Jachut

I started off with gentle walking the day after surgery followed by the elliptical for 40 minutes 3 or 4 times a week. Then at about 3 months out I tried running and was hooked. I gradually built up distances but basically my routine was to run between 6 and 10kms about five times a week while I was in the main phase of weight loss. Sporadically I would replace some of the running with some pretty tough circuit training, but that was mainly towards the end, when I was trying to really shock my body into losing that last 10 lb. Nowadays I'm running, doing circuit classes at the gym and boot camp twice a week. Its a lot of very tough exercises but it has given me that really fit look I was after, I didnt want to be just thin, or have really big muscles, I wanted that toned look and I got it. I've definitely lost fat (although not weight) recently since I started the boot camp. There's a lot of debate over the value of cardio like running versus strength training - I think both is ideal. I do mix my running up with a lot of interval training, I dont just run at one pace every time. But I notice in boot camp, I have easily ten times the muscular endurance and strenght in my lower body than the other participants and am workign with the two men, rather than the other women, I personally think the theory that cardio wastes away your muscle is rubbish, I have visible and very strong lower body muscles and a very strong core. Unless your aiming for big muscle growth as in body building, I think a lot of cardio is valuable in a weight loss sense, supplemented by good circuit or strenght training. I probably would have had quicker results if I'd done both all the way through but I love running so much, I didnt want to take time away from it.

Ugh, chips. They REALLY hurt. I dont have a particular problem with them, but do fancy them when I get in a certain mood. The main ones we have here in our house is salt and vinegar - everyone's favourite, but I particularly like lime and black pepper. I can get blocked on the more kettle style chips, but the main problem they cause me is horrendous heartburn.

I'm 4 years out and I still feel it everyday. Pain - no. I dont feel pain except rarely when I'm about to pb due to eating too fast, too big of a bite, not chewing enough etc. That happens to me very rarely. Momentary blocked discomfort feelings, every single meal really. But its just a bodily sensation that is now normal to me, it really doenst bother me except for occasionally when I might look at someone eating something without thought and think how much I would love to just eat with abandon occasionally. I can eat ANYTHING I choose to, but I cant do it without care. I also would like not to feel a momentary pang of anxiety that something embarrassing will happen every time I eat with others. It actually never has in four years, but the possibility always exists. Eating never goes back to "normal". But who would truly want that? I also never wake up without feeling joy to be thin and fit and no longer obese. The daily joys way outnumber the daily discomforts to me.

Also, when you've lost all your weight, you have really done it by quite severe calorie restriction. That's why you need a band forever - whatever way its achieved, calorie restriction like that slows your metabolism - even when you exercise. I now maintain on about 1800 calories a day which is what all the charts say I should eat to LOSE 2lb a week. Its inevitable. So for us former fatties, it takes less than it would for the average person to gain a little. Exercise is, of course, your main weapon here. The more active you are, the less you will find your weight varies.

Lol, for me its a sure sign of pregnancy!

This really angers me (not what you're saying, what your friend said). What exactly is WRONG with wanting to be a size 7, or more generally what is wrong with wanting to lose weight to look better?.Would you say to someone having breast implants "oh, you just want big tits"? Well, DER, that's the whole point. As it is with weightloss, of COURSE for many people one goal is to look great. I had no real health issues - they were starting to develop - but for me, this was very much a cosmetic decision too. I think I was more concerned with what my future held Healthwise and how fast old age was going to catch me at the rate I was going but damn I wanted to look good too. I am also five foot ten and I would be a size seven to eight in your sizes. I do not look sickly, scrawny, I am not obsessed with food and exercise (although I do love love love to exercise) and I maintain it very easily. I wake up every day feeling so darn good becuase I am in control, I am steering my life towards what I want. It has given me confidence in so many areas and just knowing I look good and feel really really good about myself makes me really happy. Its not everything of course, but mental and emotional wellbeing is an important part of your health and if you're a person who just wants to get healthy at whatever size then that's fantastic, and if you're a person who wants to be fashionably thin and dress a certain way etc, then that's ALSO fantastic. We can choose our own goals and I think people like your friend who suggest it like its some sort of shameful vanity are quite ignorant and oftentimes very jealous.

I think you handled it extremely well. I never leave margin for error in a restaurant, I'd rather be starving an hour later than overeat and deal with the consequences. I've gotten over the embarrassment it can sometimes cause - I was craving a good old fashioned burger a while ago - not McDonalds crap, but a good toasted bun, a proper home made pattie etc. I ate literally a tenth of the thing, I was tight that weekend anyway (had been on a plane) and the waitress wouldnt believe me that it was fine, i just couldnt eat more. Other days I do find I'm tight after literally 3 bites, and I too wait and then tackle some more. Its a fine line, doing this. For me, I find I dont want to eat at breakfast time, and I fill up quickly on things like salads, but if I dont eat well, I pick on crap in the afternoon. So I carry breakfast round with me nibbling on it for an hour in the mornings and I work on my lunch over time too when I can. The 20 minutes and then stop thing, I'd be constantly eating because I wouldnt get enough down to keep me going.

That sounds a bit tight - eating should feel OK unless you eat too fast or dont chew enough, it shouldnt feel awful going down every single mouthful. BUT - there's a few things. Youv'e only just had the fill, it may loosen, and it probably will anyway with further weight loss. If you're not severely restricted on what you can eat (no going back to a liquid or mushie diet!) then you may want to ride it out. But dont allow yourself to pb all the time either, if you cant manage the restriction, have some out. You do need to relearn how to eat with a fill a lot of the time too, each little bit more restriction enforces a few more of those rules. I could drink with meals for the longest time, now it causes me a lot of discomfort. But if you're really struggling to eat properly or are vomiting often, getting anxious about eating in front of others etc, then an unfill is a good idea.

You're kidding about just living with it, right? Of course you have to get this seen to, you're having symptoms of infection! It could be eroding through your stomach. You're also not eating well and will become malnourished over time. This is no way to live the healthier lifestyle you were aiming for, you really do have to get that band seen to.

As a bandster, I have thought about it many times, just havent gotten around to it. I dont buy fruit juice like orange juice becuase the kids just guzzle it. But I have difficulty getting 2 fruit, five veg every single day. Not needing to lose anymore, i could easily afford the calories, sugar and carbs in fruit juice.

Definitely. I went to the Emirates Stakes Day at the races on saturday, all dressed up. I met a girl there who was our host (IBM corporate enclosure) who was as tall as me (I was wearing 4 inch stilletos and felt like a giant on the train, lol). She was model thin though, but looking at her, you know, her body was just totally different to mine. Yes, I could lose another 8kg to be "as thin" as her, but I wouldnt look the same. I am already verging on skeletal around the neck, shoulders and chest, so much so that I took back a dress with spaghetti straps becuase I felt it made me look gaunt. I would just get even worse up top and I would STILL have hips and thighs. She wasnt anywhere near as bony as me up top, but she was probably a size 10 to my 12 (Australian sizes here). Just different all over. It did make me think, we just have to learn to accept, and even love, what we are.

I'm so glad you liked it! I have all the volumes now, you'll find some suit your mood certain days. And other days I just feel like taking it easy and having a nice slow jog listening to music. Its good to have the variety.

I wouldnt have even said I had fat feet or hands, but I was amazed by how much weight I lost there. I was always a size 10, and I still am, but now I can shove my feet into all sorts of glamorous, terrible for your feet and back shoes, whereas before, I just found things like that way too uncomfortable. And one one foot, I have to put heel grips in everythign or else they slip on the heel. So my feet defintely did shrink. I have really really wide feet though which still makes them quite difficult.

A tiny unfill will make a big difference, it definitely sounds like you need it.

Ugh, I have a sweet tooth and I still cant believe people can down so many of these shakes- I agree they're very sweet. I've tried a couple of the el cheapo diet shakes too - there's ones here called Celebrity Slim and Tony Ferguson, shakes and bars and stuff - disgustingly sweet. You'd go mad on a diet like that. If I feel like something shakelike, I vastly prefer to blend an egg, some skim milk and a banana, with some vanilla essence. Much much much less sweet.

Well, I eat normal food, just not huge portions so I can go into any situation and not have to tell anyone anything. I refuse to diet ever again, I dont do Protein shakes, I dont avoid food groups, nobody would ever know unless I told them. At work for example, I might take a tin of tuna and a salad, I might have an apple for a snack. Completely normal, arouses no interest from anyone. The most anyone would think is that I'm a fitness nut. I do do a lot of exercise and do crazy stuff like bootcamp just for the fun of it.

I definitely couldnt say weight loss improved my facial contours or my neck, lol. I *am* beginning to age as you do in your forties and I'm also an Aussie and have had a lot of sun exposure in my teens. But it didnt worsen anything, and overall, I have pretty good skin, just good genetics. I didnt really get a loose skin problem from weight loss apart from deflated boobs. But overall, people think I'm in my early 30's. Why? Because my overall "look" is young, I look very fit and easily have the figure of someone of that age, I can wear a bikini and all sorts of things like that without looking like mutton dressed as lamb and i dont try to hide my age with overly frosted hair and a face full of make up and loads of junk like botox either. I'm happy to schlep around in jeans and thongs (well, flip flops to you), I am very casual, I've just finished a university degree and have had great fun being a student, its all SORTS of things that make you young, not just what the skin on your face looks like. One thing I will say though, I have boobs that would make a 90 year old proud! Too bad I'm only 42. Those do need fixing.

Exercise has been the key for me, without a doubt. I got banded with the intention of NEVER dieting again, and I've not cut carbs or any foods in particular, just portion size. I do think its calories in v calories out. Perhaps if I now wanted to enter a body building competition and get to 12% body fat or something, I'd need to low carb it. But for the purposes of general weight loss, I never found it necessary. But this week for example, I've been to two bootcamp 90 minute sessions, one circuit training class at the gym, an eight km run and a 10km run, and I've let my daughter ride her bike to school twice (I run with her, its 4kms there) and I walked home both times. I've also done a fair bit of digging in the garden and cleaned our windows (not working right now, till next year) that's an average week for me. Its being this active that keeps the weight off!

And whilst its great to make changes to your lifestyle such as the walking, exercising like crazy DOES make a very very big difference. Many of us need really high intensity stuff to lose, - strength training and cardio circuits, that type of thing, for an hour, say five days a week AND the walking on top of that. That's the sorts of exercise levels I did to lose weight and to maintain my loss. It kills you at first but now I go to bootcamp and still have the energy to run on the treadmill after it, when you get fit, you recover quickly and arent so tired.

I'd imagine the 25% statistic is a bit unrealistic and way higher than reality. Some people dont need fills, but it depends an awful lot on your internal anatomy vs the band you have. I didnt need one for a good 12 weeks after surgery and have never ever needed to be very tight as I really got the exercise bug and run and do circuit training and boot camp and am very active generally so I can lose weight on a good 1500 calories a day. So I dont need a lot of fill to be satisfied on what is really an amount of food I could stick to for extended periods even before banding. Others who need to eat only 800 to 1000 a day to lose obviously need more restriction - there's two parts to that - the ball is in your court in one way in that you control what you decide to eat and how much exercise you do but also your metabolism is what it is and you may have to eat very little to lose well.

At 40lb you can feel the difference and be proud of your achievement. so what if it is not noticeable yet? it took me about 40lb before people noticed and I only started with a BMI of 36 in the first place. There is a lot of fat for most of us to lose and it comes off quite evenly (even though we may not think so). People dont see it. to be honest, the most dramatic (and satisfying ) weight loss was my last 10lb. Even 20lb ago (I lost 100 overall) I was still what I'd call quite fat. Not overweight, at the top of my healthy weight range, but unfashionably plump regardless. The more you have to lose, the less difference a single pound makes, but as it comes off, the result gets more and more dramatic. Dont let it get you down, you have to get those 40lb off anyway, and you're doing a great job.

1. They virtually never do the bypass in Australia 2. I want the adjustability of the band. I find it an advantage. I have had some fill out again recently becuase I just find I wasnt eating enough to fuel me, and I didnt need to get any thinner. I live a virtually normal life now, nobody would know I was banded by what I eat, I eat a good 1800 calories of normal healthy food from all food groups each and every day and i have enough energy to run, do boot camp and circuit training. I can eat enough food and a wide enough variety of food that nutrition is not an issue, I dont need supplements etc. 3. I was worried about getting old and not being able to eat well enough. My family do tend to get scary skinny in old age, and lots of restriction is not going to help that. 4. I wanted the option, when something better comes along to undo my band and do something else. I dont know that I would though now, my life is perfectly normal and I'm perfectly happy. 5. I had a BMI of 36. Bypass to me was just waaaaay too drastic.

Any kind of cooked or canned fruit, or fruit puree is really hard for me, I can only eat a very little. Fresh fruit is hard too, but I do still eat it daily. there's nothing I really *cant* eat but many things I have to make myself eat - like fruit and salads because they are healthy that are much harder to eat. I never get nauseous from things though, just blocked. I avoid things like reheated leftover meat too - we had a leg of pork the other night with guests, there was loads left but I threw it out becuase I knew I'd never get it down.

Water is generally unrestricted for me and i can drink enough during long runs. I can still easily down a bottle quite quickly. Its only if its very cold that it will cause me problems, but I've never liked really cold things anyway.

To my weight loss, no. And to be honest, I notice absolutely no difference between how I feel in general when I do or dont take them.