Jachut

You will probably get to the point where you cant do it, it hurts and makes you vomit. But that is 'drinking'. I can sip a glass of wine with dinner easily enough. I didnt realise till I was banded that I never really drank alot while I ate anyway, and i've never had a Coke habit either, so I didnt find that rule hard at all. I just find it annoying when I want my coffee and i've had a bite of toast and ouch, and then I have to wait ages till I can drink my coffee!

Yes, I eat them regularly. I know everyone is different, so some people DO find that they crave sugar and rubbish when they allow those foods into their diets, and so for them, those foods dont work. Others cant physically eat them. Others still somehow lose weight better without them. but for the most part, I believe in calories in/calories out. I categorise white bread, rice, and Pasta with Cookies and cakes - foods best eaten very rarely. But wholegrains are a major part of my diet. I also believe that high Protein diets *can* be extremely fatty and unhealthy, although they can be healthy too. But I prefer to eat animal foods very moderately and eat more wholegrains. I feel better that way, I believe I'm eating healthier and I didnt really care that I was a "slow" loser, as I still got to a low BMI. I also stay here pretty effortlessly.

On the one hand, 4lb in 4 weeks is good weight loss, this is not a surgery that will have you losign 4lb a week for very long. It DOES take a lot of your input. But it shouldnt be that hard. I never "dieted", and I didnt starve either, I had enough restriction to not be hungry and all I had to deal with was head hunger and poor habits/choices. If you are hungry and that 4lb was damned hard work, then a fill is not an unreasonable request. I wish these stupid doctors would stop insisting they can read our bodies and interpret our experiences for us and listen to us instead! My doc was great, I'm so lucky. But what you are going through doesnt seem to be at all uncommon.

I've seen lots of people say they wear spanx when they run, anything like that might help. I dont have any hanging bits and I've never been one for big brand clothing just because but I find it well and truly worth paying $80 for Nike or New Balance tights to run in, or proper running shorts, and I also always buy proper tops with shelf bras. T shirts and track pants just dont cut it. You need clothes that hold you in and minimise bounce and jiggle whatever your weight or body issue.

I''m pretty sure the world is being populated by idiots...... I think there's even a scientific theory that supports it.

Oh, OK. I know it was off topic, but I was a bit gobsmacked by it.

I too chose a goal weight based on one I'd held for a long long time. On the way down, I stuck at every single weight I'd been for a reasonable time, it was quite remarkeable. I stuck for the longest AT my goal weight of 154, but I did eventually lose a bit more. I've never ever been my current weight as an adult. I was about 14 last time I was under 150 or so.

What on earth is a bariatric surgeon doing lipo for?

I'm female, 42, 5ft 10, very active (run or do boot campe 5 x per week, work as a teacher, on my feet all day) and I ate around 1500 a day to lose. I think you might be UNDER eating, but really, you've lost a LOT and it does slow down and become very stop start. Just keep at it and eventually it will start coming off again. It took me an entire year to lose the last 10lb. I guess I could have eaten less, but I was happy enough at the higher weight, and I'm very active and now I can eat whatever I want without gaining so I'm really glad that I've obviously preserved lean body mass and have a healthy metabolism.

The trouble is you want the right fat and many higher fat, low carb foods are full of saturated fat. Other foods with better fats include nuts and avocados - which will contribute carbs. There's also olive oil - and oil on a salad increases nutrient uptake, and oily fish such as tuna, great fats on those. Whatever you do, dont start loading your arteries up with horrible fats from deli meats, fatty meat, too much cheese or too many eggs. All foods are fine in moderation but you have to get your fat balance, and particularly your Omega 3/6/9 balance right, which you wont do if you eat too many animal based fats.

I cant eat well after exercising. Not for hours actually if its a really hard session. Other times, I can eat absolutely any food, so I am most definitely not even a bit tight, let alone too tight.

I chose this surgery to be what I consider normal and to have normal relationships with food. So I have no rules. I eat what I want, when I want, but because I worked so hard on breaking food taboos and weird hang ups etc, what I want and when I want it is usually appropriate. And if what I want is a donut then nobody ever got fat on one donut, they get fat on scoffing down seven donuts becuase donuts are forbidden and arent I a disgusting person for eating them and I better run till I drop for doing that and anyway doesnt it not count if nobody sees you eat it so maybe I'll eat that tub of ice cream too and oh, boy, I'm fat, I'm disgusting, i break every diet, I'm going to start another one on Monday and I'll record everything and I'm going to exercise every day no matter what gets in the way and I'm going to make those rules so hard and strict and cling to them so desperately that when i break one the whole thing falls apart. All it took for me was truly giving myself permission to eat stupid donuts. Once that was allowed, then I didnt want seven, I wanted just the one! Of course the band helped, because I never lost weight just doing that before, it takes Portion Control and a calorie deficit which is what the band is for. But a life of counting, measuring, weighing, considering certain foods off limit, that wasnt what I wanted and it wasnt what my doctor considered a desireable outcome either. So I follow my "rules" in that I dont overload my stomach and I do say no when my wants are a little over the top, but most of the time, I just obey my body, and make sure I exercise and stay active.

Well, I think firstly you pay her the same courtesyb you would like yourself and realise that YOU dont know HER experiences and situations! I mean, do you really know how hard she has to watch what she eats? Do you really know how much willpower that takes her? Do you know her shopping, planning, cooking and eating habits intimately? Do you know she's ALWAYS been skinny or do you think its just possible she might have suffered the same sorts of image anxieties that many teenage and even younger girls do? Do you know whether, even if she's never been fat, she may have been taunted for having say, fat arms, as a kid? If she's not seen enough to understand YOUR life in 2 years, neither can you assume that you understand hers. I've never been 300 or 400 or 500 lb so I dont profess to even begin to know what that is like. But that doesnt negate the fact taht I've had my own traumas and long battle with my smaller weight problem. I also didnt gain anythign like 70lb in any of my pregnancies and you absolutely cannot say that someone who has never been pregnant therefore has an easier time staying thin. I do think she might have kept her rather stupid opinion to herself and expressing it would make me think the same as you did - that she has no idea. But I'm sorry, I think you need to realise your own biased thought processes in this. Its yet another example of how heavier people think they're so discriminated against without realising they're just as prejudiced and biased themselves. Everyone who is thin is not walking round out there in this marvellous world where you dont have to try at anything. However, to be fair, it usually takes becoming a thin person for you to realise this. personally, I think that the way our society is, the experience of hating your body, beating yourself up over your lack of self control, feeling guilty for everything you eat is no way no how the exclusive domain of fat people. I think thin people have body image issues just as devastating, even if the actual condition of fatness is not exactly reality.

Oh, its sooooo true. I flew under the radar all my life. I'm not butt ugly, but I'm not gorgeous either. I've never been thin, never had a "good figure" but I've never been so fat that people notice either, a BMI of 35 was my top, my I cant take it anymore weight, most of my life I hovered around the 28 mark, never obese, merely overweight. Like that - kinda normal fat, kinda normal looking, no thread to anyone, my looks, my weight, my wardrobe NEVER threatened anyone or occasioned any comment at all. I was always just taken at face value. Nowadays, I find I'm either automatically in the "in" group because I look "right" (and that offends me because I'm still the same person) or I get outright hostility from heavier people and barbed remarks about my weight, my diet, my exercise habits or just veiled exclusion from the groups of overweight, out of shape mothers if the friends of my kids.

We've just been introduced to the joys of chicken in a can down here in Australia, lol. What fantastic stuff! I took the end bit of an avocado from home, half a can of chicken (DH had the other half in a sandwich) and five wholegrain crackers. It made a nice lunch! I make small salads the night before - lettuce, cucumber, red onion, muschroom, some avocado, a tbspn or so of grated cheese, some pine nuts), take a can of tuna or chicken, and a small dressing container with just a bit of olive oil and salt and pepper in it, and dump it all together at lunch time, its delicious, my fave lunch actually. I also often take cheese and crackers - good cheeses like some camambert, havarti and goats cheese, and grapes, or I do make batches of frozen Soups too - zucchini and leek this week as someone gave me a HUGE zucchini that they grew. Its just a matter of getting organised the night before and knowing what you're going to take.

By most of the calculations, I should be able to eat 2500 or even a bit more a day. I cant, there's no way. I maintain on about 2000. but I havent screwed my metabolism by years of yo yo dieting either. I've never lost significant weight before the band, lol. I never got REALLY fat either. I just was heavier than I should be. I just think that many of us really dont burn what think we do. Some of us do and overeat and gain, some of us dont and overeat and gain, some of us dont and dont overeat and STILL gain. So what, I cant eat what the charts say I should, but I sure eat more than most female bandsters AND I lost weight on about 1500 a day, never any less AND I eat carbs (oooh, shock, horror). People tell me constantly on here that I cant lose weight that way, without realising I already have. The only thing that you can have faith in is what your body tells you works. What's true for one person isnt necessarily for another. I think this "the band is only a tool, you really have to work it" is true but please people, NONE of us were successful in losing a lot and keeping it off without one, so there really IS some element to it that is automatic for most of us. It isnt necessarily perceivably easier, it may not FEEL easier, but it really is. And I find now, I do revert to bad decisions and choices and I dont gain, I cant eat enough to gain, but if I could, I would definitely have regained some by now. Although I have really cemented a very healthy exercise routine, I havent maintained the great eating habits quite so well, but with the portion control of the band, it hasnt mattered.

3 meals a day works best for me, I try not to snack. Sometimes I get a bit hungry and I might snack, but I try to hold out till mealtime. I dont snack very well, I tend to just keep eating. Now I'm back to full time work, I dont have time anyway. I'm a teacher so opportunities to eat arent all that often anyway. I dont often make it out of the classroom during the morning break, so usually go from Breakfast to lunch without eating.

No, that's not what good restriction is. You cant "feel" proper restriction in that sense. You will feel what you've experienced, some sort of negative reaction to overeating or eating too fast (even if its not vomiting), but all restriction is is that you reach satiety on a smaller amount of food. Satiety is just the absence of hunger, fullness is something different. It is your job to learn to recognise and aim for satiety not fullness. So in that sense, you shouldnt "feel" your restriction. YOu will just lose weight. When your restriction is no longer enough, what will happen is that when you eat to satiety you dont also lose weight. So you get a bit more fill and eat a little bit less. Aiming for some sort of noticeable restriction is usually what is behind people complaining that their bands dont work. Unfortunately, the band is not quite that simple, it requires a lot of work from the user.

Every surgery I've ever had, I've had a visit from the surgeon in the hospital on the last day, with instruction to call the surgery, schedule the post op visit and to call sooner if I have any problems/questions. But it would not be typical for them to follow YOU up. Actually now I think of it, I have been followed up once by a surgeon who did a particularly horrid surgery on my eye. It was rather traumatic and is pretty awful to recover from and he did call personally to see how I was feeling. That was very nice of him.

Assigning miracle cures to single nutrients is really just wishing for miracles. If you eat an excellent diet, you will probably have all round better skin than if you live on junk food, but even so, you cant really tell what most people eat by just looking at them. We all know people that live on rubbish and look fabulous. You could eat all the Protein you could fit in and nothing else and you would still have loose skin if you're going to have it. If protein makes ANY difference at all, it wont be an obvious, visible one, it wont be the difference between loose skin and not, it will be a difference of a fraction of a degree. At 40, your skin elasticity wont be what it was at 20, but that doesnt automatically mean you'll have loose skin either. At 42, I've escaped pretty well - but then I dont have wrinkles around my eyes or mouth yet either. Just my skin. And I dont follow a protein heavy diet.

But imagine that pannus gone! How much more mobility would that give you, how much easier would it be to exercise etc? It will definitely need to be "fine tuned" later on, but for now, they can lop off the bulk of it and you worry about a belly button and such later on. As long as you're healthy and strong enough for the surgery and can afford it, I'd go for it. It will make your weight loss much easier, and much more visible too. If you search out Losing Jusme, that's what she did. She doestnt post anymore but was thrilled with her results.

I voted I may catch a glimpse but quickly change the channel. I find stuff like the Olympics on TV as boring as batshit, to be blunt. Hate it. I'd rather watch paint dry. I am not a spectator, I'd rather be doing. I dont have the Aussie love of tennis or footy either (Australian rules). The only sport I will watch on telly is the odd marathon/race when its televised. And usually only ones like the Sydney city to surf becuase I'd really like to do it. I've got little interest in people running through cities I dont know.

Its the same as how supermarkets charge different prices in different socioeconomic areas. Here, our major chain is Coles, its much cheaper here than in other suburbs. But lately Coles is adverising "same great price in every store". What does that mean? That now they charge astronomical prices everywhere! Why couldnt the prices have come down in the more expensive areas? And surely cheese, for example, coming from the same manufacturer will result in the same profit for the same price. So why the more expensive price in wealthier areas! Its a bit on the nose, that's for sure.

Not sure. I dont feel like I eat hardly anything, I eat a fairly normal diet at goal weight. I notice that it IS less than a lot of other people, but then I thought I got fat on amounts of food that didnt seem to do any harm to others. So I would say my metabolism is slower than some, but not abormal. Then again, I exercise a LOT to be living on 1800 calories a day. I eat about 1800 to 2000 calories a day - I'm 5ft 10 and 150lb. I run for an hour two days a week, do two boot camp sessions a week and go to a circuit training class on another day, I'm a teacher, on my feet and running around all day, and pretty active at home too. Most of the charts say i should eat about 2500. I'd tend more towards thinking that's just how I am though, not something that's happened as a result of weight loss.

I experienced this, and I also had it really badly after each of my three children was born. My personal theory with this is that just like pregnancy and birth, any abdominal surgery gives your core muscles a pretty severe shake up and weakens you as you must protect the sore area. Without your core muscles firing on all cylinders, your back has to take more work in holding you upright, and soreness often results. As to lower back pain, I had sciatic problems, not crippling like some people, but it was a real downer, enough to really bother me and for about 12 months, my right leg felt dead and heavy and numb. Touch wood, but I havent had a problem in about three years now. Weight loss cleared it up completely.