Jachut

Its definitely the muscle Jess. How do your clothes fit?

I'm a stay at home mum/student. I'm doing a Bachelor of Primary Education - which is grade school teaching to you guys - at the ripe old age of 38! I'll be 41 when I finished, my youngest will be starting school and I'll be starting a whole new career!

I once had a pin put in my hand without any sedation and just local anaesthetic becuase I was 7 months pregnant. The way the surgeon and theatre staff were talking about their weekend plans really pissed me off to be honest. It was like I wasnt even there. They had obviously forgotten I was entirely conscious!

I can really understand what that would mean to you. For me that would come well before any weight loss. Its my dream to run again. I watch my kids run around and I'm so envious of their lightness and grace and the pure joy they take in physical movement.

For me its all about thud thud thud, my ankle and leg hurting, my back crippling me for days and my boobs hitting me in the face. And that's just from fast walking!

Good on you!

Ah, sorry you had to have more surgery but thankful that's diagnosed and cured!

I'm still thinking about this - have lost about 12lb on my own now, but I'm struggling. I just want to go back to old comfortable habits.

I "think" I would miss drinking with meals terribly. Not in the normal course of events but when eating out, having a glass of wine with dinner. I'm also ready to change my habits forever but I think I'd miss the safety net of just really being able to let my hair down once in a blue moon.

So - can you honestly not tell anyone you've got a band and fake eating normally at social events? Dont people try to get you to eat more? Dont they notice?

A resounding no! If I had to choose between food and coffee, I'd choose coffee.

I wouldnt share the details, its not like you have a close relationship or anything. And if he asks, I'd fib, say gall bladder or something.

I dont think having a lap band is anything to be ashamed of, but at the same time, you dont want all and sundry knowing either, because some people will make those kind of judgements. Unless you suffer from being obese, you simply cannot know what the problems involved are.

If you really want to put him off asking any more questions, just say its girls stuff, lol.

I really love to exercise, and I like really hard, fast paced stuff. I used to run lots, I'm too heavy and too injured now. But my main goal in losing weight is so that I can run again - that endorphin rush is fantastic and puts me on a high for the rest of the day.

At the moment, I walk my boys to school 3 days per week, which is a 7km round trip, and I"ve been going to the gym 3 days per week - half an hour of cardio, about 40 mins of weights. We also swim one night a week as a family, I usually do about 25 laps of the 50m pool.

Trouble is all that activity just makes me hungry. My appetite just shifts up a notch so that I stay fat and if I resist and dont eat, I lose the energy to be able to exercise. I'm one of those people that's fat but also fit and healthy.

Definitely definitely negative? I spent days in the backyard holding tests up to the sunlight, trying to convince myself I couldnt see a second line, but it was there, just very faint.

Otherwise, I dont know, I wonder if you're blood sugars are all messed up from eating less or something? Just a guess. Its the only thing I could think of that would make you shaky and sick like that - perhaps a small Protein snack two or three hours after your meal and see if that helps?

I'd see the doctor about it otherwise.

To be totally honest, at first I was thinking about a band like the weight would just literally fall off me. Then I realised it would be months before I would even have it done, and I was in the mood right NOW to lose some weight. And that I could do an awful lot of work on my head in two whole years. I found myself thinking I'd have to eat more over the next while to make sure I was fat enough to qualify - it struck me how insane that was. By the time I got the band I could be 15kg down and the surgeon advised me that if I was like 90kg (which is not even "obese" for my height) at the day of surgery, regardless of whether I'd qualified when I first saw him, then no, he wouldnt do it.

So for me, not worth it - for now. If I continue the rollercoaster of gaining/losing gaining/losing I will revisit it later on. But also when you weigh up statistically people tend to lose about 1/2 to 2/3 of their excess weight, I also decided I wasnt prepared to spend that much money to lose only 20kg or so.

Australia is fast on your heels unfortunately. Over the past few decades our culture has become increasingly Americanised and that includes the fast food and processed food and people are getting fatter and fatter.

We're still blessed to have an abundance of wonderful fresh food in this country, but with people's increasingly busy lifestyles they're turning away from it.

A good deal of my weight problem has come from not so much binge eating but just relying on too much processed food - meal starters, packaged sauces, gravies etc. Lord knows what else is in all that stuff!

I find what helps me is I buy my fruit and vegies from an organic producer, get them home delivered. It costs an arm and a leg, they are SO expensive but I get that huge big box and it's all absolutely delicious and because it's cost a fortune, I dont want to waste it. I find therefore that I'm planning our meals around the fruit and veg rather than plonking a hunk of meat on the plate and decorating it with a bit of broccoli.

I've lost a bit of weight, not a lot but I feel so much better getting in a couple of pieces of fruit and at least 4 different vegetables every day. We had a Thai Beef salad last night that was to die for, the coriander in the lettuce mix was delish. Much much better than take away any day - and a huge plate full of vegetables and only a garnish of meat.< /p>

I think I came to pretty much the same realisation just researching the band. In so doing, I realised my interest in the band was piqued because I thought it would take away all that other stuff. I had a few initial questions about things like eating out for special occasions etc and I had a few moments of real fear at the thought of losing my friend food.

But reading everyone's experiences made me realise I had to do the hard work myself anyway and I opted not to go for a band for the time being (I'm also not quite fat enough, lol, my health fund wont pay). I cant say how different i feel on realising what I have to do and that it will be a lifelong work in progress, I've told myself time and time again of course, but never really believed it.

So this time round, I've lost 5kg, slacked off and for once (and this is truly a miracle) I've climbed back on the horse, and gotten going again. Another revelation - you can have a bad day and it doesnt have to be the undoing of everything.

I think once you get these principles firmly in your head and truly believe them, then you will get there eventually.

I suspect part of the reason lots of people become obese is because there is something about their metabolisms - much as popular wisdom says that you're fat because of eating and exercise habits, I swear there's some hidden mystery they just havent discovered yet. And I think fat people's bodies are way better at adapting to reduced calorie intake too - they adapt faster and they adapt more adroitly. That's the secret of weightloss 101 according to Jacqui, lol.

I dont know if that's true, but I suspect there's something to it.

Its the same principle as why some people just eat and eat and never gain weight.

I also think exercise for weight loss is different to exercise for general health. You need to be scientific about it, not just toddle out for a wander round the block every now and then. You need muscle building exercise probably more than cardio. Cardio will burn fat but you need to increase your metabolism by packing some muscle onto your body and resistance exercise is the only way to do that. There's also quite an exact science to that as well.

Well first of all, we dont really eat shrimps anyway - we eat prawns. And yes, you can put em on the barbie (barbeque) but more often its chops and snags (sausages) or steak with a bit of dead horse (tomato sauce, ketchup).

Paul Hogan is a big tosser and no way representative of the typical Aussie bloke. Think Julian McMahon... oh, maybe that's a bit wishful, but we're not all ocker "dags" (that's a d...khead) - but a dag is really the crud that gets stuck on a sheeps bum if they havent been crutched!

Teehee, that Aussie enough?

I'm really looking forward to getting my heel/ankle better, although my weight isnt the cause of the injury. I just want to be able to go out and exercise like I used to be able to (even 12 months ago at the same weight!).

Buying clothes in normal shops. Having a black tie function to go to and not feeling physically sick at the thought of finding something to wear.

He told me to come back when I was fatter, lol! He would do it and said it would be of benefit given my dieting history but there's no way he could say it was medically necessary which is what the health fund would require - so unless i want to pay for it myself (which I dont), that's that. I'm not too fussed, I felt I ought to explore it as far as I could but I'm not sure it's really for me anyway.

As I said, the GP had somebody else's blood report in my file and gave me incorrect results but also this dreadful trouble I'm having with my heel may be harder to treat because of the extra weight on it but it isnt caused by my weight.

Plus I've just found out I need more surgery on my eye so I guess I better concentrate on that first.

I'm glad your DH is supportive now, it's not something you really want to do alone!

I wouldnt be surprised if lots of them would go that far to maintain super skinny status. There's always going to be surgeons around that will do it on a normal weight person for the right price.

Pilates will help your bad back and tone your midsection but it wont rip weight off you. Its not aerobic and it doesnt burn lots of calories. That peeves me when stars say things like that and dont mention that they also run 100km a week AND work with a personal trainer!

Aero is a chocolate bar that has either a milk choc or peppermint choc inner that's all aerated so its got air bubbles, its very light and very yummy and they make little dessert pots with the same flavours. You dont need a translation for spag bog do you? Spaghetti Bolognaise - spaghetti, meat and Tomato sauce - most often made fresh but comes in tins too.

For future reference, tim tams are chocolate biscuits (and biscuits are cookies), vegemite tastes just fine, culturally we tend to be more "British" in Australia in our terminology and food habits, Smarties are like M&M's only WAY better, fish and chips are battered flake (shark) and hot chips - chips are fries, only thicker but also crisps, Maccas is McDonalds, chicco rolls and dim sims are best not considered too deeply since there are many urban myths abounding as to what's actually in them but they're basically meat/cabbage in a kind of skin that's deep fried, muesli is granola, jam is jelly. Jelly is Jello!

I can image sometimes you have NO idea what the Australian contingent is talking about.

Well that's a huge step taken Fee. I have an appointment this morning - I ended up with 2 referrals because my GP didnt actually know anyone who did the procedure. The other surgeon wouldnt even see me but I'm tossing up just turning up this morning, to at least have a chat about it.

Bummer about the other op you have to have though.

Interesting.

I wouldnt feed my kids artificial sweeteners in a pink fit. Most food that contain artificial sweeteners are crap they shouldnt be eating anyway - like soft drink, cordial, etc.

They have moderate amounts of sugary foods as treats and otherwise I encourage them to eat real food - vegie sticks and hommous or rice crackers, fruit or toast as Snacks not artificially sweetened, artificially flavoured, artificially coloured chemical food.

We buy lovely organic fruit and vegetables and it's barely unloaded from the box before they're into it. We dont really have a need for artificial sweeteners.

Nothing would make me give up wine or coffee, lol. I'm no lush either but one of the greatest pleasures in life is a nice quiet glass of chardonnay after a long busy day.

And a couple of good strong coffees in the morning.

I'd rather give up food, honestly!

Oh the GP referred me, it was he who put the wind up me, rabbiting on about my sky high cholesterol and pre diabetes - um, he had someone else's bloodwork in MY file, idiot. I'm heavy but healthy as a horse, BMI 34 and not a comorbidity to be seen.

I'm OK with it, I'm grateful I dont have any problems and I'll just plug away at it myself. I'm not sure it would be quite the right thing for me at this stage. But when I put on 10kg more than I lose after this round of dieting I might qualify, lol.

Havent been banded but am 5ft 10, 108 kg (about 240 I think?). Size 20 - thats a US 18. Kinda fat and dumpy but not fat enough, surgeon doesnt want to see me, so I have to go it alone. I've lost a bit over the last few weeks, losing motivation a bit now though. I should be around 154 (70kg). That was the weight I maintained for a long time and felt great at.

I would guess (guess being the operative word) that it depends on your physical size (as opposed to how overweight you are). Everyone doesnt have the same sized internal organs, a 5ft 3 woman will have a smaller stomach than a 6ft 4 man for example.

Also a man of that size will require many more calories and have different nutritional requirements than the woman. You would need to be able to eat more like 1500-1800 while dieting rather than a dainty and feminine 1000-1200, lol.

Does that sound too farfetched?