Jachut

I'd probably eat a lot compared to many bandsters, and now I'm maintaining I'm definitely up there towards 1800 calories a day. I really believe you have to eat to lose weight and that dropping calories so low will only result in you never being able to eat much ever again as your body will adapt to it. Breakfast for me is usually a half cup serving of some sort of Cereal (muesli, oatmeal) with fresh fruit and yogurt. Snacks are things like fruit, a few crackers, a small handful of nuts, a muesli bar - and I usually have one mid morning but not always mid afternoon. lunch might be dinner leftovers, a half a sandwich and some fruit, it might be sushi if I'm out, and sometimes it MIGHT even be something really naughty like a muffin and a cappucino. And yes, I did this whilst losing too. I often dont want an afternoon snack becuase when I've eaten solidly and healthily during the morning, I just dont need any more food. Dinner tends to be my smallest least calorific meal - a small piece of lean Protein about 2/3 the size of my palm and some vegies. Usually with a glass of wine. Sizewise, my meals usually end up at more than half a cup, that never would have satisifed me, but a cup would be a lot, its somewhere in the middle. When I really LISTEN to my band, I eat small serves often.

I was asked to speak at one of the information nights and I felt awkward because really, I *did* defy average statistics in weight loss, and I wasnt sure I would be motivation, instead I felt I might come across as some kind of pratt. I also didnt feel good about having been banded at a BMI of 35 and "preaching" to people with BMI's of 50 and above about how fantastic running is. I just thought I'd be like the skinny chick fishing for complements when she says "I'm faaaaaaat". I dont feel I can understand morbid obesity, I share a lot of the general publics biases and misguided beliefs because I have never BEEN morbidly obese. So I declined. It wasnt convenient for me anyway really with how late Doug gets home from work and how far I had to go. But that doesnt mean you should. It just depends if you really want to do it or not. Do you feel you have a lot to share that will help? I felt I did but my sharing is more of the tough love variety and I know how badly that sometimes goes down here, I didnt feel like facing it in real life, roflmao!

If the veges are allowed foods and the broth is allowed then there's absolutely no reason not to blend them together into a soup. It doesnt make any difference really whether the food is eaten in liquid or solid form unless your'e adding things like cream or cheese! Most diets allow green vegies in pretty much unlimited quantities. The trouble is its the pumpkin or potato that makes it taste good, sigh. But canned tomatoes can make a great base!

I was also pretty athletic in my younger days but the most I did through my 20's and 30's was sporadic gym memberships in which i did the same kind of half arsed "fat burning zone" useless workouts that half the people in the gym do or walking. Since being banded, i work out probably four times as hard as I did and I do it consistently and regularly - mostly running and circuit training. I consider "fun" doing thingsl iek we did the other day - walkign the thousand steps, a 2.5km climb up the side of Melbourne's Mt Dandenong. But I'd argue that the choice ISNT lapbanding and exercise or gastric bypass and no exercise. Who wants to be a skinny bag of skin, a muscleless blob?. If you have GBP you STILL should exercise. No exercise = a pretty average weight loss result for most people, either it doesnt come off or it does and you look like a skeleton lost in a huge bag of skin.

Well, I know that I was lucky as I could lose on 1500 calories a day. But I truly think there's a HUGE percentage of bandsters that chronically starve themselves. And I think a lot of them are being directed to do it by their doctors, which baffles me. 800 calories a day is just plain not necessary and people say oh, but if I eat more I dont lose. No, if you eat more CRAP you dont lose, if you eat the right thing (which I differ from most here on what that is) and you exercise right, you will lose. You just dont lose 3 or 4lb every week. But there's not many women in the world that have a totally healthy and balanced view of food and nutrition in relation to their bodies. Your mum is no different to a lot of people and unfortunately, what and when she eats is her decision.

I'm going to have a breast lift later this year (towards the end), not sure by I may really need implants too to get a good result. Dont know how I feel about that or whether I'll do it, firstly I dont really want big boobs or fake looking ones, a C cup is perfect but I may lose size as a result of removing the oodles of loose skin and I also am not sure that its safe. My sister who is a breast care specialist will kill me if I do it, that's for sure. The rest, well I could use some slight tightening but not enough to justify the cost or scarring. I may get a teeny bit of lipo to the outer thighs - I have small saddlebags.

Not really, I was highly motivated by cosmetic factors to have lap band surgery, really, I wanted to lose weight to look better, feel better and make the most of ME. I think what I did, since it also has fantastic health benefits (says me who RAN a 4km hill course right up the side of a mountain including 1000 steps and back down again today) is WAY less barbaric than cutting open your chest and inserting possibly dangerous silicone filled bags just so you can have boobies that dont even look real! that's an exaggeration by the way, have seen lots of very lovely boob jobs and would consider one myself! But you bet my point. Making your face look like you got caught in a wind tunnel and filling your lips with substances made of the crap they wont even put in hotdogs is pretty barbaric too! My DH woudl agree with you though, he has an Iron fist relationship with his band whereas my band and I are on much more congenial terms since I treat mine nicely. Poor old DH went 6 months without getting any restriction because he just put off going for fills. When he finally did it (OK, I made him, lol) he got restriction but without creeping up on it. He has not learned yet to eat slowly, to eat VERY cautiously with the first few bites and to not eat foods that upset him. What that results in - no pbing yet but some pretty bad pain - is rather barbaric for sure. It does make you think how in the hell did I let myself get here?

I'd have maybe expected an emotional outburst at the "judgement" as you tend to get with people who have messed up and want their actions validated, so maybe you're right. Perhaps its someone who's been peed off by a previous similar topic. I hope if Tripi is real though, he/she is getting some help. I couldnt have eaten a burger 2 days out of surgery, that's for sure, and I find it so difficult to imagine that real hunger would have set in by then, hunger that couldnt be satisfied by a Protein shake!

Then go ahead and do it. Do you really think God made you ten times uglier than everyone else? You will be fine. Its really scary the first time you put yourself out there. I couldnt have felt more naked the first time I went on the beach in a bikini if I really WAS naked. It was excruciating to be honest. But once you get used to the feeling and once you realise nobody is going to fall over vomiting and that you dont stand out for your hideous deformities, you start to get a little confidence. This step is a BIG one in your journey. And a little fake tan goes a LOOOOOOOOONG way.

Ah, this isnt the same as the "I ate a burger 2 days after surgery" thread that got so much tough love. This is more common garden variety breaking out. I do it too on occasion and yes, when you do it, it snowballs and you do it more and more. I could eat what you just described in an hour, and I have what I consider good fill. I'm WAY less likely to do it with good fill. Its not a matter of "deserving" your fill, its a matter of using your band. Not to stop you being able to eat that much but to stop the desire to do so. 5lb is only 5lb, its not a lot, thank goodness it wasnt worse. You do need to deliver yourself a good hard face slap though and yell STOP. There's no other way than to just STOP. No more bingeing. Fill up on good food if you need to, get the fill, keep up the exercise and put it behind you.

The more fill you have, the harder this gets. I was in a similar postion - had a small 0.1 ml fill to take me to 2.8 in my band and it made me so tight. I was pbing more (but still not a lot) but I just couldnt eat anything without discomfort. I did lose a bit (which was my intention) but it was at the expense of a good diet, I couldnt eat Breakfast etc. I also had ever so slight refluxy sort of mucous after eating, I realised one day that I was clearing my throat an awful lot (no pain, just this little cough after eating). that was enough for me, I want my band in and the difference between 68kg and 70kg is not worth risking it over. So I had .2 taken out. it was when I did that that I realised just how far my good eating habits had slipped with being so tight. I was just grazing all day and crap food too - which is what I'd unconsciously been doing whilst I was tighter. I promtly went back to 72kg, which had me feeling a bit desperate. The difference between 68 and 72 IS noticeable to me, lol. I've since had two .1ml fills to take me back to 2.8 (8 weeks apart) and the fill is really comfortable now, nowhere near as tight as it was the first time. However, its taken months to get back to a good healthy 3 meals a day (maybe with SMALL snacks) routine. But this morning I was 69kg, YAY. Get a bit out. If you're uncomfortable, jsut do it. We're not hamstrung by stupid medical systems and insurance companies here, you can just go and darn well do it and go back next week if you like for another fill, without it costing you thousands. Even .1ml out may make a difference. But keep up your exercise :-) I'm sure its the only thing that saved me from a bigger gain.

I think I feel as I do because I tend to make a moral judgement about wanting to be a celebrity in the first place - if you get what I mean? Like you have to have a big ego and you have to want to hog the spotlight and you have to want obscene wealth. That moral judgement may well be unfair in many cases. But whilst I would like the obscene wealth bit, I understand that I have to sell myself to get it and that makes it not realistic or acceptable to me. If its acceptable to someone else, I tend to think then that they're not made of high moral stuff. Maybe that's unfair. I guess its why i think most of Hollywood is completely stupid. But I still pay to see the movies so go figure. We've had some massive arguments on here about plus sized celebrities being role models for healthy living and I've been, quite literally, incredulous that people could view it like that. I think it was over Queen Latifah. I'm like give me a break, the woman's loaded, she's a Hollywood actress, she has everything at her disposal - stylists, trainers, dieticians, hairstylists, designers wanting to dress her, she doesnt set foot on a red carpet without weeks of preparation and to top that off, she's no doubt and mental as any of them in Hollywood and simply because she's fat she's some sort of role model? Apparently that meant I think that only thin is beautiful and its not OK to have larger women as role models, lol.

My cellulite got a lot worse for a while there, as I lost. But dont panic, as you get to the pointy end of your weight loss, it does begin to disappear. As the fat goes, so does the cellulite, eventually. But you'll be left with some, all women have it. I think its important to try to remain realistic about your body. Look around you, how many people are perfect? Do you hate your best friend because she has cellulite? Do you spend a lot of time thinking about how disgusting your mother's backside is? Do you find your husband unattractive becuase he has a wart on his hand? probably not. We're so darn hard on ourselves, we want physical perfection and it just doesnt exist. Other people do not care about, or even notice our flaws and if you had none, people would probably hate you and think you were a stuck up bitch.

Stop and take a deep breath. Firstly, you're far from being a failure, you've had a massive weight loss and you dont lose almost 100lb easily, you've worked to get that off. Now, what can you change to get you over this plateau? I know how you feel to some degree, but I wont pretend that its not different for me because this happened to me at a healthy weight. But I wanted (and still do) to be about 10 to 15lb lighter again than I am now, however, I've stuck at 70kg for the past 18 months. Can you use this time to go on a commercial diet program? Would something like that help you? We all know diets dont work, but they are effective for smaller weight loss and the calorie control and regimented approach may shake something loose. What exercise do you do? Is it time to add some really HARD stuff like interval training (like when you're running with sprints or hill repeats etc) and some weight training. Is it time to try something like hard circuit training (guaranteed to burn tons of fat). Would a trainer help you at this stage? At this end of things though, I'd recommend not going ridiculously low on calories but it may be time to get really scientific about what you eat and the way you exercise. It really is a matter of what you're prepared to do to get what you want. I know that for me, stepping up to vomit inducing levels of HARD exercise really does work. It even becomes fun in a kind of psychotic insane way. And guaranteed, I can lose when I eat 3 PROPER meals a day, and think about fuelling myself for the exercise I'm doing, eating what my body needs (I was 68kg this mornign, yippeee) - which for me means wholegrain carbs and low fat as well as adequate Protein.

I tolerate oatmeal well and love it, but that sounds yummy - Peanut Butter and maple syrup! I only eat proper rolled oats though, i simply dont understand why you would take one of nature's superfoods and process it to remove most of its nutrients, THEN eat it. I soak my oats in milk overnight, then just heat in a saucepan the next morning for a few minutes. If I dont soak, I just cook them in milk/water and boil for a few minutes longer. Delicious. I like brown sugar and a bit of milk with mine. I also make bircher muesli - soak oats overnight in apple or orange juice, maybe add some sultanas and in the morning add something like half a grated apple, or some stewed fruit and natural yogurt, sprinkle with some raw almonds or cashews. No cooking for that one. I do the crumble thing too - oatmeal, brown sugar and butter mixed to a crumbly texture, spread on top of some fruit and bake - we use green apples, and this week someone gave us a bag of plums, so I used those, top and bake. Its technically a dessert (well in Australia apple crumble is a pretty traditional dessert( but I have been known to eat it for Breakfast - with cream too (shamefaced). Only a bit of cream, like a tablespoon. I figure there's sugar, salt etc in all processed cereals to such a degree that this is probably healthier and it gets my fruit in (I have a lot of trouble with uncooked fruit).

Oh, I'm afraid I just dont buy that theory with celebs. They put themselves where they are through their own choice and to my way of thinking have no right to complain about the consequences. These things probably DO make it difficult for Oprah, but think about it. Say she really does want to have lapband surgery. Say she's decided finally that its a logical next step. If she hadnt blabbed her big mouth all over the world going on about how she thinks its wrong, she'd be free to do it now, wouldnt she? How many celebs "accidentally" become celebs?. As in they were riding their bike down the street one day and entered a time warp and next thing they knew they were famous. What's the differnence between them and us? Normal people like us understand that with the good comes the bad and normal people like us dont feel the compulsion for everyone in the world to know who they are or what they think. I'm not saying no celebs have great personality features but I think with very few exceptions none of then would be celebs if they werent egotistical, self absorbed and wanting the limelight, thus they make decisions to get that for themselves. Oprah is no different. Given her background, she could easily have lived a life in obscurity and luxurious anonymity but she didnt choose that, she chose to draw the world's attention to herself. They're all like that, that's why their relationships dont last, why they have drug problems, and alcohol problems and behave appalingly - they're overly self indulgent egotistical creaters with not much idea of reality. So can I understand the difficulties in Oprah's life? Yep. Do I feel sympathy? Nope. She has consequences for her actions same as I do.

There's plenty of old studies that show this as well. In essence, I think its completely true. Its pretty simple, any time you eat less calories than you burn, you'll lose weight. You CAN do this with exercise alone but the truth is, doing as much exercise as this requires tends to make you starving and you eat to compensate. Heck, for many people, dont ANY exercise tends to make them think that they can therefore eat more, as the study says. I love exercise and always have, have had many times in my life where I've done it consistently without getting the diet right and I always remained fat. I never lost weight. However, when the exercise stopped and my diet remained the same, I got REALLY fat. These studies never show either just what exercise does for your body, they always view it in terms of how many calories it burns. They dont consider stuff like how long steady aerobic exercise develops your body's aerobic systems enabling it to become much more adept at burning fat for energy. They dont consider how it reduces insulin resistance in the body, or how if you do it properly, that runners high can really help to decrease the need for that seratonin hit that carbs tend to give you. They dont consider how a good bout of interval training not only increases your calorie burn for hours after exercise but decreases your appetite markedly too. They dont consider how, when someone like me is training for a half marathon, they adjust their diet to fuel their body properly for it, adjustments and improvements they might not have made without that exercise goal. Of course, there's also maintaining lean body mass and even increasing muscle to consider. And what these studies dont tend to consider either is how much activity in total people get. You cant call a half hour jog exercise if you sit on your behind the rest of the day and are basically an inactive person who only moves for half an hour four times a week. Exercise needs to be ON TOP of a very active lifestyle. If you go from nothing to mild cardio four times a week, well big deal. If you go from nothing to cardio six times a week, weight training, cleaning your windows yourself, doing heavy housework for an hour every day, having an evening walk after dinner every day, and walking to and from work, well that will tell a different story. There's no doubt about it, you can lose weight without exercise, but combine diet AND exercise and the results will be exponentially better. Its like anything, science tells one story, but people's experiences (and there'll be tons here who will confirm) tell a more accurate story. With all these factors taken into consideration and keeping in special focus the way people tend to take up exercise and then eat more and decrease incidental activity, saying that exercise does not help one lose weight is exactly like saying the high carb/low fat diet of the 80's and 90's doesnt work without admitting the fact that in reality people didnt follow it, they ate a high PROCESSED carb and high SATURATED fat diet instead. However, I do agree, try to lose weight through exercise alone and you'll be rather disappointed with the results you get for your efforts. Diet is what results in weight loss, exercise is what acheives above average results.

My sister is hypothyroid, ironically she was always the skinny one in our family - I mean tiny skinny, 100lb as an adult skinny. She simply never had any appetite at all. Her undiagnosed hypothyroidism caused a raft of fertility problems for her, she had horrid endometriosis, she was always given to having nana naps int he afternoon, suffered puffy eyes, we all have dry skin/hair/nails in our family, but nothing obvious. Everyone said to her, how come you're not fat when it was diagnosed. Her specialist said to her that hypothyroidism is never the explanation for a really LARGE weight problem, it might cause a bit of weight over and above the individual's genetic predisposition but its still lifestyle habits that are the culprit. Most people cant say they're fat because of their thyroid. However, it can be very difficult to LOSE any weight with untreated hypothyroidism. My sister began treatment, discovered an appetite for the first time in her whole life and promptly gained about 30 lb - which she needed to, she's now a gorgeous, curvy hipped flat stomached 130lb with boobs (something she'd never ever had, and I mean she was flat as an ironing board).

I want to tell you to be nice and tell you not to worry. And the truth is, if you felt no pain and it went down fine and its the only time you do it, the odds are in your favour. But you know that you're not supposed to eat solid food so that you can heal right? Now the not so nice part. If you're eating a burger a mere two days after surgery, just how mentally committed are you to this? I'd suggest you find some committment pretty darn soon as you've got a steep learning curve ahead if you havent already prepared yourself for this. We cant know another's experience though, so forgive the incredulity and the seeming judgement - I couldnt even drink normally yet after 2 days so the burger thing made me yell WTF? I find it hard to imagine that you could have been motivated by physical hunger at this stage, and I know that's applying my own experience to yours and not necessarily right. This isnt sneaking a mouthful of yogurt or chewing a piece of steak and spitting it out though, this was a whole burger. Do that consistently and you're likely to end up right back in surgery having your slipped band removed. This is a HARD journey. You're not the only one that has broken down at this point. It doesnt mean you'll fail at this long term. But its imperative that you get back on the wagon and keep going as youv'e been instructed to.

shoulders, arms, boobs, waist and back - the areas where i dont carry much weight anyway. My fat old bum and thighs took a lot longer to disappear - well to shrink!

Depends on lots of things such as: the difference between your body's energy needs and the calories you're taking in (everyones' different, some burn more energy than others, some get great restriction after surgery and some dont). How much weight you lost on your pre op diet - have you already exhaused the easy run before being banded? how much you exercise - it didnt make me lose fast but it kept me losing steadily, I never plateaued all the way to goal. Weight loss is not necessarily fat loss. If you're very bloated and hold lots of Water - that comes away fast. Cutting back super hard on calories, like to 600 a day will result in fast weight loss but you can guarantee its lots of water and muscle as well as fat at first. Metabolic disorders such as PCOS or thyroid problems can make it really hard to lose. its pointless comparing yourself to others, its your journey and nobody else's.

It is and it isnt expensive in australia. We shop at a meat wholesaler, a fruit and veg wholesaler, Aldi and then Coles as a last resot (I despise paying my money to big supermarket chains who are exploiting us all). We spend about $300 per week on groceries for a family of five, but that's good quality wholesome food and very little junk (just a bit of snack food for the kids). its definitely cheaper to fill your trolley full of crumbed fish, frozen chips, party pies and sausage rolls, and cheap mass produced artificially sweetened yogurt, plastic cheese and deli meat than it is to buy fresh produce, good meat, free range eggs, organic milk and cheese. But when we have a takeaway night for instance - if I need a quick dinner, I will call into Coles, buy a rotisserie chicken, a prepapared garden salad and pop some potatoes in the microwave - about $15 for five of us. A full meal of Indian or chinese is always over $40, fish and chips always about $25, McDonalds always over $30. Its much more expensive to buy rubbish for lunch than make it. High protein diets though - to do that healthily costs a BOMB. So much meat, fish, etc. We eat lots of really cheap stuff like rolled oats (not minute oats, not packaged single serve but good traditional rolled oats) 79c for a kilo bag, beans and legumes, and fill it out with vegies etc. Oprah - bah. I dont watch her generally as she annoys me but just by pure coincidence she's on here right now, with that freaky alien looking Dr Oz, who's currently bagging the typical amercian diet, and giving a very informed opinion on the ratio of good fats in our diets, telling people NOT to eat so much animal produce - which definitely gives the protein first thing a shove - to eat FIVE different fruit and veg and some nuts every, to get 25g of fibre a day etc, a tbspn olive oil etc. If she's going to spread GOOD information like that, she's got a bit more of my respect. I certainly beats the focus on protein and who cares if its deli meat, cheese or processed shakes message.

It depends if you're up front about whether you have a band or not I guess. I cope with these things by taking what I know I can eat if that's an option, eating TINY portions and eating TWICE as slowly and HALF as much as normal, so that mistakes and pb's dont happen. All my friends know I have a band - if its a group I dont know so well, I just dont worry about what they might think. I never ever EVER push it to fit in more so taht I look more normal. that ends in disaster every time.

I buy good bread - good organic stoneground wholegrain bread. I dont buy white flour dyed brown bread and i dont buy sliced white bread or full up with sawdust so you can call it high fibre bread, I've NEVER let my kids eat that stuff, so we're all used to good grainy bread. You can get good bread in the supermarket here, and I also buy fresh from the bakery and sometimes I make it (not often). I can eat a piece of toast or maybe half a sandwich VERY slowly. I tend to get more grains from Cereal and brown rice than from bread, I maybe eat a slice or two a week.

Well, in a way it makes evolutionary sense that we would prefer foods that are going to sustain us - sugar and fat together - its not poisonous, it packs mega calories, it will sustain you over a long period. When food only came along once every two days and you had to chase it down, fat intake wasnt a problem. In these days of plentiful food and low energy expenditure, it would make evolutionary sense to prefer foods providing less energy. It may well be the case in another couple of hundred million years.