Chickie

Yes, they are my start and finish weights. I was banded Feb 2005, I got to goal in early July 2006, and had a tummy tuck in August 2006. And welcome to LBT!

I try to wait at least an hour.

I was Dx'd with PCOS and IR in 2001, then with Diabetes in 2002. I was Dx'd after my GP put 2 and 2 together and sent me to an endo. I had a million and 2 blood tests, a pelvic exam, and an ultrasound that confirmed cysts. Since my weight loss, I have seen a marked improvement in my symptoms. My mood swings are much better, my skin is clear, the hair growth has slowed down, and I now have a perfect 28 day cycle, and am off Metformin.

A big hello from Brisbane! And welcome to LBT. Good luck with your surgery tomorrow Amy!! Sam.

My shoe size went down too. I was roughly an 8.5 to a 9 depending on the shoe, and I am now in a six.

I am LOVING mine. I actually just got back from the shop with a Nike + for iPod thing. I ended up with the 4gig silver, simply because all the shops I went to were sold out of the pretty colours, and only had the video and iTouch left, or the 4gig in sliver, and I wasn't spending that sort of cash for something I wasn't even sure I needed. Now that I have had a good play with it, I do intend to buy an 8gig in the purple or teal colour in the new year and hand this one down to DS who has already dented this one.

You can just eat less and lose weight, but you won't just be loosing fat, you will lose muscle too. And then, there is no guarantee that you will keep the weight off without exercise. And really, for optimum health, people should be doing around an hours exercise a day. 1. Because there is no malabsorption. Ever calorie we eat we absorb. 2. That's up to the individual. I exercise daily for anywhere up to 90 minutes (most days I average about an hour) 3. I can only speek for myself here, but pretty early on in the picture I started running. And I still run now, over a year into my maintenance. I actually run more now than I did while I was losing. I also do some resistance training 3 times a week on top of my cardio.

Drinking water during and after a run has never been a problem for me.

Losing weight "fixed" a lot of my PCOS symptoms, I now have a 28 day cycle, the hair growth has slowed, my skin is clear, my insulin and sugar issues (diabetes) are now totally resolved, and my mood swings are much better.

:clap2:Congratulations!!:clap2:

Honestly, I have made a life long change, and I ended up doing better than the RNY stats quoted. So if you are looking at this in terms of a total lifestyle change, and a commitment to said change, there is no reason that 100% EWL cannot be achieved. That all said, if I lost my band for some reason, and was unable to be re-banded, I would look at my other options (RNY, DS and VSG)

Take my start and finish weights out of my sig, as well as my photos and not mention what size I am for fear of making someone feel "less successful"?

When I got to goal, I found it hard to stop losing weight, so i had a couple of small unfills, then a total unfill (the weight loss stoped at that point) I have now been unfilled for about a year, and I haven't gained any weight at all. In fact I am a couple of pounds lighter. I think the thing is, if a person is going to just "diet" the weight off with idea that once they get to goal they can unfill, and eat "normally" again, they will probably regain the weight. BUT if a person changes their lifestyles, there is a much better chance that a year down the tack they will have kept the weight off. And I am not too sure where the idea that an unfilled band will "want to slip" comes from. It's not like it's so loose it's flopping around on your stomach or anything. It's still tight, but not as tight as when it's filled. I do love my doctor. But as much as I love him, he is too short for my liking, so I don't think I would marry him! LMAO I do get what you mean. I don't think that you are tied to any one doctor, but I have always seen the same doc because I like him, we get on well (that is very important for me) and he is close by.

Good to know. I am really looking forward to being able to put together play lists, rather than having to scroll through hundreds of songs. That is a pain in the ass. I so want to come! It's a matter of organising the time off. I zoned out during my run today, and had a little daydream about running the Disney marathon. Ahh..... Then I just about fell into a pothole.

Usually liquids following a fill are to give any swelling that the fill may have caused a chance to go down.

Hell yes. Being over restricted makes it hard to eat good solid food, so people turn to stuff that goes down easy, like ice cream, chips, milk shakes ect. Not good for weight loss.

I guess you could say that. I lost from my highest recorded weight of 135kg (my scale wouldn't go any higher than 135kg, so I could have been heavier), down to 49kg. So a loss of roughly 86kg. I got to goal in about 17 months.

Yeah, I was banded 22/2/05. Close to 3 years ago.

Congrats on the first 10kg down Dazey!! And Hi and congrats to Sundowner! I am starting to think we need to organise a Brisbane meet up.

That looks like a really good run! I wonder if DH could get the time away from work so I can run Disney World...

I am a wee bit confused. Doesn't the number measurement usually represent the inches of the band? If so, you are wearing a larger band size... And if you are, I would guess that you were either wearing the wrong size to start with (as in your before bra was too small) or you were measured wrong this time. For whatever it's worth, for the first few bra's I went through post banding, the band size went down, but the cup size went up.

I take it you have lost some weight? If so, please keep in mind that it is very likely that you will regain the weight lost if you remove the band. If it is just the port that is bothering you, consider a port replacement using a low profile port, or having it moved to a different spot.

I voted 26-50 and my skin is fine. Because, really what could I expect after a 190lb weight loss? Perfect taught skin? Yes, I have stretch marks and some signs of sag here and there, but it beats morbid obesity and the associated health and mobility issues! I did end up having a tummy tuck, but I was lucky that that was the only thing I needed. No lipo, no breast lift, no thigh lift, no arm lift, nothing more than the TT. And I do consider myself lucky to have gotten away with only the tummy tuck surgery after getting to goal.

If I can ask, what's the reason behind this? I have NO idea what I would have done if I had been confined to bed for 15 days. By the morning following my TT (I had surgery at like 3 in the afternoon) I was pacing the hall of the ward. I have nothing constructive... You could count your leg hairs? Measure the growth of your toe nails?

You rock LJM!! You can do it! And I have to agree 1000% with this