Jachut

I look at my own 12 year old who is showing the tendency to become heavy. I pray its just a pre puberty fattening up in preparation for the growth spurt. But truth is he's bone lazy and loves to lie around eating. I know what's ahead of him, but he doesnt and couldnt care less. He doesnt want to change and has no issues with his health (which is not great, he's very asthmatic) or any desire to improve that. I cant see that banding him would do one iota of good right now. Perhaps by the time he's 15 or 16 and cares what he looks like? But he's merely "quite overweight" and "not skinny" like kids usually are at that age, he's not obese.

My first fill was almost 3 months after surgery, I had awesome restriction at first. Ruth, I cant wear baby doll tops, hardly anyone can. They actaully look best on curvier gals I think, the shorter more solid type, with bigger arms and chests. That sounds like an awful description but it isnt meant to be, they just are proportionate on that figure type. Those of us that are pear shaped, with finer arms and chests, and larger lower regions, forget it, we look six months pregnant. The other thing I struggle with is dresses, all those long maxi dresses, they look hideous on me. Fat or thin, we all have a shape that we have to dress for. I still have the same problems I did before in that there's certain styles that I just can not wear due to my basic shape. God help me but high waisted pants are coming back in too. Ugh. Never.

I think it depends on the yogurt or custard. Some are really liquidy - like yoplait, they were on my liquids list. I'd rather eat vomit, lol, so I didnt bother with them. others are thick and creamy, like greek yogurt, those to me are definitely more of a mushy.

No, they were actually on the recommended list. Mashed potato and pumpkin, broccoli and carrot with a sprinkle of cheese mixed through and gravy mmmmmmmmmm....... but yes, it is a fairly high GI meal that doesnt include a good Protein source. I dont think potatoes in small amounts are bad, but then I'm pro carb. But the thing is with starchy, high GI foods, they DO give you blood sugar spikes. That is if you eat them on their own. Basing a whole meal on potatoes is probably not a great nutritional choice. Enjoying your mashed potato later on with a protein source is much better, it will dampen the insulin reaction and you can indeed eat high carb foods if you dont eat them in large quantities on their own - if you're not a low carber that is.

Yes, just because it comes from the deli counter doesnt mean its identifiable as meat. I dont buy frozen chicken or fish either. To me, chicken comes from the butcher, either whole, or as breast fillets, pieces, thighs etc. I usually buy free range chickens, organic are a bit expensive. I also wont buy Aldi chickens becuase they're HUGE for $7.50, sheesh, WHAT must they have fed those things. Im surprised they dont breed them with four drumsticks, except they'd probably never be able to catch them. I dunno, I just feel with meat, fresh, and identifiable as what it once was is best. Deli meat freaks me out a little. Like black pudding EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEW. I give the kids chicken sandwiches in their school lunches, I just take a fillet, microwave it for a few minutes and shred. You can keep it in the freezer too. It thaws OK. They'll eat ham, but I wont coz I just plain dont like it. But all those kids meats, chicken loaf and and smiley loaf etc, what on earth is it? *runs screaming from the supermarket* Look, I'm a big old hypocrite. I just have my little phobias - artificial sweetener and deli meat being two of them. I see no problem at all with guzzling a gallon of coffee a day, so dont listen to me, lol.

Day one, all I have done is wee! But I will attempt to eat half a pig this evening and see how I go (just kidding).

I like the idea of a child being able to avoid painful, obese teenage years. But in reality, I just dont think an average child of that age can handle the work it takes to lose weight - with a lapband or without.

I dont, unless I'm going to have it as a meal - like mentioned above, Breakfast I'm always eating on the run. I loathe Protein shakes, but I do like vanilla Optifast, which is the pretty much the same thing. I dont do it to "supplement" though, just as a convenient meal and its a GREAT way to get fruit it, blending berries and a banana in with it. But I definitely dont add scoops of Protein powder into Soups, juice etc, number one, I believe I eat enough protein and number two, its just calories that I really dont need. If I'm eating enough protein why add calories with protein powders, they still end up on your hips.

Yes, I'm sorry I snapped, it gets rather tiresome that a huge number of posters on this board tend to forget there's an entire world out there outside their own country that approaches things differently. so.... a bit of friendly debate? Re the second article, its actually a good illustration of what I'm trying to say: Dangers of excessive Protein, defined as when protein constitutes > 35% of total energy intake, include hyperaminoacidemia, hyperammonemia, hyperinsulinemia nausea, diarrhea, and even death (the “rabbit starvation syndrome”). The three different measures of defining protein intake, which should be viewed together are: absolute intake (g/d), intake related to body weight (g ∙ kg-1 ∙ d-1) and intake as a fraction of total energy (percent energy). A suggested maximum protein intake based on bodily needs, weight control evidence, and avoiding protein toxicity would be approximately of 25% of energy requirements at approximately 2 to 2.5 g ∙ kg-1 ∙ d-1, corresponding to 176 g protein per day for an 80 kg individual on a 12,000kJ/d diet. This is well below the theoretical maximum safe intake range for an 80 kg person (285 to 365 g/d). 176 grams a day for an 80kg individual on a 12000 kilojoule (almost 4000 calories) diet. Ok.....ay. So WHO eats that much? I'd have been 400kgs if I'd consumed anything like that. And your 176 grams of protein is spread amongst a vast number of kilojoules from other nutrient sources - the PERCENTAGE of protein in the diet should not exceed 35% and should in fact be around 25% as the article says. So there's many people here who eat more than 25% of their diet as protein and even IF the liver can handle that 176 grams, if you eat say 100 to 120 grams of protein a day on a 1000 calorie diet instead of a 4000 calorie diet, you've completely mucked up the balance, and you're almost certainly going short of many other nutrients. Its just not as simple as the liver can handle this much so I can eat it. But people read that and think Oh, YES! Irrefutable proof that lots of protein is not bad for you. Interestingly, Shane Bilsborough has books still in current publication in Australia anyway, that advocate the high carb, low fat way of eating and exercising before Breakfast on an empty stomach to burn more fat! He's not above publishing for the masses. This bit is intriguing too, it kind of backs up my feeling that going to the gym five times a week does not make you a world class athlete with special nutritional needs. "High protein diets and popular “fad-diets” that claim to be “high protein, low carbohydrate,” recommend intakes between 71 to 162 grams of protein per day also fuel interest in increased consumption of protein. This is despite the fact that no studies have evaluated the upper limit of amino acid intake , and no formal risk assessment paradigm for intakes of amino acids that are in significant excess of physiological requirements have been established . This should be a concern for any health professional advocating a high protein diet." It also alarms me that the article states outright that soy protein isolates are a good form of nourishment for humans. Yes...... but a shake every single day? There's loads and loads of evidence out there that overconsumption of soy might be dangerous, and what about the artificial sweeteners and all the rest of the muck those shakes can come packaged with? I just think, yes, there's credible evidence that a high-er protein diet might have weight loss benefits, particularly for some people over others. It does seem to dampen appatite too. But that doesnt translate into this crazy obsession, for example, that all you need is Protein Shakes during your liquid diet phase, as long as you get your protein you'll be fine. Ah, no, you wont. You need lots of other things too. And the biggie - supplementing fibre. If you need to do that, its a sure fire sign that you're not eating enough fruit and veg, even if you choose to avoid the grains. If you cant fit them in, then perhaps a little LESS protein and little MORE fruit and veg might be beneficial to you OVERALL? I guess I believe in moderation and I tend to observe the protein push as a bit obsessive, and not moderate. But yeah, sorry I got cross.

Hmmmmmm, not being a fan of tattoos myself its easy for me to say, no I wouldnt get them. But its easy to extrapolate and say how I would feel if DH made comments about other aspects of my appearance. If he didnt like something I had on or if he hated my hair cut and said so or if he asked me to get big plastic boobies and long blonde hair extensions, I think I would tell him to shove it where the sun don't shine. So yeah, if YOU want them, its YOUR choice. Get them and enjoy them, husbands/boyfriends/significant others need to learn that you dont do everything for them, some things you do for yourself.

OK, you know my normal routine is pretty full on, an hour six days a week. But that's a lot less time than many people spend in the gym and its precisely why I decided to take up running: I'm time poor. But I have times too when its impossible, usually when I'm on teaching rounds with assignments due in and the odd weeks where I have ten things due in the one week. What helps me is to accept that I'm not superhuman and I wont be able to find the time for that much exercise. So rather than think "I'll just do what I can" which wont work because I've really got NO time to exercise, I switch to emergency mode. I have a secondary routine, where my goal is to maintain my fitness and not gain weight. That's one of two things: I shorten the distance I run and head out for half an hour first thing in the morning. I hate exercising when I'm just out of bed. Loathe it. I'm not a morning person. But if its gotta be done, its gotta be done. I do that four or five times a week. I'f I'm REALLY busy, I do that three times. Three half hour runs will at least keep me from losing fitness during the two or three weeks my really really busy periods tend to last for. I find the key is to not just stop. Once you stop, you're a goner. That's why I run wherever I am, I dont stop for anything, not even holidays. Its not always easy, some days its like cleaning the bathroom. You dont want to do it but you just have to. For me too, something portable and easy like running is vital, no way, no how could I find the time to go to a gym. I can burn 400 calories in a measly half hour, if that's all I have.

Of course not Mac, but back them up with CREDIBLE information. Some unheard of personal trainer or e-book is not credible information. It wouldnt stand up in an academic sense and anyone who believes it completely is a fool. There's people out there who believe that coconut oil is the answer to the world's obesity woes. The Weston A Price Foundation advocates a diet crammed to the brim with full fat dairy as the key to health. There's multiple websites for both that sound logical and quite convincing. You can find websites that prey on your emotions, convincing you that you're endangering your baby's health by using disposable diapers and there's websites debunking that completely. Should you use petroleum byproducts on your baby's skin, or dust them with baby powder? Apparently your baby girl will develop ovarian cancer if you do that. And using shampoo will send your kids blind. There's probably a grain of truth in all of it, as there is with nutritional and exercise theory. You dont absorb Vitamin A and D as well without the fat that comes with dairy for sure. But you might avoid dying of a stroke if you dont shove your arteries full of saturated fat your entire life too! Lets not even get into whether global warming exists or not.

for me, weight loss just eventually petered out. I didnt hit a "goal" so much as just stopped losing (a bit over 12 months ago now) so to maintain, absolutely nothing changed. I didnt eat more or remove fill or anything. But then I never went on a super low calorie high Protein diet, I ate how I wanted to for the rest of my life. I've recently had .2 ml removed from my band coz I got inexplicably tight for a while, it relieved that totally and has left me quite unrestricted. I had a rebound gain of about 3lb, which means I"m just at the top of my normal 4-5lb range anyway, so to all intents and purposes, no gain. But I sure wouldnt want any more fill gone. Its much harder with really loose restriction, but I feel its important to gain those skills gradually, since living with tight restriction for ever more doesnt thrill me either. I know that Chickie has no fill at all and has maintained really well, but by and large, when you remove fill or bands, you get weight regain. The most important thing I think is I havent let up on my exercise schedule one single bit. That is for life as much as good eating is. Maintenance will always feel somewhat like a diet. You simply cant eat whatever you want whenever you want to and only exercise when you feel like it and stay thin.

OK, I will test the theory. It certainly cant hurt! I've tested the Protein theory and debunked that one for myself personally, smelly gas anyone? Eeeeeeew. Lots of protein makes me feel crap, bloated, gassy and lethargic. But perhaps a lot of Water will get rid of these awful undereye circles too.

Its hard to tell sometimes. I lost as well as i ever did, I was 38 when I got banded. So not older older, but not a spring chicken either. Now I lose better because I'm WAY fitter than I was in my 20's. That's most of the equation really, if you stay fit and active and maintain your lean body mass, its half the battle. Older women probably lose slower because they're softer, less muscular and less active and therefore have much lower calorie needs than younger ones. All of that can be addressed. My mum had a mild heart attack last year despite a healthy lifestyle, the genetic factors were quite strong in our family. She was fine, came through it well but took seriously the implications to her lifestyle. She was always "active" with golf and being social etc but she really got into power walking and Curves and dropped 12 kg on Weight Watchers in a matter of 3 months and has kept it off for a good 12 now. She looks incredible, she's firm, shapely and has lost that matronly belly and shelf like bust. She even came for a 4km slow jog with me a few weeks ago because we went for a walk together and she decided to try. She's 68!

Referrals from the gp are usually valid for 12 months in Australia although it depends. When you get referred to an ob for a pregnancy for example, they'll often make it indefinite because you often end up going back, I saw the same ob for 3 pregnancies over a ten year period. Same with my eye specialist - I'm going to always have to go for checkups annually so the referral was indefinite. As for a GP refusing to refer you at your request, I've never heard of that in Australia. I wouldnt have thought that was their business really, whether you want to do something cosmetic. And certainly not for them to tell you they wont refer you because they dont believe you should do it. Cosmetic ISNT medically necessary, that doesnt mean it isnt a reasonable thing to do. All you need to do is your research, choose a couple of PS you'd like to see and go to a bulk billing clinic and ask for the referrals. They've got no real right or grounds to refuse you, its your right. Sometimes a doctor who really knows you can be a bit interfering.

Interesting.... i had an unfill back in July after I'd been to up to Queensland for a fun run. I could barely eat for weeks before that and the weekend, I ate hardly anything, not PBing and miserable, but just unable to eat much and everything hurt a bit. So I had an unfill, and I'm wide open now even though it was only .2cc. Maybe all the training I'd been doing had some impact? I also find if I've gone without eating for hours and hours - like six hours between lunch and dinner, then I can barely eat. Maybe that's dehydration too. I'm not the best Water drinker, I tend to live on coffee.

I'm really sick of the fact that whenever debates escalate a bit - like the old protein/carb or cardio/strengthtraining debate - into interesting discussion, people back up their statements with links to articles on the interent. This is crapola! Anyone can put anything on the interent. There's interesting stuff out there, links are great to follow and over time, they help you build informed opinion. But some personal trainer giving your nutrition advice, or some doctor espousing his high Protein theories is not irrefutable scientific proof. For every opinon disguised as fact that you find, you'll find one to refute it. Every one of us is living proof that some theories are wrong. Some of us get nowhere near the protein recommendations that are current and are perfectly healthy. Some of us never exercise and lose TONS of weight. Some of us eat 600 calories a day and lose NO weight. Lets all have our opinions, and lets all discuss them and even fight about them occasionally. Lets all read lots of things to inform ourselves. But I'm going to cyberpunch the next person who tells me that he/she is RIGHT because look at this article, it says so! If only passing a bachelor degree was that easy! I'd have been done in a year.

Its weird isnt it? I can handle the cereal/milk combo but chunky Soups, ugh. I have to be REALLY careful with things like minestrone, any Soup with big bits in it.b SUCH a healthy food, and very satisfying but definitely not something I'd ever eat in public due to the risk of PB.

the thing is, if you search, you'll find 100 different formulae for that. Which one is right? Althought that puts me squarely at about 65grams a day which is reasonable. Not like the 100+ grams that some formulae tell me I need, which is patently ridiculous since I get nowhere near that amount and I'm perfectly healthy. Its the same as the calorie thing - I*should* be able to eat about 2500 a day at my height, weight and activity level, yet I cant. I have normal build, normal amount of muscle, I'm toned and fit yet I maintain on about 1800. You have to read your own body I think and go with what makes YOU feel good.

I have a chewable Iron, but I'm in Australia but for what it's worth they're called "Iron Melts", you may find them. I buy children's burstlets for fish oil, its the same size and shape of a capsule but flavoured, and the capsule bursts and you can spit it out.

Who's disagreeing with that? That's moderate advice. I dont disagree we need protein, I feel more that it shouldnt be the ONLY focus in our diet. Just because you get enough protein you cant necessarily relax and call your diet healthy. We need our two fruit and five veg, and our dairy, etc. Having a lapband makes that difficult and I really believe that this focus on must get my protein makes people forget about other aspects of their diet. You're better to go slightly short on a range of nutrients rather than load up on one macronutrient and fall VERY short on alot of others. Overall though, I happen to hold a different opinion to you on how MUCH protein we need, shaped by the fact that in Australia, in general, bariatric surgeons dont advocate lots of protein and the fact that we did all this back in the 70's, and it didnt solve obesity then and it isnt solving it now (just as high carb/low fat hasnt worked). Less calories and more exercise is the answer there. Also shaped by the fact that there's loads of Aussies read this board and find the protein advice offputting and alarming and I think its important that we share the fact that we've lost weight on ALL sorts of diets, not alarm people with psuedoscientific evidence that we all believe just because its on the internet. Most Aussies dont like to read a board and be told that unless they eat like an American they wont lose weight. There are quite significant differences in our eating cultures! I dont need to "take this offline" and be forced into accepting your opinion thanks all the same. I dont need to prove my own to you. I am entitled to share what I think for the benefit of other readers who may agree and generally on this board, people know my opinion on this and I know theirs and we manage to get on pretty well anyway. However, I do think that quoting a dodgy internet article is not really a good way of backing up your own quite relevant, perfectly feasible opinion which is certainly shared by many people here. We all feel passionate about things we believe really help us, and people certainly feel that way about high protein diets. I'm not saying that its wrong. But its certainly not universally "right" either. The thing you've got to remember is that you have an opinion based on medical advice from your surgeon, information you've read from various sources and personal experience of how that's worked for you. So do I. I've found my information from the same sorts of sources - medical opinion, wider reading and personal experience about what works for me. We're both equally as likely to be right, and both equally as likely to be flawed in our reasoning.

Yes, I saw an ad in the Herald Sun and noticed he was operating at The Avenue. There have been a few people on here that saw Peter Nottle, only he used to operate from Williamstown hospital under the public system. He had the quickest turnaround coz usually you wait years for a spot in a public hosptial. Guess he sold out and went where the money is, lol. Dont blame him. Apparently he's a really nice guy. I attend Prof. O'brien's clinic, The Centre for Bariatric Surgery, and its a few doors up from the hosptial itself, altough I can also see my surgeon at the Women's and initially I saw him at Cotham Private. Not sure if Mr Nottle has joined this team or not. I'd imagine so, you wouldnt really set up in competition right across the street! Good luck!

In Melbourne, at The Avenue, Dr Gary Crosthwaite. Whereabouts are you?

I eat all cereals and breads. Bread doesnt cause me much problem other than it is VERY filling and I cant eat a lot of it. I often cant finish one slice of toast in the morning. Cereal I find a good food. I have PB'd on cereal ONCE when I ate it dry and then drank coffee. We have these things called Weet Bix and they also come in little fruit clusters, I ate about six of those (in a hurry, due at swimming lessons) and gulped coffee. Ten minutes later we're at Eliza's swimming lesson and they erupted, publically and loudly, lol. So yes, cereal expands but only if you eat it dry and THEN drink the milk! I try to avoid things like Corn Flakes though - worthless, high GI processed carbs. I stick with oatmeal, muesli and occasionally more processed things like Sultana Bran.