tilly

a pb is NOT pleasant, it hurts--but it doesnt hurt as much as a tight pair of shoes, or a bad period pain, or a blister on your bum. !! its over and done with as soon as the offending bite of food comes back, its not like vomiting, its a burp and whooops it comes. Ive had quite a few of them 2 in particular were lulus and one lasted 3 hours cos a bit of prune skin, but if you asked me if I would have one of those DAILY and not every three months on average or go back to being over 400lb bring on the pbs NONE of the experiences ive had with my band of 15 months comes even close to the pain and suffering of morbid obesity the pbs the acid reflux occasionally, the wanting a steak and cant having one all minor minor nano details to the results I have now and the way my life has changed to the way I was existing.

after being banded 15 months ive hit two plateus, both of these have moved once Ive thought "darn it Im going to eat rubbish who cares, its not coming off anyway" upped the cals considerably for ONE day and voila things started moving again. go figure but maybe when the cals are low the body hangs on to its fat for famine reasons, it cant hang on forever but its annoying when it is, especially when you know your not eating enough to even maintain. (not to get mixed up with living on bars of chocolate and wondering why your not losing as my friend has done ha ha (

donna b ----I think its soo easy with the band, after 15 months ive lost over 150lbs and feel fantastic. I count cals and most days cant eat enough to get up to my 1200-1500 a day, i have exellent restriction NOW though it has been hit and miss. so in my case and a lot of people I know, the band definately works if you use it right. good luck your doing great so far its certainly working for you !!!!

yep, I was also told fluids for two weeks then mushies for another two and even then it was painful at times. I wouldnt imagine eating solid food after a week was good for you, after all your tum is swollen and stitched and needs a rest.

that was my problem with food I never ever felt full, unless you call stuffed to bursting full, then half an hour later I was looking for more food Its just taken me over an hour to eat a yoghurt 4pm my Breakfast, It was a struggle because I am so full after a few mouthfulls -- a whole new way of life isnt it

for the first week of banding including the hospital stay and not eating for 2 days I had about 800 cals in 6 days I got on the scales expecting a 300lbs weight loss lol and had only lost 5lbs cant tell you how disapointed I was then by the end of week 2 id lost 20lbs so be patient I had a huge loss because I was huge to start, but it will come off when your body recovers from the shock of the anasthetic ect just a note, I had an emergency op, christmas day, I ate NOTHING only sips of Water for 5 days and when I got weighed id not lost an ounce in fact Id gained 3lbs !!!! thought it might come off later on but it didnt. go figure

. just a thought but I was feeling the same way and blamed the weight, turned out I had sleep apnea and once I got the cpap machine the exhaustion and lethargy left me, just a suggestion, but it doesnt half help and make a difference.

cousins, once removed

congratulations thats wonderful whooo hoooo

I have to count the calories, if I dont I stop losing and when I do and keep a food diary (in a dictafone i carry round with me) I lose fine 147lbs 13 months fills count, sucessful ones anyway, and if I drink with meals I get hungry fast so eat more than normal.

well, there is only one way to lose weight, thats eat less, move more. the band has helped me do that. without it I just couldnt do it for long and then piled back the weight. IVe just come back from an all inclusive holiday in spain, all the food you could eat and all the booze, soft drinks and wine you could drink, and I lost 7lbs !!!!! I ate my fill, and I drank Water and a couple of diet cokes and a sneaky baileys on the last night, and still lost weight. I ate a sweet after each evening meal, but the difference was that I only had a tiny helping and a scoop of ice cream, I didnt wear a path out to the sweet bar, because that was enough for me, last all inclusive holdiay I went on I came back 18lbs heavier than when I left. apart from accidents with the band like slippage ect, if you use it right and dont eat till your sick or pb-ing just eat till your full (a new experience for me let me tell you) you will be fine. Its the "getting your head round it all" bit thats confusing peeps I think when is it right, when do I need a fill, when do I need an unfill, this knowledge comes with a bit of time and experience. for me the rules are eat slowly, take a couple of mouthfulls and wait, if it doesnt hurt after a few minutes carry on eating slowly and chew well,. if I have done all that and it hurts , stop, I'm eating something that doesnt suit MY band, ie; I can eat eggs my friend cant, she can eat rice, I cant, --I can eat grapes (peeled) she cant --yet she can eat an orange !!!! arrrrrrrrgh! but were both losing weight fine, and we know through experience its cos were eating far far less than we ate before the band. so it seems were all different, and its a case of finding out what we can and cant manage. But I would say that If you can eat a subway or a mcdonalds --you need a fill Lol

I am going to Oregon in the summer and my friend there tells me you have ALL NIGHT BINGO OMG that sounds better than sex allnight sex all night bingo NO CONTEST

definately not re-education I know, sure as eggs is eggs that if my band was taken out tomorrow next year Id be as fat as ever, its something to do with finding the "sweet spot" Im sure of it food is no longer important to me, Ive asked thin people if this is normal and they all say it is, my husband is slim and couldnt care less about food, just eats to survive and wants it over with as fast as poss no cosy meals for him, hates eating out, just likes good plain food and not a lot of it Im going the same way and its GRRRRRRREAT

I went through a phase of feeling sick as soon as Id put food in my mouth not like a PB just the feeling of "ewwww" as soon as I would taste whatever it was. Imagine if you ate a fried cockroach !! how you would feel before youd even swallowed it?? well it felt like that but it wore off about 8 weeks later thank heavens I think it was a reaction to a lot of PBs and my brain had turned against food lol ok now though though Im always thinking the food tastes "funny"

LEEERVE bingo so I know how you feel, I was operated on on the tues and was at bingo by the following Monday lol was a bit shaky and wobbly but wild horses wouldnt have kept me away AND I won £250 about $500 at the time lol

after an eight week plateu after christmas day emergency surgery I finally moved this week, I tried everything and nothing worked, dont know what happened any differently to this week than any other week, but ive now lost 8lbs since last sunday!!! oh if only that was every week *sigh lol so I think you just have to count your calories and keep on keeping on, if you eat less cals than you burn off your treacherous body (mine sits up late at night and plots against me Im sure of it) will have to let go of the fat in the end.

CONGRATULATIONS its amazing how fast the year goes isnt it, It was mine on the 8th March and all day I kept thinking of "this time last year" I was grateful to go into hospital for the rest as I was so exhausted having to travel to belgium from Scotland and walk to the plane, climb the stairs etc lol of course you shouldnt beat yourself up after losing FIFTY POUNDS !!!!! fantastic, and incase you dont realise, go and load a suitcase up with 50lbs worth of books and try carrying it upstairs and round the house then you will realise your massive acheivement

when you think our tootsies are relatively tiny parts of us that take all the weight of the rest of us, I used to get aching feet and burning inside them its gone now thank heavens

I totally agree, I have a friend whos weight problem was mainly caused by drinking wine each night (a bottle) then going onto the vodkas and lemonades before bed time. She had the band and at first lost well, but after a month or so she went back to her drinking and in a year hasnt lost an ounce, so now she blames the band and is going for the r n y hoping that will work, well it wont because she simply cant stop the drinking and taking in all those calories.

returning home off holiday, I was approaching a really big, buisy roundabout on a hot day last year, on the seat next to me was some shopping and sticking out of the top was an ice cold carton of orange juice. so as Im driving along I fiddle with the top and manage to get it off and, without thinking I took a massive few gulps of the juice, just like pre band gulps. Swallow swallow swallow I goes gets to the roundabout and as im looking left and right waiting to go on to it WHOOSH no warning no nothing --- up comes the orange juice, projectile, by now im going around the roundabout so cant do a thing about it WHOOSH and orange juice hits the wheel, the windscreen, the dash, down my navy blue shirt and trousers and onto the floor of the car. You would not believe how far a couple of gulps of orange juice could go.!! I had another 300 miles to drive so pulled into a motorway service area delved into my suitcase and changed between the two doors of the car!! I couldnt go into the rest rooms because I couldnt be seen in public the state I was in. It took me over half an hour to clean up that swig of orange juice in the car and I pray often that there wasnt any cctv cameras trained on me in the car park and one day I will appear on tv getting undressed with my mother standing holding a towel in front of me looking furtivly round whilst I changed my trousers.

the first surgeon I saw told me to go away and lose 80lbs before the op !! so the second surgeon I saw told me to "just eat sensibly two weeks before the op" my kind of guy, so I tried my best to eat sensibly and lost 7lbs a mere drop in an ocean of 420lbs, the night before the op I saw him, and intended to then go on an eating spree. but he told me "please dont eat a lot tonight" *sigh I knew, through research and speaking to successfull bandsters that the moment I woke up from the surgery I was going to be on a diet. I was terrifed, I wouldnt be able to do it, I would waste all that cash and Id be fat forever, after all, how many diets had I tried, and how many times had I failed. IF you diet when youve had the band it will work, and you wont be able to believe how much easier it is with the band than without it. You will have days when you eat chocolate and all the wrong stuff, but you will have many more days when you wont--- and wont even want them. you know those magazines that promise you you will lose 10lbs in a week if you stick to their diet? and it goes something like this Breakfast 1 0z of Cereal 1/4 pt of skim milk black coffee lunch 20z chicken breast skinned a tomato black coffee dinner 4 oz steamed fish 4 oz broccoli black coffee well, I used to look at those diets and think OMG I would never live on that I'd die of starvation. Nowadays I look at those magazines and their diets and I think OMG ALL THAT food IN ONE DAY !! HOW DISGUSTING IS THAT HA HA HA HA

mine goes right up against my neck! I kept pulling it down to the bit that goes around my waist and EUREKA mind you it only took 34 years of doing this for me to come up with the idea sooo it wasnt exactly Eureka lol

I found the opposite ---the bigger I got the more invisible I got !!!:phanvan

If you suffer from the seat belt in the car sliding up round your neck !! simply get a garden tie or a food bag tie and tie the bit that goes across your body to the bit that goes across your lap and voila no more riding up round your neck

yes, I had a fill in dec and it made no difference, so went back in feb and it made not much difference. this past week so -about 3 weeks later-the band has tightened a LOT and I can hardly eat a thing and the weight is moving brilliantly. Im happy with that, as I dont want to be able to eat allsorts at the moment, im happy with Soup and mush while the weight is coming off, I know I cant have it all ways, I have a slimfast milk shake every day to keep the Vitamin etc levels up while im living on not a lot