Jachut

I think as long as you're losing, then your calorie intake is fine and you leave your band loose enough to cope with it. You will only damage your band if you consistenly eat more than it can cope with and your pouch can handle - and that depends on restriction. A lot of people seem to need to eat barely anything to lose, who knows why? I lost easily and steadily at about 1500 calories a day - give or take becuase I never logged. I didnt question why, I was just glad I was able to eat enough to nourish myself properly and to keep my metabolism firing. Howwever, I now maintain on about 1800 a day. The charts all say I should be able to eat about 2,600 at my height and level of activity - there's no WAY I can. I got obese eating that many calories a day! So ignore the charts, your body will display the evidence of whether what you're doing is right, if you're losing then there's no reason in the world to eat less. The more you can eat, the better, for a variety of reasons. I also think women have that diet mentality that we have all internalised and most of us get some kind of unhealthy thrill to be 'starving ourselves'. We love that we can only eat 800 calories a day even though in reality and intake that low is unhealthy, cannot possible nourish you in the long term and if you eat that little long term, you're virtually ensuring you'll have to eat hardly anything to maintain. But we love it becuase it makes us "good". Be thankful you're not female, we're all pretty messed up over weight, appearance and dieting.

I think with bras you get what you pay for, and ESPECIALLY with sports bras. Perhaps you dont need to pay ridiculous amounts but I personally wouldnt go to Target to buy one either. We have different brands here, but Berlei and Triumph both make really good ones. I've only ever bought separate cup ones, never tried a crop top style, they'd have to compress DARN hard to work well though. I thinks cups and underwires are the way to go.

Oh for sure, we all have to do that pre op diet. But I think that's what people dont get. The pre op diet is the shrink the liver and nothign else. it is not meant to be a beacon for healthy eating for the rest of your life, no doctor claims (or should claim) that you reverse high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes with it, its purely to shrink the liver. And pre surgery, the benefits of shrinking the liver outweight any risks of eating that way, pure and simple. that's not to say that high Protein, low carb eating cant be VERY healthy, it can. I think most humans could survive with bread, rice or Pasta.

I think that Protein first and lower carb makes a lot of sense scientifically for weight loss. In reality, when you read the "what did you eat today" thread, in the average person, protein first often leads to a truly HORRIBLE diet. Processed animal based foods as the basis of the diet is not healthy in anyone's book! Nobody eats enough vegetables, they all focus on meat, eggs, cheese, processed meats and processed Protein shakes. This might work for weight loss but not for health. We need more of the good fats and much less saturated fat, hard to do unless you rely mainly on fish, and protein shakes - which lets face it are simply another processed food and not any healthier than anything else in large amounts. Because I'm vocal on this and have always disagreed with it, I've often had pm's from people asking that if I dont do this, them what DO I eat. My diet is as far from perfect as anyone else's and I also eat too much junk, too many processed foods and probably too many carbs. BUT - I've had at least 50 people over the 4 years I've been here pm me to complain that their blood chemistry has worsened markedly in their year after banding. That's serious. Banding should improve our health, not worsen it, and high protein low carb can improve things in many people. But it can also make it a lot worse. I dont know any of the answers, I'm no expert, but my personal view is that moderation is the key, dont follow ANY eating philosophy full on until there's utter proof that its the right way to eat for optimum health.

Stick with it, a spin class followed by your weights routine will really bring results. People just dont realise how hard cardio has to be to bring really good weight loss results. Walking and such, it all works for quite a while, so I'm not suggesting anyone is slack or wasting their time. But quality cardio like spinning plus strength training will bring you weight loss and body results you couldnt imagine. It is so very worth it and when you ARE in shape, spin classes are awesome fun. You learn to love the feeling of pushing your body beyond its limits.

I dont get it either, fills are nothing. They're not painful, they're quick and easy. I also dont understand why the medical profession turns them into such a drama - we dont use fluoro here, and I dont see why it would be necessasry except under special circumstances.

Sounds like it might be your gall bladder.

I think the reality is somewhat between the two scenarios. In an *ideal* world we'd all eat completely sensibly and never have pain. But all of us who have developed severe enough weight problems to warrant surgery are bound to struggle with the boundaries at times and will feel the pain of overdoing things. it will happen. Negative reinforcement is a big part of why the band worksn - but its certainly not the whole point of the band which is indeed to make you feel fuller faster. The trick is to avoid it for the most part.

I agree, thinoneday, I think weight loss is very likely to help a lot. My goals were more fitness than weight based all the way through and I think it helped. I simply worked my way up running distances - 4kms, 5kms, 7.5kms, 10kms, I did a 15.2 kms race and then a half marathon.

Liquids will take a bit of willpower, yes, but you'll get through it. But you know what? This is NOT your last week of being able to eat what you want. You have the rest of your life to do that! This is your last week of food controlling YOU rather than vice versa! Once you're healed up, you'll find its perfectly possible to eat a normal and varied diet and enjoy food more than you ever did.

Sounds like you're on a good path. isnt it strange how you freak over a pound or two gained once your'e normal weight?. I used to want to bonk my sister over the head when she complained that she'd gained 2kg. I'd think, who'd even notice that? But you know, when you're normal weight, you can FEEL it. 2kg (or 4lb) is enough to give you a muffin top, make yoru clothes feel tight etc.

too tight, by far. I'd have a teeny bit removed, its just not worth risking the health of your band.

I was like you and postponed my first fill unti 12 weeks. I had really great restriction in those early weeks and lost tons of weight. In fact it was perfect in that it was restriction but more like restriction that kills appetite, not restriction that makes you stuck or pbing. Sadly, I've never recreated it with fills, lol. My appetite gradually came back and going tighter doesnt kill it, only makes it hard to eat right. Nonetheless I lost all my weight so dont take that as a negative, just make the most of this honeymoon period that not everybody gets. This early restriction is explained as swelling, yet strangely, since then I've never been a sweller - dont need to do liquids to mushies after a fill, dont vomit often and when I do dont get irritation and swelling following it, dont have a sensitive stomach, can eat anything, do anything to it. Bandster hell never existed for me and it sounds like it doesnt for you either.

I'd disagree - I think its important to learn to listen to yoyr body - you cant maintain a healthy weight for life by carrying a measuring cup everywhere. There's also very little chance of stretching your pouch with no fill there! Everything will go through, but I guess in the short term, measuring might give you confidence you're eating appropriately.

When I lay down, my stomach goes crazy! DH is banded too and we listen to the "opera" every night before we got to sleep, lol. My stomach was doing that gurgling at a funeral recently, that was embarrassing. They sound really like burps!

Yes, stop taking everything except prescription meds you are cleared to take. Fish oil supplements can also markedly increase bleeding.

It was scaremongering and little more. It was not a realistic view of the risks of the lapband. Prof O'Brien is a lovely man, I attend his clinic (although he wasnt my surgeon) and have met him a couple of times when I've spoken at info evenings. Like anyone, this is his living and of COURSE he is making a buck from it. He presents the professional face of the clinic, as he is one of Australia's lapband pioneers, but the clinic is run completely realistically, I was not duped, I was told the risks and the questions I asked about long term issues were answered as honestly as they could becuase lets face it, we dont KNOW what the result of having a lapband inside us for 20 years may be. I can also tell you they use all different bands in the clinic depending on the needs of the patient. He isnt pissing in anyone's pocket. I love how they always present general surgical risks as if they're lapband specific, when they could happen in any surgery. Lapband is not a particularly dangerous surgery, there's way less risk of something going wrong than there is in other weight loss surgeries. I think people need to know the downsides, but the REAL downsides, not trumped up rubbish like this. However, I definitely DO struggle with fruits and vegetables more than anything else and I'd say the major disadvantage of the band for me is that it makes it harder to eat a healthy diet, i have to constantly stay on top of my desire to just eat biscuits and crap becuase its easy. We've been doing Lite n Easy this past fortnight to try to get back ontrack (have been very busy) and I am REALLY struggling with eating that much healthy food. Makes me think I should have fill OUT, and eat more like that than stay at current restriction and have constantly fight the lack of appetite for good foods. But that is ALL in restriction levels. I'd say 99.9% of bandsters are really tighter than they should be and should eat greater volumes of fruit and vegies to fill up. Trouble is, when we can do that, we are also loose enough to eat pizza, McDonalds etc.

Yes, that's exactly what I mean Riley, people hope that all those feelings will go away with the right restriction and there IS no restriction that will banish them. Greytz, I dont really mean that people want to do "no work" and I'm not saying that in a judgemental or moralistic sense at all, but I do think that people are given the impression that a magic level of restriction exists where suddenly it all becomes much easier and you dont have those cravings an inappropriate urges to eat anymore. Sorry to say, they just dont disappear magically. No matter what level of restriction you have, you have to battle those things.

I do the snacking binge thing too - again, not necessarily bad foods, just grazing constantly and never eating meals. I find the lapband has actually WORSENED this habit in me. I just dont fancy the effort and difficult foods a meal entails and will just graze on easy stuff constantly. I have to constantly stop myself doing this. It was always my problem pre band as well, whenever i *forced* myself to eat bigger meals, I would eat less and better overall. Bands arent supposed to be good for people like me - sweet toothed grazers. But its worked brilliantly and even when i fall back into these bad habits, I dont gain weight.

There's two things - so so many people say that they could have done this without the band becuase they dont feel any restriction. Dont underestimate it. You may not "feel" restriction but it is there even if not optimal. Take it all out and see what happens! Even a tiny unfill can result in weight gain for some people. The other is no, i dont believe there's such a thing as an absolute sweet spot in that there's optimal fill for the band to work. Without exception, and after four years on this forum, when people talk about the 'sweet spot' they really mean a level of restriction in which the band does more work than they do amd weight loss becomes much easier. I also agree that a sweet spot is a restriction level that really sticks with you, it doesnt wane quickly. However, sweet spots are different for everyone. Becuase I was a lower BMI and still entirely mobile and pretty fit for a fat person, I was able to commence running very early in my journey so I was always able to lose on pretty high calories (1500+). I found restriction waned less and less quickly after the fill the more fills I had, but i certainly had optimal restriction from EVERY fill right from the very first, I would lose steadily. I just needed more as I lost. I certainly didnt have to wait until restriction kicked in six months later. So for me, there never was a 'sweet spot' but there certainly was a restriction level which I never needed to go past and which didnt need topping up. So to rephrase, the sweet spot does exist but it absolutely isnt necessary to find it for your band to work. No matter where you are restriction wise, the band wont make good food choices for you and it wont exercise for you. And if you dont do those things you can be at your sweet spot but never get to goal. The band, is quite simply, pretty hard work but its hard work you can do. Not fruitless hard work like losing weight pre band.

when I feel I need to - havent had any in about 9 months, still feel pretty snug - in fact I have been thinking about getting a little out becuase whilst I maintain effortlessly, with all the exercise I do, I tend to eat junk to get the calories in - I cannot eat quite enough healthy food but need the energy from a bit of this or that that is easy to eat. I should be eating a couple of pieces of fruit instead, but I just cant cope with too much of it. I'd probably plan on a once a year visit, that's what my doc advises.

definitely the same foods as before surgery - biscuits (well, we call them biscuits, you call them cookies), cakes, muffins, slices - any sweet carb like that. dont often eat muffins or donuts anymore, they hurt and are not that pleasant. Cake too. But ordinary supermarket bought biscuits - plain sweet ones, not overly fond of chocolte bikkies - I can stil scarf down an ENTIRE packet with coffee. I just dont start on those foods. I dont do low carb but I try to stay far away from processed carbs like those. I'm also a bit bad with salted nuts - peanuts, cashews and macadamias, mmmmm. But ice cream, chips and those stupid confectionary coffee type drinks full of whipped cream, milk shakes etc I dont have any interest in those and never did. Nor do I tend to overeat "meal" foods like rice, Pasta, steak etc. I dont get tempted by things like kFC and McDonalds either unless I've got a particular craving. Whilst I ate more of them before surgery than I do now, they werent real problem foods for me.

Well, theoretically anything that increases intrabdominal pressure *could* cause damage - coughing, sneezing, holding your breath and even doing number twos. its very unlikely, particularly since if you choke, the item you choke on is in your throat not your stomach. But them again, the heimlich isnt that safe anyway - you break ribs, puncture a lung, etc. I'd think if you were choking badly enough, its more important to save your life. But they recommend a good hard upward directed blow to the back these days, not the heimlich.

I dont have any trouble with bread or Pasta. At the most, I would say bread is a very filling food, but I'd be way more likely to get stuck and pb on something like apple or raw carrot. Pasta and risotto are my 'safe' foods when I go out to eat if I really dont want to risk any sort of pb. I regularly eat fruit and vegies - in fact I prioritise them over Protein but they are by far the most difficult food for me. We dont really get told to do protein first here and I do believe you need wholegrains in your diet. But I try to eat more things like oatmeal and lot less bread and pasta - I might only have one or two slices of bread in a week.

Lol, that's me too. I have visible ab definition on the sides and then a pocket of flabby skin in the upper middle, which actually looks worse becuase the rest of my stomach if flat and toned. I can only surmise its from pregnancy. I always carried high, not low and dont have that dreaded lower belly flubber most women get. I got it up top. You know how you stand in the mirror and pull your skin imagining how much better you'd look after major cosmetic surgery, lol. Well pull my skin up from bottom around the sides and back and i have the thighs of my dreams. but my stomach needs to be pulled UP from the top, not down from the bottom as in a tummy tuck. That does nothing. I need to tuck it under my boobs, lol.