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Good point Julestwu... good point

Hi Terilen, I havent' been banded yet, but like all of us, I have struggled and struggled with weight loss forever. It is really hard to accept that obesity is a disease. One of the things that society wants us to do is TAKE RESPONBSIBILITY for ourselves. Sometimes it is really hard for me to differetiate between lack of willpower and having a disease process. Trying to control the disease of obesity and bulima has to take a supreme amount of mental and physical energy. So you havent' gotten quite gotten where you want to just yet, but you will. You are working with your doctor and therapist. You have recognized some of the mistakes you have made with the band. The key is that you keep trying. One day at a time and NO GUILT. I don't know if you have thought about maybe doing a different type of surgery, like Geezer Sue did. She had a lot of problems with the band and ended up going with a different type of surgery and did really well with it. I am not saying the band is wrong for you... only you can say that along with your doctor. My surgeon recommended that if you have a problem with sweets to go with one of the bypass surgeries. I chose to go with the band for now...because it is the least invasive. But if I have problems or if I don't lose weight over a couple of years then I would consider a different surgery. In other words if the band doesn't work for me, I am not going to beat myself up about it. I know that I have a big sweet tooth and that my surgeon says that increases my risk that the band won't work for me. I would think bulima is a disease that would increase your risk of having trouble with your band. I would also think the band may increase your risk of having trouble with your bulima since it is so easy to PB with the band. I am sending good vibes to you....

This thread has been VERY helpful to me. I am not banded yet. But it is topics like this, where I hear from real people who I can really relate to that have made me really, really AWARE of all of the aspects of the band. It is one thing to read in a pamphlet, avoid productive burping. It does not have the impact of these threads. To see what other people struggle with emotionally and physically really makes me feel supported --- and prepared. So thanks to Joyce for posting about something a lot of people have done or think about doing... and thanks to all the responders who explain it all in a very respectful and impactful way.

I don't think it is a myth that the body goes into starvation mode relatively quickly. It really only takes a few hours for your body's glucose levels to drop and your metabolic rate to become depressed. That is why almost all diet recommend that you eat small meals every few hours. It prevents the flucuations in your metabolism that occur with insulin spikes and drops. That is also why eating Breakfast is so important. After not eating for 8-12 hours, your body is in a fasting state. Eating breakfast 'wakes up' your metabolic rate by at least 5%. While it does take longer for your body to actually start losing muscle mass, that also doesn't take that long. Muscle is the most metabolically active tissue in the body and so if your body doesn't have to maintain it, it won't. In people who lose weight using very low calorie diets (The American Council on Exercise recommends never going less than 1200 calories a day for women) as much as 45% of lost mass can be muscle tissue. After an injury muscle atrophy can start as soon as 24 hours. In my opinion, a week of pre-op and a week of post-op dieting along with a major insult to the body (surgery) could at the very least cause the body to start to conserve energy and at the most could be enough to start muscle loss.

Geezerlicious!!!! You look great! You are the living example of, "Never give up." You made your decision to lose weight, and you followed through despite setbacks. You look GREAT!

All I can say is just remember that if it were easy for you to lose weight then you wouldn't need the surgery. Most people who are fat try harder than anyone I know to lose weight. Remember drastically cutting calories makes your body think you are starving. So your body tries even harder to hold on to the weight. I am glad to know mentally that the first 4 weeks are about healing and not losing weight. But I will be disappointed emotionally if I don't lose weight right away. I may make this site my home page right after the surgery to keep myself on track. Good vibes are coming you way from me...

Hey there, I not so long ago posted, HOW THE HECK DO YOU DO THE PRE-OP DIET... I got some great answers if you want to look it up. One gal posted a link to a video of the surgery, where it shows them LIFTING YOUR LIVER and holding it up with prongy things for the whole surgery. The video is about an hour and very interesting, but the liver part is 16 minutes in. That has motivated me to stay on my diet. Of course I don't start my pre-op diet until after Christmas, thank God! I will let you know how the motivation is 2 days in, haha. Since I have until after Christmas, I have been doing lots of last meals HA! I am so addicted to this site now. I am just reading all the threads and I have learned so much. Unlike a lot of lay-person type threads, I have found that the information here is really accurate. People seem to really know what they are talking about. And the support has been just awesome. Hope your surgery goes great!

I have a couple of comments... 1. I don't necessarily think you should drop your doctor if you don't agree with her opinion. You are paying her to give you her opinion. But you are the person in charge, not her. Ultimately you want to get several medical opinions and then make the decision yourself. If you have had a lot of luck with her as your PCP then I don't see this as a reason to change necessarily. She has her medical reasons for not caring for the surgery... and she may not be up to date on all the procedures. She may think the Lap band causes dumping syndrome, which is true of other bariatric surgeries but not this one. I personally would in general rather have a primary care doctor who is conservative in doling out drugs and recommending surgeries. 2. I have found a lot of people, medical and non medical, are fairly unsupportive of obese people and obesity surgery. People seem to think if you would just try a little harder then you would be able to be like normal people. Doctors probably won't say that out loud to your face, just like most other people won't say it out loud to your face either. But in my experience, they are thinking it in their heads... 3. If you need her approval to get insurance coverage, then you may have to switch doctors... but if you don't have coverage and go to Mexico to have the surgery then I definitely wouldn't tell her you did that. She would probably flip her lid! Good luck...

My thought is you definitely need to touch base with your doctor. If you have questions, your physician has the responsibility to answer them. Only your doctor can examine you to determine if you have a problem. I am not being banded until 1/5/06 but I have emailed my doctor's office several times as I have come up with questions. This site is awsome and has definitely directed me to questions for my doctor. But only your doctor can diagnose you. Never feel bad about stalking your doctor or your doctor's patient coordinator....I sure don't.

:help: So I know what I am supposed to do... a clear liquid diet for a week. Ummmmm.... but how? I shouldn't knock it before I try it, BUT I can say that will power and self-restraint in the food department are not my strong suits. My surgery isn't until January 5th so I have some time yet, and thank goodness it is after the holidays as opposed to during. Logically I know the diet is temporary and my liver needs to shrink which will reduce the risk of complications. Does anyone has any suggestions to make it easier. Is there any clear liquid that is particularly filling and satisfying? Does anyone have any tips or advice? c

I agree with Fauxnaif BUT if you don't accept yourself then it is hard to find someone who is emotionally healthy to accpet you either. There are a lot of emotionally unhealthy people out there that will gravitate towards those that use their imperfections as a way to beat themselves up. I had to buy SEVERAL tickets to the freak show before I learned that little fact of life.

SO TRUE Jack SO TRUE!!

Hi Flowerpot... I am pretty much going it alone too, even down to Mexico. I have only told my best friend and that is it. I had to tell someone so if she gets a call from Mexico she doesn't hang up! Not everyone can be supportive, and as Julestwu (awesome post by the way) pointed out not everyone can be supportive in the way that we need. But I can definitely say that Lapbandtalk has been a lifesaver for me. Not only do I get a ton of great information, I am often reading other people's posts and feel like I could have written them myself. Good luck and I am sure I will see you around!

One again LBT has really been informational. I am learning a lot about follow up care from this poll. I will definitely be getting my endoscopes as I get further post-op. Will have to be much further post-op than now, since I haven't been banded yet!

What amazes me the most is hearing people (kat, Jack 3beauties) describe what it is like to be a normal person when it comes to food. I remember when I was a kid I was at my best friend's grandma's house. Grandma had made cake. I had a big piece and I just couldn't help myself, I asked for another piece. My friend told me later that her parents told her that I had bad manners. I had another friend whose family kept those Andes chocolate mints out on their entryway table. Every time I went over there I was constantly thinking about those mints... how could I make an excuse to go in there and steal some more? I don't have to be the skinniest person on the block. But it would be nice to go to the block party and not be obsessed about all the food everyone made for once.

3beauties.... Wow... this is something I can do for the rest of my life.... I have never been able to imagine that. Very cool. NYC, I am definitely looking for lap band buddies... lets keep each other motivated and informed! I like my quote too. I used to spend too much time waiting to do things until I was skinny. A couple of years ago I decided that was just a waste... so this quote reminds me to live today!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK! I will watch this video every single time I get hungry and even THINK about putting something liver-enlarging in my mouth!

Hi NYC, I am scheduled for surgery on January 5th. I feel I am prepared for it in terms of expectations, research, etc. This site has been really invaluable for the support and information. But now that it is coming down to the wire I find that I am skairt! I guess the overall seriousness and huge impact the surgery is going to have on my life is starting to really sink in. Plus the fact that this is really a pretty significant surgery. And I am going to Mexico to have my procedure. Overall it is pretty overwhelming. It is nice to know someone else is out there staring at out over the abyss and feeling just a bit nervous about the giant leap of faith we are about to take. It is also nice to know that so many other people who are already banded have felt the same way.

Glad you are doing well and home from surgery. Let the recuperation begin!

Josy, So what if you get plastic surgery to look better? Who doesn't want to look their best? I don't think anyone needs to justify looking better... but that is just me. As for the eating issue... your brain is a big fat glucose hog and requires a lot of energy to function. If you are not eating anything then it will pretty much stop processing "unnecessary" functions like cognitive thinking & emotional processing in order to keep you breathing and conscious. Here is a link to a site that will calculate your resting metabolic rate, or the minimum number of calories you should eat in order to maintain your weight without exercising: www.shapeup.org/interactive/rmr1.php - 4k

I disagree with Green. My sister and her husband are both well over 6 feet tall. Neither one of them fit in regular airline seats. How should the airline accomodate them? I don't want to sit next to someone who is encroaching on my space by a whole lot. I use up every bit of my space and don't want to share. I would resent sitting next to someone who was taking up my space because I don't have any to spare. I have flown a lot but can honestly say I don't think I have ever sat next to someone that was sooooooo fat that I thought they needed two seats. The world isn't one size fits all and being fat sucks a lot of the time because of it. To me there is a difference between treating someone badly because they are fat and for businesses requesting accountability from fat people.

DevilMayKare.... I laughed out loud on that one! I remember my iodine and baby oil self made suntan oil... and I certainly care now too.

I agree Devana... if that happened in reality and an adult acted like that I am sure the kid would be scarred for life. I wonder how the child actor differentiates it in his mind. After all, even though the child is an actor, he is still a child. I don't think I would feel right letting my overweight child subject himself to a humiliating role if I was the child's mother. But maybe I am just sensitive...

I so relate to how you are feeling! I am very impatient when I want something. My surgery is January 5th and it can't get here soon enough. I can hear my mom now, "A watched pot never boils, Susie. Go find something else to do until its ready." URGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

To my knowledge I have not ever lost an opportunity due to my weight, but I find it highly unlikely that I would know about a loss like that. People tend to hide that kind of thing. But I have been publically embarrassed on more than one occassion. Another thing that I have noticed over the years is that I may not hear someone talking about me and my fatness, but I have heard some horrible things they have said about other fat people... and then I have internalized those messages to somehow apply to me. When I was in school I worked part time in an office. One time I brought in a big bowl of salad as an attempt to diet. I figured, hey, I am going to eat a lot but it will be a salad. One of the girls in the break room asked me if I really could eat all of that salad. She was sitting with a group of other girls and they all laughed at me. At the time I made a snotty comment back and acted like I didn't care and ate the whole salad anyway. But the fact that I even remember it makes me realize how much it affected me. And to this day I try not to eat a lot in front of other people I don't know very well because I feel like they are going to talk about me later. I am always embarrassed if I get food or coffee on my clothes when I am working. I always think that other people must think I am stuffing myself and being a pig as opposed to having something accidental happen that happens to everyone. The reason for this is because at one place where I worked, everyone used to talk about this fat girl who always had food on her shirt. No one ever said anything to her face, but when she wasn't around they roasted her. One of the worst things that ever happened to me as a fat person while shopping was at the Limited. I picked up a shirt that definitely looked too small but I thought it was a stretchy shirt that goes under other shirts and I went back to try it on. The dressing room attendant literally says as loudly as possible without yelling, "THIS IS AN EXTRA SMALL. I DON'T THINK YOU SHOULD TRY IT ON BECAUSE IT MAY RUIN THE SHIRT. YOU NEED A DIFFERENT SIZE. WHAT IS YOUR REAL SIZE? THIS ISN'T A PLUS SIZE STORE. DO YOU WEAR A PLUS SIZE?" I swear I thought I was going to DIE. It really was a very small shirt and of course she was right, it never would have fit me. I remember meekly apologizing and giving her the shirt. Normally I am not the nice quiet fat person but the mean fat biotch. But it was such a surreal experience and I was so shocked. Another thing that I notice is a fat person, is that fat famous people, even if they lose weight, are still fair game for people to make fun of them. Like people can't imagine that someone would ever be attracted to Star Jones and she apparently is not allowed to ever be attractive whether she is fat or thin. It is like once you are fat and famous you are not even a human being. I tend to internalize these messages also, even if I try not to. I am an intelligent, educated, attractive, active, confident fat woman. But the amount of hatred in our society for fat people is really hard not to absorb... even if it isn't directed at me personally.