Jachut

It just happens over time, everyone is a bit different, but good restriction is really about fills that last, at least as much as being at a certain point where you cant eat more than a cup or whatever measure your doctor advises. I found that every fill spurred weight loss, but my first fill have me restriction that petered out after four weeks, the second and third were the same and then I started going back to the doctor more like three monthly. I had fairly regular (but teeny tiny, I have a 4cc band) fills and contact with my doctor for the first year, and then I probably only had two fills the second year, just to top me back up. After that I went about 18 months with no contact with my doctor at all, then called in just for a check up but not fill, and about a year after that, I had another teeny tiny fill again, just a top up to bring me back to the restriction I had. Then a year or so later I was diagnosed with bowel cancer, had to be completely unfilled for a surgery, and then back to the routine of three weekly visits to get me back to my normal restriction. We went quicker this time because we knew what I could handle. Now I'm back to normal, I probably wont check in for a year or so. When you dont have a fill for a long time, a tiny amount does evaporate. Over time you gradually may find you're eating a bit faster, eating a bit more, not paying as much attention, and you realise restriction has lessened a little - its a very subtle thing. That's when you go back for a tiny top up fill IF you want to - if you're eating more, but not gaining weight there's no problem. I always find my weight starts to swing around by a pound or two, and I'd rather act before I have 5 or more pounds to lose.

Good restriction means you dont even realise you're eating less because you still feel like you're eating the same - same satiation or fullness, same foods (if you're a believer in the eat everything in moderation and never diet again train of thought, which I am). I spent so many days lamenting that I was wasting my opportunity because I felt like I hadnt done well that day - I didnt feel deprived, I wasnt hungry, I wasnt doing without anything. Yet the weight just continued to fall off. I still feel the same. Every day I think I could have done better, I've overeaten a bit, I shouldnt have eaten this, or that snack or whatever. And my weight just never budges. Truly, on the one hand I worked hard at losing weight - I exercise like a fiend and am supremely fit. But its also like the weight loss just happened automatically once I was banded. I got realistic and sensible about my eating, but I didnt have to work terribly hard or make supreme sacrifices. I've never given up one single food. So, I never felt like I'd made that huge a change. It was relatively easy to lose about 65% of my excess weight, after that it took a bit more work and a bit more saying no, but that change came when I was already a very changed person, I was ready for it.

Mmmm, sounds a lot like menopausal symptoms. When I get a hot flush, it is often heralded by a wave of nausea first, then a hot and then very cold feeling, a lot of sweat and then maybe even tears! But why did you have your band removed? What issues caused that? What you're experiencing may have somethign to do with why your band was removed. And also...... DH spend years going to various doctors to work out why he'd get the sweats and chills, shaking, chest pain, dizziness and difficulty breathing. Had so many tests and scans. It was anxiety. He didnt have anything in particular at the time to be anxious about but it was put down to post traumatic stress, he'd had some really dreadful times at work a couple of years previously, and he was having panic attacks. Once we realised this and he was sure he was not going to have a heart attack, he learned to deal with them, he learned the triggers, how to stay calm when one hit and over time they just went away.

I think the American way of eating is quite problematic in that regard - the cut and stab method. You guys cut up your food and then swap your fork into your other hand and eat that way - its easy to just put fork after fork into your mouth quickly. Table manners here dictate that you keep your fork in your left hand, cut a piece of food, and transfer it on your fork to your mouth in your left hand. Therefore there is that natural break in proceedings as you cut off your next piece of food. You dont cut off many pieces in preparation at a time, just one. It really does help to slow you down. A simple cultural difference, but it can really help. Of course I've sat for hours with a salad in front of me waiting for the meat to arrive, lol. Which it was never going to do until I ate the darn salad. D'oh.

So so worth it. And for what its worth, I never had gas pains or shoulder pains and I never lost any hair either. The operation is a piece of cake, its a very small, safe procedure, without a lot of pain afterwards. I got home from the hospital the next morning and went for a walk.

I blended up things like roast dinners too - seriously the foods that are often on your liquids list are complete crap. So you've had weight loss surgery and you want to eat things like canned cream soups, custard, milk shakes and jello? A home cooked dinner blended up and thinned down is much better for you and much more nutritious. And you can make your own soups that have a lot less salt. My instructions were that anything you could get up a straw was fair game.

And yet I'm 5ft 10, 135 and a size 8. But its true that sizes have changed. They were definitely smaller years ago.

You cagn get much better exercise at home with stuff like circuit and sandbag training than you will ever get in a gym class if you can motivate yourself. But on busy days i even do aerobic housework, lol. Its how i motivate myself to mop floors, scrub showers and clean windows, five minute blocks interspersed with five minute runs on the treadmill or squat, pushup and crunch sessions. It sounds nuts, heck it is nuts but its actually very strenuous, you need a shower afterwards!

Its against health regulations. I always find anyway that restaurant food is best enjoyed in a small quantity occasionally, its not the sort of healthy food i would prepare at home, and nothing ever tastes that great reheated a day late, so i personally look at the cost of dining out as a whole experience, and not focus on the " value" of a meal i eat a third of.

I generally wear a size bigger than my measurements would indicate - I cant bear jeans that give me a muffin top, or that are tight after they've been washed! Nor can I stand tops that become too small after washing so although my measurements would indicate I'm size 10 (US 6), I rarely buy a size 6 in anything, its always an 8 for a bit of extra room. Size 6 would fit like a glove, which generally I'm uncomfortable with.

Personally i think if youre worrying about the sugar content of carrots or eliminating foods because they grew under the ground, you've simply swapped one eating disorder for another. This is one of the more stupid rules I've heard about on here and anyone that has time to be that pedantic about food rules needs a hobby to occupy their time. For pete's sake!!! Dont people realise that our society's weight problems are due to McDonalds and Subway and beer and chocolate chip Cookies, and muffins and coke and stuff like that? Perhaps we could try cutting out Starbucks before we cut out potatoes? Rules like that just confuse people and make their lives more complicated and miserable and do NOTHING to help people along the path of developing a healthy relationship with food, where they eat what they like and dont worry about it and what they like is healthy. I mean I know I dont agree with teh whole low carb thing and that that's a personal opinion only but human beings are oninivorous and opportunistic. I'm sure if cavemen had found potatoes growing, they would've eaten em. But yes, raw carrots get stuck! And I'm not allowed to eat them at all for the time being because I just had a surgery on my intestines and I've already been hospitalised once due to eating raw carrots - caused a bowel obstruction. But cooked carrots, no problem.

I find the same as Elcee, Pasta and risotto are always safe options for me when eating out, and I do it seldom enough that I just dont worry about the calories - fish can be a dangerous food for me, plus generally I loathe it anyway, apart from salmon or if its dipped in batter and deep fried :-). We went out for our 20th anniversary to the Lakehouse in Daylesford which is a very very well regarded restaurant here and they have those types of menus where you get about six courses, and its five star food. I just about burst, those types of special meals are really difficult, people cant believe you would actually leave food of that quality on your plate, especially when its the tiny serve in the middle of the huge white plate kind of affair. But I simply had to. And you absolutely would not be crass enough to ask for a doggy bag in a restaurant of that calibre, not that any restaurant here will allow you to take food home. I absolutely wont join in a chinese banquet anymore! I pay for my own meal and eat a tiny bit of that. Enjoy your dinner, have what you want and Celebrate your anniversary!

I was a "healty eater" too before surgery and it certainly helped me. But you need to be honest with yourself. If your eating habits were completely healthy, you wouldnt be in the position of needing weight loss surgery. You can indeed get fat on healthy foods, if you overeat and a lot of healthy food is also high in fat and calories - weight loss surgery will help you to eat a lot less AND you will also have to really look honestly at your diet and trim the fat, carbs etc. You will also need to look at your exercise habits. I notice now too that the difference between what I eat and what some of my more "normal" but overweight friends eat, its only very slight. Very small bad habits can lead to big weight problems, but unfortunately, just elininating a few small bad habits, doesnt really lead to appreciable weight loss in reasonable time, you have to go oin with guns blazing. Unfair but there it is. So........ I think though many of us never spent our time binging all day, sitting on the couch, wallowing in ice cream, if we really want to lose weight, we do need to work honestly on ourselves and not just say "but I already eat healthy". That may be so, but there must be room for improvement or you would already be normal weight - and that means that weight loss surgery CAN indeed help you!

Its horrible isnt it? But it IS entirely possible, I mean be logical, you've just had surgery, you've been barely fed, its impossible that it's anything else BUT Fluid. I know both times i've had surgery int he past year, they've pushed the fluids so ridiculously I've gotten to the point where my face as unrecognizeable, and I couldnt even see my knuckles, or the tendons in my hands and feet, let alone my ankle bones, and I've gotten skinny enough that I've got those old lady claw hands normally, lol. I actually get really irritable about it, I mean its darn ridiculous. You just dont need anything like the amount of fluid they fill you with. Its bad enough after lapband surgery and its only overnight, I was connected to that stupid IV for five days for my bowel resection! I couldnt even bend at the elbows and knees.

I'm not sure, I think the real issue is whether you're using dieting behaviour to control some sort of issue in your life. I think I've only been anywhere near this realm once in my life and I found it different to simply enjoying the lack of appetite that I had with the band and eating very little just because I could. That's not necessarily healthy behaviour but then again, you probably wont keep it up. However, its not anorexia. I found during the last year with my cancer treatment, I slid into what I consider almost anorexic behaviour without realising it, and it was a control issue. I got my band totally unfilled and I started being VERY careful so that I wouldnt gain. No problem there. But over time, as I got really skinny and people begain to comment, I actually enjoyed the attention and the fact that I was so very thin. I began to look forward to seeing my surgeon or oncologist and seeing them express concern at how thin I was. I felt very very anxious that should hang onto this low weight, to the point where I began to get upset at things that happened beyond my control - dinners out, changes in meal plans, having a wine or a cookie or something thrust at me in a social situation. I was thinking about what I wasnt going to eat 24/7. I happened by pure chance to come upon Portia De Rossi's book Unbearable Lightness and I read that and got really scared - so much of the behaviour she describes, I was doing. I was also running 8kms a day, going to body pump, all stuff my body was used to and my regular routine, but my reasons for doing it became to stay incredibly thin and keep that concern and horror from those around me going, and also it was my way of controlling what cancer did to my body. I was also very depressed and anxious at this time about everything, because I really couldnt control my medical progress, my career, our family's finances, etc. When i finished chemo, it was like a light went on in my mind, suddenly I was rational again, my body was healthy again and I couldnt control the slight weight gain back up to a healthier weight. I fought it for a while, but that sick way of looking at food and eating was just suddenly gone, as was the anxiety, depression and negativity. I really believe for me, it was a side effect of chemo - and much as I am my normal self - never thin enough, always could do more, eat less etc, that behaviour has settled back into the realm of relatively normal for a female who has had weight issues. So..... for me, it was definitely a control thing, a way of manipulating those around me, an inability to stop punishing my body. Definitely disordered, and I knew it, but I liked being too skinny too much to seek help. I'm very lucky it just kind of all went away and it seems completely nuts to me now. But just eating barely anything because you can - not necessarily disordered or abnormal but beware that if you start to like the result or fall into the habit of eliciting responses in others by your eating behaviours, it might be time to seek some help. The way you say you feel superior to food, its a little bit left of centre and perhaps a warning sign.

Oh, it gets so hard down at the pointy end, doesnt it? Those last pounds are a nightmare to take off. It is the one time in your dieting journey where I think every single one of us must be a slave to the rules - calories, carbs, exercise etc. You cant just say near enough is good enough like you can for most of the time. I"m sure you can do itb though!

Lol, since I am of the opinion that you can never be too rich or too thin, I guess I've been at a plateau(rather than maintaining) for 3 years! Seriously though, I was unfilled prior to my bowel resection last November and the ability to eat things like fruit and salads in larger quantities actually resulted in significant weight loss while unfilled. Gradually over time I satisfied my taste for those foods which I'd only been able to eat in small amounts for a few years, and the desire for less nutritions things that I could also eat - bread - crept in. Weight loss stopped, luckily this process took about six months at which time I was able to fill again. So the end result of being unfilled for six months was for me a 10lb weight loss. So maybe there IS something to the theory IF you're currently living on high calorie sliders and when you're unfilled you replace those with low calorie fillers. But having your normal appetite and capacity back again is pretty unnerving, although I'd been been banded for five years when I was unfilled so I'd really gotten used to being a small eater.

Six so far, no problems, lost 120% excess weight and kept it off. I have even been through radiation, chemotherapy and two major surgeries with my band in place and it is still OK.

When I told the surgeon I was concerned about implants because I didnt want to go bigger again, he did sort of seem to treat me like I was a bit nuts - I decided he wasnt the surgeon for me, becuase he didnt appear to understand that I wasnt there to have big melons up to my chin. But he did tell me (in a kind of 'well, if youre sure you're happy to be so small" tone) that when you have a breast lift, you lose size from your bust and the smaller sized implants simply restore you to normal size, but lifted. So you could indeed get a lift and an implant and achieve a nice moderate C cup. But he sort of was indicating to me that the only way to fill in the loose, floppy skin on the top of my breasts was BIG implants - like back up to a D cup. The only thing that bugs me about not getting anything done, is that I have to wear a full coverage bra and not show cleavage. Not sure what yours are like but for me, I'm completely flat and empty on the top of my breasts - any sort of push up bra does the job - pushes them up and together but the skin is like a puddle of Water, it ripples and flops and looks extremely unattractive, not the plump rounded look that a pushup bra is supposed to create. For that sort of problem a decent size round implant is what is required.

Well, I would starve on a few tablespoons of food at a time! I've never eaten that little, no wonder you're hungry. I dont eat big meals compared to the average person, but I can eat most of a small sandwich, a decent sized bowl of Cereal, an egg and a piece of toast and most of the time, my dinner would fill a bread and butter plate. So perhaps you really are eating too little, although I'm sure many people here eat about the same. I just never needed to cut it down that low. But ify ou're coming up for fill time, then yes, you will feel hungrier sooner.

I didnt get as far as having to choose but I was told a lift alone wouldnt be enough - like you you can actually count the rib bones on my chest and my breasts are empty - there's too much skin for a simple lift so I would need implants. I'm a 12 C (32 C). I dont consider I have itty bitty titties!!! They are quite a decent size thank you! I did nothing because I dont want big norgs, I dont want to go back to a Dcup or bigger, I think it looks matronly and I was glad to lose my big breasts!! Men might love big plastic breasts but its not my scene, so I live with the sag. They look fine when I"m dressed. A good bra is all you need.

Its such a personal decision. Lately I've been thinking about it. anyone that saw me dressed would say WHAT, are you nuts. You have no belly at all. Its true, my belly is perfectly flat. My muscle tone is very good (although I'm sure after 3 pregnancies there's some repairs they could do in there) and my skin doesnt hang. But I also dont have a lovely pefect tummy. My belly button looks sad, I have a bit of loose skin on the upper belly and when I lean over or am on hands and knees, then there is a lovely line of horrid hanging loose skin. My boobs are saggy as heck too. I look like an 80 year old naked, yet I do not "need" any cosmetic surgery, But what is need to one person might not be to another. You simply cant know till you get there. Overall I'm happy to be what I am but if 30 grand landed in my lap and I'd already had my house extended and my new kitchen and my kids were all finished their education then I'd have one in a heartbeat. I might definitely think I "need" it in that circumstance. But right now, with all those other financial needs its just a vague want. But it cant hurt to be putting money aside and planning for it if you're able.

Thank you - yeah, this weight thing is a work in progress, always. Losing weight is fantastic - it does such great things for your body, your health, your esteem. But it doesnt solve every problem you ever had in life which is why it can be unexpectedly anticlimactic to hit a goal - I mean, you're just the same person arent you? Life is still the same. But look at it this way - this is part of your weight taking a more balanced position in your life. Which is a great achievement!

It never ceases to amaze me how people who have been obese just simply cannot accept that a normal BMI is not horribly skinny. Its absolutely epidemic on this forum. I mean, people should weigh what ever the hell they want, nobody can tell you that you MUST get to a normal BMI and if you fancy a bit of padding and like a plumper look then you should go for that and bugger what anyone says about it not being healthy or it still being overweight. But to say that you'd have so little padding on your hips at a BMI of 25 that you'd risk fractures, sorry but that IS malarky. Its healthier for older women to weight a little more, you need the fat on your body to maintain strong bones, that's entirely true. But a BMI of 25 is still quite a bit of body fat, its not that skinny look that people seem so afraid of - I didnt hit truly skinny until my BMI dropped under 20 whilst I was sick. Different body types and all that, but at a BMI of 25m, I personally have tummy rolls and a muffin top - its FAR from skinny. Unfortunately on real life non airbrushed bodies - voluptuous breasts and rounded hips go along with fat bottoms, cellulite and flabby tummies. Flat tummies and hips that rock low rise jeans go along with no boobs and gaunter faces. Do you have the hips and breasts that are so attractive and rock your muffin top in those low rise jeans or would you rather be a fashion plate, more so than the kind of look most men probably find attractive? The guy thing too - I mean I know no guy wants to be skinny. But you cant get that fantasy body by simply remaining overweight, that weight has to be muscle! You almost have to get skinny - lose all the fat and then put on another 20lb in muscle again. If you care about that stuff. Personally, I like a man with a little padding on him and I reckon save all the agony at the gym, stay a bit heavier and be nice and cuddly! And I know we're not dissing each other and our weights but I personally take offence when people continually refer to normal BMI as skinny, stick like, anorexic. I'm 135 at 5ft 10 and I dont like beign called a stick! We all have different ideas of what the ideal body is, and I personally like long, lean and elegant. But I dont go around calling people that like to be curvier fat. I think we need to be realistic about our mental attitudes too - I mean I know I wanted to get to a low BMI not only because I like that body type, but also because I'm a control freak and a perfectionist. But I also think a lot of people are just plain afraid of failing so they say they are happy to remain heavier, when in actual fact they're afraid of really putting themselves out there and placing that expectation and then not meeting it. I totally agree with the above poster though that you can modify the guidelines to suit YOU. I reckon like the protein first, low carb thing, if it suits you, fine but only an idiot blindly follows rules like that! How can any doctor tell you how you must eat without knowing you, your lifestyle, your circumstances? Its a ridiculous concept, And so is telling people that to be healthy they must weight between this weight and that. But it goes both ways! Its just as valid to choose to be leaner. This was only a question over how to pick a goal weight, lol. But its an extremely complex issues as you can see. It has to take into account, your body type, but also your mental attitude and issues and what you can live with to maintain it. Its your goal and yours alone!

I'm just indignant that if they can have a robot perform SURGERY for crying out loud, why cant I have a housework robot? You'd think that'd be simple!