Oregondaisy

I have only recently discovered how I feel full so much longer with solid protein. You would think I would have known that, since it's been told to me over and over again. I had steak for lunch at noon and it's 6pm and I still feel full. When I have salad for lunch, with a little bit of chicken breast mixed in, I am hungry again right away.

Great post, Kat. I am definitely at my sweet spot. I can eat pretty much anything I want, just in very small portions. It's great!

I had steak and broccoli for lunch. I brought most of the steak home. I ate lunch at noon and it's 5:30 and I still feel full. Gotta love my band!

Manatee, why did you delete your post? The reason I said that Jacqui was right is because I am now able to fit into a pair of pants that I tried on a month ago. The scale says I only lost 2 lbs, but I think I am reshaping my body through weight training but hardly losing more lbs. I think you look great and only you will know when you're the weight you want to be. I just hope I am able to keep losing and my body doesn't decide it's done. Even at my goal weight, I will still have an overweight BMI.

There you go! Another great alternative. People have to be on liquid diets for awhile after surgery. It's hard enough then, and that's when it's really important. It's very important for the band to heal properly on the stomach and it can't heal properly if it's bumping and grinding trying to digest solid food. I think it's too much to ask that someone be on liquids only before surgery and then when it's most important to be on liquids after surgery, the patient is just fed up with liquids. After surgery is when you can't afford to vary from the post op diet.

I am glad you did that. You don't have to be so tight that you can't eat meat in order to keep losing. I was too tight for awhile, and believe me, this is better.

Half way there at 4 months is fabulous. I bet at 4 months I had only lost 25 lbs. and 22 of it was the first 4 weeks from the post op diet.

Thanks. It's been very up and down this whole way. There were times I was completely freaking out because I wasn't loosing as fast as other people. This last 3 lbs came off this week after losing nothing since Dec. I am sure I will go a few months before I drop again. That seems to be the way my body works.

It's very common to be really tight in the morning and loosen up later in the day. I usually make watery oatmeal when I am that way. I thin it way down with skim milk. I can't go to the gym on an empty stomach. I have to eat it really slowly and wait a long time in between bites. I have loosened up quite a bit since my fill in Dec. Not enough that I want to get another one though!

It's so much fun to have these things happen!

Glad to hear you like your trainer. I wish mine was single, that's how much I like him.

You sound so much like me. There have been times when I make that decision to eat pure junk for dinner and decide that I don't need the extra calories to add some meat in there. Those are on my super stressed out days. Since I got the band though, it's not as bad, but nighttime IS the worse. I wish brownies and ice cream would get stuck. I call it aversion therapy. Once I get really stuck on a food and have it stay stuck and I am in pain, I really have no desire to try that food again.

I think you are very similar to me. We started out with almost the same BMI and want to lose almost the same amount of weight. I just want you to know that I had a resting metabolic test taken.(After all the thyroid tests) I was hooked up to a computer and they put this clothes pin type thing on my nose and I had to breathe in and out of my mouth for 20 minutes. I wasn't allowed to exercise for 48 hours before the test . It showed that I burn only 1,000 calories a day . I am only telling you this because I have had months where I didn't lose anything. I didn't lose 2 lbs a week. I go for months and lose nothing, then all of a sudden, I will drop 5 lbs. I lost the majority of my weight the first 4 weeks on the post op diet. I lost another big chunk when my doctor though I had a leak and overfilled me. I only live 5 min from his office, so we were able to fool around with fills trying to figure out why I wasn't losing. I got that fill on a friday and Mon. I had a little bit taken out. I tried to stick with that fill for another month. I lived on egg flower Soup and Protein shakes. I lost a big chunk of weight that month too. I knew it wasn't safe to be that tight and had another defill. I just want you to know that people who don't have as much to lose do lose slower. I gave up caring about that because as long as I have my band, I feel like I will be able to get to where I want to be and stay there.

Yeah, I tend to still worry about the Protein grams since my hair is still falling out. I have done Atkins off and on ever since I was about 13 years old, so it's pretty easy for me to do it short term. That's the thing I love about it the most. All my sugar cravings go away. My biggest downfall during this whole weight loss process are the cravings for sweets and the fact that they go down so easy.

Thanks Paulax! I read your countdown to goal and it was very inspiring. My trainer told me that I have at least 10 lbs of muscle since I have been weight training for 4 years now. That made me feel better. I lost 3 lbs too. It took since Dec. to lose 3 lbs, so even if takes 3 more months to lose 3 more, I will be happy that I am headed in the right direction. After all, I haven't weighed been at this weight since my kids were born, 25 years ago. I am glad I love the gym!

I am 10 lbs away from goal. I have been since Dec. I have never been one to lose every single week, but I think it's about time now. I am eating right and exercising 6 days a week. Someone told me I need a fill. I don't think I do because I get full on very small portions. I stay full for about 3 hours. People say you need a fill if you stop losing. I am afraid to get one because I have been overfilled and that was horrible. I haven't pbed in a long time, but I hate to base whether I need one or not on that. I just chew very well. To fill, or not to fill?

Hey I just figured out what PB stands for ! Probably barf.

Two low carb slim fasts only add up to 40 grams of Protein. We are all supposed to have at least 60 per day. I will join you on the no carbs, but I am not going to do liquid. I have done Protein shakes several times trying to break through a plateau. I have found I actually lose better if I do solid protein rather than liquid. (but no carbs)

That really isn't true though. If you get the lap band you actually will still be able to eat regular food. Once you get filled enough though, you will eat much smaller amounts of regular food. I am glad I paid myself. There is no way I would have made it through anyone telling me to lose weight before surgery and telling me what to eat. I made the decision and had surgery immediately. A BMI of 39.5 is not that high at all.

I personally don't see how a little bit of chicken breast would hurt. If you compare calories and fat, they are probably the same. The whole idea is to lose weight before surgery, and chicken breast has little or no fat. I am convinced that it would not slow down weight loss.

It's funny. On my computer, she is covered up by an ad. When I was using my daughter's lap top at her house the other day, I finally got to see what everyone was talking about. What is with that apple? The whole picture doesn't even make sense.

I know I have gotten plenty of Protein because that was the first thing stressed to me before I had surgery. A lot of doctors don't want their patients to use Protein shakes. My doctor insists that his patients drink them in addition to their meals to add protein. Massaging the scalp really makes sense. That's the first new suggestion I have heard of besides adding Vitamins, etc. Thanks!

A lot of people recommend going on liquids the rest of the day after a pb. I always do that if it's a bad one, where it's stuck for a long time before something happens. I know it gets irritated inside there, which sets up the situation to keep pbing. I haven't pbed in awhile now because I am chewing everything until it's absolutely liquid in my mouth.

You said you are using the elliptical several days per week. Have you tried mixing up your exercise? I just talked to my trainer about these plateaus and he explained to me how important it is not to do the same exercise all the time. He said that our bodies get too used to what we are doing and you have to keep it guessing. I use the stair stepper, the elliptical and the treadmill. Some days I do 15 or 20 min on each one, and some days I do just one of them for a shorter amount of time but higher intensity, etc. Do you have to pay for your fills? If you feel like you can still eat too much, keep going and getting more. I finally had to tell my dr. to be aggressive and that I was tired of not losing weight. That was when he gave me a bigger fill and now I am great.

For some reason I had a duplicate post.