Jachut

First place to start is steady walking - most of the time, incline for walking or running should be on about 1 to 2% to better simulate outside walking, walking completely flat can actually be harder, if you have a very slight incline, you often find you can go a bit faster because your legs "engage" better. Its like when you're cycling on a stationary bike really fast and the resistance is too low, and you kind of get Jerky, when you add a bit of resistance it feels better and smoother. Give yourself a week or two, and walk for time, not distance, say 30 minutes would be a good place to start. Try to make it at an intensity where you could talk, but not sing and have a few bursts of a couple of minutes where maybe you couldnt even talk. It doesnt matter if that's only 2 miles per hour, its the intensity for YOU that matters. Then have a look at your treadmill's programs. Pick any sort of fat burning ones between 30 and 40 minutes, they should include inclines etc. then after a few more weeks you could start on the serious stuff - some sprint and hill work. My treadmill has some more advanced programs that are pretty good, and if you're a treadmill user, you simply MUST have a look at cardiocoach (www.cardiocoach.com) and when you move to running www.treadmilltrainer.com. These interval workouts come with coaching and great music and they are super duper efficient fat blasting workouts. Cardiocoach can be as challenging as you make it, I run to it outside and make it into sweat through your clothes puke in a bucket kinda stuff, but you can walk to it too. It tells you when to put up the incline, encourages you to keep going, when to sprint, when to rest etc. Its seriously great, there's 7 volumes and they're cheap MP3 downloads. Oh, and if you're treadmill's near a DVD player check out www. treadmoves.com. these are pretty good workouts, involving walking, jogging and some light strength training, again, you can adapt these to your fitness level by how fast you move. They make the time pass pretty quick. These programs really are the best way to get the most out of your time and effort on the treadmill, just plain walking really doesnt do an awful lot in the long run, but its a great place to start when you're heavy and/or unfit. I'd really focus on walking steady on a slight incline for a while to start with.

Maybe for you, breastfeeding and losing weight quickly are not a good match, they certainly werent for me. I gained most of my weight breastfeeding, even though I didnt gain any permanent weight from pregnancies. If you cant eat enough now, loosening your band will help with that, but then you're not going to be losing anyway. I would try the liquid calories route, but I would NOT rely on Protein shakes - unless they are organic, non artificially sweetened and not soy based. No way would I be filling my baby with soy derivatives. smoothies made with milk and fruit would be a better option. I personally would be happy to accept slower weight loss to continue breastfeeding - you've got your whole life to lose weight but only get one chance at feeding your baby. You may choose to cut it shorter than you would otherwise, to start focussing on yourself again, but perhaps just put the weight loss aside for six months? You'll be giving your baby your best start in life and when you look back in 20 years, THAT's what you'll value, not whether or not you lost weight in that time. But contrary to the way the breast feeding fanatics make it sound, formula feeding your baby wont make them fat, stupid or unhealthy. What's best for your baby is usually what's best for YOU too.

I just had breakfast: 4 prunes about 3 tablespoons of all bran 1/2 a piece of wholegrain toast with jam Too me about 20 minutes to eat. For lunch today we'll probably have sandwiches. I can usually eat a small sandwich - not the American version, lol, meaning 2 slices of wholegrain bread, with sometihng like tuna and avocado as a filling, with the crusts cut off. For dinner tonight, we're having lamb cutlets. I normally eat a cutlet, a spoonfull or two of mashed potatoes and about 1/2 a cup of mixed steamed veg.

By general weight loss surgery standards, at a BMI of 36 I wasnt even that overweight yet. I hadnt realised though just how badly I was sleeping - due to reasons mentioned above, like hands falling asleep. I think sleeping had become like it was when I was heavily pregnant, I sleep on my side and my shoulders and hips would get really sore from the weight of my belly. I was starting to get fat enough that I wasnt sleeping comfortably. I didnt notice so much that it was discomfort waking me multiple times a night but I sure noticed it when I started sleeping soundly again - it made a huge difference to how I felt during the day.

Definitely. I spend ages trying to find some info on it but I stalled at EVERY weight I'd held for a long time. I stalled at 104kg, 97kg, 91kg, 84kg and 79kg - not for terribly long, but maybe six weeks or so. I thought I'd have to call 79kg goal as its right at the top of my healthy weight range, but I did contine to drop VERY slowly after that point.

Lol, we had a monty python night with the kids the other night - Life of Brian, Holy Grail and Meaning of Life.

I wouldnt worry about it anyway. What matters most with exercise is good honest effort within YOUR limits. As long as you're pushing yourself, you will get a result, no matter how big or little the calorie burn is. Its pushing your body beyond its own limits that forces it to adapt by becoming fitter and stronger. Even if you only burn 100 calories in a session but you've put in true effort, then that's great! Eventually, of course, you get to the point where a 500 to 800 calorie exercise session is not only possible but not even particularly tiring. It may take a few years, but it does come. However, every single person has to start with what they can do, and nobody can deny that swimming is fantastic aerobic exercise that works every muscle in your body. It sounds like you did great.

Swimming's great but you'd have to be a VERY good swimmer to burn over 500 calories in half an hour. Its more like 250, 300 for a good swimmer who can swim constant laps. And for the average person who stops at the ends etc, its even less. If you were running, you'd be running pretty had to burn 500 calories in half an hour - at a speed of about 10kms an hour. I'm a good swimmer, but I know what running at 10kms an hour feels like and i couldnt match that intensity in the pool. Also, calorie burn for swimming tends to be a bit lower because you dont get as hot and also, you dont have to support your weight or force it to leave the ground like you do with running. Now if you could go all out at about 90% of your maximum effort and swim maybe 40 or more 50 metre laps of freestyle in 30 minutes, you might get that sort of calorie burn.

Yup, she's one of those. But she lives only a few suburbs away.

If you were already vomiting before you got pregnant then you probably needed an unfill even then. so I would DEFINITELY discuss this with your doctor now!

I've never been a believer in low calorie diets, I do think you need to eat well and lose slowly to lose in a healthy way. I ate about 1500 calories all the way through and eat about 1800 to maintain. The charts all say that at my height and activity level (5ft 10, 150lb, regular runner) women should be able to eat 2,400 or more, well, its just not the case. There's an obvious calorie discrepancy between what many of us can eat and remain slim and what the charts say we should be able to - probably a major reason why many of us got fat in the first place. Nonetheless I lost steadily but slowly on 1500 and I believe I did lose mostly fat and retained a good lean body mass. I have more fat that I could lose though. When you're losing though, I think you cant avoid being on pretty low calories, you just cant fit the food in and I dont think it hurts for a short period of time. Worry about it later when you're healed up.

Its almost 4 years for me and has been a smooth journey. I got banded at 245lb, at 5ft 10, that's a BMI of 36. I too had no real comorbidities, but the weight was makign me tired, lethargic and I worried, at 38 about going down hill pretty quickly, as I knew I would continue to gain. I hadnt been fat all my life, I'd always hovered at a BMI of around 26, which to me was humungous, but it was after 3 babies that i slid into obesity. I'd been active and athletic until that lifestyle change that comes with having children. I lost quite slowly - I had driven myself nuts (and made myself fatter) dieting, had never had ANY success at it and vowed never ever to do it again. So I never counted calories, Protein, carbs, nothing. I just eat healthy and that's it - I buy organic, cook from scratch etc. I took up running, slowly at first, and then onto a couple of half marathons - took me 2 years plus to get to that stage. I lost about 70lb first year, probably 25lb the next year and a couple the year after that. I'm at the point where my weight is perfect, at 150lb, but I think I still have a bit much body fat. My exercise focus has shifted - my main love is running, but I'm focussing a lot more on VERY intense circuit training and interval running in an effort to fine tune my figure. I've never had a regain, my weight never budges, I firmly believe that's all the exercise I do. Banding was the best thing I ever did for myself. I place a high responsibility on myself to do the right things and make the right choices, I'm very dedicated to my running and I believe that made it a very effective and workeable tool. However, like mentioned above, I dont feel "cured". I have an overly sweet tooth and a bad tendency to indulge in processed carbs - cakes, Cookies, etc. i cant control myself around those foods and it will ALWAYS be a matter of willpower not to eat them. If I didnt have my band, I think I would regain, for sure.

have an unfill. There is nothign surer than you will eventually want and need to eat reasonably and you are going to end up having multiple PB episodes. This can damage your band, and cause slippage. You may start to have reflux symptoms, especially night reflux, which is also dangerous. You will probably find you dont lose weight as well as you thought you would due to under-eating. You will pretty soon start to feel like a social leper as you cant risk eating in front of anyone or anywhere where you dont have full control of the menu. Honestly, you'll be miserable very quickly, probably wont have much reward for such sacrifice and may even suffer band problems as a result.

Ugh, I'm with you. I absolutely dont know HOW people can go about their everyday lives strangled by these things. I hate them. My view is that if I need a shaper to look OK in a certain outfit, then the outfit is not right for me. I always feel sick within the hour of trying to wear something like this and eventually, the constriction of my abdomen will give me horrible gas pains and crippling cramps.

I think its the nature of forums to be honest. Rules or no, it will still happen. Its just like talking in real life. Dont feel afraid to pull it back on topic if you havent had an answer.

I agree, that its a bit strange to start having so much trouble now, when you've had great restriction before. You might want to bring up with your doc the possibility of investigating it further, if only to put your mind at rest. If you've lost 100 lb then you're an expert on this now, you know what you're feeling and like you say, you dont believe you've reached max restriction. I didnt realise you'd done so well and lost so much. I think I'd be insisting on some further investigations.

Its really not quite correct to judge whether or not you have restriction on whether you can eat bread. I can eat 3/4 of a sandwich and I'm at goal weight, it really is problematic to judge your restriction by being able to eat certain foods because everyone is different. The only measure of whether you have enough restriction is whether you're losing relatively painlessly. Some people dont need a lot to achieve that and many foods will always be on their menu. Others need to really restrict their diets. Its not a moral judgement, its just how our bodies work. Some need a lot of calorie restriction, some dont. I'd do what you're doing and go for tiny fills, try to sneak up on it and hopefully get to the point where the restriction you feel is enough for you. What you need and what your stomach can handle are, most frustratingly, sometimes two different things entirely and you really dont want to place your band at risk by going too tight even though you once had 6cc. There really is no option in the short term but to try to burn more calories by exercising rather than trying to eat less once you get to the maximum restriction for you at this time. But take heart, our bodies change all the time and you may find this time, your body will allow you to go past 3cc, and if not now, it might in the future. Your job is t hang in there and work with what you have at each stage. You sound really down about it, try not to be. This is never a smooth journey for anyone and just because its bumpy for you right now, doesnt mean it wont smooth out in the future.

I'm in the calories camp. But I wouldnt advocate a HIGH carb diet. A diet high in refined carbs and sugars is not a healthy one. But nor do I think the diets a lot of people adopt when they try to avoid carbs are healthy either. I think when you do that you have to be very careful to focus on lots of vegies and only healthy fats - not saturated fats from cheese, salami, dairy etc. I would only limit sugar and white carbs but I do run a lot and can eat a fairly high carb diet becuase I burn it off. If you're not physically active, I think you need way less carbs.

Probably they would - I nearly had a stand up argument with a waitress last week, because I didnt finish my meal, lol. She didnt believe there was nothign wrong with it, but I was simply full. She kept arguing with me to tell her what the matter was. Normally I eat enough that this doenst happen but I was just tight and unhungry this particular night and would have been happy not to eat at all. it was quite embarrassing. I ended up telling her I had a band to shut her up and make her go away.

It sounds as if you've simply reached the maximum restriction you can handle at this point in time. People can handle different amounts, and it may change later for you as you lose, you might find you get back to 6ccs. How is the restriction for you though? I mean, it is frustrating for you if you're still hungry and not losing, but if you're losing, even slowly, then there's really no need to push it and go for more fill if it causes you problems. i think you've got the right plan, to get a tiny fill next time. And of course, its important to balance restriction with exercise. Trying to achieve your entire calorie deficit with what you eat is a recipe for disaster for exactly that reason - there's only so tight you can go - so you simply must burn a lot of those calories away with exercise. That way, you dont need to be so tight.

A bit, yes. Even though I'm thin now and can shop in almost any store (at 5ft 10 and an Australian size 12 - which is your 8 to 10) I'm still too big for a lot of really high end fashion, not that Im that interested anyway. I am pear shaped and i have to dress for it. Its not extreme, but I do have to dress with my rear end in mind. I'm not a skirt person either. All cute little skirts that are out this summer, flippy gathered things, they just dont work on me and nor do maxi dresses. I have tiny shoulders and am very thin and bony there and a big dress makes it look like I just get wider and wider and wider as you go down. I really had to work hard to stop dressing in clothes that were too big. It still takes courage for me to dress in things that really show my shape. I'm a bit bikini obsessed too, this is the first time in my entire life I've had the body or the confidence to wear one, even though I wasnt fat till my 30's, I've never been this fit and in shape. But I cant just go and throw on any one, I have to buy ones for the 'fuller figure' and take my age into account - definitely need full coverage bottoms, and underwired or really structured tops. I can still look very dumpy, flabby and yuck if I choose the wrong one, lol. Sorry, you probably dont want to hear about some smart ass moaning about bikinis, but the point is, its a balance between having the courage to show yourself off a bit and not looking tragic because you've gone overboard and dressing too tight, too young etc. It comes with practice. What I'm loving is that my shopping habits have changed, I was always a binge shopper and did it regardless of budget, it made me feel better to have a pile of new clothes, promise of looking good THIS time. Now I dont do that anymore. I might see something, like it, buy it, then its over until the next time I see sometihng I really like, I'm MUCH pickier, and the clothes I have I actually like and wear. Whereas before, I'd get all those new clothes and nothign would change, then I'd come to hate them.

A number of things. I got to 72 kg to get married and I knew that was Okish, although the top of my healthy weight range is 79kg. I felt huge at 79kg, I always weighed about that and was always the fat one in any group. that was a BMI of about 25. I hated it. I knew I could improve on 72, it was OK but I wanted to be less than 70, so I said about 68. Which is where I am. In truth, I could still be 6kg lighter, it turns out I am not big boned at all, I'm actually meant to be quite slender. My tickers says I'm 12kg below goal because I set 79 as the first goal, in truth I was always aiming for under 70. My doc never said anythign about it. They dont discourage you from wanting a BMI of 20, that's still healthy and not too skinny. But I think I'd have to argue hard to get any more than a top up fill now, they'd probably tell me not to get obsessed with losing more.

Ditto. I would have done the same too. The health thing, despite being an Australian (we have more skin cancer than anywehre else in the world) wouldnt scare me, as I'd rationalise it with the chemicals in foods we eat etc, so many other health risk But vanity, that hits where it hurts! At 42, I am now glad that I never really got into this. I have a great routine. Moroccan minerals fake tan is fantastic, a realistic colour. Once a week with that and then daily with Olay gradual tanner. I am brown all over - not orange, its not sticky, doesnt stain, its a quick daily thing, stays even, I exfoliate lightly in the shower every day so it doesnt build up and I have not even been remotely tempted to get into a sunbed. I do this all year round. Now, I'm appreciating having nice, young looking skin. Some of my friends are now looking seriously middle aged. My students think I'm 20 something. And honestly, there's not that much you can do to prevent loose skin with a large weight loss but constant tanning will make it worse. Still, lest you think I'[m a pain in the bum, there's nothing that will stop my lying out in the sun and getting really brown once a year on holidays!

My BMI was 36, I lost 100lb or so which was about 120% of my excess weight. Meaning I got well under the 24.9 BMI as the top level of "normal" weight. For me, it was slower, it took me 2 years but I'm not a big believer in dieting - i dont do low carb, I dont agree with eating less than 1200 calories a day and I dont want to EVER diet again. So I was more than happy to take it nice and slow, eat quite a bit more than other bandsters - and not lose my hair. I ended up without significant excess skin, but I do have some. If I could remove about 3 inches around my middle with a total body lift, I would seriously have an AWESOME figure, and six pack abs to boot. It really frustrates me because if it were hanging, disfiguring and really problematic, such a huge operation could be justified. As it is people, particularly family, would think I was certifiably crazy to do it. I have a lot of trouble coming to terms with either just living with the sag (I am 42 afterall) or being vain enough to spend that sort of money and take that sort of risk for a problem most people dont even think I have. It might have been easier to ahve been much fatter in the first place, lol. I sound nuts, I know, but this issue is probably the hardest one for me. I am healthy, I look pretty good, but I'm a chronic perfectionist and cant help wanting to look perfect at 42 after 3 babies, unrealistic as that is.

isnt it just awesome. To go on holiday and not be either stressed out about how much you're gaining or driving yourself nuts trying to avoid food so that its all you think about! I even go the whole hog and treat vacations as a bit of a health camp - I up the running, get out and see things, walk around etc. I come home feeling so healthy and fit, that's what a holiday is all about, not rolling home unable to button your jeans.