elcee

I follow my Dr's rules as far as I can. I have been told that although 3 meals is preferred that some people can't cope with this so it is OK to have a healthy snack. I have been told that so long as they don't cause me any discomfort carbonated drinks are fine. I eat a healthy well balanced diet that includes all food groups.I am not restricted to 1 cup or 1/2 cup of food or whatever. Instead I have been told that a meal should fill a side plate rather than a full size dinner plate. I don't measure but can guess fairly accurately.I eat until satisfied not until uncomfortable or stuffed.I don't count calories.I don't drink with meals except for the occassional glass of wine. Or if I can feel the food is too dry and is going down hard I may have a few sips of Water to help smooth the journey. No food is forbidden.(There is a very good book by Dr Rick Kausman - "If not dieting then what" that talks about always foods and sometimes foods instead of good foods and bad foods). If I feel like chocolate or icecream I have it. With the band though instead of eating chocolate every day I may have some once or twice a week.I treat food the same way that a thin person does which is what I was hoping for. I did not want to be on a diet for the rest of my life. The one area where I fall down is exercise. I never have and never will be a gym junkie plus the nearest gym is approx 30km away.I have recently started a Bollywood dancing class and I also try to increase my incidental exercise. For me the best part of the band is that it allows me to live a normal life, not dieting and obsessing about food.

Something else to remember is it is not the number of fills but the total quantity of saline that counts. You don't say how much fill you have in total. It may be a small amount or it could be a comparitively large quantity. I have had far more than 3 - probably closer to 8 but am only at a total of approx 3ml in a 10ml band. It is all about finding the correct level of fill for the individual. Some people that have no fills may in fact have been prefilled at the time of surgery. Some surgeons do this whilst others prefer not to as for many people it causes problems. It is very rare to lose with no saline in the band at all.If it happens it should be looked upon as an unexpected bonus. No one should plan on getting a band and not going for fills as if they are not committed to the entire process they are setting themselves up for failure. And a fill should not be feared. Mine are always done without fluoro and the Dr always gets the port first time. Quick, easy and certainly not painful.

I started off by using a Vitamin E oil on my main scar and aqueous cream on the rest of my stomach.Then I noticed that I was developing stretchmarks. I was horrified as I have never had stretch marks even after 2 pregnancies. I then started using Bio oil and currently my stretch marks are almost gone. Maybe its the oil, maybe its massaging the area, maybe its just luck. I doubt that it is time as it has only been 3 months since they appeared. Its worth a try as it is not going to do you any harm and the vitamin E is good for the skin anyway.

That's a pretty amazing letter. Personally I don't see why you should have to justify your decision to anyone as it is just that a personal decision. It is obvious from your letter that you are doing this for all the right reasons and that you have researched the band well. Excellent. It is also ridiculous for your friend who had 20lb to lose to compare her situation to yours. i am glad that she managed to lose it - hopefully she will manage to maintain it as that is by far the harder part of weight loss. All the best.

That is beacause you are in what is commonly known as bandsters hell. Although you have some fill you have not yet reached the optimum level of restriction as to do this requires a number of fills. Hang on. Do your best and do not stress if you do not lose at this stage.

To decide to forego fills would be stupid as they are what makes the band work. It would be like buying a power tool and trying to use it without plugging it into the power. Fills are an integral part of the process. They are quick easy and painless or they should be with an experienced Dr. I would say that if you are looking at being banded and you do not want to go for regular fills to finetune your instrument then you are looking at the wrong weight loss procedure. You may find that a sleeve or a bypass will suit you better.

That sounds really strange. What is abnormal about your voaal cords?

Of course you will get there.Slow and steady wins the race remember. You also shouldn't measure yourself against other people - everyone is different.

The other thing to consider is it is not how much you can eat but how much you need to eat.It is not a challenge! Fullness is different post banding to pre banding.You need to learn to stop when you feel satisfied not keep going until you feel full/stuffed or till your band actually stops you. You need to recognise the subtle signals that you have had enough. Most Dr's recommend that you try leaving a little food on your plate. This can be hard to do when we have always been taught that we need to finish everything.

My stomach does this all the time. For me it makes no difference if I have just had a fill or not. Sometimes it is before I eat sometimes after. It happens frequently when I am lying in bed and has even woken me in the night. It feels kind of weird but its not really doing me any harm so I consider it to be part of my new normal.

What THE!!!! Why should she call NINA? When are you going to stop advertising and trying to directly influence clients. Dr Aceves is obviously paying you a handsome sum for referrals. Enough already!

Your BMI is 34.3. I had a BMI of 32 and I did it. Many people may not think its worth it to only lose 50lb but chances are that if you don't do something now that 50lb will turn into 100lb or more. With a BMI of 34.3 you are obese. This should be good enough and here in Australia it is. Our insurers do not require us to be morbidly or super obese to get the surgery. I think that is sensible as it is better to address the situation sooner rather than later. I wish I could have had this surgery years ago as I feel fabulous. I had tried every diet under the sun and then some. Some I lost weight, some I didn't - needless to say I always gained it back. Sadly it seems US insurers won't pay with your BMI though so for you it is still an expensive option. You will have to weigh for yourself if it is an option. Personally I believe that the benefits far outweigh the risks.

Maybe you should get the fill, then go shopping or something for a couple of hours in the vicinity of the offices. Have a coffee and if its OK go home - if not you are close enough to go back in and tell the Dr that you might need a little fill removed.

LOL To me only does not go in the same sentence as 4.6ml fill. I have a 10ml band, have had lots of fills and only have 3. something mls in total! It is incredible how different the quantity required to reach adequate restriction can be.

I did. I made lots of thick home made soup and that filled me up, it was hard but it was doable. It is important to stick to the diet that your dr gives you. the post op liquid diet is designed to allow the band to settle and heal into place and to help prevent a future slip. If you do eat ahead of the diet you may feel fine, you may think you have done no damage but you may have caused a problem that will only show up later. If you are preop you should be focussing on ways of making sure that you are able to stick with the programme.Hopefully you are not looking for justification to cheat by seeing how many others did. Hope it all goes well.

Soup is a slider because it rapidly leaves the pouch and will not keep you full for 4 hours plus.

Sorry can't help you but i just wanted to wish you all the best. Hoping everything goes well.

Who created God then? This one's easy - Man. Whether it be God, Gods or whatever they were created by man to fulfil a certain need. The same way that the Bible was written by man. Every culture has had a book or tales that it uses to explain creation, record some of its history and possibly contain a code for living as well. The Bible is simply the Christian's version of this. What is interesting is that you will find the themes are common across many religions whether they be Christian, pre Christian or something else, most have a story of a Virgin birth, a resurrection etc. And by the same token many Christian festivals/holidays/traditions predate Christianity but have been adopted and adapted by Christians to suit their needs.e.g Easter.

Its a bit like infinity. I understand the concept but it doesn't make sense. Everything has to have a start and an end even time and space. It was something I could never get my head round at school and I find the concept far creepier than spiders, monsters or the like.

I read threads on lapbandtalk. Mess around on facebook, scrapbook, read, go shopping whatever. Anything except housework which I only do as a last resort!

I read quite an interesting article in an old Readers Digest this week. It was about how the way that calorie values for foods are calculated using an old and not entirely accurate method. Apparently various things affect the amount of calories in food that are absorbed. For instance there is a certain calorie value for carrots. Yet if the carrots are eaten raw rather than cooked a lot less of the calories are actually absorbed. Cooked meat by the same token has a higher absorbable calorie value. One of the other factors that affects the calories absorbed is if the food is hard or soft. Apparently soft foods are easier to digest and more of the calories are absorbed. The example used in the article was a muffin compared to a muesli bar. The muffin has a lower total calorie count so most people would opt for this even though it has less nutritional benefit than the muesli bar. However a far lower portion of the muesli bar is actually absorbed so the calories from this work out lower. Apparently to overhaul the entire system of calculating energy values from food would be incredibly difficult and expensive so it is unlikely that it will be done in the foreseeable future. But it was interesting and may go some way to explaining why one person eating 1000 cal and burning 1500 may lose weight and another may not!

Well said Elfie.

I have heard previously that this Dr is not good. I am not sure if the threads are still on here or if they have been removed. I am so sorry that this has happened to your friend and hope that it is able to be resolved. That it is allowed to happen is a disgrace. For those that are still in the process of finding a surgeon there is only 1 thing to say. Make sure you research your surgeon thouroughly prior to the procedure. It doesn't matter if they are in the US, Mexico or Timbuctoo just make sure you know who/what you are choosing and do not put a cheap price above everything else.

In Australia you can have the op if you are obese i.e BMI of 30 or above. Mine was almost 32. To many of you that may not sound like a lot but I looked and felt awful. Being short I did not carry it well, I looked 10 months pregnant, my arms looked awful as did my face and it was extremely difficult to buy clothes. If something fitted around my stomach it would be too big every where else and vice versa. Had I not had the surgery I would have just continued to get bigger. Surely there is no point in waiting until a person is MORBIDLY obese or worse. If a problem can be resolved earlier rather than later that has to be better.

Doubt that you will hear from them unless they have problems. People that have been banded a long time, without problems are going to be out getting on with their lives and are highly unlikely to still be visiting sites such as these.