Jachut

I was "hungry" at day one. I woke up the day after the operation VERY eager for the cup of coffee and juice they brougth to me. But I filled up extremely quickly (a few tablespoons) and it lasted for hours. Then I'd get hungry again and it was time to eat. But I had more problems with my body needing food but my stomach not telling me to eat - I had a bit of fainting by about day 4. I started on proper food - still liquid, quite thin and thickening up but I would do stuff like blend up the roast lamb I'd cooked the rest of the family for dinner - bit of lamb, quarter of a potato, a spoonful or two of vegies and a lot of chicken stock and blend to a soupy liquid. Sounds revolting, tasted great at that stage. And that sustained me a lot better than trying to live on what is basically junk food - custard, jelly, juice. I made Soups with meat and Pasta and vegies too, even blended up spaghetti bolognaise, with lots of extra tinned tomatoes (and only a few pieces of pasta, it was mainly meat sauce). I lost tons of weight in that liquid stage and healed up well.

Bypass and the duodenal switch are not really an option here and there's just no way I would have done either anyway, having a BMI of 36, the risk of the operations and the lifestyle after (the malabsorption mainly) was more risky to me than remaining heavy. the band is the surgery of choice in Australia BUT I think were I to have it over, i would be seriously considering a sleeve. For a couple of reasons. My band has been a text book journey, absolutely perfect, its a tool that I have been able to work with, I have never had problems. But - you have to be prepared to work hard and you have to live with the discomforts of a band - even though I dont overeat, dont vomit often, dont have random tightness, can eat all foods, every single time you eat, there's some amount of discomfort involved - it just doesnt feel like it used to. You're aware of every bite, there's no just enjoying food like you once did, its a lot more than simply getting full quickly. And sometimes its a bit like a dog running on a chain, you reach the end and YANK, you're pulled back very smartly! to be able to get full quickly but not feel every bite squeeze down, to not go out for dinner, eat one bite in front of your friends and think uh oh, I think that isnt going down well, and then you have to play with your food and pretend to take a sip of your drink etc to stall for time, and then perhaps get up and walk to the bathroom, simply to shake something down, only then to go back to the table and suddenly be able to eat as if you had no band - its just a bit bizarre. But I make it sound terrible and really, I find it VERY easy to live with. Its my constant reminder to mind my habits. But a sleeve would be really good, no fills, none of those problems. I'm wondering what the "temporary lactose intolerance" really turns out to be statistically and the MAIN concern I'd have with a sleeve is everyone says you cant stretch the pouch out because of the part of the stomach they use, but if its only the first part of a duodenal switch and you can stretch switches and bypasses out, then I'm not sure I really believe there wont be sleeved patients with stretched out pouches in the same vicinity of numbers as for the bypass and switch. Lots to think about. I personally find the band brilliant and I'm not one bit sorry I did it, and I find it easy enough to live with I wouldnt consider for a moment revising it to a sleeve. But if it ever needs to come out (which with a band, over a long period of time, is likely) then I would seriously consider a sleeve. However, i do worry about old age too. say my band lasted me 25 years. That would put me in my 60's. Would I really even care about losing it by that stage? Surely 25 or 30 years of good eating habits and exercise would stand me in good stead of not turning into Mr Michelin within 6 months.

I'm not a hoarder and I'm not sentimental at all, so all my clothes went out the minute they were too big. I too had a spouse that was overweight, not alarmingly so, but enough that I kind of felt moved to say that I wasnt doing this just so I could be healthy and outlive him by 20 years, if I was going to have great quality of life into old age, then it would be kinda nice if he did too. He did the "I can lose without the band" thing for 2 years before he took the plunge, lol. It was his decision and basically I left him to make it. I was encouraging towards getting banded if the conversation came up, but I didnt nag him to lose weight. Now I would LOVE a running partner, but alas, he's a chronic accountant, it aint never gonna happen.

I think most fat people derive comfort from comparing themselves to others and deciding "I'm not as big as her" or "I may be fatter, but I'm much better looking" and in the same vein, as long as someone else is struggling and failing to lose weight, it gives them some security that they're not the only ones. For someone to lose weight, its a big slap in your face about how YOU cant do it. And we eat up shows like Biggest Loser becuase its fantasy but we dont like to see it in reality. I really do think its that petty. Not that people are overall so nasty and small minded, just that there's a small part of the (especially female) psyche that is competitive and works on that sort of formula. If my girlfriend suddenly lost 100lb, would I be thrilled for her? Yes, but if I'm completely honest I'd also lose one of my sources of feeling good about MYSELF. Now its not so intense for me and I'm adult and rational enough to show NOTHING but unconditional support for someone embarking on such a journey and not even think that thought consciously, but somewhere deep inside myself I'd be thinking that I'd have to find someone else to measure myself off. Gosh, that sounds SO awful! But I think if we're truly honest, that's how women's egos operate.

And then it got nasty because some people dont understand how forums operate and cannot handle being disagreed with. From a personal perspective, my response to this thread was in agreement with the doctor and I dont harbour any disrespect. But nor do I feel that I must agree with everything someone says becuse he's a doctor. Doctors are people too with their own opinions, biases and leanings - As I'm sure Dr Vuong would agree.

Personally, I'd introduce some interval training :-) Contrary to popular belief, running or jogging burns more than walking because you have to clear the ground, so jogging the same distance v walking will give you a slightly higher calorie burn. Then of course, there's the fact that you cover more distance in the same time frame, so of course bye bye to more calories. Interval training is thought to really ramp up your calorie burn for a good 24 hours. After even a brisk walk, your body reverts to normal within an hour or two. After pushing yourself till you chuck your body will take much longer to cool down and burn energy at its normal rate. And that's why interval training burns more calories - its the afterburn. There's all sorts of scientific mumbo jumbo about fatty acid releast and human growth hormone etc which is not entirely proven but I just know it really works for me. Light weights will help but they wont up the burn by a huge amount. And you have to be very careful not to injure yourself. Ramping up the incline helps heaps too. I loathe weight training as well. So I sneak it in in snippets - I do the BARE minimum because I only want the benefits such as nice tone, stronger bones and a higher metabolism, I dont particularly aspire to looking muscular. I might run a bit, jump off, do 40 really hard deep fast squats, run a bit more, jump off and do pushups, run a bit more, jump off and do dips, run a bit more, jump off and do crunches and then run a bit more. It makes a gentle treadmill jog into a much more intense workout which of course means more calories burned and it gets that nasty muscle building stuff over and done with. And of course that stuff gives you a good afterburn too. It all sounds hard core and it is, and by no means is it necessary to do it that way to lose weight or keep yourself healthy, but if you really want to up the burn,that's how you do it.

In Australia we're encouraged to follow a normal diet - as in eat Protein, carbs, fats, even have the occasional glass of wine or whatever, but keep portions small - in other words focus on it as a lifestyle, not a restrictive diet. By and large, it works well. I eat and alwasy did eat, bread and carb foods moderately and it hasnt stopped me losing weight and I dont do protein first. But that's not to say that one way is right and one way is wrong. What's right for YOU is what you can follow with the least disruption to your daily routines, your family's lifestyle etc and what suits your body. I run an hour a day so I burn off the carbs I eat.

Actually, I thought I was agreeing with him. Dont chew to liquid. Seems quite obvious to me. Some people are just naturally unhappy and bitter, and the internet is an anonymous way of spewing their venom :wub:

I've had 1 c-section out of 3 births and it was elective - but only in that we discovered at 38 weeks that she was breech. I had an xray pelvimetry and it showed I had enough room to deliver her. But my doc didnt want to try it and I personally am not so pro natural birth that I would want to risk it. I was very tempted because I'm tall and have a wide pelvis but only have average 7 or 8 lb babies and my first 2 births were 3 hours, and 40 minutes respectively, both drug free and I didnt even think labour really hurt THAT much. So it was agonising to have to make the decision which there was a chance that even a breech birth would be easy for me. Anyway, Eliza was delivered and she had a bit of trouble getting breathing, as c-section babies often do, spent a day in a humidicrib etc. And I can tell you, I would NEVER in a gazillion years voluntarily have a spinal or epidural again. It was a revolting experience, the closest feeling to being dead whilst you're still alive (your blood pressure can drop to nothing). Also they knocked the eipidural out of my back at some point after the birth and I had been stitched up but was having uterine contractions (stimulted by medication) and that HURT. And it took hours for anyone to figure it out, my ob was livid, and I never did get a bill from the anaesthetist. But the birth was wonderful, magic, all the things my previous 2 were and I dont sit around six years later lamenting that I missed out on a natural birth. I also found recovering quite easy, although now I have hernias at each end of the scar that will need to be fixed one day. But I wouldnt choose it unless there was a need. Natural birth is indescribable, its not something I would voluntarily miss experiencing. I also FREAKED when I saw my stomach after, lol, yes, it had that little pannus. But for me, that went away entirely. However, I have strong suspicions about my sciatic problem being connected to my c-section. However, I do believe strongly that its a woman's right to choose.

I've never been told to chew the liquid either, just to take small bites and chew well. But my bites are quite "normal' - I just dont wolf food down anymore. And I agree, many things taste quite disgusting if you chew them too much.

Habits aside (we all need to be honest with ourselves there), I tend to think that any doctor who knew anything about lapbands would know first and foremost that everyone's body reacts differently. Therefore no matter what some fluoro screen shows, its the restriction you FEEL that is the reality. Fluoro would have to be the most overrated tool! It encourages overly agressive and large fills (because doctors can SEE Fluid getting through so they then fail to account for how the body may react, rather than take it slow and small and build up cautiously) and now here's an example of it forcing an unfill - all because the doctor thinks he can SEE what the situation is, so that's all the evidence he needs! You know what you feel and that's what you ought to go by. The fact that he thinks that he can tell by looking and doesnt seem to understand that what your body perceives is different would make me question his experience and knowledge. Even though he's probably being cautious, trying to save you problems and basically do the right thing by you.

If I had a dollar for everytime I've heard the glycaemic index manipulated and misrepresented like that I'd be wealthy. It the glycaemic index of the entire meal that counts - not the individual glycaemic index of something (unless you eat it on its own). If you eat a Protein source with your meal and by and large avoid really high GI foods - white bread, rice, sugar basically, then the glycaemic load will be moderate and it will be a slowly digested energy providing meal that doesnt give you a big high. But you can in fact eat sonething like white rice and as long as you eat it with low GI foods, it balances out the entire load. And that's why many people dont believe high protein diets are necessary at all. You can achieve similar blood sugar effects with an overall low GI diet - one that is not focussed only on protein. Especially with a band. food sits in the pouch, its not even in the main part of your stomach being digested for a while. People must think their bodies are magic. I mean a few months back we had a so called nutritionist who had it completely arse about and insisted that your body digests Proteins for energy first and in preference to carbs and that's why carbs are fattening. Um, okaaaaaaaay. I'd suggest nobody visits HER! Now this - do you really believe your food drops neatly from your pouch into your stomach in exact order of the mouthfuls you ate it, to be digested in that order? It all gets churned up, mixed around and digested as a mass. Your stomach cant pick out which bits are which!

DH and I are both banded, but we were dont about 2.5 years apart. I was already at goal when he was banded, so it hasnt really made much difference to me one way or another. I dont know that we "support" each other that much - talk each other into eating chocolate is more like it hehehe. We're having entirely different journeys. DH is much more the "I just want to get healthy, no matter what weight that is" type and I'm the more Type A driven I'm going to get REALLY skinny and REALLY fit type. Consequently DH talks a lot about exercise and I actually do it. I tried to be supportive of him and fit my running in in the mornings to walk with him in the evenings but he kept letting me down, makign excuses not to go. I'd get dressed to run on a Saturday morning and he'd say "oh, I thought we were going to walk" which would infuriate me because he had piked all week and then suddenly he'd make me feel bad for running coz he'd planned to walk! So I no longer consider him in my exercise plans, apart from the odd walk. If he wants to keep up with me, travel to do runs with me etc then he is going to have to get HIMSELF up to that stage first. Its not my responsibility to baby and cajole him into fitness. We also have completely different eating styles. He was always the type that if he was going to eat poorly it'd be ten beers and a huge bag of McDonalds poor whereas I would never have pigged out on McDonalds, ever! I'm more the if you sneak a bit of chocolate in standing looking into the pantry it doesnt count coz you werent sitting down and nobody saw you do it type of eater. Lol. I just did that 1000 times a day and that's how I got fat. Eating gutloads of Maccas was never my thing. But nonetheless, we do give each other some emotional support in that we both know what its like to be banded, and we work our family around it. And we're both cheering each other on of course. I wont say we're rooting for each other because that means something ENTIRELY differnet in australia, lol.

I can remember it was new years eve and I was exactly 104kg, which was a long held weight (I stalled at every long held weight on the way down, weird huh?). That was 22 days after I was banded on Dec 9 2005 - so 11kg in 3 weeks. The next time I saw those same people was 3 of march and i had lost exactly 17kg at that stage, I remember that. So that was 6 kg more over the next 9 weeks or so - it slowed down obviously. By the end of that first year I'd lost 30kg, then I lost about 10 the following entire YEAR and then 1 or 2 more after that. So I had a nice, encouraging burst of pretty fast weight loss - I mean I'd gotten half of my excess off inside about 6 months - but it took me another 18 months tolose the reast. I steadied out into being a fairly slow loser overal - 2 years to lose 45kg which was 120% of my excess.

3 words. Cardio. Cardio. and.... Cardio. You cant spot reduce. You need to burn fat all over to lose stomach fat. And the best way to do that is lots of cardio. Strength training helps a LOT too, but it wont spot reduce. A good program combining cardio and strength training is your best bet for all your problem areas. If you have a bad back too, then you also need to really focus heavily on your core strength. Pilates based moves are very effective, as is fitball work. I was having quite a deal of trouble with sciatic pain, and also with a recurring knee injury with running, the key to which is usually weak hip muscles. I've been doing the following faithfully for about a year now, and my back is remarkably better, I never get pain and I was to the point where I had a numb and dead feeling right leg. No more niggly knee either: Planks: - front planks, and planks where you start on hands and move down to elbows, back and forth (killer, lol). side planks Hamstring curls: - fitball on floor, lying on back, legs on fitball, heels digging in. Raise hips so you're in a bridge position, and bending legs roll the fitball towards your bottom and roll it back out again. This will make your hammies SCREAM, but it requires very intense stabilising and balancing from all your core muscles. I also use a sandbag instead of weights for strength training, this has meant I get the benefit of the muscle group I'm working but it works the core remarkably because so much stabilisation etc is needed. Result: perfectly flat tummy (but I was lucky to have no large excess skin issues and never had a huge stomach in the first place) and much healthier, happier back. Hope that helps.

Well, I guess it depends on your perspective and idea of food priorities when banded. If you're always trying to eat Protein and fill up on that, then you'd find it quite difficult to consume much fruit. Its very filling and I find it quite hard to eat, its one food that causes me quite a deal of discomfort, although I can get it down. Sometimes I have a glass of juice. But whole fruit is better. I personally try to get at least one piece of fruit in per day - usually I'll slice up a banana to have on Cereal for Breakfast or I'll have a fruit smoothie, or I find I can get it down with yogurt too. I focus more heavily on vegies as I find it much easier to eat a wider variety and greater quantity - and I figure fruit and vegetables as one food group, so I dont worry if I havent had "fruit" as long as a large portion of my daily intake is fresh produce. But I dont focus on protein or do protein first so its a lot easier. I dont tend to eat fruit as a snack. I dont find a piece of fruit that appetising and never have. I like the look of a healthy, full fruit bowl on my kitchen bench and I'm very prone to buying fruit and not eating it, its something about the texture/crispness/coldness that I dont enjoy and never have.

Yes, I know. The thought of owning a firearm to me just is freakish. People just dont. I dont know ANYONE who owns a gun. Not that there isnt an arguable need for the right to own one. Its dangerous to be out alone at night virtually anywhere in the world these days. And people that want to misuse them get hold of them one way or another anyhow.

I didnt. I was scheduled to see my surgeon at 6 weeks, which I did but I was losing fast and easily then so we both decided not to fill at that point. He told me to come in either in 4 weeks for a second check up and we would review then or to ring as soon as I felt I needed that fill. After that, swelling etc subsided extremely quickly and within a week I was starting to be pretty hungry, although I still lost. From memory we brought the 10 week check up forward a week and I had a fill at almost 9 weeks. For a while after that I saw him at six weekly intervals and had a fill each time, although only small - like 0.2 ml and it gradually stretched out to much longer time frames.

I agree. If someone doesnt get it, then nothing you say is going to make a difference. My line is "I'd rather the inconveniences of banded life 1000 times over than to live how I was". Because you dont choose to have WLS until you have really made the fundamental decision to take whatever comes with it, that whatever that is, its better than remaining obese. If people havent reached that stage (and many never do) then they are simply not going to understand. I had a similar thing with a friend the other night when we went out. I paid $25 for a plate of scallops in a Thai restaurant (and man were they good...... rolled in curry powder, crispy batter, lime juice, snow peas mmmmmmmm). I only ate 5 of them. She said "I just dont get how that doesnt really annoy you". Because of course she still has that I paid for it, so I must eat it ALL, or its food, its there so I must eat it ALL mentality. At the moment, she doesnt want to lose weight more than she wants the instant gratification of eating a lot of very delicious food. If she did, she would "get it".

I think things like tai chi are fantastic things to incorporate into any fitness program for the sort of mental release, flexibility and strength they give you. But to really lose weight and tone up serious jiggles, you need to focus more heavily on cardio cardio cardio and some type of strength program that includes either weights such as machines or free weights or your body weight (pushups, dips, squats, lunges etc). Tai chi is more the sort of thing you do for healthy relaxation and enjoyment on your day off from the hard core stuff.

Hmmm, I lost 120% of my excess. By eating SOME lettuce and SOME Protein. Oh, and the odd tim tam now and again. Which are a carb and sugar orgy. My doc completely supports my view that this is a lifestyle not a diet. And the founder of HIS practice has a book too - The Lapband Solution by Prof. Paul O'Brien. Wow, whodathunk it? More than one way to skin a cat? I just object to THOU SHALT... tone of these little Dr Vuong snippets. There's no "thou shalt" about it, its all about balance, lifestyle and the long term, not some diet full of rigid rules. What if you WANT to eat the lettuce one time instead of all your protein? Is it going to kill you?

Maybe that's why the sunroof was open?

Me too. I defintely, absolutely do better if I include a good Protein source at each meal - particularly Breakfast. But I need my carbs too. An egg on toast for example will stay with me ALL morning and noticeably reduces the mid afternoon munchies. Two eggs however, without the volume of the bread to fill out the meal and I'm picking within an hour. All carb meals do make me more likely to snack, however that doesnt equate to meaning carbs make you hungry - I'm talking wholegrain of course. Just that lowering the overall glycaemic index of a meal by avoiding high GI carbs and including protein gives you a slower burning, steadier energy that equates to less cravings and hunger. But I still dont see anything magic about eating the protein off your plate first. What I see happening then is that you finish your chicken breast and you are stuffed. Which ISNT a balanced meal. I'd rather eat a bite of everything on my plate to get the balance.

But..... did he get to finish?

You know, this only lasts a day or two for me every month. I just go with it. I eat what I'm craving. I can guarantee 2 days per month will consist mostly of chocolate and scotch finger biscuits, drip fed at hourly intervals with no real Breakfast or lunch, lol. It doesnt appear to have ANY impact on my weight. Women's metabolisms are much heightened just prior to menstruating and I also notice I can run REALLY fast and hard during the week before too. So I just eat what I want and then get back to normal when the cravings disappear.