Jachut

I ddnt read what I expected to when you usually open this sort of post - an emotional and irrational post blaming the band for not working, written by a person who has not done any of the work to change themselves but expected a magic fix from their band. You're three quarters of the way there! You know what you have to do and what you havent done so succesfully and you've acknowledged it. Of COURSE you can still lose weight, you just have to harness that self knowledge you have, allow your band to do what it does and work on your mindset and changing your habits. You never stop learning with this thing. I had to have my band unfilled 4 months ago for another surgery, it cant be refilled just yet, but I was amazed at how much I really have changed after five years with a band. I have been able to maintain my weight but it is work every single day and I am learning new things now that in truth, I needed to learn. Even as a very successful bandster, i relied heavily on my band for control and let it give me the hard stops, now I'm learning to stop myself. But I've been completely retrained in terms of what I think is a proper meal, how much food I think is appropriate etc. But every day is a new learning experience, I make mistakes, I fall off the wagon and I'm having to examine the reasons why - sometimes its just becuase I bloody well want to and that's OK! Go back to your doc, its scary and embarrassing to not feel successful in front of your doc, but that's your lifeline. YOu need to gather up your courage and do it, and you will be able to move forward from there. I hope all is OK with yoru band.

Lol, I consider it a successful workout when I can not sit on the toilet unaided 2 days later...

I love the sourness of greek or natural yogurt, as long as its full fat. Cant stand low fat yogurt and really hate the chemical flavour of artificially sweetened fruit yogurts. I eat greek yogurt on fruit - like fresh berries - I make a kidn of berry jelly by pureeing berries and sugar and stir a spoonful of that in with fresh strawberries and blackberries. You can stir jam through it, that's yummy, honey and cinnamon and a few nuts is also really nice. I also use greek yogurt instead of sour cream, add a dollop to soups etc. Its only bitter/sour relative to articially sweet fake yogurts, which most of our taste buds are more accustomed to but you do acquire a liking eventually.

Yes. They upset my stomach horribly and i never drink them, nor do I eat bars.

Go and get fitted, and have your gait analysed (any good sports shoe store should do this for you). Its the only way to have any idea of where to start. I am on my 8th pair of Brooks Adrenalines over a 5 year period. I have broad feet and slighty inward rolling and these shoes are FANTASTIC for me. I dont even look at anything else, now I buy them online from the US (much cheaper, got my last pair for $89 off eastbay.com v $259 in the stores here) as we've pretty much got parity with the US dollar at the moment. I run lots of miles so need a new pair every 6 to 9 months.

Yep, it can. I got stuck and pb'd about a week ago on ham and salad in a large bread roll and I have no fill. Have had my band for 5 years, have been unfilled 4 months, so there's no swelling, no post op adjustment, no learning to eat, it just happened. I was having a coffee at the same time, and I guess bread + liquid still swells up in your tummy and I guess even an unfilled band does create a bit of a pouch.Before I knew it, I was sliming and had to go and bring it up.

The soreness will stop happening as you get back into it. I believe in active recovery. I think its way better the day after a tough workout to go for a gentle half hour run to get some blood through the stiff muscles than to sit on the couch "recovering". Just keep moving.

I had this same trouble recently with the belly button incision after a laparascopic bowel resection. Trouble was, it was covered by the seal of the ileostomy bag and regularly getting full of sh*t! it did get a little infected but has eventually healed up completely (about 12 weeks). So I wouldnt worry if you're able to keep it clean and dry, it will close up, just watch for heat, redness and oozing.

I was managing that at your stage, or close to it.

its an awesome feeling isnt it? Congratulations.

I agree with Jodie. I think you should be able to "feel" your ideal meal size, to me it is utterly ridiculous to think that you need to measure it and not even listen to your own body. Serve a reasonable portion of food, eat till you're not hungry, its pretty simple. Leave what you dont want. The main reason pouches stretch out is that people have their bands way too tight, nothing can get through easily and thus even tiny meals result in the pouch being distended for long periods of time - even permanently becuase they havent even emptied fully the next time a person eats.This is partly why some surgeons say 3 meals NO snacking, you have to allow your stomach to actually empty, well this is what my surgeon believes anyhow and he told me there's a lot of credible evidence that avoiding snacking and having longer periods between meals controls leptin much more effectively and decreases overall hunger, that snacking keeps the pouch distended, increases the risk of problems and keeps your body in a hormonal and chemical swing that lends itself towards inappropriate hunger. I know that certainly works for me, I find snacking makes me hungrier and I just keep eating, exactly like some people say that eating carbs makes them hungrier. By restricting myself to 3 meals I can eat enough at a time to satisfy myself psychologically, I've had enough to enjoy the process of eating and to be mentally done as well as phsyically, which i think is important. Then I go five or six hours until I eat again. Even unfilled, I dont really get hungry, and I dont actually require much more food than when I had restriction. My pouch (even unfilled I still have one because I can and have gotten stuck on bread) empties completely and remains unstretched for a few hours at a time. Other surgeons of course believe in tighter bands and more frequent, smaller amounts of food. But you kind of have to choose one side or the other, eat six times a day and the portions do need to be tiny.

There's a few other nutrients involved in healthy hair skin and nails that just protein! A general good multivitamin supplement would [probably be more helpful than just increasing protein.

That's kind of the way it works here. Here, Medicare provides covereage for everyone, whether they're insured or not, for 85% of the scheduled fee for a doctor's visit/service/surgery. Naturally, doctors charge a lot more than the scheduled fee! Private Health Insurance pays for your hospital bed, and depending on the policy, the gap between the scheduled fee and whatever the doctor actually charges. for my band, and indeed for my bowel resection, oh and to my obstetrician for each of my babiesn, the surgeons charged a one off out of pocket charge, not covered by Medicare or Health Insurance. For the band it was $3,000. What that means is that forever after, my doctors visits, fills and any revision surgery are charged only at the scheduled fee and are billed directly to Medicare. so there will never be another charge that I have to physically pay;. For lapbands, it certainly encourages commitment to attend follow up appointmens and fills. But to charge that and THEN to charge you copayments as well - greedy!

I got stuck like that once, and went for a run, spitting saliva along the way, lol. That helped it to go through. That was early on for me, nowadays, I would be able to make it come up, which is not really a skill to be boasting about, but its bandster reality I guess.

Lemongrass pork (leftover pork from a roast dinner), rice and salad. I'll go easy on the rice but the rest of the family love it.

Hmmm, that would be my worry. My BMI is down to 19 and you can see my ribs in my chest and at the sides (I need to gain a little weight). A port anywhere there would look truly awful and would be very easy to bump and damage. As it is, it is below my ribs a few inches up and to the left of my belly button and so visible you can even see the tubing until it disappears into my chest and the little bubble bit on the top of the port. And that (apart from my saggy old bum) is the fleshiest part of my body! The port has been VERY visible since my BMI was about 30, I'm more pear shaped than anything so dont have a lot of flesh up top. If you could put the port on my ass, it would be perfect.

Pains in your actual STOMACH or belly pain in general? Stomach pain tends to be felt high up closer to the chest, or through to the back, intestinal pain is what you feel in your belly. That might be associated with being constipated. If its actual stomach pain, check in with your doc, there's so many reasons. But I noticed the other day, whilst I had fill in my band, every now and then I'd get this horrible stomach pain, a real ache that I would feel in my stomach, throat and the roof of my mouth, nothing would relieve it, it was really horrible. I got a liver ultrasound but it wasnt gallstones, it seemed to be often brought on by anything cold (like ice cream) or fizzy (like champagne). Its absolutely disappeared with having had my fill out (for another surgery). My band is fine, I wasnt tight, no slippage, no erosion, nothing so we surmised it was just cramping brought on by sensit5ivity to some foods, the band can indeed cause vague pains like that with no particular reason, so dont panic, but do check it out.

I agree, 30lb in four-ish months is good, healthy weight loss. The lapband is not a surgery that will often result in superfast massive weight loss. I did a lot more exercise than that - more like an hour a day - and I still only lost at about your level. I did eat a good 1500 calories a day though. To me, I'd never ever lost weight consistently, week in week out and once I passed the 10kg that I was always able to lose, I was utterly thrilled with my 1 to 1.5lb per week. It certainly adds up over time. Its all in how you look at it, its weight coming off and you're 30lb lighter, why on earth would you choose to feel negatively about that? You arent doing anything wrong at all!

Its about a cup to a cup and a half for me too - some things I always did measure and 1/2 cup spaghetti and 1/2 cup bolognaise sauce always made me very full, I could eat a cup and a half to two cups of salad, I could inhale popcorn in movie portions, but i could only eat about 1/2 a raw apple or one boiled egg. But I never ever needed to drop to that half cup serving that is so often mentioned, nor did I ever need to drop calories below about 1500 to lose well over 100% of my excess weight. Fills at the APPROPRIATE times meant that my portions kept me full till the next meal - 5 hours or so - NOT that I could eat significantly less. I never had what I'd call tight fill. The most interesting thing is I am unfilled now (never had a band problem, just needed another surgery) and the cup to cup and a half serving is still perfectly satisfying for me and still keeps me going at least 3 to 4 hours and then I just ignore any hunger I sometimes get until mealtime. And I'd say dont fill unless you're getting significantly hungry too soon - within 2 to 3 hours. There's no sense or advantage in cutting back more than you need to to lose weight becuase the more you can eat, the healthier and better nourished you will be. It seems a lot of people get a kind of strange satisfaction about eating virtually nothing and they seek that out, that's understandable but not really a healthy long term mindset.

Ouch! I think they're something you're prone to and can be aggravated by a number of causes, diet being only one of them, supplements another. The theory is that strict high Protein low carb diets (ones that keep you in ketosis, not the sort bandsters ordinarily tend to do) can leach calcium from your bones and form calcium based stones OR can lead to the cholesterol based stones as well. So if your diet is moderate, it can certainly be lower carb and higher protein, just dont do something extreme like the Atkins induction unless you have real reason to and are under the care of a medical professional advising you to do it! You'd probably need to be susceptible anyway for it to be a risk for you but like supplements, why take the risk if you know you do have a tendency?

I always enjoyed a glass of wine while I had fill, as I had that automatic control of the band, I knew that I couldnt drink AND eat a lot too, so it evened out. I am a bit prone not to getting drunk, lol, but having one or two more than I planned. These days, with an unfilled band, quite often I dont drink at all when I go out. I just know that now I can fit in 2 or 3 wines AND a big meal or that if I drink I will start on the cheese platter, and I am so determined not to gain weight unfilled that I just prefer to avoid the calories and the temptation all together. So I think it depends how you handle it.

Yes bras too! And I tried on a pair of True Religion jeans the other day. Oh my! There is no comparing those with an ordinary pair of jeans. They looked and felt SO good I almost parted with the $350 on the spot and hang the consequences.. But that much on one item of clothing means saving up and sucking up to hubby, lol. He would literaly KILL me (he's an accountant, sigh).

i've had lumps at IV sites before, its worth mentioning to your doc, but for me in the past, hirudoid cream gets rid of them. You'd freak at my arm - Im having chemotherapy at the moment and so far they've put the iv in the same place every week - big hard lump and my vein has gone black all the way up my arm. Apparently this goes away eventually, phew.

Its entirely unique to you. You'll find people on here who think you should eat 150 grams of Protein a day, and others like me who dont think that so much. You'll find people who think an 800 calorie diet is the bees knees and others like me who think that's not even remotely necessary. You'll find people who exercise a lot - you'll find people like me who love their cardio and do strength training only as much as necessary and others that'll tell you that cardio wastes your muscles and your time. You'll find people who actually think half a cup of food is a meal and others like me who would be thinking "now, where's the main course". Like curvycat above, i've actually found an unfilled seems to still control hunger but not portions - and I eat waaaaaay better because I make up those larger meals with vegies and fruit and wholegrains, not with crap food. I've actually lost significant weight unfilled and I was already down to a BMI of 21 when I was unfilled (for a surgery). So you need to find the restriction level best for you too. Truly, you have to work this one out for yourself. Even your doctor/nutritionist cant really tell you what to do, they have seen what works for most by and large, but everyone has a unique mix of calorie and nutritional needs and output.

Beats me. .My main worry with diets like this is a bandster's inability to eat large quantities and also the very common problem of not being able to eat much of any fibrous foods like salads. Atkins or any other low carb plan is meant to be eaten with a shedload of leafy greans and low carb vegies. If you follow the "what did you eat today" threads, what a banded low carb diet turns into is Protein shakes, deli meat and cheese. A truly alarming and horrible diet. Protein is great, but its not meant to be the only food group. A quarter cup of Beans a day does not satisfy your body's need for plant foods. You need several cups worth. If you can do low carb like Atkins and eat several cups worth of vegies a day, you have a pretty healthy plan. If you cant, you have a problem. I would get banded a hundred times over again, its worked so well for me and I have always been an advocate of 2 fruit, five veg a day but I just couldnt manage it with restriction, my fruit and vegie consumption dropped way down. Since i had my band unfilled and have stepped up my fruit and veg intake, my skin, nails and hair are fantastic and I feel great, even though I'm having chemotherapy and have had a huge surgery at the same time! It reinforces to me that banding is a good solution for obesity but it definitely runs the risk of poor nourishment due to restriction in variety of food intake, and I really believe doing something like Atkins without being able to eat huge salads and loads of vegies is probably likely to result in good weight loss but very poor nutrition. Protein alone cannot supply all your body's needs.