Jachut

It depends entirely on your foot, your gait and your personal biomechanics, which of course, being heavy can affect. My advice would be to go to a specialist store and get their advice, have them analyse the way you walk/run etc. Personally, I have very wide feet and rather flat feet too, with a tendency to pronate slightly. I swear by Brooks shoes - I wear the Adrenaline and am on my fifth pair. Asics are great shoes too for overpronators but they're too narrow for my feet. I personally think Brooks and Asics are the best, most serious shoes on the market, Nike and New Balance etc can tend to be more fashion shoes, good shoes yes, but with not quite such stability in them, but its probably not something you'd notice if you're pretty biomechanically sound.

Yeah, i've got a pair of jeans. they are astoundingly enormous, and I was a BMI of 35. I cannot believe I fit into them. They look like a pair of joke pants for a clown or something.

I may have been lucky enough not to have a lot of extra skin, but I do have it, especially on my backside, which is very droopy and my thighs, which are rather flabby. Size wize, I am probably a 10 in US sizes at 5ft 10, and more likely a 6-8 on top. So I am not *big*. But I want to be FIRM and I find myself constantly thinking I'm fat and that I just need to lose more weight. What would happen in reality is my top half would be skeletal and I would still have the flab below. I dont know how to get around it and just be happy with what you have. It doesnt come easily. I feel like I need to sit down and watch my life on video to see how I really do look and move, and I need to see that surrounded by other people, so I can see how I am the same as everyone else - good points/bad points, pretty average sized etc.

Oh, they're fun! But they ARE pretty hard. Especially that stand up sit down stuff they make you do, there's real danger of your legs simply giving up and you falling off the bike! Tiff, its funny what you can do in real life v what you can do in the gym, isnt it? I can carry a 50 lb six year old right through a shopping centre but I tried to do a chin up and boot camp and couldnt even get an inch off the ground! My trainer said "oh women dont use their biceps much" and I thought, are you kidding? I'm always carrying cats, kids, groceries, putting bikes in and out of the car, moving the Water filled basketball ring to sweep under it, etc.

I'd be thrilled with weight loss that fast to be honest. yep, you're a guy, many guys lose faster. But its steady, and it REALLY adds up. I didnt lose more than a pound a week all the way through this, but I've lost 120% of my excess weight and its stayed away. I couldnt give a rats how fast it came off from my perspective now.

My surgeon never suggested a weight, but he did give me the stats - between 50 and 65% of excess weight is the average lost - then he said that it was up to me whether I stopped there and that many people were able to lose more. I had to see a dietician exactly once - to go through the post op diet - and she laughed at my goal of 70kg and said I'd never get that thin and that perjaps I ought to be more realistic. What a dickhead. Its hardly like I was aiming for a BMI of 18. I did it easily.

I've missed this, sorry you had to have this done OD. Hope you recover quickly. Do you think this might solve those lactose issues you'd been having?

If you love bacon, cook it really crisp and crumble on top of things for some flavour. Bacon and other cured meats are not healthy foods anyway, so you're better off without them. I have no trouble with bread but I dont eat a lot of it, need my stomach space for healthy foods like the lean Protein and vegies. Take heart, its a bit confronting when you find long time favourite foods that you love that you suddenly cant eat anymore. But over time, you come to not like the thought of eating them, becuase you can anticipate the discomfort. I occasionally crave something like a really good gourmet burger but the craving has no substance becuase I know what I'm missing is the ability to eat it like I used to - the thought of taking it apart, ditching the bun, eating just a litte of it isnt so tempting! My main problem is fruit. I've never loved fruit, something about the texture of it, I dont like the sensation of eating it. It turned out to be the most difficult food for me to eat - dried, fresh, cooked, pureed, impossible. I like the flavour, but the actual thought of eating fruit makes me shudder now and i will gag when eating it. The only thing I can handle is a crisp, peeled apple or an orange but oranges are so inconvenient! I have to drink organic juice now to get my fruit requirements in.

I do much better with no Snacks, once I start, I tend to keep picking. Weight loss is really only about calories in/calories out. Mentally, I cope a lot better with eating a good meal and then just knowing more food is off limits till the next one. But it makes little difference really, despite all that is written about it, if you spread the same intake over five smaller meals. You just do what is right for you.

I've been banded since 2005 also. I went through this once and have realised that there's really only so much a band can do. No restriction is ever going to be able to stop you eating when you're not evem really hungry and no restriction is ever going to make good food choices for you. You cant just keep getting tighter forever and at four years out, I decided that the band has really dont what it can for me weight loss wise and any further tightening would be really silly. I find I no longer have that initial enthusiasm, I'm not motived by or excited by constant weight loss as I hit goal a good 2 years ago now and I just dont really have much left to lose. So I find its harder to make good choices. I'm much much more likely to eat junk these days because I can - i dont gain, I exercise a lot, I'm fit and healthy so there's just a lot less reason to avoid it. This worried me and I went and got more fill. But I dont think it works that way, lol. I just got too tight and had to take it out again. that was a year ago now and I havent gained an ounce, so I really didnt need it. I'd really like to see another 10 or even 15lb gone but I really know deep down, that only I can do it and going tighter is not going to help. Its all down to my choices.

Even when I was fat, I never really *looked* at the photos. I kind of looked around all the bits I hated. I have one photo that serves as my reminder. I was rarely in photos, not because I avoided them but becuase I was usually taking them. I have one of me when I was about 40 lb down, nearly half way. I was feeling great, back in regular size clothing, had had my hair straightened. I came across it one day and thought WHOA, I was huge. Then I realised how great I was feeling at that stage and it makes me shudder to think how big I really was.

I think as long as you're losing, then your calorie intake is fine and you leave your band loose enough to cope with it. You will only damage your band if you consistenly eat more than it can cope with and your pouch can handle - and that depends on restriction. A lot of people seem to need to eat barely anything to lose, who knows why? I lost easily and steadily at about 1500 calories a day - give or take becuase I never logged. I didnt question why, I was just glad I was able to eat enough to nourish myself properly and to keep my metabolism firing. Howwever, I now maintain on about 1800 a day. The charts all say I should be able to eat about 2,600 at my height and level of activity - there's no WAY I can. I got obese eating that many calories a day! So ignore the charts, your body will display the evidence of whether what you're doing is right, if you're losing then there's no reason in the world to eat less. The more you can eat, the better, for a variety of reasons. I also think women have that diet mentality that we have all internalised and most of us get some kind of unhealthy thrill to be 'starving ourselves'. We love that we can only eat 800 calories a day even though in reality and intake that low is unhealthy, cannot possible nourish you in the long term and if you eat that little long term, you're virtually ensuring you'll have to eat hardly anything to maintain. But we love it becuase it makes us "good". Be thankful you're not female, we're all pretty messed up over weight, appearance and dieting.

I think with bras you get what you pay for, and ESPECIALLY with sports bras. Perhaps you dont need to pay ridiculous amounts but I personally wouldnt go to Target to buy one either. We have different brands here, but Berlei and Triumph both make really good ones. I've only ever bought separate cup ones, never tried a crop top style, they'd have to compress DARN hard to work well though. I thinks cups and underwires are the way to go.

Oh for sure, we all have to do that pre op diet. But I think that's what people dont get. The pre op diet is the shrink the liver and nothign else. it is not meant to be a beacon for healthy eating for the rest of your life, no doctor claims (or should claim) that you reverse high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes with it, its purely to shrink the liver. And pre surgery, the benefits of shrinking the liver outweight any risks of eating that way, pure and simple. that's not to say that high Protein, low carb eating cant be VERY healthy, it can. I think most humans could survive with bread, rice or Pasta.

I think that Protein first and lower carb makes a lot of sense scientifically for weight loss. In reality, when you read the "what did you eat today" thread, in the average person, protein first often leads to a truly HORRIBLE diet. Processed animal based foods as the basis of the diet is not healthy in anyone's book! Nobody eats enough vegetables, they all focus on meat, eggs, cheese, processed meats and processed Protein shakes. This might work for weight loss but not for health. We need more of the good fats and much less saturated fat, hard to do unless you rely mainly on fish, and protein shakes - which lets face it are simply another processed food and not any healthier than anything else in large amounts. Because I'm vocal on this and have always disagreed with it, I've often had pm's from people asking that if I dont do this, them what DO I eat. My diet is as far from perfect as anyone else's and I also eat too much junk, too many processed foods and probably too many carbs. BUT - I've had at least 50 people over the 4 years I've been here pm me to complain that their blood chemistry has worsened markedly in their year after banding. That's serious. Banding should improve our health, not worsen it, and high protein low carb can improve things in many people. But it can also make it a lot worse. I dont know any of the answers, I'm no expert, but my personal view is that moderation is the key, dont follow ANY eating philosophy full on until there's utter proof that its the right way to eat for optimum health.

Stick with it, a spin class followed by your weights routine will really bring results. People just dont realise how hard cardio has to be to bring really good weight loss results. Walking and such, it all works for quite a while, so I'm not suggesting anyone is slack or wasting their time. But quality cardio like spinning plus strength training will bring you weight loss and body results you couldnt imagine. It is so very worth it and when you ARE in shape, spin classes are awesome fun. You learn to love the feeling of pushing your body beyond its limits.

I dont get it either, fills are nothing. They're not painful, they're quick and easy. I also dont understand why the medical profession turns them into such a drama - we dont use fluoro here, and I dont see why it would be necessasry except under special circumstances.

Sounds like it might be your gall bladder.

I think the reality is somewhat between the two scenarios. In an *ideal* world we'd all eat completely sensibly and never have pain. But all of us who have developed severe enough weight problems to warrant surgery are bound to struggle with the boundaries at times and will feel the pain of overdoing things. it will happen. Negative reinforcement is a big part of why the band worksn - but its certainly not the whole point of the band which is indeed to make you feel fuller faster. The trick is to avoid it for the most part.

I agree, thinoneday, I think weight loss is very likely to help a lot. My goals were more fitness than weight based all the way through and I think it helped. I simply worked my way up running distances - 4kms, 5kms, 7.5kms, 10kms, I did a 15.2 kms race and then a half marathon.

Liquids will take a bit of willpower, yes, but you'll get through it. But you know what? This is NOT your last week of being able to eat what you want. You have the rest of your life to do that! This is your last week of food controlling YOU rather than vice versa! Once you're healed up, you'll find its perfectly possible to eat a normal and varied diet and enjoy food more than you ever did.

Sounds like you're on a good path. isnt it strange how you freak over a pound or two gained once your'e normal weight?. I used to want to bonk my sister over the head when she complained that she'd gained 2kg. I'd think, who'd even notice that? But you know, when you're normal weight, you can FEEL it. 2kg (or 4lb) is enough to give you a muffin top, make yoru clothes feel tight etc.

too tight, by far. I'd have a teeny bit removed, its just not worth risking the health of your band.

I was like you and postponed my first fill unti 12 weeks. I had really great restriction in those early weeks and lost tons of weight. In fact it was perfect in that it was restriction but more like restriction that kills appetite, not restriction that makes you stuck or pbing. Sadly, I've never recreated it with fills, lol. My appetite gradually came back and going tighter doesnt kill it, only makes it hard to eat right. Nonetheless I lost all my weight so dont take that as a negative, just make the most of this honeymoon period that not everybody gets. This early restriction is explained as swelling, yet strangely, since then I've never been a sweller - dont need to do liquids to mushies after a fill, dont vomit often and when I do dont get irritation and swelling following it, dont have a sensitive stomach, can eat anything, do anything to it. Bandster hell never existed for me and it sounds like it doesnt for you either.

I'd disagree - I think its important to learn to listen to yoyr body - you cant maintain a healthy weight for life by carrying a measuring cup everywhere. There's also very little chance of stretching your pouch with no fill there! Everything will go through, but I guess in the short term, measuring might give you confidence you're eating appropriately.