Jachut

I've had it done twice and could probably use another downsizing, but I actaully like loose rings, one thing that makes me feel fat and bloated is if my rings feel tighter. Just one of htose weird things.

I agree with Lulu - eat a healthy diet and forget about being so obsessed with "working the band". Like she says, we all have different instructions. By Tom's definition, I dont work my band AT ALL. Yet here I am 10kg below my goal weight. If you eat less and exercise a bit you'll lose weight. We can debate day is night, black is white, argue about Protein, fibre - none of it really matters so much to WEIGHT loss, more to what we believe affects our general health. In the end,no matter how much people like to turn this into rules, regulations, Iron self will and its my way or the highway, if you eat less, you generally lose weight. It doesnt matter what you eat - 1200 calories a day and a bit of exercise and most people will drop weight. Personally, I approached this as a new lifestyle. I try to make healthy choices, usually I do, but there's room for bad choices occasionally too. I am not interested in people's dont drink before meals, eat x grams of protein, stay below 1000 calories per day rules. I ignore them completely and in fact most Australian surgeons dont really preach them either. Seen from that perspective, perhaps she IS ready to start taking baby steps towards a healthy lifestyle. Success is all in the definition, she can view herself as a failure because she's not adhering to a strict set of rules or she can view herself as on the way to success because she's taken the very biggest step - getting banded - and is starting to try to sort through her issues. She'll get there in the end as long as she doesnt sabotage herself with self hate for not sticking to what is really a dubious set of instructions anyway. I think surgeons and nutritionists are failing dismally to understand obesity by trying to encourage people to view the lapband as another strict diet.

Look, dont worry if you have to have a large unfill. You will probably be able to let things settle and then get your fill back over time. I had a teeny unfill, .2cc and it made me WIDE open and now I've had it put back in I'm not as tight as I was, it's perfect for me now.

30kg is HUGE weight loss for one year, I really dont understand how people can be asking why you havent lost more. That's a LOT of weigth. I lost about that in my first year and the next 13 or 14kg took about a year more to get off, that took me to a fairly low BMI. But it definitely slows down, that's just the way it is. Keep plugging away at it and eventually you will get there.

I think you need to eat more and get some decent exercise - try adding in more veges too, one serve a day isnt a lot. I lost lots of weight but I run for an hour a day - it takes a LOT of exercise to lose a lot of weight. And now, even running 10km a day is not enough to shift weight. Your body gets used to everything and you really have to continue to challenge it.

Depends - does one of them have a low profile port? Also, what shape are they. I am a pear shape, I have never carried a lot of abdominal fat, I've always been wider and hippier, never that apple shape. My port showed very quickly and sticks out now. But there's plenty of people who are healthy weights but have a lot more abdominal fat than I do and their ports wouldnt show. They'd have better thighs than me too, lol!

I think its great if you can get stuff like this down. I tried a drink that was supposed to contain like 13 serves of veges but thankfully I tried it BEFORE surgery becuase it made me hurl. It was DISGUSTING. I know we need Protein but you only have to read through that "what did you eat today" thread that's ongoing here and you can see that there's a lot of banded people falling desperately short of a balanced diet. You need a variety of fruit and veg and if juices and supplements help you get these, they're a great idea.

I found it VERY easy to overdo the liquids at 10 days post op. I had tons of restriction at that stage and couldnt even look at more than half a cup of anything at a time. I would pour myself a mug of Soup, because couldnt believe half of one could fill me so thoroughly and I tried to drink it all. Not everyone has no restriction after surgery. It does sound like you've overdone it a bit but dont be hard on yourself, that is really difficult to recognise when you're so new at this, and you really dont get any warning. Take note of the amount you'd had and try to stop just a bit before that. You'll get less sensitive to this as time goes on, you'll be able to eat more before it happens and then you start getting fills to manage that amount, and you'll get to know your body much better and start to recognise your signals.

Sorry, but this makes NO sense at all. Your body's nutritional needs are exactly the same AFTER banding as before, meaning for good health and especially the health of your bowels, you STILL need 30 grams or so of fibre a day. There is no magic that happens in your body that suddenly means the only thing you have to worry about is protein, it still works the same way as it did before. You absolutely cannot afford to only eat protein and not even worry about fibre - or all the Vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that are in plant foods. Protein by itself will not sustain good health and nutrition, it is part of a balanced diet. We can debate how much you need of course, but we all agree you need it. But to say that you're not supposed to get fibre as a banded person is just plain incorrect. You need exactly what you needed before. You may not get it all, with limited stomach capacity that becomes very hard and that's the choice you make when you decide to be banded. That's why eating the same thing day in day out is a very very bad idea, you need lots of VARIETY so you get adequate amounts of everything. Yes, protein is important, but so is everything else. But Tom is very right, poor food choices are not fixed by tightening the band. But to worry that you're needing an adjustment because you're choosing to eat salad is ridiculous, salad is healthy and we need it! Just add some protein to the salad!

these questions are very very normal and everyone asks them and wonders about them, but once you've been banded for a long time, you'll realise they're a measure of the total obsession we have with food as overweight people. The truth is, its just fuel. Just food. You just eat normally but less. There is no need to cook separate meals, you wont CARE what your friends are eating, they wont particularly care how much you eat and leftovers, if not eaten can simply be thrown away. Over time you learn to cook less, you get the feel for how much you eat and you adjust amounts accordingly, but this obsession with not wasting food goes away. I dont get the thing with getting "your money's worth" at a reastaurant either. If I go out, pay $20 for a meal and have a great night with my friends, who CARES if I live 3/4 of the meal on my plate (doggy bags are against health regulations here, you cant take your leftovers home). I just see it as the $20 I paid was for the priviledge of a great night out, NOT for a plate of food. Who cares if it gets thrown away, i've eaten all I want! None of this stuff will matter to you eventually, you just eat what you want and leave the rest, no matter what it is.

I've got a friend IRL who did and its working perfectly for her now. She had a terrible time with under/over fills, just could NOT get the right restriction, and had a new band put in about eight or nine weeks ago, which is working ENTIRELY differently (and properly, yay!). Good luck with yours!

Way to go! I'm happy to report than I am back at 70kg today after swapping my loooooooooong slow runs for some serious circuit training and interval style runs. And cutting out the Arnotts Shortbread Creams :-(

Isnt it just disgusting? These companies really do push the boundaries of moral behaviour. Hungry Jacks (which is burger king) recently introduced this thing in Australia called the quadburger - FOUR huge fatty beef patties in the bun, containing no less than 1200 calories, 75 grams of fat (WHOA) and god knows how much sodium. Why? They were very defensive about their decision to release it saying that if people wanted to eat it, then who were they to say they couldnt? And you know, we have smaller McDonalds and Hungry Jacks serves here in Australia than you do in America and its still contributing to the obesity crisis, they are making squillions, why pollute another culture with this rubbish? Where does it end?

Its so hard when this happens, I've been in a funk like this for quite some time. Got too tight, had some fill out and was too loose and have been just eating round my band ever since. For me, it was important to change things up. I needed to see some weight lost, that always motivates me and it hadnt happened in months and months. I also realise that even though I am a staunch defender of cardio, running for an hour five days a week for three years has just about acheived all it can for my body, I've become super efficient at it, its definitely not burning the calories and challenging me like it once was and its not keeping the weight away and helping me to lose it like it did. So I've completely switched it about. I am allowing myself one long slow run a week (because I love doing it) and the rest of the time I am focussing on a really HARD circuit workout I've developed on my treadmill that focusses on some heavy weights with a high heartrate the whole time and I've thrown in a few interval training workouts too (cardio coach is great for this). I committed to five days of perfect eating and I did it, hard though it was. Result? 2 of the pesky 4lb gone and I feel renewed and havent slipped back into that headhunger cookie munching all day long mode for about three weeks. For me, I just need to see a result to get me motivated again. Maintaining is boring. Same weight all the time, day in day out, I think I broke out of my good habits just to see something change!:whatchutalkingabout To give myself the challenge of having to lose a bit again, lol. Perhaps a little blitz would help you too? A completely different eating and exercise regime for a week?

with regard to exercise, I always sort of liked it, and would get excited when I would join a gym. But I always found time and life got in my way and I just wouldnt go. I cant stress how important it was to my success this time (have been exercising 4 to 5 times a week for 3 years now!) to have a home option. I chose running as my main exercise - but it could be Curves - but I also have an indoor backup for bad weather. Now it could be as simple as a few DVD's but I do circuits with my treadmill and weights. But the point is, there is never an excuse for me not to do something - weather, time etc. I can get a good workout at home in 30 minutes. Finding a backup if you cant get to the gym can keep you on the exercise straight and narrow.

Ugh, I gave up on my fingernails years and years ago. I have TERRIBLE nails and quite fragile brittle hair too, no matter what I eat, take or do. So does my mum and so does my five year old daughter - and of course both my boys got my husband's glorious thick hair and nails. If I am to have nice nails, they have to be fake, end of story. I've discovered biosculpture though - much nicer than big chunky square acrylics, it looks simply like a coat of clear (or coloured) varnish and your nails look totally natural, they just stay strong and unbroken. If you've had nice nails before, it might simply be a matter of taking a good multi or hair/nails/skin supplement. But like hair, the damaged nail will have to grow through before you notice the difference.

I think if people are honest, many of us have met certain people during our married lives that could easily have been partners in other situations. Its whether you act on it or not that determines your strength of character. It doesnt make you feel good to have these feelings and its very tempting to indulge just so far and then think you can draw the line. That's normal, and there's never just ONE person for anyone, there's all sorts of people out there that you find you have great chemistry with. It takes a lot of strenght to remove the temptation from your life and boy, after 25 years with one person, I can appreciate just how tempting it may be, but you have to really think about what you would be risking. I dont judge you at all, I feel empathy towards the stress you're probably feeling. But you've done nothing yet that cant be simply forgotten.

Much happier. I've never had any of those problems. You sound like you just need more fills. I got restriction immediately, started losing immediately, DH has taken 4 fills to get there and start losing. Everyone is different.

MacMadame and Wasabubblebutt both have sleeves - they're not Aussies but if you search them out you'll be able to have a chat about it. They're pushing the lapband so hard in Australia that I doubt there'll be a lot of sleevers around at this stage.

I was almost the same, not quite as tight as you describe (no pbing but a bit of sliming) but I figured if I wasnt even losing any weight for my discomfort, why live with it? I had some out, could eat huge amounts, regained 4 lb and have worked my way back to the same restriction again which is nowhere NEAR as tight this time. I put up with it for about a month, there's really little to be gained by being too tight.

Not only that but they do all sorts of really unhealthy stuff to stay there too - like if they're safe one week and know it, they'll Water and salt load - absolutely drown themselves in salty foods and water to have a big gain and then starve and dehydrate the following week when they may NOT be safe for a massive loss - fat plus all that water their bodies were retaining. Very few constestants maintain the results of their time on the show, not to mention such massive, fast weight loss is not very healthy for you. They overexercise, exercise through injury (which may just mean that they wreck a knee so much they will never be able to run for exercise again aftr the show) and generally predispose themselves to things like gallstones, kidney stones, osteoporosis and hair loss. Great entertainment, I love it as much as the next person but when you wonder why they're all SO ridiculously emotional and sooky on that show, they're placing themselves under extreme mental and physical pressure.

My guess is that you would feel it, I've heard it described as a cold sensation when the port was missed, she felt almost like Water was poured down her skin. When you have a fill it barely hurts because once the needle has pierced the skin, the injection itself doesnt take place into your flesh - that's why a penicillin injection kills for example. The Fluid is injected into the port. I can feel the fluid settle round my stomach in the band, but that doesnt hurt. So if they missed the port, I would guess that you'd feel the saline being injected into YOU instead. Fills are weird, Jack is very right, all of a sudden in 3 days time you could suddenly realise you're tighter.

I've got 3 or 4 friends big enough to be banded. One has a banded friend, she's a nurse herself, understands it all well, but just doesnt want to go down that path and fair enough, she'd probably be a BMI of about 35, so not desperately obese. The other two ladies are really very obese, very dangerously so. Both display a baffling lack of concern about it - they feel the vanity issues but both have openly said they dont want to give up being able to eat. So no jealousy, not at all. But I do feel vibes from other bigger people in my life (like school mums) that never knew me fat. They treat me like the "thin girl" as if I'm not one of them, they assume that I'm really vain or up myself becuase I look like I do and for the first time in my LIFE I've been excluded from a group (just a social, get together before and after school dropping the kids off) because of my weight. None of them know I'm banded.

And annoyingly when you're very tight, your body will be HUNGRY because it hasnt had a decent meal, so you tend to get urges to just eat all the darn time, and there you go back to the yogurt, ice cream, chocolate, Cookies, and stuff that will go down to try to chase away the hunger. Its VERY easy not to lose weight when you're too tight. My normal Breakfast is a bowl of good Cereal such as Allbran - 200 calories with some skim milk. When I was tighter and didnt like eating in the morning I was having a Peanut Butter and banana Optifast shake - EASILY 300 calories or more with a lot more fat from the peanut butter. I would have my favourite Soup for lunch often - curried peanut pumpkin soup - again full of sour cream and peanut butter. Didnt gain weight but boy, I sure wasnt losing it for how tight I was. That's why I decided to have some fill out, a tuna sandwich is a lot less calories than that soup! And I could eat fruit again whcih I wasnt able to eat.

You've said it yourself, you HAVE just had surgery 2 weeks ago, a bit of discomfort, aches and pains is to be expected. As long as you're not in real pain. If you've stuck to the diet and done what you should, you will be fine. I had a lot of stomach aches - a really weird one that HURT really badly and would ache right up my esophagus and into the roof of my mouth, even my cheeks ached. It was quite painful and did worry me, and over the six months following, it would sometimes strike out of the blue. Now I get it if I eat ice cream or really cold yogurt, I tend to take things like yogurt or strawberries out of the fridge half an hour before I want to eat them. Not fond of very cold things. I also got lots of stitch like pains which I also got following each baby I had, I think the trauma to the middle, and the inability to rely on core muscles for a week or two would cause that. And hiccups, any stuck episode will give me violent hiccups now.