Jachut

I think I've decided that nobody should be allowed to be a band surgeon until they've had a lapband for themselves. Its like a woman trying to explain to a man how it feels to have a baby. Men can be experts on it, they can know all the theory, they can deliver babies and look after pregnant women, usually very competently. But they simply cannot know how it feels. Likewise a surgeon who doesnt have a band and hasnt ever been fat. There is no way that they're not falling into the mentality of a person who doesnt know what its like to have an out of control appetite. They just dont "get it" and you can bet your bottom dollar that they're privately thinking "sheesh, just stop eating so much!". Some surgeons are better than others of course. But 6cc in a 14cc band is quite possibly hardly ANY restriction for some people. You just need more. You sound like you know you've got to work the band, you've got to exercise etc. But its all a LOT easier with decent restriction. I'd demand another fill or find another doctor. If you've already lost 79lb (awesome!) then no doubt you've exhausted your easy run, that first initial weight loss that comes easily to nearly all of us and THEN some. Your body is obviously not going to lose now without drastically reduced portion sizes and calorie restriction and for that you need more than just wise food choices, you need your band working!

Lol,I can do the hook, but only right leg over left, not the other way around.

I've never been told to do liquids or mushies after a fill either, I go rigth back (carefully) to regular food. If it hasnt resolved after a few weeks, and you're uncomfortable with it, then you probably need some Fluid out. But yes, excessive sodium can affect your band - if it makes you bloated (which it does me) then you will feel tighter most probably.

It sounds just like heartburn or reflux in which case, orange juice and pepper are probably two of the most irritating foods you could eat right now. The sour cream would likely be more of a soother than anything. Heartburn is miserable, I'm lucky only to have suffered when pregnant. I feel for bandsters who battle with this. I found over the counter meds useless, when I was getting through a 500ml bottle of double strength gaviscon every single day I knew it was time to head to the doc for some prescription meds.

There's tons of people around here who have done it. I lost just on 100lb and that was 120% of my excess weight. I credit my success to being a regular runner.

Its so true, I think those of us that are pear shaped get out of this a lot more likely than those that are apples. But its a reality for all of us. Each of us has our own issues there. I may not have a hanging apron, but I still am disappointed with how "not tight" my skin is. I feel old, sigh. But my particular issue is that it isnt a no brainer, its expensive, difficult surgery to fix what many would see as a non existent problem. DH agrees I shoudl get my boobs done, yet I'm wavering, cant see the point in having perfect boobs when the rest of me looks a decided 41 years of age. In many ways I am no happier with my body now than I was.

We are all so different! I have no problem chowing through up to 1800 calories a day. Today for example, I know is 1200 because we'e doing a home delivered diet here at the moment (me to support DH). Breakfast was muesli, and a piece of wholegrain toast with vegemite Snack was an apple lunch was lettuce san choy bow (a minced meat dish served in lettuce cups) and fruit salad Afternoon snack was a small date and banana muffin dinner is a vegetable/tortilla stack thing 1200 calories coz its all measured, weighed and low calorie food. I can eat that much food and have it add up to 1800 other days. Truthfully, I cant even IMAGINE being so tight that I could only get 500 calories in - unless you're talking immediately post op. Long term I would find that miserable and not at all healthy. If you're post op, then its normal and will wear off over the coming weeks. And whilst I do use full fat mayo (when I eat it like once a year) and full fat yogurt and stuff, its not the answer to upping calories. To add another 500 calories a day of that sort of stuff would mean half your daily intake is saturated fat - yuck. You need to add it in the form of healthy things - Protein, fruit, veges and wholegrains.

You have done an awesome job. Actually a small UNFILL helped me with that hungry between meals thing. I can eat way more at a sitting now, but I dont get hungry for quite a while, whereas for a while there I was so tight that it was literally half a cup and the minute it cleared the pouch my body was telling me in no uncertain terms that it wanted food. I was even waking up at night hungry, but I just couldnt eat enough to satisfy it. Unless I ate slider foods, which I was doing an awful lot of. Going back to basics is good for us all. Its human nature to slack off a bit as time goes on.

If I've had a late lunch or gone out for lunch and am not hungry, I sometimes skip dinner, but I try not to because I will probably get picky later at night. But I never ever miss breakfast or lunch.

If you're going to do it, exercise is very important. I lost 120% of my excess weight (100lb give or take) but it took me 2 and years to do it - and that was with lots of running. But I refused to "diet" as well so I had my band looser, ate more and particularly ate carbs which a lot of bandsters dont do. But I do credit my success to running. So if you're prepared to exercise AND diet strictly, I think you could do it.

Tons of salty food and a gallon of wine usually does it for me, sigh. Anything that will make you retain Water. I was worried too as I hada BMI of 36, and I considered having a couple of dumbell weight plates in my jeans pockets. But put them in the back pockets because I was asked to get onto the table and he had a poke and prod of my tummy. My DH was banded and fell just shy of the general minimum BMI of 35 that applies here in Australia (although they will band from 30 for some people). The surgeon knocked an inch off his height. I mean, he could see he was a good candidate, so why not do him now, instead of letting him go away, get fatter and come back?

No, you might not be OK. YOu wont know that you've done the damage until some time in the future when you might have a slip. The liquids to mushies isnt to prevent PBing and discomfort, its to prevent your stomach moving any more than it has to so the stitches can heal and you form scar tissue around them to adhere to the band. Make your stomach work and you can prevent or disrupt that and then one day, you have a slip. You are supposed to move onto mushies/soft foods only after a certain period of time when your healing is well advanced. Do it too early and you may as well be moving onto a steak. It has the same effect. It doesnt matter how it feels to you, or whether you think you know your body, seriously, you're taking a big risk if you advance faster than recommended.

I left mine alone for at least a year, then I felt it loosening off, and noticed I was hungrier, so had .1ml fill. That made me quite tight, and when I thought about it, it really wasnt necessary to be like that for maintenance (I actually lost a bit). So I had .2ml out. Now I'm freaking starving, lol. I've been indulging my appetite with good foods and am really enjoying being able to eat things like sanwiches again. I havent gained. But my capacity panics me I keep thinking I'm pigging out, but when I look around me, I eat about as much as any normal woman my height and weight. But eating hardly anything makes you feel in control. Still I feel its important to gradually train yourself away from that dieting mindset, and always trying to lose. I'm going easy, I've never NOT been trying to lose weight in my life. So its not easy. Overall though, if I hadnt had that slight fill, I wouldnt have had the unfill. I could easily have just left my band alone. That said I've NEVER been tight enough that I could only eat half - I lost on quite a loose band which is why leaving it alone and not unfilling for so long was fine for me.

I love it, its pretty much the only yogurt I eat. Its thick and creamy (I eat the full fat version). I dont like artificually sweetened yogurts and all those diet ones are runny and thin and have a fake aftertaste. I'd rather treat yogurt as a bit of a treat food, and use it as a condiment and have good stuff rather than processed crap. Plus I like yogurt that is tart, not overly sweet. It also fills me like a real food, whereas fake yogurt doesnt. So I can take one of those gourmet ones, with the pureed fruit and thick greek yogurt and yes, it may be 350 calories for the container, but that with an apple is lunch. Unlike those little 80 calorie pots that feel like you've eaten nothing. Its not an uncommon food here, certainly not something you have to shop around to find, its in every supermarket.

I was somewhere between 245 and 250 before band (converting in my head from metric) and am about 154 now. I've been banded 3 years, it took probably 2 years to lose that 100lb or so, I did it by eating all foods in moderation and taking up running. Eating habits - well, I tend to eat 3 meals a day now, I'm still a carb eater, my diet is based on wholegrain carbs so I eat foods like cereal and toast for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, meat and 3 veg for dinner, lots of healthy choices like tuna, avocado, salad fillings for sandwiches, plenty of fresh fruit. When I do well eating like that, I really dont have room for crap, or if I do, its not much. I no longer really like things like pizza or fish and chips, so we make those choices as a family far less often and when I'm caught out, and need to rely on take away, I dont see it as an excuse to pig out and go crazy, its just a meal, I eat till satisfied and that's it. I dont then think well I just had pizza for dinner, so might as well have 3 wines and a block of choclate too. My food intake is steady now, its the same day in day out, weekday, weekend, holidays. Not up and down pigging out one week, starving the next like I used to.

I've learned to eat toast plain, sandwiches too. I'm the same, 1/2 teaspoon covers nothing so I just dont bother. I just spread the Peanut Butter or vegemite or jam straight on. In a sandwich, I usually use avocado. Cream cheese is good on toast (do you have the Philadelphia variety there, its good). So is avocado and tomato. Hommus can be spread on toast too. But with things like peanut butter, you dont need butter too.

The bottom line is that being too tight is not good for your band. You're risking it. If you have symptoms like reflux, it really is best to unfill a bit.

I have these foods so seldom that I just eat the real thing. Real butter and real mayonnaise. I was a teenager in the 80's, the days of high carb low fat. Some things are ingrained, I will never ever drink full cream milk, I dont eat butter or mayonnaise and I dont have condiments like mayonnaise, in fact I cant remember when we last had any in the house. So if I suddenly had a fancy, I would buy a good one and eat the real thing. We cook with olive oil, I've never learned anything else. I'm a fan of quality in smaller quantities though. I dont do sugar free either.

I had .2 taken out of my band and it feels like I've gone from good to nothing restriction wise. I was just a bit tighter than I felt I wanted to be for maintenance (didnt like the thought of living that restricted forever) but I wish I hadnt mucked around with it now. I am loser at 2.8 now than I was when I was 2.8 the first time, and I can eat normal quantities of food- Cereal AND toast for Breakfast for example. I've not gained, I've been super duper careful and kept up my running, but I want to put .1 back in. Those tiny fills and unfills definitely make a difference. But I think back a few weeks and I was doing the samething. Avoiding good foods because they were hard work and eating crap, which is why I had an unfill. So I'm not sure what I ought to do at this point. If I can just trust myself to choose the right foods, my fill level is not a problem. But I have appetite again, and I want to eat between meals etc. I've been resisting but I have this lapband, why should I have to work that hard at NOT eating? Eating cereal and toast poses no problem if you're not gaining and I do still eat a carb based diet - that works for me. Its just this mindset of I shouldnt be able to eat that much. Yet I burn it off, so why shouldnt I? I dont know. This is harder than the actual weight loss part for me.

Lipo doesnt tighten the skin and for women it wont get rid of cellulite either. It simply removes what fat is under that skin. The skin does recover somewhat, but if you have loose skin left over from weight loss, lipo wont remove that. One would imagine that if Manatee's surgeon has recommended lipo then that means there are stubborn fat deposits left over there.

You definitely should be happy! You lose what you lose at the rate you lose it, I think. What has become abundantly clear from my own experience, and from a few years of hanging around here, whilst I firmly believe that our weight is our own responsibility and down to our own choices, many of our bodies do not function the way they *should*. Not that we should believe the old "its my hormones" excuse most of the time. But for example, I'm 5ft 10 and 154lb and I run for an hour a day. All the charts, no matter where I look, say I should be eating at least 2,300 calories a day to maintain my weight. Yet I know I cannot get away with more than about 1800 to maintain this weight. Despite exercising so much. It just doesnt add up, it is patently wrong. But that's how it is. So there's some truth in the fact that I used to cry that I didnt know why I was fat, I didnt eat any more than most other people. Its true, I didnt. But it was too much for me and that's all that mattered, and it was still MY choices that determined what I weighed. So it is for you. If you cut down to 1000 calories a day and lose 30 lb in six months, even though the math just doesnt compute, that's simply how it is for you. You can add more strenuous exercise, you can cut back your food intake if you have room to do so, but there's only so much you can do, your body will follow its own plans. Be happy, 30lb is a great weight loss and there'll be more to follow. It doesnt really matter if it happens slow or fast.

Good luck. I'm in the same place. If I want to get my lower body looking the way I want it to, then I'm going to have to be skin and bones (and probably boobless) up top. It's just my build. I was going to have a breast lift anyway, but I think I might start thinking about some lipo. Skinwise, you're probably better off being male and never having had babies, I suspect lipo wont do me any favours loose skin and cellulite wise, but if it could just get rid of that really annoying muffin top it would be worth it. Sooner or later, you have to accept what nature has given you and decide if you want to tamper with it. We cant all diet away to nothing and scrawny chicken necks and hollow eyes are not really what we're aiming for.

I simply cant have cookies in the house. I cannot stop until I've eaten WAAAAAY too much, as in the whole darn packet. They will always be a problem food to me, they are always what I choose to binge on if I feel like a pig out, I just have to avoid them as much as possible.

Seriously? You havent met anyone that's 5ft 10 and 154ish? Therein lies the difference probably. Its quite normal in my world not to be overweight. I truly am not the kind of thin that would occasion comment or even envy! I'm just, well, "normal". I'm not thin enough that I can wear absolutely anything for example, and although I'm now brave enough to wear a bikini, I have to lie still so bits dont fall out, lol. You can only see the bones that are supposed to show, like collarbones and knees, its not as if every rib and vertebra is sticking out. Go for the hundred, you'll look fabulous! And feel fantastic!

Once you're healed you should be right to do anything you like as hard as you like.