bambam31

I certainly have to wonder if any of these doctors or nutritionists have any real practical and personal experience from these methods - or are they just preaching from literature... These methods never caused me to do anything but lose a quick chunk of weight and then stall out... Low calorie and low carb is so counterproductive in the long term... Is there anyone out there who made it to goal solely on a low calorie or low carb diet and then continued to live that way for years happy and fullfilled without gaining any weight back??? Because if these methods really worked LBT should be chock full of these people... But normally what you see is people complaining because they are living low calorie like their doctor or nutritionist says but they aren't losing or their losses ceased - and they're a LONG way from goal... Everyone talks extensively about their intake side (eating)... but the export side (exercise and activities) is just as important! You can't effectively assess one without the other... Brad

Ha ha... I can feel the port no matter what now... It sticks out like a damn tumor... I'm seriously considering naming it... There are low profile ports and different port placements that can help hide it. Brad

I'm approaching the 4 yr mark... (August)... I have been so fortunate to not have any issues with my band. I hope you all find a manageable solution and share what that is! Brad

What foods you can tolerate varies so much from person to person - as well as over time. It takes a lot of careful experimentation to find which foods you can eat successfully. I think one of the easiest to start with is scrambled eggs... And I think it's still best to start your day with a Protein shake if you can. Your body has fasted during your sleep period and needs some quick nutrition. Most people have trouble with solid foods directly after waking with a properly restricted band. A quality whey product is best IMO. You just have to find a product that to suits your palate. You're also less than a week out so as you heal your going to find you can probably eat far more than you are able to today. In fact, most people's hunger comes raging back before the end of the first week. Brad

If I have food in my stomach I find it easier to lay on my side rather than my back... I'll also do some stretching if I feel pressure... Brad

Well for me if I was going to go to this length to get healthy, then damnit I wanna look good nekked too.... Can you lose "weight" and get "healthier" by just eating less and not exercising? Perhaps... there are a few on LBT who had made it to "goal" and not exercised... But there is no way you are reaching your true potential without exercise. We all are/were carrying massive amounts of excess body fat when we were banded. There is no way you can lose all of your excess body fat and look tight and firm in front of that mirror nekked without exercising... And there is no substitute to sufficient exercise.... period... Brad

I'm going to throw this out here just for the sake of proving the point. Cycling carbs and calories while exercising sufficiently is a very effective strategy to strip body fat. Men lose fat more easily than women. Why? Because a man's body consists of more lean muscle tissue than a woman's. And a man's hormonal makeup is more geared toward anabolism. I like to eat. I don't like to feel deprived - and I like ice cream... No... I LOVE ice cream. I want to eat as much food as I can, while still losing body fat. Here is an example of my last 8 day period. For the first 5 days I ate relatively good foods and stayed in the 2000 calorie a day range - which is a deficit for me. I kept simple carbs to a minimum while making certain I was eating sufficient grams of Protein to protect my lean muscle mass. Then I let myself up off the mat and in the last two days I ATE... and I ATE A LOT... In the last 2 days alone I ate a combined 3000 calories plus of JUST ice cream. That does't include the mexican food at Bandidos or the alcoholic beverages or any of the other intake. I no doubt consumed somewhere around 4000 calories each day. But now I will settle back into a deficit for 5 more days, limiting those simple carbs but still keeping my protein intake sufficient enough to protect my lean muscle mass. This is certainly too extreme of a swing for most people here, but the general principle still applies. The high calorie days and sufficient exercise keep your metabolism white-hot, yet the lower calorie days keep your lean muscle tissue protected. The end result is a reduction in body fat, while not feeling weak and sluggish or depriving yourself. I have used this principle for quite awhile and have more and more muscle definition as each month passes. If you don't believe me check out my gallery. My abs are becoming more and more defined as body fat continues to strip away. It's a slow but steady process but it is very effective. When I first started I had to dig through fat to find my port. Now the damn thing sticks out like a tumor because there's so little fat over it.... I have struggled with low fat / low carb / low calorie diets and sedentary lifestyles just like everyone else. I did Atkins and so many other fads... They don't work long term... You must have a permanent lifestyle change to be successful - band or not. The proof is in the pudding as they say... Search LBT and you'll be bombarded with threads and posts about people eating 800 calories a day and not losing weight... There's a new group of them that comes along every few weeks... So many just end up throwing in the towel and declaring the band didn't work for them... This isn't stuff that my surgeon or nutritionist gave me. It's research and trial and error I did on my own to get results. Save yourselves the headaches and struggles and learn from the mistakes of those who've gone down this road before you. My advice for women trying this technique would be to do sufficient cardio 5 days a week at 40 minutes a session, working all 3 target heart rate zones. Add in two strength/resistance training sessions a week. Continually challenge yourself and increase intensity of your workouts as they become easier. Everyone's activity levels are different, but for the sake of argument I'd increase calories by 100 every 5 days until you achieve about 1200. Then every 5-7 days take 2 days and run that number up to 1800-2000 and then slam back down to 1200 for another 5-7 days. Repeat this cycle and you will strip body fat... and you will have so much more energy and not feel like you are dieting so much.

Precisely on target IMO... The bottom line though is no 2 people have the same body, same nutrition needs, same job activity, same exercise patterns, etc., etc., etc., You have to learn your body through trial and error... BUT... basic principles still apply... Your body is an evolutionary masterpiece. Its' will to survive is far greater than we give credit. When that internal engine senses a reduction in fuel - it begins to make adjustments. Not in one swoop - but steadily. So you will be able to trick it for a short while by eating very low calories. That's why people on very low calorie diets lose massive amounts of weight within the first few weeks. But those losses are going to come to a screeching halt as your body successfully adjusts your metabolism. And then you're left with weak, sluggish, undernourished people eating 800 calories a day and not losing - or worse yet - gaining weight. That is what most people mean when they refer to the starvation mode - a crashed metabolism... As an aside - if you lose 5 pounds a week eating low calories and think that's all fat - you aren't kidding anyone but yourself - but that's a whole other discussion. Catabolism is something different. Your body doesn't have a storage system for Protein as it does carbohydrate. There are 9 essential amino acids. If you fail to provide these - and in sufficient quantity - when your body needs them - then your body will break down lean muscle tissue in order the supply itself with the nutrition it needs. That is a double edged sword for people trying to lose fat because it requires so many more calories to maintain lean muscle tissue than it does fat. The less lean muscle tissue you have - the harder it is to lose fat.

Congrats! A new chapter of life is about the begin! It's exciting!

Great posts everyone. Post op depression can be a side effect for any surgery. What did most of us do when we got depressed??? EAT! I think we underestimate how important food was to our everyday life. For most of us food was a security blanket. Once you take away that ability to eat whatever food in whatever quantity it hits you like a ton of bricks and can make us even more depressed. It will get better. Once you get exercising and have sufficient restriction from fills the pounds will start to drop off and you will see that just how motivating that is! It can be like its own euphoria inducing drug.

Well you say you had the surgery Wednesday so I'm guessing this post is less than 24 hours post op... Lots of gas and swelling from the surgery no doubt. Rest in a comfortable position, drink lots of fluids, and get on your feet moving around as much as you can. You will feel much better as the hours pass... Whenever in doubt though contact your surgeon just to have the peace of mind that all is as he/she expects. Its hard to focus on healing right now because all you want to do is get this new tool put to good use - but that won't actually happen for awhile. Focus on healing.

Body composition is, IMO, a more important factor than a scale number. If you gained that much weight though, no doubt a significant part of that was fat. I would focus on your eating habits and you'll soon be back to where you feel comfortable. Go back to the basics and determine how your eating habits changed after the unfill vs before the unfill... If you find you cannot manage the hunger to keep from overeating, then it's time for a tiny fill...

Well only you can determine if these people are truly friends or not. Sure seems like jealously is the issue and if they shut you out based on jealousy then it's hard to say they are a true friend. I can say, from my own experiences, that people tend to congregate with like subjects. When you were big you were just one of the girls, but now that you have made so much progress your presence is an immediate reminder of what they don't like about their own life - excessive weight. Conversely, there are a lot of fit people who never gave me the time of day when I was heavy - but now seem to consider themselves my friend. That doesn't exactly sound like true friend material either. Wouldn't it be so much easier if life had defined lines in the sand? lol

Wow did I get ripped off! I didn't get any good painkillers.

I had to completely abandon the "meal" principle - and food in terms of any volume and/or quantity... I just try to meet my overall calorie intake/export goals and spread out the intake over the course of the day - never going long periods without food - even if it's only a few bites at a time.

The experiences you share are very depressing in what should be a happier time in your life. True friendship is about love and support - no matter what. These "friendships" may not pass that test - only you can decide. Everyone deserves to be happy and have meaningful relationships and friendships - this you must seek.

The "Lifestyle Change" diet...

I specifically asked my surgeon about abdominal exercises. He said there was no exercise I could do that would risk my port. Just another difference between surgeons I guess. How well any specific part of your body recovers is very individualized. But you can't get a flat belly doing ab exercises... You can strengthen and tone the muscles, but it's cardio that is going to burn the fat off that's covering those muscles. And unfortunately there's no "spot" burning. Only your body decides where the burnt fat stores come from. Since we tend to store a lot of fat in the abdominal region, its typically the last to go. Kinda like our fat stores are a melting chunk of ice - the ice is just thicker to start in the ab region so it takes so much longer.

Right now this is my only complaint... There is so little fat (and getting less and less) over my port that it looks like a tumor! I remember the days of having to dig to find it... lol But now I find myself messing with it all the time because it's right there... I think I might just name it... lol

Thanks for the kind words and congrats on your progress!

Low carb intake day after day has a cumulative effect and can greatly impact leptin levels which will hamper fat burning. If I have 3-5 low carb / reduced calorie days I will follow it up with a hi carb / hi calorie day. On that day though I don't cram slider foods in at once, rather spread the calories out. This is also a great strategy to break plateau's or even avoid them in the first place. And on a high carb day I'm not at all above including ice cream and chocoloate... lol Ice cream is probably something I'd die without... lol

It could be nothing or it could be something... not real helpful I know.. If it's a persitent pain I would go back to your doctor. But port discomfort from time to time that goes away is not at all unusual...

Tough topic for sure! We all wanna lose weight fast and furiously but slow and steady is actually best when it comes to your skin as it lets it adjust... Don't think your doomed though just because you have stretch marks. I had lots and some are many are still there but not all that noticeable. Definitely a "YMMV" topic. I wouldn't have been caught dead in public without a shirt on a few years ago but now I really enjoy shirtless summers. Hydration, exercise, and rest are HUGE factors for your skin - but no two people are going to get the same results. IMO you just have to tip the scale in your favor and do everything you can to aid in skin recovery. Drink lots of Water, get adequate rest and exercise, plus quality lotions and cremes and you'll achieve the best results possible.

Nice progress everyone! Hard work pays off! It's no secret that I don't like long term periods of low calorie eating. I don't track any longer, however, did for months at a time to the point of obsession. I have had 750 calorie days all the way up to 5000 calorie days (only a couple times). On average I consume approximately 1200 - 3000 depending where I'm at with my calorie cycling. IMO it's most important to schedule your fuel based on your level of activities. Someone working out 5 days a week and having an active workplace is going to have very different calorie needs that someone who is not exercising and has a desk job.