Jachut

Well, long time health wise, I agree with her. The way to long term health and slimness is not starving yourself on a 600 calorie diet. But from what I've read, most sleevers end up eating that well anyway, but during the first year or two the diet is very restricted. I agree with YOU too - listen to your body. I think this is another case of nutritionists who arent exactly professional,dabbling in areas they're not really qualified for. What she's saying is perfectly true for an ordinary person, and even true for a bandster, but not for someone who's been recently sleeved.

My goodness, that is amazing. That is just SO much weight to lose. Its incredible. You should be so very proud of yourself. I'm sure you'll continue to lose down to that fantasy goal.

That's not very usual advice - low carb would be the explanation i'd guess, but even then, you need some of those foods. Believe me, I've just taken the first dose of Picolax in preparation for a colonoscopy tomorrow, and I'm sitting here waiting for all hell to break loose. I have very problematic bowels and I would NEVER give up those fibrous foods. Its just not healthy, end of story.

I peel them, I hate apple skin. Its like fingernails on a blackboard to me, something about the sensation of it on my teeth. I also cant take the first bite out of an apple, i have to slice it up. Otherwise I would happily leave an apple just sitting there even if I were about to die of starvation. But peeled and sliced, when I make the effort, I wonder why the heck I dont eat them more often. They are one of the easier fruits for me once prepared, whereas bananas, ugh, cant swallow them, have to have those in smoothies.

phfffffft!

I was always pear shaped and I went back to having a slim middle, although I didnt know that until after weight loss, lol. Well, really I guess I did, I did go back to my normal shape and I've never had a really big stomach. However, if you've developed a fat middle, there's a good chance you've got muscle separation after your pregancy. I was extremely lucky, I'm tall, but only had 7 or 8lb so I didnt have stretch marks or damaged muscles.

Both really. I still might do something, but if I'd done it two years ago, it would have been for the wrong reasons. I was so, uncomfortable?(not really the right word) with the new me and I had trouble stopping the process of change and getting used to being a new person, if that makes sense. I wanted to keep that exhilarating change and improvement going. That's the wrong reason for having cosmetic surgery but I think a lot of people feel that way following weight loss. Now, I can look objectively, I can see what could be improved, but I am more comfortable with me and know that improving it would be nice, this would look great or that, but I dont need it to make me happy with myself. So it becomes simply a matter of do I want to spend that money on that and for now, its no, I dont. If DH gets a bonus this year, I really MIGHT though. I just had a brazillian (first ever) and can we say "old lady"? Eeeeew, a bit of camouflage is a good thing!

Lol,I cook the dinners pretty much once a week because I make SO much mess when I cook. So on a weekend I just get to it, and afterwards, I have to clean it from top to bottom, usually cupboard fronts, kickboards, floor, stovetop, the lot. I absolutely cannot cook without slopping stuff everywhere. Weekday meals that I actually cook at the time are always super duper simple, something on the barbecue and a tossed salad or basic Pasta. I cannot make anything else without getting it on the ceiling. And hair! Oh my god, my hair!!!! It is absolutely everywhere. People on here talk about losing hair, well technically I never did, never thinned, but I just drop hair everywhere, all the time, two days after the cleaning lady's been, there's big hairballs in the bathrooms, I pull wads of it out of the drains. Oh, and the cat's taken to sh*tting in the shower lately too. Doesnt like getting her bum wet outside in the cold.

I had no comorbidities when I got banded, but it was fear of becoming a person who was that out of shape that made me get banded. I'd gotten to 36 and I was having a nana nap in the afternoons for pete's sake. It really scared me, thinking what my life was going to be like in another 10 years. Not to mention how invisible you become in your 40's when you become just another matronly dowdy overweight mother/worker/wife/general dogsbody who nobody views as an attractive sexual being anymore. That thought scared the living daylights out of me. I'm way too addicted to the limelight to let that happen, lol. I certainly dont feel that way now.

Oh, I hear you. I can cope until I start to clean and then I tend to blow my stack, DH does the same thing. But the trouble is, none of us are tidy by nature. I cant really yell at the kids when I too have to regularly clean out my wardrobe because I shoved stuff in. I am a ruthless thrower outerer - I do not keep clutter. Its the only way i can cope. We just dont have a lot of "stuff". My kids are soooooo bad though. I get the house cleaned once a fortnight now that I've gone back to work, she comes on a Thursday. By the time I get home from work, they've been home from school for an hour and I dont even get to enjoy the result of my $75. It makes me SO MAD! I've tried everything, they have jobs, they dont get pocket money if they dont do them but week after week they do half arsed jobs and dont get paid and they dont even care. Because I dont have cl utter, the mess is usually quickly tidied up, but they do awful stuff like I spend two hours on a sunday night ironing their school uniforms for the week, they have dress pants, dress shirts, a tie, a blazer etc and my daughter has a pinafore and shirt and tie, and I give them to them to put away. Do they hang them up? No. They shove them in overfilled drawers on top of old dirty socks and stupid things that shouldnt be in drawers like football boots (muddy ones). Its just absolute inconsiderate laziness. So come Monday, out them come dressed for school in wrinkled, muddy clothes and then wonder why they get detention for being dirty and unkempt! Then they expect ME to complain to the teachers to get them out of it, sheesh. I jsut cant wait till they all move out. We built our house, once upon a time it was brand new, with mushroom coloured carpet and new furniture, then we had babies and pretty soon the carpet looked like wall to wall pizza. I saw sense, we now have two leather lounge suites in our two living rooms and timber floors through the entire house. I will never have carpet or fabric couches again. At least when there's mess, I can clean it and it doesnt stain. We dont have drapes either, we have timber blinds. Luckily I'm not into country style, lol, my look is very minimalist and modern.

I still have it after a 100lb loss, but much less than I did have My buttocks and the backs of my thighs are dimply, but I can hide most of the dimples in a bikini bottom (fairly full cut). It used to be that even shorts would show a bit of it.

The thing with the elliptical is that you dont even leave the ground. There is NO WAY you can burn that many calories with a workout that doesnt require you even clearing the ground.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but your skin is already attached to your stomach muscles, or you'd be in a fair bit of trouble. And unfortunately, when you're fat, the loose skin (if you've got it) has ALREADY happened. Nothing you do now can change that, you've broken collagen bonds in your skin and stretched it out as you gained and you cant undo that now. The reason that you wear a girdle type garment after plastic surgery is to support the area, minimise swelling through compression and help healing, not to work any magic on your actual skin. Ditto to anything you rub inot it. The 2 year thing, I'd say that's more for emotional reasons. I finished losing weight and felt sort of weird about myself. I looked different, my face looked different (and a bit older), I felt a little "loose" although I got out of the loose skin thing very lightly. If I'd had enough cash at the time,I would have done everythign to my body and face I could have afforded. Now, 2 years later, I'm glad I didnt. I dont need it and I think I would regret it and I can think of about a zillion better things to spend my family's money on, like our upcoming holiday to Thailand.

Alcohol calories are always the first burned, even when the body is in deficit, they are such a ready source of energy. So if you drink, and drinking, even white wine can certainly add up calorie wise, the rest of what you eat will only be burned after the alcohol, its really just sugar. Everyone here knows I'm no fan of high Protein diets but it is certainly true that if you take in sugar and readily burned refined carbs, then you are giving your body such an easy source of energy that it will always burn in preference to fat. Your body only turns to fat if your glycogen stores are fairly depleted, and that will never happen if you keep filling up on sugar. I like my wine too though, not sure whether giving it up is worth it to be 10lb lighter, lol.

I didnt have to do one, but I thought the same as you, that I'd do it anyway to "prepare" and to lose some weight. I personally never wanted to go off on a last minute bender, once I made that surgery date, I considered my life changed. I ate sensibly for months before surgery - not little enough to lose weight, but I didnt gain any either. So I thought I'd do this pre op diet...... Well, like most people, days 1 to 3 were torture. I was hungry, felt sick, moody, shaky, it was awful. Then on day 4 I stood up and fainted. Fair enough, I'd not eaten for a few days. But I fainted EVERY time i stood up. I felt like death warmed up. I called my doctor, he said to me "what on EARTH are you doing that to yourself for?". I had by pure chance had a liver ultrasound weeks before I saw him (my gp sent me off for all sorts of tests, he'd never referred anyone for a lapband before, until I came and asked). So I knew that I didnt have a very fatty liver than needed to be shrunk. My doctor explained that the ONLY true reason for the preop diet is to shrink the liver, and (as I well knew anyway) weight lost that way is not healthy weight loss, its Water, muscle and a bit of fat. It's just not good for you unless its a case of the end justifying the means. So I didnt need a lot of convincing, I took his advice and started eating again. let me tell you, I have NOWHERE near enough willpower to do a diet like that and i"ve been very successful with the band. Its something you do if you absolutely HAVE to, if your surgery depends on it, and even then its probably one of the hardest things any of us will ever do. In the end, I was quite pleased that I didnt do it because I lost TONS of weight after surgery, I hadnt exhausted the easy 10kgs that most of us have at the start of a diet. I have read SO many stories here of people being disappointed by post op weight loss and that's becuase they've already lost like 40lb from starving themselves for 4 weeks. It must be such a demoralising way to start, whereas I got that fast, gratifying drop since I hadnt dieted before. If you dont have to do it and you CAN, then you're deserving of a medal! But you probably will use up all that fast easy weight loss, so be prepared for that fact and dont freak if you dont drop 50lb the week after your surgery.

Well, I have a caesar scar, does that count? I think you mean just a crease in the skin where it has habitually folded over? I have a pretty flat stomach but even I have that, but the creases I had across my stomcah where it folded when I sat, those have gone away as there's only some small wrinkles when I sit down now.

Unfortunately you cant help where your body stores fat. But the best way to get rid of tummy fat is cardio. NO amount of strengthening the muscles will make any difference at all if there's too much fat. Running, spinning, elliptical, all those high intensity workouts are what you need. And there's some credible evidence that using interval training methods (ie. sprinting all out for 1 min, thens lowing down for 5 kinda thing) burn even MORE fat than steady state. Personally, I find, contrary to popular exercise gospel, that nothing keeps me as thin as long, steady state cardio - long runs daily of 8kms or more. We're all different, but that works for me better than anything.

I dont bother personally. I havent counted a calorie in years and I dont plan to ever again. It really isnt relevant. If you dont eat too much, you wont be too fat, that's pretty much the equation. If you eat a lot less you will lose weight. I know some people like to do it, so maybe someone else can tell you their methods, but I personally found it very liberating to give up all that stuff.

Personally, I would stick with what you know and/or enjoy. things have changed, but our bodies havent. If it worked for you before, it will work for you now. Its ridiculous how fads come and go in diet and fitness as if our bodies somehow work differently but if you use your head and think logically the following things hold true: Atkins didnt work in the 60's and 70's to solve obesity and it isnt working now, people are getting fatter. Low fat high carb didnt work etiher, people got fatter. Why are people getting fatter? Coz they dont get enough activity and eat waaaaay too much of the wrong things and dont do what they know they should, not because they havent caught onto the latest magic formula. Running used to the THE thing back in the 70's. Many people got very fit doing it. So just because its not so fashionable now, will it suddenly not work? I think not. Arnie got huge by using the weight lifting methods that were the latest and greatest in his day. Would that somehow not work because we think we know more now? All you have to do is SOMETHING and if you work out the way you know how, it will work. What happens to be currently fashionable is irrelevant. Dont let the the feeling that there's some "secret" to be discovered, that only a personal trainer can unlock hold you back. All it takes is some good honest effort. And of course, today being what it is anyway, you can find everything any average personal trainer is likely to know on the internet anyway. I work out in a group with a trainer (only because I enjoy it) and believe me, he has never taught me anythign I didnt already know, and much of what he says is only current fashion that I dont particularly believe anyhow. If you've got a history and experience of being fit, you do have what you need to do this for yourself.

there's no reason not to eat fruit and salads. For dressing, I really like just plain olive oil and salt and pepper on a salad. I'm not big on fancy dressings, especially vinegar-y ones. Olive oil is a good fat, and some fat with a salad means you absorb the nutrients much more than if you have no fat with it.

Five years, no complications.

To be honest, there's nothing about banded life that has been unexpected or surprising. Its what I was led to believe based on both what my doctor said and what I found mainly on this forum.

I have always recovered well from anaesthesia, once I wake up, I'm awake. what I tend to notice is that one or two days later, I get very very weepy. I'll have a period of a few hours whee I just cry. Its exactly like when your milk comes in after you've had a baby, hits you out of nowhere and then leaves just as suddenly.

You're extremely unlikely to build enough muscle mass on your stomach, no matter what you do, that you would make surgery harder. A fit body is always going to recover much better than an unfit one and surgery will be safer to boot. Not to mention, if you get yourself fit before you're banded, you will be able to hit the ground running, so to speak, which will be a big advantage.

I absolutely do not believe that. I am an educated, well resourced person who can make my own decisions about which educational philosophy I subscribe to. Because that's ALL these are, philosophies. There are plenty of studies you can read to way you want to but there is little real true evidence that one way of eating is better than another, and that goes for both sides of this debate. High Protein has certain advantages, high carb has others (although I agree, nobody needs sugar!). Some things work better for weight loss whilst others are better for various areas of your general health. But *I* am most definitely the one person most qualified to decide what I should eat. I know what makes me feel best, what works best for me for weight loss, what a general good healthy diet is and I am also adult enough to decide whether or not I am going to risk my health by including certain things in my diet. I do not need to be patronised by surgeons who are good at placing bands, but really are NOT experts on human nutrition. Bariatric vitamins are a good way to convince you you're getting something extra. But Vitamin supplements are vitamin supplements, the word "bariatric" doesnt mean they're going to be absorbed any better. And depending what you choose to eat, you DONT need a whole ton of supplements ever day. You can have a band and never have a Protein shake and not be deficient in protein. You can have a band and eat 2 fruit, five veg and a wholegrain serving every single day for a wide range of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that all work together the way nature intended, unlike pills. You can get enough fibre without taking supplements. It is all dependent on how tight you choose to be, what you choose to eat and how fast you want your weight loss to be. if you want to be tight, focus on protein foods and lose weight fast, then you'll probably need supplements. No crime in that. But if you want to be looser, have to exercise more but eat a more varied diet with slower weight loss, then you DO have that choice and you dont need a doctor to tell you whether or not you're "allowed" to do that. I guess what made me react to this post is the way I read it, as if you're handing over responsibility to your doctor "here, YOU fix me". Yes, our choices made us fat, but it also must be our own choices that make us thin. A lapband is a tool, not a whole program that someone manages FOR you. You have to do it yourself. I dont know about anyone else here but I became obese by eating too much in general and including too many sugary carbs and junk foods in my diet. It was as uncomplicated as decreasing portion sizes, cutting out certain junk foods and exercising a LOT more. You can achieve that in any number of ways, what's the point of fighting over who's right or wrong? But stating it like its black or what just isnt a true picture.