I am gettin banded on July 2nd, yippers!! I am currently 220 lbs and 5'6", BMI at 35. I also carry my weight well (if you can carry that much weight well :biggrin:) Anyway . . . I know I will have many comments like "YOU COULD HAVE EXERCISED AND GOT THAT OFF!" or "OH, YOU HAD SURGERY??" or "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DID THAT" etc, etc, etc.

I need some good comebacks to all of these comments, yall have any????? THANKS!

Well you don't have to tell anyone you don't feel comfortable telling...I only told my family and close friends...people I knew would be supportive. Good luck!

By the way, are you a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP)...I am and your screen name caught my eye

Well you don't have to tell anyone you don't feel comfortable telling...I only told my family and close friends...people I knew would be supportive. Good luck!

By the way, are you a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP)...I am and your screen name caught my eye :confused:

Yes I am a speech language path :blushing: LOVE MY JOB!

I was at a BMI of 35 too when I got banded, and got loads of people telling me I wasn't big enough to have lapband surgery. I usually just said I needed to lose weight for my health, and to be around to see my 3yo son into adulthood.

Those same people have all told me how great I look now my BMI is under 24. I enjoy reminding them that while they thought I didn't look like I needed to lose a lot back then, what a difference almost 80lbs has made now, huh?

I was at a BMI of 35 too when I got banded, and got loads of people telling me I wasn't big enough to have lapband surgery. I usually just said I needed to lose weight for my health, and to be around to see my 3yo son into adulthood.

Those same people have all told me how great I look now my BMI is under 24. I enjoy reminding them that while they thought I didn't look like I needed to lose a lot back then, what a difference almost 80lbs has made now, huh?

Thanks so much for the encouraging words :smile2: I see that you reached your goal in 7 months! wow! Did you get restriction right away? Did you exercise alot? I would love to know. thx

Hi slpcat,

I exercised, yep, but not 7 days a week or anything like that. I work full-time and study part-time and I have kids, so exercise needed to fit around all that. I also wanted something sustainable. I don't think I would have had the ability to exercise 6-7 times a week for months at a time - I reckon my husband would have divorced me if I did.

I basically set aside 120 minutes a week to exercise - that's 40 mins 3 times a week. I mainly cycled (I bought a stationary spin bike and a mountain bike) but sometimes would go for a run. I made sure that whatever exercise I did, I worked up a good sweat - I think it was important that my 120 minutes were devoted to intense exercise.

I got fills every month but didn't get restiction until my 4th fill. But knowing I would eventually get restriction, I tried to eat well while I was still 'loose'. I gave up sugar, chocolates and ice cream, but ate a balance of Protein, carbs and veg (I didn't do low carb or count calories at all).

I only ate when I was hungry (like when my stomache was almost growling) and would stop before I felt full.

I was losing about 3kgs (7lbs) a month doing that and with the building up of my endurance and strength from exercising. Once I got restriction, I was easily losing 5kgs (12lbs) a month because that's when the band started doing it's work, and by then the exercise had become part of my routine, so it was just falling off in the last few months.

Today I only exercise for fun, like maybe a cycle on the weekend, and a walk once or twice a week while my 3yo son rides his bike. I have good restriction, so eat very little, but now eat some chocolates and ice cream if I feel like it. Despite 'relaxing' a bit, I'm still losing weight, albeit very slowly now.

I should level out soon, which would be good as I'm now a size 1-2 (US sizing) and am happy with where I am. :thumbup:

The band generally does work well for those with 'lower' BMIs, so you'll probably find that it will help you lots. And in my opinion, you're doing it at the right time too. I know that I was heading for a higher and higher BMI every year had I not done something. I'm glad I did it sooner rather than later!

I too had the same stats as you. I am 4 weeks post op.

I got, 'i can't believe you did this just to lose 60 lbs..'

my reply.... i didn't do it to lose 60 lbs, i did it to KEEP OFF 60 lbs. i can lose till the cows come home, been doing it since i was 13. its the keep it off part that i suck at!

When people also said that you're not that big, i just thanked them, and said healtwise, I am.....

I took that as a compliment. they're basically telling you your skinny is a round-a-bout way.

If you choose to tell people about the band I would recommend a comeback something like "This is the last time I want to be on a diet. The band will help me loose the weight, but the best part is it will help me maintain my weight loss for life. The worst part about dieting is that 95% of people gain their weight back. The band will prevent me from gaining my weight back again."

Best wishes to you. I love my band and my new flat tummy!

Sue

Thanks so much for all the greatg advice!!!!!!!! I start my 7 day liquid diet tomorrow I know it will be hard but I know I can do it.

Sue Maggo and sassysara - YOU ARE SO RIGHT! I can lose pretty well but I always gain it back + 20! I will definately take your advice. I am so tired of losing and gaining, UGH!

lello - THANKS FOR THE GREAT WEIGHTLOSS POINTERS. I hope to get restriction before 4 months but if not, I hope I can have the willpower to cut some things out on my own My goal is to get to a size 6 or 8(yippee!). I noticed that you had a belt lipectomy (sp?)??? Did insurance cover it?

I like to use the answer a question (esp a dumb question) with a question. You'd be AMAZED at how well it works.

"You could exercise and lose that!"

"I could? You know this how?"

"You had surgery? "

"Haven't you ever had surgery?"

You weren't that big!!!

"How big was I then?"

LOL just a tactic I've used throughout my life. Works like a charm.

slpcat,

I'm in Australia and Medicare and my health insurance covered a portion of my belt lipectomy, about 30% of it in total.

If I had only had a panniculectomy, I would have been almost completely covered by Medicare and insurance. But because I went the whole kit-and-kaboodle and got a full torso lift, I paid $16000 out-of-pocket as well.

Though I have to admit, I don't regret spending the money. The results were better than I had hoped for.

The thing is everyone is fat these days.

Taking my own lifestyle into account, I'll use an example. I usually go into my daughter's classroom in the mornings, to help with reading, I enjoy a morning chat with the other mums etc.

Out of 24 children in Eliza's class, there are three of us who are 'normal weight'. There's actually nobody who is really obese but everyone else would have BMI's between about 28 and 35. They're just plump, curvy, well rounded, whatever you like to call it. Not unattractive or gross, just "normal"

You can call it what you will, its overweight/obese. It is a threat to your health. Just becuase its become "normal" to us so that a true healthy weight actually looks very "skinny" does not change that fact.

Good on you for doing something to protect your health before it goes too far and if you're doing this for cosmetic reasons, then GREAT. I did. I hated how I looked, I had no real health problems. It just infuriates me how silicone bags in your chest and fillers in your face is just fine, but my oh my how COULD you do something so drastic as having a lapband *just* to lose 60lb????

People are just haters. Who wouldn't want to be able to eat less and be full and be healthy? Why wouldn't you change something if you weren't happy about it? I don't understand the big deal.

I like to tell people that I did it because of environmental concerns. I'm conserving by eating less food which in turn frees up the strain on our farmers, saves waste from packaging, saves gas for food transport, ect. I'm totally joking, but the best is when people don't understand that I'm joking. That one really throws them for a loop. It's true though, so they can't really come up with a good response.

If they're jerks about it, be a jerk right back. Come up with a slew of ridiculous things about how it saves the rainforest or slows global warming or fights terrorism...

i'm curious about low bmi bandsters and loose skin...has anyone had trouble? I am on the 'smaller side' but in the end i will be losing around 60 pounds and wondered if it was a problem for anyone.

By pure chance, I posted these pics the other day in a thread about post partum tummies.

This is how my stomach fared. Initial BMI was 35 - 36, 100lb loss, with lots of running and core work, I'm fairly tall, have had 3 babies, am nearly 42 years old.

My backside is in a similar state, maybe a bit worse as I'm naturally quite prone to cellulite and am naturally pear shaped. It'll be a cold day in you know where before pics of my ass appear on the internet.

The worst is my boobs, they are empty, deflated and sagging quite badly. They are the only part of my body I will have surgically corrected, to be honest, the stomach, whilst not perfect, I just think a huge scar would be just as bad as the loose skin I have. And not much truly helps saggy baggy rear ends. I dont have unlimited funds for PS so its matter of choosing what I think will make me the happiest and I think the chest, decolletage area is as important as your face in your visual presentation. I'm also VERY skinny up top around the shoulders and a rejuvenated bustline would reproportion me a bit, whereas nobody is forcing me to wear a bikini and show my stomach.

So really, whilst I dont *need* surgery, I could look better with some as I have an overall good shape but am what I would call "flabby". You can see there's rock hard muscle underneath and that I'm very fit but my skin just doesnt quite fit. I need the equivalent of a good hot wash to shrink it a tad!

See, in comparison to Jachut, my loose skin situation was a nightmare. I have had 4 kids and with each kid, my skin would get terrible stretch marks, my skin would blow out, and after having the baby, it would never bounce back.

By the time I'd had number 4, it had been so stretched all out of shape that I know I had no hope of returning to what it looked like before. And it wasn't about time either. My 3rd and 4th kids have 12 years between them, so my skin had loads of time to bounce back but never did. It was pretty much stuffed long before I ever lost an ounce.

By the time I had PS, I had hit goal and had a 'skirt' of skin that hung around my entire body, overhanging my pubis, my hips, my backside. It was not simply 'unattractive', it looked abnormal. I looked like I had been melted from the waist down.

I started with a low BMI too (37) but I could have been thin all my life and my skin still would have looked terrible as a result of having babies. Maybe not AS terrible as having babies AND losing weight, but even after my first kid, when I was still a size 12, I didn't have a stomache like Jachut's.