. For me, no amount of fill has disippated my normal hunger, although I did get 12 weeks after surgery where I felt as if I were taking strong appetite suppressants, just not interested in food at all. That was great - I lost tons in that period.

IMO that's just utterly ridiculous. That is no way to live. If you have to eat 600 calories jsut to MAINTAIN then something is wrong. That is not normal. People may not believe in starvation mode, I'm not sure I do either but you see it time and time again. Lose weight fast on tiny calories and you'll never be able to eat a normal diet again without gaining. You lose all your lean body mass and lower your metabolism permanently. I lost well on 1500 a day, but I can accept that many people need to eat less than that, even when they do exercise. But if you're eating 600 only and that's to maintain, then either you need to move a whole lot more or something is wrong with your body. Normal women need 1800 to 2000 to maintain their weight. Previously obese women may need less. But 600????

I can tolerate some skins, like on potatoes or stone fruits, etc but I cant eat apple skins. I had the same worries though - I read everything on here and here there is a very protein focussed trend, it really worried me since to me a chicken breast and a few vegetables does not make a healthy meal - personally I consider the vegetables the more important of the two foods. I have continued to eat my way, I'm in Australia and we're not given the same guidelines anyway. Guess what? There's more than one way to skin a cat. I'm healthy, happy, normal weight, have all my hair and I most definitely dont eat enough protein by American standards. I'm also quite confident that I have a better long term outlook for bowel health and blood chemistry because I do eat carbs in good quanities - wholegrains, fruits and vegetables. If I can only fit so much in, I will always always choose my vegies over my protein. I actually decided not to be banded initially because the protein heavy, vegetable poor (by which I mean quantity - in Australia we have a guideline of 2 fruit, five veg every single day) diet seemed unhealthy to me. But I've found that you can eat any way you damn well please, as long as its healthy, lowish in fat, and low enough in calories and you exercise, you'll lose weight, barring of course that some people absolutely do have metabolic issues that are best managed by low carb diets. That's not to diss ANYONE's dietary choices, its simply what I believe is relevant to myself and my lifestyle. I also felt that mental health is an enormous part of our health in general and that achieving normality - giving up this stupid obsession with dieting, counting, foodwatching forever, for once and for all - was every single bit as important as achieving a healthy weight. If I have perfect nutrition but spend all freaking day obsessing over it, I have not achieved good health! So I eat what I want, when I want, most of the time its good, sometimes its not, I use food appropriately - for nutrition and as a social custom also, I can partake of things like sweet foods and alcohol moderately and my diet is most definitely NOT perfect. But because I have made such gains in terms of the mental side of it, I'd consider my outcome an extremely successful one.

And as far as being typical of men goes, I dont really respect any man who is unable to challenge the socially constructivist nature of what constitutes malehood. There's no excuse for being a pig and saying "I am simply being male". That's ridiculous. Just as I dont really respect women who just are and dont question and think about all the elements that are embodied in being female and question where they came from and how they got into our heads. Not that we all need to totally quash the maleness or femaleness of ourselves totally, but the elements of it that excuse rude, arrogant behaviour in males or allow us to be totally controlled by males as females are better off consigned to the dark ages. Men like Lee, we dont need them in a modern society. Its no wonder he cant find mateship and relationships amongst people who have their heads in the 21st century.

It was me that called him a perv, and it was not correct in the context of his particular statement, but it made me feel very icky in the context of his ideas in general. I see a guy who was probably out of place all through his life and has not been able to find or maintain a successful relationship with a woman in his adult life. Reading between the lines of his so called random debate topics, I see a man who is still refusing to face that fact that he has faults and flaws like all of us and if none of us dumb bitches will deign to have him in our beds and our homes, then he might just find a Fillipino, a younger woman, and older woman, with the tacit idea that these women might find him acceptable since compared to them he is in a position of power and that he will exploit that to get what he wants - which is obviously a housemaid, nanny and sex slave. Deplorable. A really grubby, disgusting human being if you ask me. A total social misfit with delusions of power and of the fact that he is right all the time. A total lack of understanding of other people's points of view and a total inability to handle being disagreed with with. And an idiot to boot. Totally too stupid to realise the level of everyone's disagreement and disgust with him, focuses on the symptoms, not the cause. Whether or not he can spell is beside the point.