Jachut

I just dont get the calorie burn spinning claims. I have a membership that allows me to attend two venues. One has great bikes that dont have computers and a really good manual gearing system. At the other gym they have on board computers, but just generic you dont enter your personals into them. But at 66kg, id be around verage weight for. Woman. Im fit, i work hard, in moderately high gears, and i end up very sweaty, tired and sometimes even dizzy. Yet the bike has never recorded over 400 calories! Its gotta be inaccurate, surely?

I dont restrict at all

Doesnt work for me, id rather eat one good satisfying meal than two small unsatisfying one. But its an individual thing and if it suits you i dont see why you shouldnt do it. Personally, i think ou end up eating more. I mean half a lapand meal is literally two or three bites or some people.

Me too Dawn. I wasnt a terribly unhealthy eater, just ate too much overall nd allowed too many treats. I also had the attitude that if i was out to eat I may as well REALLY enjoy it! All i really did to my diet was tweak the balances and reduce the overall intake. i probably make people a bit sick with my attitude to exercise. i will move heaven and earth not to miss running ir the gym, i have kept it up through cancer and chemotharapy, holidays, bd weather, busy periods, i dont know where tjis dedication has come from, i never had it begore! But again, in reality I am a moderate exerciser, yes, running s strenuous but at my fitness, i trot long enjoying the scenery, its not that hard. Im not interested in hoiking huge weights at the hym, putting pressure on myself for better paces and race times. Apparently, my body will get used to tjis and stop responding. Jeez, i guess thats why after five years all i have to do if i gain a pound or two is run a little more, eat a little less! So diet and exercise i set at a level i can do and forget perfction

Id highly doubt it. It might at first if youre very sedentary, but it wouldnt burn enough calories to get rid of a pound in and of itself without diet, and your nody would adapt very quickly. Thats not a lot of exercise in total. I run 10kms or more a couple of times a week, do a couple of spin classes and one or two Body Pumps as well and these days thats just for maintenance. I find it takes an hour of hard cardio at least five days a week to mke maintenance eay for me.

I have had a similar experience after seven years - after I had to totally unfill for another surgery. My belief is that small changes, slacking off every so slightly that its not even noticeable, add up to weight gain over time. I've not "gained" per se - in that I ended up at about 150lb until I got sick - and I'm still 145. But I dropped to 130 - really really thin for me at 5ft 10 and havent been able to hold that weight (why i wanted to is a whole nother story, it looked awful). Its been due to a reliance on slider foods, eating more overall, less restriction from my band. I had a tummy tuck 12 weeks ago - which I didnt unfill for - and the necessary reduction in exercise afer that was the final straw - I bounced up 8lb to 145. I have this lovely flat stomach but my love handles are hanging over the BACK of my jeans now, grrrrrr. The only answer is NOT to slack off. Get off those slider foods, get back in the gym, it takes work your whole life to maintain this new weight. We were discussing this in another thread but what seems to happen is that veteran bandsters get to the point where they cant "feel" tightness or restriction, think they need nore fill and end up with reflux and heartburn. It has certainly happened to me. I know I cant have more fill than I have - so I have to work with it. I was astounded yesterday - barely eat sandwiches coz I dont like bread much and particularly dont like sandwiches - but that was what was on offer yesterday for lunch, so I had a tuna sandwich. Down the hatch in minutes, easy as. I was full yes, I only wanted one, i didnt eat again all afternoon but I could never have done that 2 years ago! My doc said to me that I may have to accept being slightly heavier (My BMI is 20) - dont want to but that may be the way it is.

Lactulose!

Surgeons are technicians first and foremost. I'd see a nutritionist if you require dietary advice. Even my colorectal surgeon doesn't give me real advice on how to manage after bowel surgery but has sent me onto a dietician. I've never had much joy out of dietitians, I really think you have to work out what's best for you yourself, but a little advice doesn't hurt.

How fantastic to have a surgeon who knows not only what it really IS like to have a band but also the highs and lows of weight loss. I tell you what, I wish I could give my colorectal surgeon a bowel resection, radiation, ileostomy and ileostomy reversal! Maybe he woulndt be so unsympathetic about what its like to live with crappy bowels after all of that!

Thats loose skin! Your skin gets stretched out when you get big, same as when women are pregnanyt and unfortunately it usually doest snap back completely. I was in despair at some stages, but found getting right down to a bmi of under 20 solved the worst of it, once you lose the fat under the skin it sometimes improves.

Well, transient heartburn once in a blue moon probably isn't much to worry about. I'm having trouble with it at the moment, but I know I"m too tight and I know I have slight pouch dilation. Ordinarily, I get a little heartburn when I get hungry. I no longer feel hunger pangs, I just get acidy. It shouldn't be hanging around though, if you're needing medication every day you need to go and see your doc. It is a sign of over tightness and the acid does do damage so it needs to be addressed.

I havent gotten to the point of hating my band and wanting it out, but I've been on the same journey in the past year or so. I've had cancer, been treated band since I got "better" my life has been hell. I'm depressed, anxious, having panic attacks, have been through a hellish menopause, gone back to full time work in a very stressful job. I'm time poor and managing poorly. As a result, my eating has been simply awful. But you know the one thing that overlays all that and really pushes me into freak out territory is seeing my weight rise. It may be dysfunctional but managing my diet and exercise gives me a sense of control and makes all the rest seem not so bad. I don't succeed at it 100% of the time, probably only 50% at the moment, but I feel compelled to keep trying. The fact that my weight has stayed fairly steady is not a credit to my self control and discipline, its a freaking miracle is what it is, but it is the ONE thing I can control to some extent out of all the rest of it and I choose to hang onto that. You would have to be superhuman for the stress and heartache not to show in the way you care for your body. Don't beat yourself up, you're only human. And try not to hate the band, do what you need to do for now and hopefully it will be there functional for you when you can have the leisure to establish a better relationship with it.

For sure, its just stupid busy around here at the moment - its mid year for school, reports due, and so many extra curricular things on that I haven't been walking in the door till 6, 6.30, three kids to feed, a run or gym to get done, more work at home, a cat that shits in the bath, two other cats and a dog to feed, the house is a mess, I've got a zillion medical appointments for everything from cancer follow up to pelvic floor physiotherapy - you get the picture. At times like this, home delivered food is a godsend. But its not a long term solution.

I get a strong localised pain right by my navel just before I'm about to pb. If I get it, the food's coming up, it never happens without that, but perhaps you are a bit stuck or take too big a bite and that's your symptom?

I've just started LitenEasy which is a home delivered 1200 calorie diet. I'm doing it not to lose weight but just to get back into some good habits. I've been skipping meals eating rubbish, you name it. I can easily eat my way through 1800 calories a day or so, and have been complaining that my band gives me no restriction. I need to eat a fair amount of wholegrain foods - breads and cereals - full of soluble fibre to manage my digestive system after bowel surgery and I have definitely not been doing that. WELL!! Being fed a balanced diet makes me realise I have PLENTY of restriction. I cant finish 1200 calories worth of bread, protein, fruits and vegetables. Breakfast is usually cereal, fruit and toast/spread. I have to break it up, eat some at home and ahve the toast at work. Morning tea is fruit. Lunch is something hot or a sandwich or salad, and dinner is protein/veg/carb. I feel like I am eating all day. I still get the munchies for something sweet and carby in the afternoon, hungry or not. THat's OK, I'm maintaining, I can have a bikkie with my cuppa if I want to. But I need to limit it, once I start on those foods, its hard to stop. Just goes to show how easy it is to fall into the slider food habit - not necessarily UNhealthy sliders, but too much yogurt, soup, etc. The foods I choose were making a difference each day in the realm of 500 calories! For me, that's been the difference between maintaining or gaining impercetibly - every couple of months a kilogram appears outta nowhere. lesson learned!

I'm a few weeks after an unfill now - and I am better, but not completely. I'm stil l requiring Zantac most days, usually towards the evening. I know an unfill is on the cards, there's no use putting it off. I just have to wait till I can get in/have time to go! I've taken so much time off work this year for other health reasons that I have no sick leave left.

There's nothign necessarily wrong abuot a visible port. They are a fairly large unit, well the old style ones anyway, and I had a BMI of under 20, there is no way you WONT see a port on a body that low in fat. Many many people have visible ports and there is nothing wrong with them. It may not ever become visible if you're more apple shaped and carry more weight round your middle.

I've jsut gone on lite n easy, because I feel like rubbish, I have to see a dietician in a few weeks to try to get my bowels in order and I want to be able to say hand on heart that I have been eating well - I am now totally laxative dependent because the pouch the colorectal surgeon created for me when I lost my rectum will not empty - a combination of physical size/position, pelvic floor dysfunction and poor stool formation. The lapband has definitely made me lazy - cant be bothered eating the foods I know I need - the whoelgrain breads, cereals anything like that that's full of soluble fibre to give bulk to what comes out. Everyone in my family has freaked - I dont need to lose weight, i have an eating disorder, what am I doing this for?They dont get it. Its three healthy meals a day, full of the foods I need, it will get me eating regularly, particularly lunch, and with a skinny latte and maybe a bikkie or two or a yogurtthrown in for good measure, it'll be 1400 calories or so a day - MAINTENANCE, not weight loss! I wont lose weight on this and am not intending to. Yet to "normal" people, its diet rations, to me it looks like a banquet! I have o split the meals - just had my muesli and fruit and will have the toast when I get to work! That's how much less we eat than normal people.I can remember doing this pre banding and had eaten all the food in three days, lol.

haha, yes! A magic wand is just what I need. I too never listened to the naysayers who warned the honeymoon would end. And to be totally honest, a lot of it is ME. The band is there, it does give restriction but my behaviours have overridden it a lot of the time. Unfilling really derailed me, and although my band has never been the same, neither have I. And I truly believe that the treatment and resulting menopause has played havoc with my metabolism, those sugar cravings came outta nowhere, and were SO strong. I lived on nothing but coffee and biscuits for the last part of 2011, until I went onto HRT and testosterone. That's when I regained all the lost "sick weight". Since then, I have struggled. The trouble is, people think after eight years banded and five years at a BMI below 21 that you're 'cured'. All of my specialists (not my lapband doc) have expressed the belief that I shoudlnt need it anymore. So have my family and friends. What they dont get is that my body has lived on 1500 calories or less a day for the last seven years. I cannot EVER eat what I shoudl be able to eat. With the help of the band, i have starved my body into a depressed metabolic state - that is what we are all doing and why weight loss is rarely permanent without weight loss surgery. It is insane that I can weigh 145lb by eating so little and exercising so much, i should be emaciated and skeletal. I eat way less than everyone I know. Life has to be a diet for EVER more to keep this weight away. I would not hesitate, not even for a second, to have a new band or revise to a different surgery - although my clinic does bands and bands only. That does not mean I could not go somewhere else, it would just cost me a lot as I am entitled to revision surgery with no out of pocket cost where I am. I dont regret the band for a second either. Afterall, hard as the last year or two have been, I'm still only 65kg. I have not regained weight and am close to the bottom of my healthy weight range. It just used to be so easy. But it would be way harder without my (not so well functioning) band. So I guess we struggle on and accept we were put on this earth with bodies that want to be cuddly and it is just our lot to work hard to be the way we want. I dont really know many people that can absolutely eat what they want and not exercise and stay thin into middle and old age. The ones I actually envy are my myriad of friends who are fat and happy, live the way they want, dont beat themselves up over their weight, see it as normal. yes, they are prone to certain health problems, but I have seriously created a mental monster for myself over this. I cant tolerate a 2lb weight gain without feeling disgusting,fat, disappointed in myself. I restrict my eating every single day, i exercise like a fiend, its a pretty hard job. In a lot of ways I wish I just didnt care. But I would even choose to live with heartburn than be fat again. Sad but true.

Its not a huge op, ou will recover vry fast. Iwas independnt within a day or two br lifting. I had mine on a Friday and my hubby bever missed a day of work. I had little kids too bu i was truly no big deal.

That last bit of weight is really hard to lose, it really does require counting lories or putting ypurself on a plan, and getting an hour of cardio per day

None. I'm shocking. I hate taking pills. I know I need to. There's no adult chewables on the market here, so I've been meaning to order bariatric ones on line for absolutely ages and I just don't get around to it.

Nonsense. Its merely coincidence. A proportion of people banded ARE going to develop cancer, I probably HAD cancer when I was banded. I was diagnosed five years after banding with rectal cancer. Its a slow growing cancer and it was very advanced in me. In hindsight I'd had symptoms since very soon after my banding. My mind did wander onto the topic of whether or not the band was a causative factor. But like I said, I probably already had it. However, the reduced food intake, slower intestinal transit, lower fibre diet and lower intake of fruit and veg and nutrients in general could definitely play a part. My diet is not adequate and I know it. I don't and can't get the two fruit, five veg, 30 grams of fibre in a day that I need. I don't eat a lot of whole grains (a known cancer preventative) because I don't really eat bread or cereals in any quantity. I struggle constantly with anaemia. So yes, my diet could predispose me to cancer. But in reality, what was most likely responsible was the years of poor diet and obesity that came before that. My diet no longer contains the large quantities of saturated fat and sugar. I don't eat known carcinogenic foods like salami, ham and processed turkey and chicken. I'm fit and active and not overweight. And knowing what I know of my family history now, it was always likely for me, band or no.

Ditto, I really only ever drink wine - usually white. I like red but it turns my teeth a very fetching shade of grey, so I rarely drink it in public. And when I want to keep the calories down, its half white wine, half soda Water. One or two drinks, sipped slowly. I reckon by and large, its better to just give up mixed drinks and cocktails altogether. Vodka's OK but in general, they're just horrific calories and sugar. And of course you have the carbonation problem.

Mine looked truly freaky, and at a BMI of 20, I dint have to lay down, it stuck out when I was standing up too. It looked like a walnut under my skin. I had a tummy tuck and ventral/inguinal hernia repair ten weeks ago during which my PS moved my port to right by my navel and took the back off it to reduce the profile (there's no low profile port for my 7 year old 4cc band). Its now virtually invisible, even at my low weight. Its very flat, but he also put it right by my navel where you have a natural fat pad, not up and to the side in that hollow we all have outside of our rectus muscles. I was lucky to have this without getting a new scar (well, I got a tummy tuck scar, but you know what I mean). But I would say a scar is well worth the better look of no lumpy port.