Jachut

I'm there, I just havent admitted it to myself fully. My problems began after an unfill for surgery. It was never the same, although trouble free, I just had little restriction. Finally my doctor gave me a big fill (which worked) and sent me off for a barium swallow. This showed a slight dilation of the pouch but he wasnt concerned because I was symptom free. Well within weeks the heartburn started. I had a small unfill two weeks ago, but it hasnt helped, I need more out. I just want to lose some weigh first! I havent gained serious weight but I'm at the top of my wriggle room and I just dont want to unfill without the scope to bounce around a little. I know this is faulty thinking, but I'm giving myself four weeks - i have to go and see a dietician then anyway about my bowel issues, so its kind of a cut off in my head. Symptoms are merely heartburn - no reflux, no night coughing, no vomiting, so I can afford to wait and just take a Zantac most days. I am also really pulling myself up by the bootstraps foodwise. Eating 1200 a day in three sensible meals and a snack. And I feel loads better for it. I really had allowed the whole chemotherapy, menopause, depression thing to take hold and I was eating junk and loads of it - slider stuff, but junk nonetheless - and it has been playing havoc with both my stomach and my bowels. Just three days already has me feeling loads better. I will feel confident to unfill completely as I've done it before and not gained - but I just want to lose 10lb. I think its safe enough to wait a few weeks in my case. I would not be in the least surprised to find that that last big fill gave the final push to a small slip. And its been so long since my band truly "worked" that I would almost welcome revision surgery just to have that effortless, hungerless sensible eating going on again. The last eighteen months has been a huge struggle, I'm amazed I have not gained weight.

I actually got too thin, a bmi of 19, due to illness. It took some awful photos for me to realise, I didnt see it in the mirror. My bmi is 21 now, and I feel and look much better. At least I have boobs again. I nwver would have settled for a bmi ovwr 25

I can identify, i have not"really" gained but cancer (three surgeries, radiation, chemo) has really thrown me for a six and derailed me. I got through it ll ok, but had to unfill. Thats when the diet and food obsession reared its ugly head. I ot really thin, down to 130lb (im five foot ten), and am now bavk up to 145 a year after treatment. Im a perfectly healthy weight and still very sli but I regained that weight because my eating has gone completely off the rails. From being the poster child for using the bandas a tool, i now have pouch dilation from overtightening and expecting the band to save me from myself. I have horrible hertburn, i cant pretend its not happening for much longer. All I hve wanted to eat for the last year is sugar. My bowel function is truly awful after all my surgeries ad i get really depressed. I dont have an answer but today I put myself back on a Home delivered diet plan of 1200 a day. This program has always worked for me, its just always seemed stupid to pay so much for food i could buy myself, but just now i need the accountability and the reassurance that if i eat only what is provided, i will lose. Anypositive actipn seems to help. Thats all i have for you, its really tough to stay on track when life dishes up such ****.

I have the same problem, im trying hard to pretend it isnt happening, because Im nit at my lightest right now. But I am going to take he plunge this week, and I will be putting myself on a home delivered diet plan hi week to try to lose wight at the same time.

Be done with it. Ive on occasion done soething called Lite n Easy - a home delivered 1200 calorie plan, and i cant eat it ll. Just goes to show that healthy food is much bulkier and keeps your calories right down

True, but ice, ice cream, cold yogurt etc mean instant pain and pain and often pb for me. Cold is the last thing Id do if i were having band trouble. Everyone is different.

Lol at piEoneer, freudian slip?

Interesting - do you also ask your doctor to prove everything he says with studies and statistics? Becuse as we know from this forum, different doctors say different things. For what its worth, I attend The Centre for Bariatric Surgery with which Helen is afiliated although Ive never consulted with her. The practice is headed by Prof. paul O'Brien, who is a band pieoneer. And the advice I have received there from the various doctors I have seen AND my surgeon mirrors exactly what Helen is saying. Its advice which has changed over my seven banded years as new discoveries have been made. Doesnt necessarily make it tue, just the best understanding we have right now and you are well within your personl and professional judgement to doubt it. But its not baseless information just being made up for the purposes of an internet forum. Its genuine advice being given out from a well respected leading practice which deals only with lapbands - not sleeves, not bypasses, just lapbands. like anytjing, you take it ll on bord, tweak a bit here, tweak a bit there and make t work for you.

You could be forgiven for thinking that a high Protein low carb diet and protein powders are an integral part of a successful lap band experience, but that is not the case. In Australia, it is not part of the general prescriptive diet, rather we are told to eat a very balanced diet from all major food groups. Bread, cereals and Pasta and rice are not frowned upon but of course, the focus is on fresh fruit and vegetables, with adequate protein. I've bought Protein powder once or twice, for a quick Breakfast, but the fact is, for me, I think it tastes like crap, its not satisfying, and I usually end up turfing out the tub. I cannot reconcile that a sweet tasting, man made food is really part of learning to eat a proper diet - I personally think we need to get over the taste for that sort of thing and learn to eat food in its natural state.

Thats actually rather low blood pressure, average is about 120/70. It could be your problem. I have pretty lo blood pressure though its usually over 100, and i am, a littke prone to dehydration too due to other issues - i iften get that lightheaded seeing spots feeling after exertion. Its not really serious unless you actually faint regularly.

I have had a bad case of the blues too, I wasnt completely back to a good place yet aftercancer so this did knock me around a bit. All giod now though.

I really tend to not eat much in the morning because when I do, I struggle with overeating and taking in too many calories all day. I usually have one or two pieces of fruit throughout the morning and then a small but normal lunch and dinner - soup and half a wholegrain roll and a meat and 3 veg type dinner. That usually keeps me at around 1000 and then I have a few hundred calories for odds and ends, a glass of wine, a cappucino, a bikkie or two with my morning cuppa and maybe even a little treat at night. I'm maintaining, not losing, when I was losing I just didnt have the extras.

My original goal was 79kg which was a BMI of 25, and I knew I would never been happy with that - I always wanted to get much thinner. But did I consciously change it to another number ....... no. I just stopped where I stopped.

Skim milk or black. All thse syrups and sweeteners just hide the real flavour

I wont give up soup as I have altered bowel function after rectal cancer and really need the vegies, chick peas etc. I wont eat canned soup, its always home made and extremely nutritious, and I find it very filling, I just dont have the expected satiety problem with soup - in fact its a go slow food due to the combo of Fluid and solid pieces, I'm quite likely to pb on it. All you have to do with soup to make it extremely filling is eat say half a wholegrain roll with it - it absorbs all the fluid and creates quite a solid mass in the stomach - again, something to be very careful with if you dont want to see it again. The Optifast shake/bar comparision - totally agree with that. I just dont know how people get by on Protein shakes. They have no thickness, texture, no satiety inducing properties at all. I can down one in 2 second flat and be looking for food, I avoid them, they are not a good choice for me. But optifast bars take aaaaages to eat. I think we have to remember there's "guidelines" rather than hard and fast rules. Everyone is different.

Go to a few classes to get a feel for it, then check out cardio coach for ipod workouts which will have you mking the best use of your workout time, without slacking off, which is super eay to do on a bike. There are dvds called spinervals too which look as hardcore as a spin class. After a few years of doing classes i revkon i could devise one on my own but would find it hard to stick to withput the instructor, some sort of guide will really hlp you.

610 calories for milk???? What are you drinking, en entire litre? And 428 calorie worth of protein powder must be seven or eight scoops worth?

I've been maintaining now for years and I do best on about 1500 to 1700 a day. I lost on 1500 easily at first, then slower and slower, by the end I was probably eating around 1200. I've never been a logger or measurer of calories, so I'm estimating based on the occasions that I do add it all up. I never unfilled after I stopped losing, my weight loss petered out after just getting slower and slower, and over a year or two after that, I guess I ate a little more, my band got a little loser (natural process, it evaporates a bit etc) and my habits got laxer. I no longer hesitate to take a cookie if someone offers me one, I have the odd glass of wine kind of thing. Nowadays, if I eat carefully, with a view to my issues (I need a lot of fibre, and have to have my fruit and veg as I've had bowel surgery) I eat a reasonably low fat, higher carb diet and stay well below 1600 a day - reason being those foods are bulky, filling and hard to eat with a band. However, if I slack, I can easily exceed 2000 a day if I allow the white flour, sugar and fat to creep into my diet. I do gain on that much, and if I'm good I sit at the bottom of my 5lb swing range, which is where I prefer to be. I am tall - and therefore heavier - 5ft 10 and 140lb or so, and I do run for an hour five days a week or so so I can get away with a fair few calories. I notice that despite having a band there are still people around - usually small built women, whom I eat noticeably more than - not in one sitting, but over a whole day kind of thing.

I did chemo both ways, filled and unfilled. Unfilling my band has caused problems with never finding the right restriction again, i unfilled on the advice of my oncologist, not my lapband surgeon, who later told me there was really no need. My personal advice would be to take medication for nausea and refux and to leave your band alone. Assess the situation when youre though all of this. Good luck!

I have had this, low but normal circulating haemoglobin but rock bottom ferritin. I assumed it was from a combo of chemotherapy and the small portions i eat as a bandster. My oncologist put me on Iron, it normalised within three months. But i stopped bcause of the effect it had on my altered bowels. Ill be interested to see in a few months when i see my onc again whether its fallen gain. I bet it will, when i really look at my diet its not good enough.

Yep get proactive on the constipation, i am struggling badly (and i do have surgically altered bowels) and i wasnt wven on pain meds past day two! Glad to hear that you did well, its hard waiting yo get a really good look, isn it?

well, today I've eaten yogurt, a banana, a kiwifruit, crackers with cheese and a sweet biccie or two because they were on the table in the staff room (and teachers never pass up free food!!). So on the whole I eat carbs!

I'm in Melbourne and I can't bear to wear any clothes to bed, winter or not. I went through an early menopause due to cancer treatment and had horrific night sweats which were fixed by HRT. You can have a blood test to determine your hormonal status, but you should check this out as night sweats can also be a sign of other health conditions such as diabetes, certain cancers etc. And then of course, sometimes they just happen because you overheat a bit on any given night.

Lol, one foot in front of the other, its the only way. Eventually it becomes habit and even more eventually, perhaps a love. I used to be the worlds worst exerciser, it took SO much willpower. Now I absolutely crave it, love it and put off other things to do it. And once you've experienced true fitness, the type that means you can run half marathons and such, you really wont want to let that go. Most people go through life, even people that do exercise, never knowing what its like to be that fit. And I cant type on my phone either! Barely even try. I'm even hopeless on the ipad, that's impossible. You can always tell when I'm on a computer or on the ipad!

As an almost seven year bandster too, this does mirror my approach - although I'm a bit of an exercise freak, lol. I love my running! But I eat (and ate) what I want, sometimes bad foods. I refused to beat myself up over it. I lost slowly but steadily and have kept the weight off.