Jachut

Well, situps are not a very effective method of getting rid of your belly anyway, so if they hurt, dont do them. To get rid of the belly, you need CARDIO. You can strengthen your abdominal muscles till the cows come home but that does not get rid of fat, you have to burn the fat to have a flat stomach adn for that, you need to eat less and move more. Running, spinning or cycling, swimming, walking, elliptical, those things are what will get rid of your belly. To strengthen it, if you dont like sit ups - look at more pilates style exercises - planks, fit ball work, I never do a sit up and I have rock hard abs. Mostly from running, it strengthens your tummy marvellously. Also, be realistic, if you are apple shapes and carry a lot of weight in your belly, it probably will be one of the last areas to shed all of the weight.

Well, we're in the same boat, I'm 5ft 10 and 150. I also run for about 40 minutes five days a week - quite moderate and I've cut back on doing quite so much as what i was doing when I was losing. I just do it now to stay fit, stay at this weight so whilst I love my running, I keep it to a sensible portion of my life with a time commitment that fits round working etc. I eat all foods, I eat pretty healthy, I'm certainly not afraid to indulge in a treat every now and then. I dont journal, calorie count or obsess over food. TOTALLY healthy lifestyle and it pisses me off when people say I'm too thin or obsessive. But you know, its only really been on here by people that dont know me and cant see me! We've had huge fights on this, lol. My mother gets a bit worried though, despite being thin herself. And my middle sister is extremely petite. I really do think its because people are used to seeing people in general heavier - a BMI of 30 or above is probably MORE common these days and in particular they're used to seeing YOU heavy.

Quite honestly, there is probably NO food that I will never eat again. Well, apart from liver, lol. I can eat anything, some things are harder than others but if I really want it, I can eat it. I dont enjoy foods like Mcdonalds, KFC, pizza etc. I just dont like them. So i couldnt care less if I never ate them again. But they do sneak into your life now and again, especially when you have kids. But things like Cookies, chocolate, ice cream, wine, good cheeses, it all fits into a healthy balanced lifestyle in moderate amounts. I dont believe in cutting out anything.

It doesnt stress me at all, its habit more than anything. Firstly, I'm realistic. I dont expect my weight not to fluctuate by a pound or two now and then. I expect to weigh a bit more at night. I expect to gain a bit around period time. I expected plateaus during the loss and didnt worry about those either. I cant understand how people truly think their weight is going to go down by equal increments each and every week. If I get on the scales and I'm as light as possible, I feel buoyed to continue the good work. If I get on the scale and its up a pound or two, I dont get depressed, I just know to put a lid on it now before it gets away from me. Either way, it motivates me. When I've eaten badly and see the scale up, I know to get back with the program. When i've eaten badly and the scale DOESNT go up it helps me realise that nobody eats perfectly and in the scale of life, if you're good 90% of the time, your weight is going to be fine! One thing I've NEVER seen is a 5lb gain, lol. I've never gotten a fright because I keep a eagle eye on my weight and manage it on a day to day basis. Its win win if you ask me. It just depends how you look at it.

Its natural to worry and yes, like everyone says, you will be fine. But you have to feel ready. I made and cancelled about 4 initial consultations with my surgeon before I felt ready to go. It had to feel right to me and it took a while before it did.

By pure chance, I posted these pics the other day in a thread about post partum tummies. This is how my stomach fared. Initial BMI was 35 - 36, 100lb loss, with lots of running and core work, I'm fairly tall, have had 3 babies, am nearly 42 years old. My backside is in a similar state, maybe a bit worse as I'm naturally quite prone to cellulite and am naturally pear shaped. It'll be a cold day in you know where before pics of my ass appear on the internet. The worst is my boobs, they are empty, deflated and sagging quite badly. They are the only part of my body I will have surgically corrected, to be honest, the stomach, whilst not perfect, I just think a huge scar would be just as bad as the loose skin I have. And not much truly helps saggy baggy rear ends. I dont have unlimited funds for PS so its matter of choosing what I think will make me the happiest and I think the chest, decolletage area is as important as your face in your visual presentation. I'm also VERY skinny up top around the shoulders and a rejuvenated bustline would reproportion me a bit, whereas nobody is forcing me to wear a bikini and show my stomach. So really, whilst I dont *need* surgery, I could look better with some as I have an overall good shape but am what I would call "flabby". You can see there's rock hard muscle underneath and that I'm very fit but my skin just doesnt quite fit. I need the equivalent of a good hot wash to shrink it a tad!

We were talking about this in another thread a while back when someone mentioned that when she gets stuck, undoing her bra helps. What we thought was this: I have fairly low body fat now and can see my port, but also can feel an inch or two of tubing before it disappears below the muscle. So perhaps a bra does indeed put pressure on the tubing before it goes deeper into the body in certain people and that squeezing the tubing squeezed Fluid up the tubing and around the band, making it ever so slightly tighter, thus explaining why you can feel relief from ripping off your bra. Sound feasible?

First, take a deep breath, this isnt an easy journey and nobody starts out perfect. In fact nobody ends up perfect either! You need realistic expectations - at first, before you get good restriction - and this can take quite a few fills - you may indeed be very hungry physically particularly since the band tends to restrict how much you can eat more quickly than it restricts hunger. So you eat a litte and are hungry again in an hour. Know that that is ENTIRELY normal, you've only been banded a couple of months. Also, head hunger is a big factor. I still want food all the time, and I've been banded 4 years. Over my 37 years of life before I got banded, I learned many ways to use food apart from to satisfy hunger, it punctuates the day for me, it provides relief from boredom, it gives a focus to certain situations. I dont think that ever changes for most of us and most normal weight people do this too. But over time, as you get more restriction, your tastes change, you may not be able to eat at certain times, you may not want to anymore, whatever happens for you, it doesnt have to be a 180 degree turnaround, a slight change in the balance can be all it takes to see the excess weight dropping. You work on it bit by bit. Counseling can help some people, reading books can help others, some of us arent into any of that stuff. Now, exercise. Its a very BIG factor in successful loss with the band. You cant afford to make excuses for it. How hard is it really to make just half an hour a day? (more is better!). I mean you have to be on your guard EVERY WAKING MINUTE for your eating behaviour, but you cant find a minute's willpower to start that walk? You CAN do it. You really can. It took me six months for it to really become habit, but I just pushed day after day. I'm nothing special willpower wise, but I just figured I'd taken this step to be banded, now the exercise was a part of the bargain. Non negotiable. I chose something easy that I could do from my front door - no excuses of not having time, or the gym being closed. I just go out the front door and run. I also never saw results from exercise, but once I combined it with being banded and DID see results,wow, I was hooked. I cant divulge any secrets there, I just had to dig deep and find the determination to find it. But everyone DOES have it, you just have to kind of fake it till it becomes routine.

Not necessary, not healthy, not effective. Plateaus are a fact of life with big weight loss, it is going to happen no matter what you do and it will break eventually no matter what you do. Dont send yourself into a starve/binge cycle by not eating. It achieves nothing.

Wow! its not often you here somone say something so sensible on here. That is just SO true, its more a head game than anything and I truly believe in the fake it till you make it philosophy. The trouble is, often when you say something so blindingly obvious, people get really MAD at you, lol. I pissed someone off big time the other day. But to the OP, just imagine it, tell it to yourself, see yourself doing it, etc etc. Eventually it sticks. Its not easy but it can be done.

Lol, DH consistently weighs about a pound less AFTER a shower. And I usually see (or hear) him pee before he gets in, thank goodness. So its not that.

I have a pair of earth shoes which are a different thing again - they have a negative heel - but they throw you back into a different balance and I find they're absolutely marvellous for recovering after a long run.

You absolutely cannot compare yourself to others when it comes to the restriction you can tolerate. Everyone is different.

to be honest, that's nothing more than the opinion of whomever wrote the book. There are NO hard and fast rules with banded eating and anyone who makes it sound like there is is really misrepresenting it. You may be able to eat ALL of those foods, or you may be able to eat NONE of them. They are common problem foods, but personally, I can eat all of them, and popcorn I can literally inhale, I can eat it so fast and easily. Anything, even liquids, can cause you to vomit if you ingest them to quickly, anything can get stuck in your stoma. You WONT always chew properly, you wont be that perfect, you will forget, you will accidentally swallow a mouthful, you may take too big a bite and eventually, it will happen. There are also just foods that your stomach plain wont like, probably amongst that list, as well as others. Some things are just weird, there seems to be no reason why you cant eat them. Cold orange juice will make me vomit every single time, yet how can THAT get stuck? This is a bit of a "seat of your pants" ride, you wont know till you've done it how it is for you.

I was aware of the possiblity of slip and erosion but not of the major pain in the ass the band could be if your body does not like having a band in it! However, here, the possibility of a resurgery is not that bad - you dont want surgery again, but it will be paid for, no problems. I dont have insurance problems etc to worry about. If I need surgery I get it. I was entirely aware that the band probably wont last in my body until the end of my days, if it wears out, I'll just get another one but if I get 20 years out of it, well, I'll be over 60. I'm not sure I'd bother. I think after over 20 years of healthy eating and exercise, enough of the habits have a chance of sticking, my body will be USED to being light, not heavy and my family on my dad's side all tend to get alarmingly thin in old age, and I have the general body shape of that side of the family, I suspect that's in my future too. It sounds better than it is, my nanna looked pretty hideous, sigh. I knew that the band required a LOT of work on the part of myself - I had people I knew who were banded. I liked that. I wasnt after an easy answer, I wanted to change my habits and my outlook - I know now a bit more about other surgeries and realise nothing is easy or automatic, however that was my thought process at the time and I still feel very proud of what I've achieved. Unlike many others here, I had NEVER been successful at losing weight, I had never ever lost more than about 15 lb on any attempt. I wanted to do this ONCE more and ONCE only. Keeping the weight off was a huge part of my decision to have surgery. Also, the biggest factor - the band is the only really common WLS here. I dont even know where you'd go to get a bypass and sleeves havent taken off yet.

Its impossible to compare really because the first time I tried it, I could run, (well, not RUN, jog) for half an hour. I did 3km my first attempt. I did build very slowly though, many many peopel take up running and are doing their first half marathon 9 months later. For me, it took over 2 years to get to that point. What I found was that my cardiovascular fitness increased almost daily, very quickly but it took a loooooooong time to build the muscular strength and endurance to carry my body that far. That was a slow process. I would highly recommend the Couch to 5K program to give you some structure to what you're doing - google it, its on coolrunning.com and I believe you can now get MP3 downloads as well. You can move the program around a bit to suit you, like do each week twice if you're finding the progression too fast. Best of luck!

Absolutely amazing! This is NOT an easy journey, which make you quite an extraordinary woman!

Funnily enough I've had the same experience as Mac but with a band and presumably without the ghrelin cut. I used to eat healthy anyway, I've always eaten plenty of fresh fruit and veg and I'm a very good cook, bit of a gourmet in fact. I'm feeding a family and I would never ever have let my kids eat the way I did. So the family diet was very healthy and actually has not had to change one single bit since I was banded. What we ate as a family was entirely appropriate - lean Protein, lots of vegetables, fruit and wholegrain carbs, low fat dairy. I just used to eat way too much junk food on top of it - white carbs for me mainly. I liked my share of McDonalds, and the fish and chips etc (have never cared for pizza, KFC or pretend healthy food like Subway) but Cookies, cakes, rich coffees, muffins, donuts, I loaded up on that stuff during the day when the kids were at school. Now I just plain dont like them. They disgust me. The stench in McDonalds makes me sick. Seeing people eat it is revolting. Seeing anybody unbanded eating is a bit revolting actually - they literally STUFF themselves - even my girlfriends at girls night. I just think whoa, slow down!! My tastes definitely changed. I'm sure there's hormones behind it but I think its just that eventually habit does take over. It doesnt happen in six weeks but after four years with a band, I dont think I'd revert quickly to old ways thoug I'm sure I probably would slide a bit over time.

You're really looking for "not hungry" as opposed to full. Looking for "full" means you'll get tighter and tighter searching for a level of autocontrol that the band just is not meant to have. You are the driver, its not really how the band works. YOU have to make the choices, YOU have to stop eating, and the band will just stop you from being really starving hungry in the meantime. Many people have to swear off bread as it just doesnt work well with many people's bands, I can eat it but have to be careful.

I did lose pretty darn quick at first - not spectacular as I had a BMI of 35, but I'd definitely lost 30lb within the first 2 months. I find it really really hard to imagine how people dont lose quicky at first. I mean you're eating hardly anything! But everyone is different and for sure, everyone is not fat simply due to overeating. People here have bodies that just arent working all that great. I was a lucky one, I ate too much, I got fat, I stopped eating too much, I got unfat. I had great restriction - I cant really figure it out becuase I'm not a "sweller". I dont swell and get tight after fills, my stomach isnt sensitive, I can eat anything, by rights I shouldnt have had a lot of swelling after surgery. i should have been one of the ones that lost that very very quicky and went through bandster hell. But I wasnt. After that though, my weight loss slowed RIGHT down and I was overall quite a slower loser, taking 2 entire years to lose 100lb. So it took me what, over 20 months to lose the other 80. It was just slow and steady.

The band is STITCHED to your stomach, not just put around it.... the stomach is kind of pulled over in a flap and its stitched so it makes a little channel, that's going to hurt. Personally, I didnt find pain levels really bad, I didnt actually need anything other than a bit of paracetamol, but its definitely there. I was especially lucky with the gas, that really didnt bother me at all.

Its so so difficult to get back on track, and if ONLY that early motivation lasted. But you're 40lb down in 8 months, you're well within the norm of that 1 to 2 lb weight loss per week. I find for me, I focus on what I can control the most. There is no reason, none, nada, zip why I cant get out for a half hour run most days. I stick to that routine like glue, I do not break it for anything and I find achieving that gives me the sense of control that I need to do better on eating choices. I know my eating choices are weaker than my exercise choices, I have willpower some areas but not others. For example, I *CAN* decide to only eat 3 meals a day. Its simple, measurable, doable. You just have to not eat in between. I decide to do that and run but give myself permission to choose whatever foods I want. For me, that relieves the pressure and the possibility of "failing". I generally choose reasonably well but these sorts of little mental tricks really help me. By doing this, my behaviour is 80% good and it was always enough to keep me losing. I was a slower loser, for sure, but that didnt bother me.

I hate to say it, because i suspect from your tone I've already pissed you off, but you will never get to a point with a lapband where you can eat healthy food but not junk. You will always reach the point where healthy food wont go down first. Cookies, chips, chocolate, ice cream, you will always be able to eat it. Assuming all is well with your band, being able to eat those things doesnt mean you need more fill. You need a band loose enough to fill up with healthy foods and just not eat those things. No, that's not easy, everyone understands that. But everyone faces the same challenge. There's not a long term bandster here that wouldnt agree that those foods just have to be avoided by dogged determination. However, if you're fighting an appetite fuelled by medication, that's really tough. I sure as eggs wouldnt be able to do it. I'm sorry if my advice is offensive to you, if you're just wanting to vent then ignore it.

I'm maintaining now so I eat a little more than I did to lose, but yesterday: breakfast: Komplete muesli with skim milk - probably 3/4 cup total Lunch: vegetable Soup and a piece of garlic bread Afternoon: a skim latte, an apple and a bit later on two tim tams (chocolate biscuits) Dinner: a lamb stew (onion, tomato, lamb, broth, garlic, rosemary) cooked in the slow cooker, served on fettucini and with a side salad (probably a cup of food total for me). A glass of white wine. I can eat any foods - bread, whatever. However the foods I have the most trouble with are raw fruit and veg - I have to peel apples and not eat the skin, salad I eat carefully. But I can eat everything.

Are you vomiting or is food not staying down? those are two different things. I find whenever I get a cold or flu (which in Australia we define as a viral/respiratory illness, not a stomach bug or gastro), my band gets tight - not to the point of not being able to keep food down for me, but still MUCH tighter. That doesnt mean its stomach flu. Are you truly nauseous, do you have diarrhoea, etc? If it IS gastro, I'd recommend an anti nausea medication to prevent vomiting, as such violent vomiting can hurt your band. Bandsters should keep medication like this to hand in case gastro ever strikes. But pb'ing due to tightness caused by illness is a bit different. In that case, just stick with liquids until you're a bit recovered. Hope you feel better!