Jachut

For me, I can eat any amoumt of chips, biscuits, ice cream or even Cereal that I want to. I can go out and eat fattening meals too - not much of them, but I can eat Pasta and stuff. But I know I have good restriction when I eat well. When I eat healthy, Protein packed, vegie packed meals, I really struggle to get through 1500 calories in a day. I get my three meals in and that's it. when I eat that way, I lose even now, four years down the track. Good restriction to me does not mean not being able to eat bread or getting full on half a cup. Today I had a huge Protein shake with a banana blended in (took me a while), a chicken schnitzel sandwich (bread, small schnitzel oven baked, baby spinach, tomato) and a bread and butter plate sized dinner - meatloaf, a spoon of mashed potato and some creamed spinach. other days I can get through twice the calories with poor food choices - which doesnt mean I dont have restriction, it means I'm not using my band well.

I find managing hunger and fullness a bit counterintuitive, in exactly the same way as dieting always was for me. For me, it works the best to eat three solid meals a day - and even though I'm no low carber, those meals need to contain adequate Protein and fat. If I eat rabbit food - a bit of tuna and a tossed salad for example, I will have cravings and I will tend to eat very badly for the rest of the day. Likewise, a small bowl of Cereal for Breakfast makes me full at the time, but it just doesnt set me up for the day. So I try to make my meals of the sort that I really feel guilty for eating, lol. I dont often have Protein Shakes, but I did this morning, with 2 scoops, skim milk and 1/4 of a cup of all bran blended in. That was about 400 calories. That makes me FREAK. 400 calories for breakfast???????? But, I got through to lunch, absolutely no problem, without even thinking about food. At which time I bought a chicken schnitzel sandwich and ate half, threw the rest away. Probably another 400 calories easy. AAARGH. I freak again. But I guarantee I wont eat till dinner, and i'm tight at night and will eat probably 200, 300 calories max. Correction, I wont want to eat till dinner, but I was planning a couple of prunes and a small serve of nuts before boot camp. so that's well umder 1500 calories, which is losing territory for me. I've gained a bit recently because I've been trying to lose - yep, rabbit food, cravings and ending up eating tons of chips, chocolate biscuits, iced coffees - it never fails. so I keep my band a bit looser to allow for bigger meals like that, as it seems to suit me. I dont like eating mini meals every 3 hours, drives me crazy. When I do this, hunger and cravings are NEVER a proble,. I dont understand why its hard to stick to this routine, but it is. I think because the band makes you a bit lazy and its easier to eat ice cream than a sandwich.

Gosh, I couldnt cope at that level of restriction! An hour to eat anything would do my head in. I can eat pretty much anything, but some foods are harder than others - unfortunately things like a tossed salad are quite hard and I often find I put salad on my plate and then end up leaving it there. But I need to eat those foods. I can handle bread, Pasta and potatoes just fine. Steak is hard, but I'm not much for a slab of red meat anyway. My restriction is such that people would think I had a small appetite but I eat a very small but still normal meal.

There's never been a "trend" to place the band high and leave no pouch, if its been placed like that, them its been misplaced. The band is designed to work with a pouch and to be placed at a point on the stomach where restriction will be possible. If yours is high, when you get it very tight, your esophagus is going to be become your pouch. This must be very distressing for you, but it has to be looked at. You're never going to get it working if its not placed right. But personally, I'd be seeking a second opinion from another surgeon.

Exercise, exercise and Portion Control. I dont count calories or Protein or avoid carbs (or ANY food for that matter). But I work out darn hard most days - running, circuit, bootcamp.

I dont find coffee makes me hungrier. And if it does, I'd honestly rather be fat than give up coffee. It will never happen. I love everything about it - the ritual, the way it punctuates the day, I love good coffee. Luckily I was never told to.

The band tends to work the best, statistically, for lower BMI patients. They have more chance of getting right down to a lower BMI, they are more mobile, there's a high chance that eating is less disordered (making the band easier to work with) and the loose skin isnt as big an issue. A very sensible choice to nip this problem in the bud now before your BMI is 45! I've had fantastic experience with my band, my weight loss was slower than a lot of people, steady, but averaging only 1lb a week or so. But I lost a lot of weight quickly at first, 2 or 3 lb a week, so I was out of obese territory within six months.

I have the very beginnings of a turkey neck now. Looking at my Dad, its a genetic trait. My Dad is 72 and his is not very bad, overall he looks great. Women's skin of course tends to do worse, but if that's as bad as its going to get, I can cope. I really truly think agonizing over every little sign of aging will drive you crazy. I really try to not worry about it and dont entertain the thought of cutting up my face because once you start, you just never stop. Its a bit like home renovations, lol.

I dont think there's any need to call someone else's opinion bull. With all due respect, you're at the start of your journey. Losing 3 to 4 lb a week at your stage and BMI is not going to take strenuous exercise or a large reducation in food. Revisit this thread when you've got 30 lb to go to a normal BMI and THEN tell us that its a waste of time to do any more than walk. It also is entirely dependent upon what you call "in shape". There's no absolute regarding this, it means different things to different people. What is true is that the amount of effort you exert usually influences the result you get. Show me a bandster who's lost 100% (or more) of their excess weight, and no doubt, you're also showing me someone who considers walking a great active past-time but spends time on a lot more strenuous activity. I think being in shape means being at the very least, able to go and enjoy a spin class, doing a boxing class, or heading out for a nice 4km gentle run. If you cant do that sort of thing then cardiovascularly speaking, I would say you're not very fit. To me, someone who's in shape has low body fat, visible musculature and flat, toned abs. You may think being in shape means getting through your day without getting tired, getting to a size 14 and being able to shop in normal stores. You can be perfectly healthy at that stage there's no rule saying you have to do more. But not everyone wants to settle just there. And if you dont, then some extra effort is going to be required. Those are two entirely different goals which will affect your exercise choices. So one is not right or wrong and calling my opinion on walking bull is unnecessarily rude. Not to mention anywhere you'll look, you'll find the experts saying the best way to lose fat and maintain muscle is to do things like interval training, circuit training and strength training and that hours of long slow cardio are not the best use of your time becuase a) your body adapts to it very quickly and :ohmy: it tends to may you skinny-fat without a lot of muscle. but I really think the best exercise is one you will DO and one you enjoy. Walking fits the bill for many many people. So do it. All I'm saying is dont expect a BMI of 18 and a hollywood body as a result.

You'll get there, it just takes some headwork. It is REALLY hard to learn to be a thin person - losing weight is the easy part. I am still afraid of food as something that could control me and I havent quite mastered the art and belief in myself that i can eat normally. That I dont need to be constantly avoiding food, resticting it etc. I eat a big Breakfast and them I feel guilty - and like you I am force feeding myself food that I dont really want. juices sound like a good idea and of course, Protein shakes. Much as I hate the things, they do offer good nutrition when you have limited stomach space. Remembering to eat something like a yogurt between meals. I set out certain foods I know I need each day - two pieces of fruit, a yogurt and a small serve of nuts. I set them out in the morning and they MUST be eaten on top of what I choose for meals. I have to regiment it like this or I just graze all day as I dont like eating a full meal at any one time. I'm actually looking forward to returning to full time work next year, teaching gives me a routine that must be followed and i eat a lot better than when I'm at home. This just takes time, you can get your health back up there.

I was talking to my trainer the other night (doing boot camp at the moment) and he expressed alarm at what I eat v the training I do. He said my metabolism must be shot for me not to be 40lb underweight. I dont necessarily agree, I think that eating 1800 calories a day or so is quite normal for a lot of women but his point was how much exericse I do and he couldnt figure how I can sustain it on so few calories. Truth is, I still get quite strong cravings for sugar and carbs - and its nothing more than the fact that I really ought to get Fluid out of my band and just eat more decent food in total. I am not managing to meet my calorie and nutrition needs on good health foods and need to resort to slider foods to get them in. So really, w whislt my band is not too tight, its probably too tight for where I'm at. Could you say the same at all? Its very very hard to come to terms with normal eating and not eating to lose weight. Its probably the hardest part of my personal journey. I'm way too afraid of gaining to have an unfill. And of course, if we're not fuelling our activities, them dehydration, lack of Iron, general lack of nourishment can become a problem. Also, that blood pressure sounds very low, that's not normal. it would be why you fainted, but the trick is to work out why it dropped that low.

Anything is going to help. But, sorry to break the news, but to get real benefit longer term from walking, it does need to be for an hour and it does need to be so fast you can hear the wind whistle in your ears. You just dont get something for nothing, anything worth having takes effort and all those cliches apply double to exercise. However, if you're overweight and sedentary, then starting off with walking is PERFECT. At your level. It will make a difference. And over time, you build up to more strenuous exercise. And if you dont, walking will always keep you out of the cardiac ward, it will always have health benefits, it just wont make you very fit or very in shape the way other exercise like running and strength training can. But not everyone wants that anyway. So walk and enjoy it. But will walking make the weight fall off you for months and months and get you right down to a low BMI?. Probably not. Running, circuit training, spinning, stuff like that probably will. Dont discount how you may be able to build over time. A BMI of 37 may not seem hight, but I was a 36 myself when banded and moving my bulk aroumd was SO difficult compared to now. Losing weight makes hard exercise much much easier.

Early on I got stomach aches every now and then, I'd wake up hurting, it'd last a day and then go away again. And I got a lot of weird pain that would radiate up into the roof of my mouth. It was unexplained but had stopped happening by the end of the first year.

Oh, what I would give just to enjoy a simple barbecue like this again. I *can* eat it but its a highly dangerous combo. Unfortunately when I cook this sort of dinner to entertain, I also include sausages and things like potato or Pasta salad - high fat options and nowhere near as diet friendly as a lean steak and a tossed garden salad. But easy to eat. Sometimes I find the band such a pain. I can eat a great variety amd I eat well, but its just such hard work to eat healthy foods sometimes.

I made positive changes before being banded - but I didnt lose any weight. Not that I had a requirement to. I recommitted to exercising regularly and got myself fit, which I believe was of major benefit to me in terms of recovery. And it was a mindset thing - I changed my life from the time I made the decision to have surgery. I ate healthy but I saw no point in trying to lose weight, nor did I ever feel tempted to have one last major pig out. I didnt eat everything that wasnt nailed down. So I get the point that several people have made above about weight gain prior to surgery. I dont think someone who goes out and stuffs themselves stupid for months is necessarily ready for what this surgery really entails, its more a desperate grab for a magic fix in a lot of cases. But I still think its heartless, judgemental and more than a little stupid to expect people who have such major weight problems and issues to do with food that they are willing to consider surgery to "prove" that they can do it before they have the surgery and i wouldnt use a surgeon who expected it.

Oh, dont get me started on skinny people who take credit for their shape. My BIL used to be merciless towards my DH, he obviously "blamed" him for his weight. He'd make comments on it and at the same time boast about things like how he barbecued 12 sausages and at them ALL. Or how he loves a big cooked breakfast. neither DH nor I ever ever ate like that and we both have weight problems. Yet somehow, we're the piggies while Mr Skinny can eat a year's worth of cholesterol, lips and assholes all wrapped in sausage casing in one sitting and he's somehow on higher moral ground? sheesh.

Well, a percentage of the medical profession are freaking idiots is all I have to say. so many of these doctors impose their moralistic bullsh*t on their patients. To my way of thinking the sooner, the better, and you're not a pig or hopeless or a failure, you're a person suffering from a disease which only progresses in one direction. I would be seriously concerned about this guy's empathy and ability to relate to his patients, concerned about the way he's going to support your weight loss. My guess is a lot of rules, expectations and punishments for not achieving to his schedule. I'm sorry this has happened to you.

A BMI of 25 to 30 is overweight by anyone's charts. But not necessarily unhealthy, you can definitely be way fitter and healthier being slightly overweight than someone who may have a lower BMI but doenst live as healthy a lifestyle. The risks only really start escalating once you become obese. However, that's no reason to simply stop there, or feel you have to. It is entirely reasonable and possible to get to a normal or low BMI and age isnt really a barrier to it - what you are willing to do and how you are willing to live are the important factors. personally, I think exercise is the key factor here - if you are prepared to work out hard and regularly, you can do it. I'm doing boot camp at the moment with a 53 year old friend and she's one of the fittest in the group - she can definitely match me with running and strength things like pushups, although at 42, I'm hardly young either. I really hate that attitude oh, I'm in my 50's now, so I cant weigh what I did when I was 25. There's absolutely no truth or logic in that statement. but I think Mimi's statement is spot on - everyone's point at which they are living comfortably is different, I actually like killing myself with strenuous exercise, so it doenst phase me. But definitely, where my weight stopped is where it stopped. I'd love to be about 63kg, but I'm simply not willing to live on less food and do stuff like log my calories so 68 to 70kg is going to have to do.

I've never been a particular believer in drinking more thanm what you're thirsty for. Nor do I believe what you drink has to be plain Water. coffee and tea and such DO count towards your water, you just might need a bit more due to the slight diuretic effect, which is virtually negligible anyway once your body is used to caffeine. And I think the theory that when you're thirsty its already too late is complete bollocks. Ah, thirst is there for a reason - to tell us its time to drink something! Why on earth would we feel it only AFTER we should have drunk? Do we get hungry only AFTER we should have eaten? No. Do we feel the urge to pee AFTER the event? Thank goodness, no. Well, not usually, lol. I think lining up bottles of water and thinking I must get through these today is kinda silly. Drink what you want when you want.

I actually have a little personal theory on this. We dont use fluoro in Australia as a general matter of course. And on Australian board forums, you just dont hear of people being overfilled so often. Of course it happens, and by way of contrast, here we have to wait so long for restriction, with tiny, conservative fills. But I think that just because fluoro shows on a screen that the doc has got the exact right amount of restriction does not mean that your stomach does not then swell in response. I think it leads to aggressive fills that cause problems, whereas small, cautious filling results in less incidence of overswelling. Personal theory only, lol, there's no scientific basis to it. but I've never spent any time wishing I could have a fill under fluoro. It doesnt appear, statistically speaking, to be advantageous at all.

Way way way too tight. There is no long term success to be had in starving all day and then eating at night. Your body will let go of weight, sure, because calories in/calories out is what matters the most. But you're not getting proper nutrition and you'll lose a lot of muscle weight and not as much fat as if you ate properly.

I'm tall - 5ft 10, and fairly willowy with long arms and legs. I'm pear shaped, have a really shapely upper body and a nice flat stomach, but am a bit wobbly below the waist, lol. Naturally I'm medium brown haired, fairly olive skinned, but freckly caucasion olive, not that wonderful mediterranean skin - of course, like so many Australians I have Irish and English heritage and nothing exotic. At the moment, my hair is the most revolting colour, I'm fairly grey and was colouring it myself a nice cool darkish brown with NO red (my hair throws red highlights naturally) and I loved it but my hairdresser convinced me that I was wrecking it, it was getting too dark in the ends and time to get it done professionally. It is now the most horrid ginger colour after she stripped all the old colour out of it, I'm NOT happy at all but she insists its a work in progress. She's a great cutter luckily! I have one of those wedge bobs, long at the front, short at the back, I'm a bit fussy, and straighten my hair perfectly smooth every day, its naturaly very fuzzy. I'm fussy about my hands too, I have nice hands, long fingers. Otherwise nothing much stands out, I have green eyes, but they're a little on the small side, and a slightly weak chin, in my fantasies I have a beautiful jaw line. I'm fairly ordinary looking - not ugly and not gorgeous. I dont like make up and anything that looks "unnatural". Hate hate hate a full face of make up for daytime, and cant stand hair product and big hair and stuff like that. I dress very casually, you'd never catch me in stilletos just to go shopping. Since I lost weight, I look fairly tall and I've finally got that fit body I wanted, I look athletic and fit.

Well, you look amazing. I only wish I could be curvy like that, I'm more of a beanpole, lol. I'd love to see the before's!

Bad food will always go down fine, probably no matter what your restriction. But you do need to calm down and change your attitude a bit. You seem to be looking for problems and then panicking because they dont happen. Why SHOULDNT you eat a home made pizza like that? Why exactly is it a problem that that would go down? Do you really WANT to be able to eat nothing? That was a healthy meal, if you were still hungry, maybe finish it off with something fibrous (amd therefore filling) like an apple. Cereal with banana is a healthy Breakfast (as long as its healthy cereal!). Just stick with one bowl. If you're still hungry, have something like a hard boiled egg for some Protein to damp down the hunger. Over time, with more fills, you wont be hungry after the pizza or the cereal. You need to choose those more solid foods you mention - yes there's more risk of them getting stuck - but you eat them more slowly and carefully and they'll stick with you for longer, making you less hungry. Are you eating this way, or do you still have some work to do in this regard? Big, solid meals are a thing of the past. You will, by necessity have to eat smaller, more frequent meals with a lapband, something which is better for your body and metabolism anyway. But it takes a long time for your head to catch up with this, dont be so hard on yourself, cope as well as you can and have faith that over time, it will get easier and more naturall to eat in this new way. You dont pick up other coping mechanisms overnight, it is really hard when such a major one is taken away so suddenly. Eventually, food wont be so important to you, and believe me, I never thought I'd be saying that! But sadly, ice cream, biscuits, chocolate covered sultanas etc will ALWAYS be easy to eat. You have to not eat them very often.