Jachut

Well, we dont get told to do Protein first here. We are not told to avoid carbs. I find exactly what you are saying. Protein doesnt fill me. Its so calorie dense that you can only afford to eat small serves of things like cheese and meat. I eat carbs. I eat Cereal for Breakfast, I eat sandwiches for lunch and THOSE are what fill me up and make my band work. I only eat good quality, organic, wholegrain carbs. I dont eat rubbish. But I eat a carb based diet, I run for 40 minutes to an hour a day, I eat moderate protein (and thus moderate saturated fat), I avoid processed foods (anything that comes in a box!) and I dont worry about the healthy fats in nuts, avocadoes and fish. I dont do Protein shakes. I am lucky that I can eat bread, not everyone can. But a sandwich of 2 slices of wholegrain bread, some tuna, some avocado and salad veges like lettuce, tomato, cucumber and sprouts - I can eat about 2/3 of it without the crusts and I will stay full for HOURS. A bit of tuna and salad and I'll be looking for food in an hour. You CAN eat this way and lose weight. Most Australian bandsters do.

You know, the "i would be too skinny at that weight" I've always argued against. I just couldnt understand how people could see normal weight as "too skinny". I thought they were just displaying warped perception caused by so many people in our society being very obese. But I've lost a bit again lately, I saw 67kg on the scales this morning. My healthy weight range is 63-79. I was comfortable till 70, I'd been that weight before. I know for my body even 63 would be pretty good. But its SCARY hitting these new weights that I've never ever weighed. I now weigh what I did at 13 years old - and I wasnt particularly fat at 13 years old! I was only an inch or two shorter than I am now. Its really kinda weird. I have bones showing now. Not skeletal, lol, but I'm getting to the point where there's really no excess fat left (just sag, sigh). And it does feel kinda weird. But the point is I'm really NOT too skinny. I'm a healthy weight. It really IS my perception of it that's warped. But I've never had a BMI above 36, I think it's a lot more realistic for me to expect to get to this sort of weight at about 100lb lost than if I'd had to lose 200.

Oh we've had some HUGE arguments over that on this forum over the years. I dont get setting an overweight goal either, nothing in me will ever understand it. To me fat is fat is fat. Its not curvy, its not sexy, its fat. But that's ME. And the thing you have to remember is that people's body compositions differ. A BMI is not truly a measure of how overweight you are when you're talking in the 20's. Some people are more muscular and can have higher BMI's without being overweight. I'm not that muscular and I'm fairly fine boned - for me a BMI of 27 is flabby and fat, but for the next person, its quite firm and curvy. So you have to sort of think about it in variable terms, not according to your own body. The same people who I think are stopping while they're still fat probably think I look anorexic, so who's right? We all have a right to look how we want to.

I find my body tells me in no uncertain terms when I'm not eating enough to fuel my running - and for me that means not enough wholegrain bread, cereals etc. Maybe its to do with running as opposed to strength training but too few carbs and a more Protein based diet just depletes me totally. Of course I eat enough protein, but I need my carbs too. My runs start to feel like I'm running through Water. Every now and then I'll have a run like that anyway, but when it starts to feel awful every time, its a sure sign to improve my diet. (I tend to get lazy with my eating and not eat meals, but just pick all day. When I do that, i stop eating bread, Cereal etc, and eat more crappy foods - biscuits, chips, too many cappucinos...)

If you stretch out the pouch, the only way to fix that is a complete unfill. It allows things to settle back where they should be. then you start getting filled again, when the stretching is sorted. But at least a stretched out pouch CAN be fixed with a band, that's the beauty of adjustability. But I dont agree that everyone would be adjusted only once - not at all. If I were to decided to do a marathon, I plain couldnt do it on my intake - that's not a rare case. I can also see that now, when I live a lifestyle that I can eat whenever I'm hungry, I can be tighter and eat smaller amounts more often. When i return to work next year (as a teacher) I think I will need to unfill a bit. On my teaching practicum, I've struggled a bit and lost quite a bit of weight each time becuase you dont get ANY opportunity to snack as a teacher. It becomes Breakfast, lunch and dinner for me then and becuase I can only eat small meals, I find I undereat really badly at these times. I would need to be able to put away much more substantial meals when my eating habits are forced to change like that - because I'm at the stage where I really dont need to drop more weight. I strongy disagree that they took a negative aspect of the band and threw a positive spin on it. That's an individual opinion, nothing more. I really view that as the biggest positive of my band - and I havent been one to fill/unfill at all, I've stayed with steady restriction so far.

Oh, after I graduate this year, I'm teaching the little kids. I dont want to teach past about grade 3, lol.

I've found it hard to separate body shape v excess skin too. I guess I got out of this quite lightly, dressed, I have an absolutely FLAT stomach, its perfect, but in actual fact, its quite loose and flabby, even if its flat. My breasts are the worst affected, I'm a d cup verging on C, but it's ALL skin, I'd say my actual breast is only a B. They really need work, its a difficult part of your body to hide, and much as i'm really not into fake breasts, I think I need not only a lift but an implant to fill out the upper part. Thighs and butt, well, they are NOT my best features, they're loose, and a bit dimply. I need a bit of lipo for residual fat pockets - Iv'e lost more weight but I'm virtually skeletal up top now and really dont want to lose any more from my upper body, but I cant manage to make it come off where I want it to! But lipo alone wont improve anything except the actual contour. I am not surprised though, my breasts and thighs, I always could have guessed they'd look like they do. They werent even firm when I was 15 years old and not fat. They look like my mother's and both of my sisters. I *could* benefit from a lower body lift. In reality though, i look far better than many 42 year old women, I'm comfortable enough to put on a bathing suit, and can live with the fact that i dont look like a supermodel in it. My issues dont show at all when I'm clothed. So I'm really not thinking I would take that money from my family to spend on myself, and nor am I convinced that the risk and recovery is worth it. How many times a year does a working mother get into a bikini? Its just really not worth it. I will get my boobs done, hopefully later this year. My upper body is plain scrawny, I think fixing my boobs would balance it out, I have this awful thing going on where my shoulder bones jut out and my rib cage in my chest appears to curve out beyond my breasts. I need to put some shape back there. My arms I got off scot free. there is not one single bit of excess skin and I have a very satisfying amount of visible muscle there - curvy and feminine but not bulky. I got good arm genes. Just bad thigh ones. I'm also a devoted constant slave to the self tanning lotion. I never let myself get white. Nice skin colour takes the emphasis off the sags a bit.

wow, first time I've heard that said here! Most people complain that this forum is too negative and that theres' too many people who discourage all newcomers.

What do you mean "some days"?. I prefer my cat everyday! I have a wonderful rewarding relationship with her! ps: I said no to black to for Ewan. We compromised on dark brown. Given that he has totally white blonde eyebrows, it looks um, questionable to say the least. But he's happy. And skinny jeans! Its not just girls. I'm afraid he's actually damaging bits of him that are meant to grow.

I eat loads of nuts, and I often have a good handful of nuts and an apple for a meal. I find the same thing, when I eat nuts regularly, my skin is incredible. My hair is healthier too. The good fats are great for your body, good for your heart etc. they are high in fat and thus calories, but its healthy fat and for most bandsters, calories are not the problem they were, you eat less so you can afford to eat foods like nuts. My favourites are macadamias, mmmmmmm. We had a gastro bug in the house the other day, Eliza was puking, and I felt quite strange all day. I didnt get sick but my stomach just would not accept food, everythign substantial burned and I was tight as tight. I ate nuts all day, lol. I just had a couple here and there.

I'd like to see what happens longer term with the sleeve, although it does look like an excellent surgery. However, with a band, since I've been maintaining, once or twice, I've required a small top up to keep me on track. It loosense off just marginally, the appetite picks up and i"ve had to go back in and get just 0.1cc put in. That's a seriously tiny adjustment, so I wonder if even minute stretching out of a sleeved stomach would add up to 5 or 10 extra lbs. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, I dont look at being within 10lb of my goal as good enough, I need to be AT goal at all times, lol. And then when I get old, my family tends to get scary skinny on my dad's side, like my nanna was my height and at 84 was about 120lb. Really THIN, as in not just thin but underweight by a good 20lb. Its not that the band is removeable, its that its ADJUSTABLE that is what I like about it. I can let all the Fluid out of my band when I'm older if I need to. Or I can remove it, yes. But it kind of scares me to think of having a minute stomach and not being able to adjust it. And what most of the sleevers have said they eat and live on, I would seriously starve to death. I appear to have quite normal calorie needs, unlike many formerly obese people, I need about 2000 a day to maintain my weight these days. I couldnt get that in with a sleeve it would be extremely difficult.

I dont know what exactly happened, lol, but I'm sure I've been through it too. I've got one morose 14 year old boy who's getting HUGE, and wants to do nothing other than lie around unshowered, stuffing his face with junk food and playing PS3. I dont buy the junk food but I cop the verbal abuse for it. He grunts at you if you speak to him and there's a horrible smell that surrounds him. He also wont get a haircut, but goes to a private school with a strict uniform policy, he leave his uniform on the floor and goes in crumpled pants and blazer. The 11 year old is the complete opposite, totally and utterly a fashion victim (though a boy) and uses more hair product than I've ever seen, spends his pocket money on hair colour, drives me mad wanting clothes clothes clothes, is completely seduced by money and stuff and does nothing but criticise what crap parents we are for not being stinking ritch and being able to have the latest car, the best house etc. He is gong to be TROUBLE that one, he'll be the drinker, the drug experimenter, the nightclubber. He thinks my one role in life is to drive him around to his social engagements and that he ought to be allowed to be riding his bike wherever after dark with no responsibility to come home. Then I have a six year old girl. She's utterly adorable. Gorgeous. Such a pleasure. But I'm under no illusions that that will continue, lol. Give it five years. Argh. Doug and I often think of the life we'd have - read, how freaking rich we'd be - if we didnt have kids, lol.

Obesity is such a complex disease isnt it? any other disease if someone offered you up a solution you'd be all over it. But with obesity, some people just react so badly when the answer is put in front of them. They dont get intersted, they put the surgery down and make it sound like you're shallow and stupid for wanting to do it. I wonder why? Why do people subconsciously want to hang onto their fat? You dont find people subconsciousy wanting to hang onto their diabetes or heart disease. Its so weird. Its good to get on these threads and have a vent about nasty people but in truth, I doubt its ever motivated by pure nastiness, there's a whole host of things going on in their heads. But I personally dont have time to deal with people's issues, lol. I'd just tell them where to get off.

I didnt. Some days I eat Snacks if I'm hungry, many days I eat snacks because I'm at home and its there (bad bad habit). Other days I'm busy and eat just 3 meals and other days I'm super busy and only eat 2 meals. To me, its real life, not a 'program' which for me is every bit as destined to fail as it ever was. As for the eggs thing, well I've always found that with my band. Protein doesnt fill me up like they say it should - wholegrain carbs, fruit and vegetables DO. We dont get told to do protein first here anyway, so I base my diet on wholegrain carbs and fruit with more moderate amounts of protein. I usually have some sort of Cereal or bread for breakfast, the carb hit gets my day started well (but I absolutely dont eat crappy carbs) and then I eat my protein at lunch and dinner. I dont usually eat any carbs at dinner, not intentionally but its more that sometime you have to get in lots of vegies and rice, Pasta or bread takes up all the room. At lunchtime I normally eat a sandwich or something. If i do that, the urge to snack doesnt strike, if I eat a protein/vegetable lunch such as a salad, I will need to eat again before dinner. Overall though, as long as I eat right at the meal - protein, wholegrain and some fruit or vegies, I do best on 3 meals per day - snacking just sets me off and I tend to keep on eating. And I have huge trouble snacking on healthy foods, I simply cannot break the association between snacking and foods like chips, Cookies, etc.

Absolutely no regrets here - almost 4 years down the track

yes, you would. People liek to get all funny about Water v other fluids but the simple fact is that your body breaks down EVERYTHING you eat and drink into its component parts and takes what you need. There is nothing magic about water itself, its in things you eat and drink and juice, soft drinks, even coffee and tea (if you're a seasoned caffeine drinker, its diuretic effect ceases to a large degree). However, if you take in your water mainly in the form of coffee for example, you probably need to drink MORE coffee than you would water, if that makes sense. The main reason you need lots of water with a high Protein diet is that your kidneys need it to get rid of the toxic substances that build up in your bloodstream when you go on this kind of diet - I mean Atkins or something similarly extreme. Fresh fruit and vegetables contain a lot of water, you should always aim to eat plenty of high water content foods to control your weight. Anything you drink counts. It is not necessary to pour water down your throat when you're not even thirsty, or if you dont like plain water. As long as you drink enough, and your pee fairly clear you're fine and there's no real advantage to forcing more down. All the stuff you hear about water flushing fat out is correct but not correct in the way its represented - water is necessary to support a healthy metabolism that burns fat, so if you're completely dehydrated, you wont burn fat well, however it doesnt then necessarily follow that more is better. Again, you need enough, not 40 gallons a day. A couple of big glasses of water a day, a few coffees or teas, and maybe a juice or somethign plus fresh fruit and vegies is ample for the average person. And for most people when they exercise lots and sweat, thirst usually dictates fairly well. To say that once you feel thirsty its too late is ridiculous, like once you feel tired, its too late for sleep, or once you need to go to the toilet, its too late! Thirst has a purpose and its not to tell you you should have had a drink an hour ago.

See your doc, I agree. Reflux at night is never OK. As for noise, my stomach is incredible when I lay down. Its like all the gas rises to the top or something, I dont need to ah, let it out, its not like that, its just that the minute I lay down all the gurgling and stuff that goes on is incredibly loud. It actually keeps me awake!

A lot of what has been said above I agree with. I felt truly AWFUL a few days after surgery, I had quite liberal post op diet - in that anything that could fit up a straw was a liquid. I was sort of trying to do what people on here do, juice, jello, water, etc. Well, those foods are rubbish! The minute I started cooking again, making decent soups with meat, vegies and pasta in them and blending those up, to the consistency I could handle (watered down with broth) all the faintess, passing out and lethargy passed for me and I lost weight and felt great.

me too. I mean, where the f..k to people get off, honestly? How could anyone have a big enough ego to think their opinion mattered in the slightest? This is something we have all done primarily for ourselves, and to be here for our families. What some other loser thinks isnt even a blip on the radar.

Gleefully, joyfully dump them in a brotherhood bin - so donate! I've never found ebay worth the effort for stuff like second hand clothes, so much hassle photographing, listing etc for a few bucks. I need a million bucks, not a few, so I'd rather give them to someone who can benefit.

No...... its silicone and titanium and pretty much inert in the body. You wont "reject" it in that sense. But some people's bodies dont like bands, that's for sure. Now whether that's something inherent in the person or a case of bad placement, bad surgery, whatever (I suspect both scenarios occur) but some people have nothing but problems. The other thing I've heard SO often is hernias causing issues. Hernias and bands appear to be a very troublesome combination in terms of stuff like reflux and inability to tolerate fills. I know my surgeon wont place a band until said hernia is fixed, but other surgeons have certainly done so and everyone I know in real life who had a hiatus hernia and had a band has had a disaster. One friend got her hernia fixed, band replaced and her second band journey has been fantastic. Anything going on with stomach, gall bladder etc can cause stomach, chest and back pain and it may simply be something like the tubing touching your diaphragm - I've known this to occur as well and be fixed by a surgery to shorten the tubing. Is it possible you've got something like this going on? Its really all got to be thoroughly checked out.

I agree with Steve, as long as you're not having other troubles it sounds like nothing more than a case of not enough fill yet. True, if you never get stuck that's a sign of underestriction but even with NO fluid in a band you can get stuck on stuff if you eat big bites and dont chew. Truly, you just sound like you need more restriction. You HAVE lost some weight, so something's going right, whether its more your hard work or the band. But are you doing all the right stuff? Exercising?

the only scar of mine that is detectable now is the port incision - the others even I cant find (and I know approximately where to look) - so I dont get the advantage of single incision when the other four are so tiny anyway.

Ditto. At any level of restriction if you treat your band wrong you have pain and vomiting as your reward. Its just a matter of learning new habits, it takes time and a little bit of negative reinforcement! A sweet spot to me is simply where you're losing weight well. It does not equal eating a stated amount of food, not being able to eat certain foods etc. It simply means without undue effort you lose steadily, even if slowly.

Oh, I think I had pretty unrealistic expectations, I certainly expected weight to fall off me. Lucky for me, in the beginning it did. I dont think I ever got despondent, and I dont think I ever found it truly hard, but then, my eating habits were such that all I really required was portion control, there wasnt THAT much else to change. Apart from my need to be drip fed muffins on a daily basis and they became excruciatingly painful to eat very quickly so I didnt struggle with that. The momentum took me through about 18 months, these days I struggle a lot more to stay away from the chocolate, the ice cream and other slider foods and find my band a much harder tool to use than I did. But then your perspective changes too, what I eat now to maintain is less than what I ate at first to lose, so what I think of as bad eating or overeating makes others roll their eyes. I look at my friends' dinner plates when we eat out and I"m amazed anyone can stuff so much in!