Chickie

Eh. It depends. I had my TT not too long after I got to goal. There was no chance in hell that thing was going to shrink back to anything like normal, so with the blessing of my GP, went for it. My arms, legs and boobs on the other hand, have shrunk in the last year. The skin is firmer, less wrinkled, despite the loss of a further 20 odd lbs. There is something in the "time will make it better" notion. But some things, like my stomach, are just a lost cause.

I have a few pics in this thread; http://www.lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=32839 I have only had an abdominoplasty (tummy tuck) no lipo, nor had my breasts enlarged/lifted/reduced. My arms are a little, umm, wing like? But nothing that I will cry over.

I am always amused by the parents in the playground smacking their kid on the bum saying "We do NOT hit!" I don't smack, spank or otherwise beat my kid. I found talking worked really, really well. I am glad we never resorted to smacking, to be honest. I can only imagine trying to smack my 10 year old who is as tall as I am, and weighs almost as much.

There are a few here who are around your age. I was banded 27 months ago, at age 24. Never regretted it for a second.

My "skinny dream" is to be fit and healthy enough to run (and enjoy it!). I run my first charity run tomorrow!

See your banding surgeon, and ask him or her to remove the band.

I paid for my surgery, then got a refund from my fund and Medicare after the fact, so I didn't have to wait long at all. Have you been in touch with your doctor? Have they written to let the hospital know that your weight is only going up? It's not the same sort of thing I know, but when my son was very, very little we were on a public waiting list to have his tonsils out. He was sick non stop. My GP wrote a letter to the hospital, and two weeks later we had a date for his surgery (and less than a month after that our private health cover kicked in, lol!) So maybe a letter could help things along? Fantastic!! :clap2:

Large tablets, even broken in two, can be hard for a lot of bandsters to get down, so Supradyn is better than nothing.

I changed my lifestyle. I changed my diet (not going on a diet, I overhauled the way I eat, made the way my family and I eat something we can live with forever) changed my exercise habits (again, nothing that is too hard to live with forever), and worked on my outlook on life. These three things helped me take the weight off with the help of the band. I am doing nothing different now while maintaining, than I did while I was losing.

Breasts have a tendency to turn into windsocks when we lose weight, and as well as losing fat, we do lose muscle too... So someone (like me) who had maybe 20lbs boobs, and a stack of muscle, who always said she was big boned, and would never, ever be tiny, can end up within their recommended BMI without looking like a Starvin' Marvin'. No, BMI charts are not always 100%, but they are for the most part pretty accurate. A "normal" BMI is realistic, and is usually healthy (unless you are starving to get there) Just because a healthy, normal BMI looks hard to get to, does not make it unachievable.

I picked the higher end of a normal BMI. I ended up with a BMI on the lower end of normal.

Can the band stop you from feeling hungry on 500 calories a day? In theory, yes. But in reality, no one can live on 500 calories a day, long term, and not suffer ill effects. There are a few people around these parts who live on as little as that, but from what I can see from the photo's and posts, they never got out of the overweight range, and I question if that sort of "diet" can be maintained, even with a band, for life. Another point to remember is, that long term dieting can damage the metabolism to a point where it cannot recover (if a person ate only 5 or 6 hundred calories a day for a year, when they started eating any more than that they would gain weight) Starving the body is actually worse than being overweight. A human can be overweight, but suffering from malnutrition. Sorry, I don't mean to scare you, but the facts are, for long term, healthy weight loss, starving is not going to work. Maybe in the short term, but not forever.

I love yoga for flexibility, but don't rely on it for my workout.

The band does it's job. But you have to work too. That's the thing. People underestimate the amount of work, and what a huge lifestyle change is required to make this work, to make it happen. That said, it can be done. No. Not 100% of bandsters lose 100% of their excess weight, but a lot come close. And the impact that has of their overall health is amazing. Pre banding I *thought* that I exercised and ate well. I soon found out that what I was doing was not even close to good enough to get me where I wanted to be. I am not saying this is the case with you, but often a very honest assessment of your lifestyle is required as the first step in changing bad habits that have been with us for most of our lives. Best of luck.

My thoughts on this will not please you, lol! (Ducking) I agree with the Doc! If you are eating a small healthy meal, staying full for a few hours after, exercising, and losing weight, in my opinion, you do not need a fill. If you restrict yourself to the point of only eating a couple of mouthfuls of food at a sitting, while you may lose weight, it will be harder to maintain. Once you get to goal weight, you will want to eat more. Right? Yes, right, no one wants to live on fresh air and sunshine for ever. If you have been living on 5 or 6 hundred calories a day, for say 18 months, when you DO start to eat more, you will put on weight (unless you are exercising enough to burn off the extra calories) Slow weight loss might be frustrating, but losing weight, the putting it back on would be more so. Eat as many calories as you can, and still lose weight, because it will make maintaining so much easier in the long run.

Hi Tanderson! Yes, I was worried that despite being properly restricted, eating good healthy food and exercising I would not lose weight. I think fear of failure is pretty normal. How do you work through it? I don't know how you should do it, but I know for me, talking through my fears with my husband, and prayer helped me a lot. I stay full for quite a few hours after I eat. This is pretty normal for me. But then, I tend to eat more than most of the people here at LBT (I eat a small meal of carbs, protein and veggies. If I put it in a cup it would fill a medium coffee mug) But it works for me. If I had to guess how many calories I eat it would be somewhere between 1500 and 2000 a day. I don't keep track of my daily protein, but my blood work always comes back normal, and I still have all my hair, so I guess I must be getting somewhere near enough protein. I have been banded over two years now, almost 10 months of that at, or under my goal weight, I have learned that the health benefits of being a normal weight are amazing. I feel alive, fit and healthy. Losing weight has shown me that I can do anything. That I can achieve anything I want to. I have become the person I wanted to be - Inside and out. And as good as getting to my goal weight was, that little revelation was better. I wish you the best of luck.

I had 157lbs to lose to get to the high end of healthy, I ended up losing 183lbs, and am at the lower end of healthy. Losing 100% of the excess weight can be done. Oh, and my weight loss needs updating, as does my user name. I was Aussie Chick with 152lbs lost, I am now Chickie, with 183lbs lost. Thank you.

Congratulations!

I think seeing someone during your 3 month break is a fab idea. I wish you the best of luck with your surgeries. Well, not much is new in my neck of the woods. Still plodding along, still maintaining my current weight. I really just popped in to say Hi to everyone! So "Hi".

I don't know what you consider a long time, but I have been banded for 27 months. I am happy with my band, and if something should happen to my band, for whatever reason, if I can be, I would be re banded.

I have PCOS. Losing weight has helped with all of my symptoms. I still have a little hair on my chin, but nothing a plucking doesn't take care of.

In my opinion, no they do not hurt.

The trouble with banding is, everything is so darn individual. What works for me in terms of a fill, may not work for you, or anyone else. Some people find their sweet spot within a fill or two. Some ten, and some never.

Oatmeal is GREAT. Make it nice and thick, and it will stick in the pouch for hours. It is actually my brekky of choice. Oats and a banana. Yummy.

No marathon's yet. I do plan on running at least one or two in the coming years. My goal is to do a Tri before I turn 30. But this year, I only have a couple of smaller runs happening. Mostly because I have had so much time off running due to my TT back in August.