Jachut

On the other hand, since I had my ileostomy reversed, i've gained 10lb and not gained an inch in size! It must be all rehydration, dehydration is a constant problem with an ileostomy. But it goes to show that what the scales say dont tell you much about body composition and things can change for the better without a change in weight. Likewise all weight loss or gain doesnt necessarily mean you've lost or gained fat!

I must be one of the minority who doesnt like zumba, lol. Its too "dancy" for me, I'm much more into the all out athletic stuff. I absolutely cant dance and dont want to try. I'd rather run on the treadmill grooving to my own music. BUT - what I do notice at the gym is that there's always all sizes and shapes in the classes and nobody bats an eye. Even the really glammo ones in all the latest gym wear who prance around are way way more interested in looking at themselves in the mirrors than watching what you're doing. Its always really nervewracking going to a class when you think you wont know what routine to follow, what equipment to use etc and will draw attention to yourself but you've only got to get through that first time and after that its a breeze. Have a go!

It takes time to recognise your body's signals and you probably overate. But I agree, those are solid foods, more than mushies - more the sort of stuff you might be graduating too at the end of your mushies regime. Obviously if your doctor has told you different then you do what your doc says, but you've obviously had trouble with that meal, so I'd stick with more liquidy mushies like yogurt, watery oatmeal, loose scrambled eggs, soup with bits in it, for a week or so and then move on to more and more solid food. Lucky you if you can pb into a napkin! For me, its about as violent, loud and non discreet as a true vomit.

Yeah, its like a little blister pack. I can feel my tubing too, until it disappears under the muscle.

You should be getting huffy and puffy and sweaty when you exercise - and if walking does that for you, then it IS enough - for now. It wont remain enough. Anyone with reasonable fitness is going to need more than walking to keep getting fitter and losing weight. But face that bit when you come to it, you'll be ready then. Dont try to go from 0 to 100 in one move. If you're weak and feeling ill even with light exercise, something isnt right. You may be dehydrated, you may need to eat before hand, try those things. Check your blood pressure too perhaps?

Wow, what a brave man you are! Makes my journey sound positively trivial, although I guess to each of us, our own battles are what's important. You have invested so much in this already, and you obviously enjoy the support of a loving family. Best of luck to you.

I never really "got" why people were hung up on the rerouting thing. But having had cancer and lost my rectum and part of my colon in the last 12 months, and having to now live with altered bowel function - manageable, sociable, workable but altered - I can now say without a doubt I would not reroute my insides unless I had exhaused every last possibility with a band. I'd do it for sure if my band had to come out and I was gaining weight again and could see obesity down the track. But as a first choice, never. My life depended on it, but I still found it a very hard and terribly emotional thing, to front up for a surgery to remove a part of my body that to all intents and purposes was functional. Sounds crazy, but I really have mourned it since. I feel somewhat mutilated. I just dont know that I could do that voluntarity, without it being a life saving issue. However, lets face it, morbid obesity probably IS as dangerous as cancer, but gosh, I'd certainly give the band a really good hard try first. I also remember discussions on here about the bowel issues rny'ers have - the diarrhoea, and terrible gas. I know how much those things affect your quality of life. I found it more easy to feel attractive with an ileostomy bag than I do now with bouts of horrible stinky gas, explosive bowel motions and high frequency. Difference is, I'm getting better every day, with rny, it may be your lot in life. It also may not be of course, plenty dont have much trouble with that sort of stuff. Point is, you have a band, give it a chance. I'm 6 years out with no problems whatsoever, I lost weight easily and have kept it off. Bands can be fantastic tools!

I dont focus on Protein. I eat small portions of normal, balanced foods, so great variety and within reason whatever I feel like eating. Of course, I nixed fast food, huge creamy Pasta meals, too many carbs and I do include a protein source with most meals - the exception being that I am on a pretty strict low residue diet for other issues at the moment and have to avoid much insoluble fibre (all the scratchy stuff, fruit and vegie skins,nuts, seeds, wholegrains) and eat a lot of soluble fibre, so Breakfast every day for me at the moment is oatmeal and tinned peaches. You can get a lot of the benefits of high protein low carb simply by going low glycaemic index carbs - good slow digesting wholegrains etc. Dont be afraid to eat small amounts of those foods. What matters is how the meal as a whole is digested, even if you eat a white bread sandwich, if its got a good protein in it - say chicken breast and salad - its not goign to give you that insulin spike, because the protein and vegies slow down that reaction. Eat white bread on its own or with jam on it and its a different story.

Wow, congrats. I guess it could have come up negative when you tested before surgery because, well two weeks into a pregnancy is pretty early and a lot of peoples Hcg levels are still too low to show on a test at that stage. If you'd been testing at home, you might have done what I did, lol, look at it outside in the bright light about ten million times and convince yourself you can see the faintest of faint lines if you hold it just so...... but if you just glanced indoors in artificial light, you'd never have seen it.

You're doing SO well! Stop being so hard on yourself and let go of the fantasy that weight will just fall off you. YOu may need to tweak things, but you're doing it all right, and you said yourself, its probably only a matter of another fill or two. I agree, bump up your workouts. Walking keeps you out of the cardio ward, but for those who are fitter, lighter or more muscular, it simply is not intense enough to qualify as weight loss cardio. The fat burning zone thing is a complete myth, you need your heart pounding quite hard and a decent sweat going, you should be feeling that you want to stop and that it takes willpower to keep going. That is the kind of cardio that will rip weight off you, especially if you also add some all out sprints. You probably arent a fast weight loss person, some of us arent and you will need to learn to appreciate the slow and steady approach. You dont need a kick in the arse, you just need some faith and some patience. Hang in there, you'll get there eventually.

I can tell you, having lost 15lb from my already thin (BMI 22 or so frame) it made a HUGE difference. I have loose skin now that I didnt have 15lb ago. I got bonier and flabbier and looked no better being thinner. I can see now that any further improvement to my body would have to come from plastic surgery. Do you really NEED to lose the 18lb (ie are you already a healthy BMI)? I can tell you, I have a flat (if flabby) tummy, but I sure wish I could put some fat on my chest, neck and face, sadly if I try it will just go straight on my bum! If you really need to lose the 18, then wait. Why would you go through PS, all that expense and healing, if you werent going to be sure you'd get the very best result possible?

Abstinence, lol. Failing that having my tubes tied and being menopausal would probably do the trick.

I've recently filled again from being totally unfilled and in my 4cc band I got 1.5cc, 1 cc, 0.5cc. So three fills over a twelve week period. I dont need any more, but if I chose to, they would now be tiny 0.1cc ones.

You're looking absolutely fantastic! I reckon you've entered that "but you're not big enough to need weight loss surgery" realm now. When people say it to you, resist the urge to reply "Uh, that's because I *HAD* weight loss surgery you numbskull" and just bask in the compliments.

My weight loss experience was exactly what Dave describes. I hope you get this sorted with your doc, but it *could* simply be that you've irritated your stomach, particularly the stoma area and you're swollen and having difficulty eating. i'd go right back to liquids for a couple of days, its probably what your doc will tell you to do anyway.

At 350 lb you'll probably lose plenty of fat just cutting back on food intake. But effective exercise needs some building up to, so its time to start! I've run 6 to 10 kms five or more days a week through my whole journey. Its been a vital part of my success and I'd say the number one factor in keeping the weight off.

I actually think the 4cc bands sound a lot better than newer bands in terms of finding restriction and keeping restriction. It only takes a fill or two, not seven or eight. And every fill I had took me to the sweet spot that was right for me at that particular time.

It is so safe for the average person. Your risk of anything happening is miniscule, less than 1%. I even had a mega huge six hour operation last November and the anaesthetist told me he's NEVER lost a patient in his entire career and he was 58.

I think its briliiant - it could add a LOT to your quality of life as you get older - and likely mean that you WILL get older!

Hmm, I was told 4 weeks also. But I had an ileostomy reversal a little over a week ago and today i took the steristrips off the incision. It is completely, and I mean completely healed shut. I cant see how I could be possibly risking an infection to go to water aerobics tomorrow night. A cold or gastro yes, lol, I always seem to get colds when i go in public pools, but I think an infection in the scar is highly unlikely at this point in time. If you've got any open areas on your scars though, err on the side of caution.

Its really A) and C) together - I eat what I want in much smaller portions, with the odd treat here and there, but what I want truly IS mostly healthy food. Although...... a lot of people here would call my diet terribly UNhealthy because of the carbs (and types of carbs) it contains. Normally I wont touch white carb foods apart from as a treat. But for the last nine months I've had to be on a low fibre, low residue diet, pretty low on fruit and veg and thus high in carb foods. I cant handle too much fat or Protein, so that leaves meb with, well, carbs. Today I've had: breakfast: 1/2 cup weeties flakes with some tinned peaches on top and skim milk Lunch: 3 cruskits with avocado, cranberry sauce and brie, a choc chip cookie dinner: (is going to be) lamb rogan josh (cross fingers this works for me, its not TOO hot and spicy), white rice and well cooked green Beans. I'll probably throw a small skinny latte in there somewhere, and a small glass of whine with dinner. That's a very average day forb me. One or two things like Cookies or a wine, the rest healthy food. I dont faff around with protein or such and I need the stuff like white rice to prevent diarrhoea. My poor old digestive system is very very touchy after what its been through. Hopefully, now my ileostomy is reversed, I can gradually add in more fruit and veg and wholegrain products. I would normally like salad for lunch, or a good Soup like minestrone, but cant handle it right now. I think its calories in/calories out. Plenty of people would tell me I cant lose weight with so many crappy white carbs in my diet but truth is, I'm thinner than I've ever been, I'm struggling to keep weight ON. But Healthwise, if you're a C) and the foods you choose are McDonalds, packaged donuts and white bread, then you may be thin, but that only means you'll make a good looking corpse, lol. There's health to consider as well.

If you're hungry at 10 pm then you've got the right idea having healthy Snacks at hand. But personally, that late, I'd just go to bed, lol. I may be completely freaking stuffed in the head but I feel really good when I go to bed hungry. Makes me think tomorrow on the scales is going to be joyful. Of course, it rarely makes any difference, hunger is just that, hunger. It wont kill you if you ignore it.

Very true.

What do you eat? I mean, I was never told 2 to 3 tbspns of food, I was told a cup or so per meal and that's how its pretty much been, but I do fill up on fibrous foods like salads and stuff and for that, you need your band to be a bit looser. Its easy to fail to recognise just what the band *can* do for you and get tighter and tighter in this crazy Quest to be satisfied eating virtually nothing. Your body is too clever for that, you WILL be hungry no matter how tight you are. I got quite tight myself in that quest to lose the last 15 mid last year. Got diagnosed with cancer and had to have a surgery for which my band had to be totally unfilled. I suddenly could eat bread, salads, fruit, all the hard stuff I'd missed. All the hard stuff that is low in fact and calories - unlike the denser slider foods I'd been unconsciously consuming. My weight actually dropped alarmingly with an UNfilled band, simply due to suddenly eating properly again. I took control of the portion sizes and the avoiding eating between meals, and it was harder with an unfilled band, but with the right foods, wow, I lost a lot of weight. Maybe an unfill and a committment to that sort of healthy diet could help you? I dont know about anyone else but for me, if I can stick to something like oatmeal and fruit in the morning (say 3/4 cup hot oatmeal with a few tinned peaches on top), a protein/salad based sandwich for lunch and then a regular family meat and 3 veg type dinner, with no Snacks, I lose weight pretty darn fast. As long as my band is loose enough to allow me to eat about a cup at a time that way, I exercise and I avoid in between meal eating even if I'm a bit peckish that is. Its hard to tell when someone posts like this whether they are simply missing the signals and not quite "getting" it, in which case I think some people genuinely need empathy for their frustration and guidance in how to fix the problem, and some people need a wake up and smell the coffee kinda lecture. But I think there's also people who simply cannot find that balance between good restriction and overtightness, whether due to some physical/physiological reason or simply due to their particular brand of eating issues. I even think it may take a bit of soul searching for you to realise which of those apply to you personally.

Entirely normal after an abdominal surgery and also when you're on any morphine based painkillers. What you're doing is the right thing, but I agree, ask for stronger nausea medication if you need it, dont vomit whatever you do. I was given zofran whilst having chemo its VERY effective.