Jachut

Its an average. In any group, there will be people who dont lose well because they werent good candidates and dont work well with the band, they dont exercise, they have problems with the band, they are metabolically challenged, physically disabled etc. The band takes a fair bit of work but if you DO that work you have a good chance of losing 100% of your excess. I found it not too difficult with 3 sensible meals a day, a snack if I'm hungry and running an hour a day. I'm not a perfect dieter, this really wasnt that hard for me. But my doctor does make a fuss, obviously its not every person that does lose so well and I cant really say why I did compared to the next person - I suspect the running helps.

I honestly cant think of the last time I drank something that would require a straw - oh, actually I think I had a milkshake a few months ago. But I dont drink softdrinks, I dont generally drink milkshakes - that one would have been the only one I've had in five years - and I only really drink wine, so I never have cocktails etc. I cant really see why a straw would be a problem to be honest. You've got the end in the liquid, so there's no air going in.

Well, bypass isnt really done in Australia anymore. BUT - I knew I was a good candidate for the lapband. I was the type of overeater who ate basically healthy meals (I had a family to feed afterall) but ate too much and ate way too many in betweel Snacks of less healthy foods becuase I was hungry. I didnt have to change the way I ate too much with a band, becuase I knew how to shop healthy and how to cook healthy and I already did those things. I wasnt having to break habits like living on fast food, drinking huge milkshakes, or getting my Breakfast from a drive through. I was also still relatively fit and able to exercise when i set my mind to it. I didnt realise the significance of these things at the time, banding is really the only easily available option here at present. You can get other surgeries but finding surgeons is harder. However, in hindsight, I realise I had a pretty good profile for a successful bandster. I also had only gotten to a BMI of 36 which meant I stood a fighting chance of losing ALL my excess weight (which i did and then some). Another thing which I feel was important was my "gut feel" for the procedure, pardon the pun. I have a cast Iron stomach. When everyone else is dying of food poisoning, I am unscathed. When everyone else is half dead with gastro, I have a bit of diarrhoea and that's all. I didnt get reflux, suffer nausea and I could keep down a very impressive amount of alcohol too. I never vomit! I just knew that I wouldnt have the problems I read about. I could easily have been wrong, I know, but I wasnt, I was right. I just dont get all the little annoyances with the band - my stomach isnt fickle, my restriction doesnt vary, its unusual for me to be able to eat a food one day and then not the next, I dont swell after fills etc. given all that and the lesser severity of the weight problem I had, no way on earth would I have done something as drastic as bypass. I knew I could work with a band. However, I think there's many people who are better suited to a bypass and i really think if they're honest with themselves, they probably already know that about themselves.

I will block up on almonds every time, something about the texture of them, I do find them very difficult. But peanuts, walnuts, cashews and macadamias are no problem.

Calipers wouldnt work very well for most formerly obese people. I'm sure I can pinch more than I should be able to for whatever body fat level I actaully do have because of the skin issue. It may not be hanging or needing surgery, but I have a bit more skin than I would have had if I'd stayed thin all my life!

I thought I grew! Last time I went to weight watchers about five years ago, I had a fight with the woman there who kept measuring me at 176cm. I'm 179 cm and always have been. I made her measure me about five times because of course being shorter meant I was more overweight, lol. When I got measured by my lap band clinic last year, as an update to my records, I was 179cm. I remarked that I must have uncompressed my spine or something. The nurse cracked up - she said "darling, obese people meausure shorter than they are becuase their bums are so big they cant stand straight against the wall". Obviously you lean back slightly to rest your shoulders on the wall to be measured and that shortens you.

My doc doesnt really have any "rules". However, the doc I see at my surgeon's practice was also our Olympic Team doc last year, and he works with lots of athletes and is also the Hawthorn team doctor. He agrees entirely with my carb based diet. My surgeon is not a high protein fan either. Neither of them care much whether I prefer to eat 3 meals or 5 small meals.

I still surprise myself sometimes when I see my reflection. I'm sure i dont really see myself the way i really look. I still see the fat me, but ironically, when I WAS fat I never saw just how big I really was. I've been well past my original goal for about 18 months. I feel pretty good - but its not like I have this perfect body that I just love and never feel anxious over. I dont have "excess" skin to the point others have, I was very lucky, but if it werent for some leftover flab, I could have the perfect flat smooth stomach and dimple free thighs, I'd need a lower body lift for that. Dressed though, you could never tell, I'm just a bit "loose" and feel a bit exposed in a bathing suit. I'll never strut down a beach feeling totally confident. I still have problem areas. At the most, I will get my boobs fixed up, they're just sad sad sad and I'm going to remove the saddlebags I still have with some lipo. I would have a smoother contour without them and its an easy process. But woudl I resort to a lower body lift to be "perfect"? No, because I think even then I wouldnt feel perfect. I'm so happy though. I love being able to wear pretty much what I want. Other problems arise, lol. You know how many larger women complain that they cant find boots to fit their calves. Well, when I wear boots, I look like I'm playing dress ups in my mother's clothes. Boots are HUGE on me. As for how people treat me, well, I've had more nasty comments and snubs for being thin than I ever did for being fat - because I was blend in with the crowd fat. I wasnt huge, I had a BMI of 36, like so many people out there. I was no threat to anyone.

Well, I've always been somewhat athletic. I did used to run quite regularly at around age 18-20, and I've always liked exercise. I started up again about 3 months after surgery and just started out slowly. I found having fun runs to train for really motivated me to push to run that bit further.

I believe an emphatic NO. But I think it depends on how you ate beforehand. I had a fairly healthy base diet, my meals were always good. I didnt eat McDonalds and KFC, i would never have DREAMED of getting my Breakfast from a drive through and I found greasy foods like pizza pretty disgusting. BUT - I ate big meals and I ate a lot of other rubbish in between meals. I ate way too many Cookies, cakes, muffins, cappucinos, I had a couple of glasses of wine at night, I was always in for an ice cream or a block of chocolate in front of the telly after dinner. I easily got through 3000 calories a day. Since being banded, my basic meals are exactly as they were before, just about half the size (but that's because I ate healthy meals and new how to cook for and keep my family healthy). And I dont eat the rubbish in between. I might have a glass of wine at night 2 or 3 times a week and we'd get chocolate or ice cream after dinner maybe once a month instead of 3 times a week. So I dont feel as if I'm dieting. I also dont indulge in dieting behaviour such as calorie counting, food journalling, Protein obsessing or anything like that. I dont report in to a nutritionist, my surgeon doesnt act like the diet police, none of it. But to someone else, what I eat in a day and what routines I follow might be a "diet". Particularly since I cook, dont use convenience foods, buy organic etc. However, that said, I think I would have lost weight, but not as much as I have if I hadnt also taken up running. Running for up to an hour a day is a MAJOR part of my success. That's all in your perception too. To me, its an enjoyable part of my life, I love love love my running. To someone else it would be a daily hour of torturous pain. I just choose to look upon healthy habits as something I want to do for myself, and as something that's part of my life, not as a "diet and exercise regime".

Well, we dont get told to do Protein first here. We are not told to avoid carbs. I find exactly what you are saying. Protein doesnt fill me. Its so calorie dense that you can only afford to eat small serves of things like cheese and meat. I eat carbs. I eat Cereal for Breakfast, I eat sandwiches for lunch and THOSE are what fill me up and make my band work. I only eat good quality, organic, wholegrain carbs. I dont eat rubbish. But I eat a carb based diet, I run for 40 minutes to an hour a day, I eat moderate protein (and thus moderate saturated fat), I avoid processed foods (anything that comes in a box!) and I dont worry about the healthy fats in nuts, avocadoes and fish. I dont do Protein shakes. I am lucky that I can eat bread, not everyone can. But a sandwich of 2 slices of wholegrain bread, some tuna, some avocado and salad veges like lettuce, tomato, cucumber and sprouts - I can eat about 2/3 of it without the crusts and I will stay full for HOURS. A bit of tuna and salad and I'll be looking for food in an hour. You CAN eat this way and lose weight. Most Australian bandsters do.

You know, the "i would be too skinny at that weight" I've always argued against. I just couldnt understand how people could see normal weight as "too skinny". I thought they were just displaying warped perception caused by so many people in our society being very obese. But I've lost a bit again lately, I saw 67kg on the scales this morning. My healthy weight range is 63-79. I was comfortable till 70, I'd been that weight before. I know for my body even 63 would be pretty good. But its SCARY hitting these new weights that I've never ever weighed. I now weigh what I did at 13 years old - and I wasnt particularly fat at 13 years old! I was only an inch or two shorter than I am now. Its really kinda weird. I have bones showing now. Not skeletal, lol, but I'm getting to the point where there's really no excess fat left (just sag, sigh). And it does feel kinda weird. But the point is I'm really NOT too skinny. I'm a healthy weight. It really IS my perception of it that's warped. But I've never had a BMI above 36, I think it's a lot more realistic for me to expect to get to this sort of weight at about 100lb lost than if I'd had to lose 200.

Oh we've had some HUGE arguments over that on this forum over the years. I dont get setting an overweight goal either, nothing in me will ever understand it. To me fat is fat is fat. Its not curvy, its not sexy, its fat. But that's ME. And the thing you have to remember is that people's body compositions differ. A BMI is not truly a measure of how overweight you are when you're talking in the 20's. Some people are more muscular and can have higher BMI's without being overweight. I'm not that muscular and I'm fairly fine boned - for me a BMI of 27 is flabby and fat, but for the next person, its quite firm and curvy. So you have to sort of think about it in variable terms, not according to your own body. The same people who I think are stopping while they're still fat probably think I look anorexic, so who's right? We all have a right to look how we want to.

I find my body tells me in no uncertain terms when I'm not eating enough to fuel my running - and for me that means not enough wholegrain bread, cereals etc. Maybe its to do with running as opposed to strength training but too few carbs and a more Protein based diet just depletes me totally. Of course I eat enough protein, but I need my carbs too. My runs start to feel like I'm running through Water. Every now and then I'll have a run like that anyway, but when it starts to feel awful every time, its a sure sign to improve my diet. (I tend to get lazy with my eating and not eat meals, but just pick all day. When I do that, i stop eating bread, Cereal etc, and eat more crappy foods - biscuits, chips, too many cappucinos...)

If you stretch out the pouch, the only way to fix that is a complete unfill. It allows things to settle back where they should be. then you start getting filled again, when the stretching is sorted. But at least a stretched out pouch CAN be fixed with a band, that's the beauty of adjustability. But I dont agree that everyone would be adjusted only once - not at all. If I were to decided to do a marathon, I plain couldnt do it on my intake - that's not a rare case. I can also see that now, when I live a lifestyle that I can eat whenever I'm hungry, I can be tighter and eat smaller amounts more often. When i return to work next year (as a teacher) I think I will need to unfill a bit. On my teaching practicum, I've struggled a bit and lost quite a bit of weight each time becuase you dont get ANY opportunity to snack as a teacher. It becomes Breakfast, lunch and dinner for me then and becuase I can only eat small meals, I find I undereat really badly at these times. I would need to be able to put away much more substantial meals when my eating habits are forced to change like that - because I'm at the stage where I really dont need to drop more weight. I strongy disagree that they took a negative aspect of the band and threw a positive spin on it. That's an individual opinion, nothing more. I really view that as the biggest positive of my band - and I havent been one to fill/unfill at all, I've stayed with steady restriction so far.

Oh, after I graduate this year, I'm teaching the little kids. I dont want to teach past about grade 3, lol.

I've found it hard to separate body shape v excess skin too. I guess I got out of this quite lightly, dressed, I have an absolutely FLAT stomach, its perfect, but in actual fact, its quite loose and flabby, even if its flat. My breasts are the worst affected, I'm a d cup verging on C, but it's ALL skin, I'd say my actual breast is only a B. They really need work, its a difficult part of your body to hide, and much as i'm really not into fake breasts, I think I need not only a lift but an implant to fill out the upper part. Thighs and butt, well, they are NOT my best features, they're loose, and a bit dimply. I need a bit of lipo for residual fat pockets - Iv'e lost more weight but I'm virtually skeletal up top now and really dont want to lose any more from my upper body, but I cant manage to make it come off where I want it to! But lipo alone wont improve anything except the actual contour. I am not surprised though, my breasts and thighs, I always could have guessed they'd look like they do. They werent even firm when I was 15 years old and not fat. They look like my mother's and both of my sisters. I *could* benefit from a lower body lift. In reality though, i look far better than many 42 year old women, I'm comfortable enough to put on a bathing suit, and can live with the fact that i dont look like a supermodel in it. My issues dont show at all when I'm clothed. So I'm really not thinking I would take that money from my family to spend on myself, and nor am I convinced that the risk and recovery is worth it. How many times a year does a working mother get into a bikini? Its just really not worth it. I will get my boobs done, hopefully later this year. My upper body is plain scrawny, I think fixing my boobs would balance it out, I have this awful thing going on where my shoulder bones jut out and my rib cage in my chest appears to curve out beyond my breasts. I need to put some shape back there. My arms I got off scot free. there is not one single bit of excess skin and I have a very satisfying amount of visible muscle there - curvy and feminine but not bulky. I got good arm genes. Just bad thigh ones. I'm also a devoted constant slave to the self tanning lotion. I never let myself get white. Nice skin colour takes the emphasis off the sags a bit.

wow, first time I've heard that said here! Most people complain that this forum is too negative and that theres' too many people who discourage all newcomers.

What do you mean "some days"?. I prefer my cat everyday! I have a wonderful rewarding relationship with her! ps: I said no to black to for Ewan. We compromised on dark brown. Given that he has totally white blonde eyebrows, it looks um, questionable to say the least. But he's happy. And skinny jeans! Its not just girls. I'm afraid he's actually damaging bits of him that are meant to grow.

I eat loads of nuts, and I often have a good handful of nuts and an apple for a meal. I find the same thing, when I eat nuts regularly, my skin is incredible. My hair is healthier too. The good fats are great for your body, good for your heart etc. they are high in fat and thus calories, but its healthy fat and for most bandsters, calories are not the problem they were, you eat less so you can afford to eat foods like nuts. My favourites are macadamias, mmmmmmm. We had a gastro bug in the house the other day, Eliza was puking, and I felt quite strange all day. I didnt get sick but my stomach just would not accept food, everythign substantial burned and I was tight as tight. I ate nuts all day, lol. I just had a couple here and there.

I'd like to see what happens longer term with the sleeve, although it does look like an excellent surgery. However, with a band, since I've been maintaining, once or twice, I've required a small top up to keep me on track. It loosense off just marginally, the appetite picks up and i"ve had to go back in and get just 0.1cc put in. That's a seriously tiny adjustment, so I wonder if even minute stretching out of a sleeved stomach would add up to 5 or 10 extra lbs. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, I dont look at being within 10lb of my goal as good enough, I need to be AT goal at all times, lol. And then when I get old, my family tends to get scary skinny on my dad's side, like my nanna was my height and at 84 was about 120lb. Really THIN, as in not just thin but underweight by a good 20lb. Its not that the band is removeable, its that its ADJUSTABLE that is what I like about it. I can let all the Fluid out of my band when I'm older if I need to. Or I can remove it, yes. But it kind of scares me to think of having a minute stomach and not being able to adjust it. And what most of the sleevers have said they eat and live on, I would seriously starve to death. I appear to have quite normal calorie needs, unlike many formerly obese people, I need about 2000 a day to maintain my weight these days. I couldnt get that in with a sleeve it would be extremely difficult.

I dont know what exactly happened, lol, but I'm sure I've been through it too. I've got one morose 14 year old boy who's getting HUGE, and wants to do nothing other than lie around unshowered, stuffing his face with junk food and playing PS3. I dont buy the junk food but I cop the verbal abuse for it. He grunts at you if you speak to him and there's a horrible smell that surrounds him. He also wont get a haircut, but goes to a private school with a strict uniform policy, he leave his uniform on the floor and goes in crumpled pants and blazer. The 11 year old is the complete opposite, totally and utterly a fashion victim (though a boy) and uses more hair product than I've ever seen, spends his pocket money on hair colour, drives me mad wanting clothes clothes clothes, is completely seduced by money and stuff and does nothing but criticise what crap parents we are for not being stinking ritch and being able to have the latest car, the best house etc. He is gong to be TROUBLE that one, he'll be the drinker, the drug experimenter, the nightclubber. He thinks my one role in life is to drive him around to his social engagements and that he ought to be allowed to be riding his bike wherever after dark with no responsibility to come home. Then I have a six year old girl. She's utterly adorable. Gorgeous. Such a pleasure. But I'm under no illusions that that will continue, lol. Give it five years. Argh. Doug and I often think of the life we'd have - read, how freaking rich we'd be - if we didnt have kids, lol.

Obesity is such a complex disease isnt it? any other disease if someone offered you up a solution you'd be all over it. But with obesity, some people just react so badly when the answer is put in front of them. They dont get intersted, they put the surgery down and make it sound like you're shallow and stupid for wanting to do it. I wonder why? Why do people subconsciously want to hang onto their fat? You dont find people subconsciousy wanting to hang onto their diabetes or heart disease. Its so weird. Its good to get on these threads and have a vent about nasty people but in truth, I doubt its ever motivated by pure nastiness, there's a whole host of things going on in their heads. But I personally dont have time to deal with people's issues, lol. I'd just tell them where to get off.

I didnt. Some days I eat Snacks if I'm hungry, many days I eat snacks because I'm at home and its there (bad bad habit). Other days I'm busy and eat just 3 meals and other days I'm super busy and only eat 2 meals. To me, its real life, not a 'program' which for me is every bit as destined to fail as it ever was. As for the eggs thing, well I've always found that with my band. Protein doesnt fill me up like they say it should - wholegrain carbs, fruit and vegetables DO. We dont get told to do protein first here anyway, so I base my diet on wholegrain carbs and fruit with more moderate amounts of protein. I usually have some sort of Cereal or bread for breakfast, the carb hit gets my day started well (but I absolutely dont eat crappy carbs) and then I eat my protein at lunch and dinner. I dont usually eat any carbs at dinner, not intentionally but its more that sometime you have to get in lots of vegies and rice, Pasta or bread takes up all the room. At lunchtime I normally eat a sandwich or something. If i do that, the urge to snack doesnt strike, if I eat a protein/vegetable lunch such as a salad, I will need to eat again before dinner. Overall though, as long as I eat right at the meal - protein, wholegrain and some fruit or vegies, I do best on 3 meals per day - snacking just sets me off and I tend to keep on eating. And I have huge trouble snacking on healthy foods, I simply cannot break the association between snacking and foods like chips, Cookies, etc.