Jachut

35% of calories from fat actually aint that bad. Most dieters are recommended to get about 30% on your standard low fat high carb diet. I think time has proven fat is not the weight loss enemy we used to think it was, but you have to make sure that you get the right sort of fat - fat from processed foods is almost always bad fat! You're now at goal weight!! And if you know you're bloodwork is OK then its really not much of an issue. We need fat in our diets, its as important as Protein for satiety and you'll have better hair and skin as a result too. Just get lots of fat in the form of olive oil, avocado, oily fish, nuts etc and not very much butter, palm oil etc.

I lost about 40lb in the first 4 months, about half my excess weight. The rest came off VERY slowly

Dont be hard on yourself. Its a very difficult thing, learning to realise "enough" rather than "stuffed full". We were all looking for that FULL feeling early on, its what we've spent a lifetime attaining. Stretched pouches, within reason, can be rectified. You just need to work hard on recognising satisfied and stopping short of FULL.

The best I could describe my eating habits are ladylike, lol. Not abnormally tiny bites and not abnormally tiny amounts of food. I just eat slowly, small bites and small amounts. I'm usually the last finished at the table and I always leave something on the plate. But my eating habits dont attract notice or unwelcome attention.

Huh? Look, your body, your call. I dont mean to offend with my concern. You're the best judge of what you're willing to risk or tolerate for normal weight. I dont get the 30lb comment though?

Well, the band works perfectly for me so far but i'm intrigued by the sleeve too. Its just with the band there's this expectation that it will fail somewhere down the track. I guess I really dont think it will be in me forever. Having spent several years on this forum, I fully expect slippage or something to occur further on down the track. I like the thought of ONE surgery FOREVER. But that's the downside of the sleeve to me too. I dont wnat only 15% of my stomach left. And the longer the sleeve's been done, if you hang round sleeve forums at all, there ARE problems with it, food and lactose intolerances and reflux being the most common, not to mention the problems people have with their stomach not being made small enough and not being able to lose all their weight. The more I read, the more it sounds like the band - a good workable surgery that works well for some but has to be undertaken with a view to having to tolerate side effects. I dont know, I like that if the band is reversible. I think adjustability is a HUGE bonus too. I dont want to be thinking about small bites, chew chew chew and avoid bread when I'm completely senile, 90 years old and about 80lb. I dont want to get too skinny, but I like having a means to prvent me getting fat too - gain weight, tighten band, lose weight. It works that simply for me but I know it doesnt for everyone. I also think personally that I have a WAY better and healthier diet than most sleevers I've read about. With my weight normalised and a lot of exercise, i can eat as much as most people with a smallish to normal appetite - which means I am WAY better nourished than someone who lives on 800 calories a day forever.

melbourne!

OMG, sometimes you read the most alarming things on here! Are you really OK with this? Does it not occur to you that your stomach has a one way valve and that bending over and having food "roll out your mouth" is NOT normal. Have you considered the fact that if food can just fall out of your stomach with no ejection, that might be because your pouch is dilated and the food is actually sitting in your esophagus? You SHOULD be scared and worried by this. Dont leave it. It is NOT normal to have to stop eating 4 hours before bed and it is not normal to regurgitate food with so little effort. You are at the very least way too tight, that can damage your stomach and predispose you to erosion, and that's if you havent already slipped. What you are experiencing is not learning to live with tightness, its abnormal and possibly dangerous.

Sigh, you're not alone with this. I've returned to full time work this year after a 15 year hiatus and not only that, its an entirely new career as a teacher. My kids have been used to life with a stay at home mum and make the same demands only now I have an 8 hour day to contend with as well. Well.... stupid busy is how you would describe my life at the moment. I found the same as you, slipping into the bad eating trap,in fact some days of late I've had nothing but sugar and alcohol. I was very fast developing a bad habit of several wines at night, followed by drambuie or baileys! I havent gained anything probably because my appetite for regular meals has disappeared, I've not been eating Breakfast and am too damn busy for dinner, with all the running round to kids sports etc. So! Disaster! The saving grace is I havent let my exercise slip and I've replaced meals with the bad food, so calorie wise, I've actually been eating less and have even lost a little. But its still FAR from healthy. The last 2 weeks I've FORCED myself to eat breakfast, by taking Cereal to work, I've had a regular lunch and my main challenge is dinner - and not eating before dinner. Its just a willpower thing, really, you just have to force it on yourself and you also have to use your willpower to shop and prepare so that good food is there ready. I have to cook on the weekends and freeze or there'll be nothign for dinner as I just dont have time to cook. but I do find eating properly during the day really helps me.

AAARGH, these comments make me so mad. Not you, your doc, lol. I am 5ft 10, 150 and I am not "very thin". I'm thin, normal, healthy thin. I dont have bones sticking out everywhere, I even have a fair bit of flab still left on my backside. I have a flat stomach, yes because that's how stomachs are SUPPOSED to be and I still have boobs left. So how you could be "very thin", assuming he means that in a not so good way at 5ft 7, 165 is beyond me. I think society is so darn fat now that people dont recognise normal weight anymore. They think its skinny. 140 would probably be absolutely perfect on you. Of course it depends on body type and how much muscle you have but its right in the ballpark.

Definitely. My stomach is much more sensitive to an overload of fat or sugar and what is an overload now is much less than before. Certain foods and drinks - like wine for example, my taste has changed from dry whites like sauvigon blancs and chardonnays to sweeter wines with more body - like a riesling becuase the dry wines just burn horribly sometimes. I absolutely cant drink wine on an empty stomach.I used to avoid red because it makes my teeth look awful and grey but now I prefer it becuase its not so acidic and doesnt burn. Some foods make me feel sick to even think about eating - the smell of cheese grilling now makes me want to hurl - and my kids make cheese on toast every morning just about! A lot of healthier foods I just dont want anymore because they're hard to eat and even though I can eat bread, I never fancy it at all. I barely ever eat bread. I also get these moods where I know I want something but I dont know what. I handle it by not eating foods that make me feel sick to eat, not overloading my stomach with fat and sugar and having something to eat before I have a glass of wine (as well as not feeling embarrassed by not choosing "trendy" wines like sav blancs and going for daggy old rieslings which went out of fashion in the 70's, lol, who ever thought drinks would be in "fashion"?). I literally force myself to eat a piece of fruit every single day though.

YES! I am a healthy weight, a BMI of about 22, but I cannot truly adjust to life without trying to lose weight. Its hard to accept that you are what you are - and that's part of the reason why I'm glad I couldnt really afford plastic surgery. i went through a stage where I would have completely rebuilt myself. I'm not overly concerned, my weight loss goals are like 5lb - nothing that would make me underweight, and as time goes by, I get more and more settled with my body and how it is. But its part of being female I think, always wanting to improve yourself. Congrats Elcee!

Susannah, so sorry to hear that you've been sicker of late and that the band hasnt been all you hoped for. But if you're happy and healthier with your renewed acceptance of yourself, then that's a great thing. Its not for everyone. You know, I totally agree about how the band may be less effective longer term. These days, I think I'm keeping my weight lost as much with exercise and willpower as anything else. I dont wish to keep filling to keep that Iron hard control on my intake, I dont want to live like that forever, but I simply dont have the appetite control and portion control I once did. Luckily for me, I dont seem to require it. I dont think you can keep a very tight band longterm, I think its asking for problems. I hope the removal goes OK and that you enjoy the relief from the negative side effects.

I think it IS purely calories in v calories out. Low carbing it is just another way to keep calories low. maybe for a very small percentage of people, the low carb method works with their bodies better than anything else. Eating a lot of Protein does make you less hungry too so its easier to eat less. Then again, it also makes me have very upset stomachs, extremely stinky gas and horrible constipation, so maybe that's why I prefer the calories in calories out approach. that doesnt, however, make it OK to grab carbs carbs carbs as quick Snacks. That's a trap you have to avoid. Nobody needs the amount of carbs most of us were eating. You have to be well prepared to avoid that - shopping and cooking wise. I always keep things like cold hard boiled eggs in the fridge. As another aussie, I share Elcee's approach, i include wholegrain carbs and just try to avoid junk like biscuits, chips, cakes etc. But I find my meals more satisfying, my digestive system a lot healthier (and more sociable) and my energy levels better and more constant with wholegrains in my diet.

Ah, but when they say half an hour of something burns 250 calories, you have to subtract the energy you would burn anyway if you were sitting on your ass watching television instead. So no exercise TRULY burns what the charts say it does, because you wouldnt be burning nothing if you didnt do it. So the logic of I can run for half an hour so that I can eat this donut should really be I can run for half an hour so I can eat HALF this donut. Nonetheless thinking "is this donut worth a long run" is a great way to talk yourself out of a donut.

It depends on so many things, not the least of which is why you have high blood pressure in the first place. For myself, I never had high blood pressure, although at about 130/80, I was pushing the high limits of normal. I had my blood pressure checked for a pre employment medical back in January and it was 116/68, so it has dropped quite a bit. DH is on bp medication, his normal unmedicated bp is about 140/90. He's been banded 2 years and lost about 80 lb and his bp has not dropped at all, and he's still on medication - although I'd hazard a guess many doctors would never have considered his blood pressure high enough to medicate in the first place. Needless to say, he's probably one of those people that would have high bp, whether he was obese or not. He's no longer even overweight and he still has it, so logic would tell you that many people can be banded, lose a ton of weight and not come off their meds, whilst many are much lucker and ditch their meds forever.

Bandwife, I dont think anyone is insensitive, so much as pointing out the obvious - that information was freely available to all of us. If we didnt know that vomiting often was a possibility, if we didnt know that there was a possibility of never being able to eat steak or bread again, then we SHOULD have. It is not hard information to find. Doctors should make it clearer, but as with any surgery, patients have a responsibility to inform themselves too. You say you are educated people, nobody is disputing that, but if your husband honestly didnt know that he may never eat steak again, then to be blunt, he hasnt completely researched the procedure. It is basic information. Its the tone of the thread and the lack of taking any responsibility which has led to the tone of the replies. Check out some other threads and post your question the right way and you will receive tons of support and sympathy. Everyone here knows the story of band problems, not everyone has suffered them but we've all been here to give advice to those who have, you wont find yourself being lectured or scoffed at -unless you choose to post something along the lines of "this band isnt working, who can i sue, who can I blame?".

I love peanut butter, I think a spoonful is a great snack. The type of fat in it and the amount of vitamin E is really healthy and very good for your heart. BUT - high fat = high calories and if you cant stop at a spoonful, its a food best avoided.

Calorie restriction only is what most people TRY but they dont manage it very well. Most people lose focus, arent quite as accurate, underestimate, and eventually drift bck to eating more. Calorie restriction works but only if you're consistent,which is what the band enforces. I've never actually had to count, log or even think about calories since being banded - but I have attacked it from both directions by doing a lot of exercise too. Many people DO need malabsorptive measures too though to get all of their weight off.

I do reflect on this, as I have now been at goal weight for over 2 years. I hope its true. I certainly have some good habits now that will help me stay slim - my head has readjusted to what a portion size is for example, and exercise is a normal part of daily life for me. However, I have to admit, I do feel like I have to stay on top of my weight. Many bad habits have returned, my band has loosened a lot over time and I have no wish to tighten as I do enjoy the relatively normal life I lead and no longer fear eating out with people and especially eating in the staff room at lunch time, there is not a surprise pb around every corner type of thing. I can eat any food in any situation. Just not a huge serving. But I can eat probably the amount of food a person who's always been my weight could eat. So i do feel that it could be quite easy to gain if I let my band get any looser! I dont feel as if I dont have to worry about it anymore, not by a long shot. Still, I guess that's just the experience of being female, isnt it? Not really necessarily a legacy of having been fat. I think all women feel this way to a degree.

DH is banded too and both of our stomachs go crazy when we lie down at night. i quite frequently gurgle when I drink and always when I am in enclosed spaces, that are quiet with someone else to hear, my stomach will suddenly let out a huge noise. What I get is not rumbling but air moving up through the contents. It sounds just like a huge burp without the actual eruption of air out the mouth, but people do assume I've just burped. Its pretty embarrassing.

I have to cook and freeze for the week as I'm workign full time and afternoons after work are full on with the kids - basketball and footy training etc, I just dont have time to cook Monday to Thursday. I make a lot of things like curries and Soups. I might serve a beef curry on steamed Beans rather than rice - I dont low carb it personally, but within a meal when you cant eat a lot, I think the beans are a better bet than the rice. I give the rest of the family brown rice. Soups again I may throw in a garlic bread to go with a minestrone or vegie Soup, but I rarely eat it myself, the soup on its own is usually enough. I always make a shepherd's pie when we have roast lamb (you cannot make a REAL shepherd's pie with mince, lol) and again, that's easy enough to serve without giving yourself a whole heap of the potato on top of it. Doug cooks up a great chilli too. If I were you though, I'd make a few things and portion them into meal sizes - if you spent one weekend making four dishes, that woudl give you a ton of meals if you froze in individual portions and then once a week just make another one and then you have variety. Its not very healthy for you to eat the same thing night in night out, you dont get all your nutrients that way.

Pre band breakfast bowl of cereal - muesli, oatmeal or something like Just Right or 2 pieces of toast, butter and spread or sometimes eggs on toast - 2 eggs, 2 pieces toast mid morning - binge time - nearly always a cappucino and a big cake/muffin or biscuits - six or seven perhapse lunch: usually didnt eat - continued to snack on biscuits and bits and pieces all day - and I put away a fair bit dinner: healthy meal but big - meat and 3 veg, barbecue and salad, Pasta or whatever, I cooked well, fresh and from scratch, just ate too much, a glass of wine never ate dessert - my main problem was carby sugary foods during the day and the lack of a proper meal. Post banding Breakfast nothing usually (blush) till I get to work, then maybe a yogurt, sometimes, but often yeah, nothing mid morning: piece of fruit and a cuppa lunch: tuna on crackers, dinner leftovers, a salad and small tin of tuna or some type of soup dinner: same as before, just 1/3 as much, usually a small glass of wine too. I've never been an evening eater unless someone happens to put chocolate right in front of me. However, i'm still prone to falling into the eat no meals just crap all day trap.

My goal was 150 at 5ft 10, and it was purely coincidental that that's about where weight loss petered out for me. Steady loss stopped at about 165 and it took me over a year to lose that lastn 15 - occasionally 17 or 18, lol. It just got slower and slower and eventually stopped. So for me, I didnt change a thing - no unfill, no change in diet - although over time, I guess I eat a little more - and certainly I've continued to build on and increase my exercise. I still work out hard for an hour six times a week - running or bootcamp. It helps me stay rock steady weight wise no matter what I eat and drink.

Um.... nothing? Am I the only boring one?