Jachut

I would personally choose a band again five times over and I still consider that post terribly biased, negative and misleading. There are disadvantages of ALL weight loss surgeries - the only completely safe thing to do is nothing - afterall there's only one disadvatage in that - staying fat! Why cant people accept that different surgeries are appropriate for different people? The sleeve isnt better than the band for everyone and the band isnt better than the sleeve for everyone.

I can eat bread and sometimes do but forget about the four slices or so a day recommended for the general population. I will always argue that good wholegrain bread (not supermarket rubbish) is a worthwhile healthy food and I dont find personally that I have to avoid carbs to lose weight - but in the scheme of what a bandster can eat, filling up on bread would not make nutritional sense - other foods are far more nutritious and worthwhile.

This is really really common. But what I've found amongst people I actually know in real life is that this phenomenon, know as first bite syndrome, seems to pass so that it becomes not as bothersome. I suffered from, it and it had passed by a year out, my DH has suffered it and it has passed for him now at almost a year out. I've talked about it with people on line and with bandster meetups locally. What you have to do is be excruciatingly careful with your first few bites, take a teeeny tiny one, chew well, swallow, wait a few minutes and so on. Your stomach seems to eventually wake up to the fact that food is coming and start to function. A hot drink before you eat helps a LOT. Nonetheless this is a pain in the behind and really gives you problems when you want to eat out and/or are eating under a time limit. But it does appear to pass for most people. I never get this anymore. And remember too that every fill level is transient early on, if you are filled a bit too tight, as you lose weight, you loosen up and you'll suddenly realise you're eating more, eating isnt uncomfortable etc. So if this is contributing, it will probably resolve over a smaller time period.

Yeah, I just drink milk - I dont see the need to add worthless sugar to it. I skip the chocolate part. Although Milo is good.... you guys dont have that, its another Aussie icon like Vegemite (probably owned by an American company, lol).

I've got a fill scheduled tomorrow, I can eat about a cup to cup and a half. It depends what and when - I cant eat a full cup of breakfast cereal but I can eat a cup and a half of dinner. In and of itself, this is no problem, I mean a cup and a half meal made up of a lean Protein and steamed vegies is hardly unhealthy or fattening. But its the appetite that comes along with it - I find if I can eat this much I'm also getting hungry quickly and, not feeling satisfied, heading towards sweet carb foods again. I'm not losing or gaining so I no longer guage it by weight loss but I can foresee gaining a couple of pounds if I keep eating as much as I am at the moment.

We've all been there, it happens to all of us. I'm a bit the same at the moment, I'd hate to admit what's gone down my cake hole in the last few days. I'm going for a fill on Thursday. I had the same thing, I didnt get REALLY tight but just a bit for comfort and I convinced myself that I needed a bit out. Which I did, got relief but the the whole last 12 months has been much more of a struggle to maintain, I've dealt with head hunger and appetite the whole time. I havent gained anything significant, thanks to running about 700 miles a day. But I'm probably a kg or two heavier than I was at this time last year and its better to act now! For me, the tightness was transient, in hindsight I should have waited it out because I'm back at the same level and can easily, and I mean easily, eat an entire sandwich. Which in and of itself is not so problematic, but the appetite that comes with it is. So I'm going to have a tiny fill. And then another if I need to. I've farted around way too long complaining about wanting to have lost just 10 more lb without actually using the band for what it is meant to be used for - well filled you can eat little enough to lose weight! I guess I just kind of feel I shouldnt need it this far down the track and that my doc is going to scold me for wanting to lose more weight. What more can you do? Just approach that good restriction cautiously and slowly and keep up a lot of exercise, which works wonders to preventing weight gain. I guess you ARE starting again in a sense but if you cant take the fast aggressive fills then no amount of trying to is going to work for you, you'll just end up unfilled again. Slow and steady wins the race. Oh, and did I mention exercise! Its your number one weapon in preventing regain.

Not single, so no comment there, but Fanny, you look FANTASTIC in your avatar. What a change from your old pic!

I didnt have to do one either - at a BMI of 35 and in pretty good health, it wasnt likely I had a very enlarged fatty liver and as it so happened, my overzealous general doctor had sent me for a liver ultrasound as well as a barrage of other tests when I asked for my referral, My surgeon said that the actual percentage of surgeries having to be cancelled due to fatty livers is very very low and that the pre op diet is a safety measure but probably not vital for most patients.

Hmmm, somehow I dont think soybeans are a freak of nature that occurred simply so that whizz bang Protein drinks could be manufactured for perfect human nutrition either. Everything we eat is just there by chance. If we didnt have supermarkets we would be eating things we found in our environment, killing and catching what we could, and if we were lucky enough to stumble upon a nest full of eggs (which are baby birds, not food) or a cow with a full udder, I think we can be fairly certain we'd take advantage of it, especially if we'd had to chase it ten miles. And I dont think we'd be pissfarting round working out how many grams of carbs or protein were in it either. Humans can pretty much eat anything and are evolved to do so. We're omnivores - animal, plant etc it doesnt matter, we can eat it. Unfortunately what we're NOT evolved to handle well yet are the loads of additives that occur with manufacturing and the mega gigantic calorie load that comes with such abundance. Milk is the least of our worries I'd suspect.

Oh, for sure, that's why I said its not the answer for everyone. You have to get pregnant in the first place, and in such cases its a risk/benefit analysis. And the benefits FAR outweigh the risks. But breech babies and reflux and being unable to eat a lot are hardly bizarre or unusual pregnancy symptoms, they're very normal and very common. I simply mean that in a situation like mine, where I had no problem getting pregnant I would personally wait until after a pregnancy because I can foresee some (tiresome rather than dangerous) problems with a non adjustable sleeve and there's definitely been lots of stories about bands refusing to behave the same way again after the baby is born.

The morning after surgery I was hungry, but overall, I had a dream run. I had no Fluid in my band but I had absolutely superb restriction for about 10 weeks following surgery - superb in that I was full quickly, with half a cup or so, and stayed that way for hours and had a complete absence of appetite, without any nausea or feeling unwell. I just couldnt care less about food at all. If only I could have replicated that later on! I did well with my band and reached a normal weight, which I have maintained, but boy it would have been SO fast and easy with restriction like I had post surgery. However, my natural appetite returned and it became more of a matter of balancing head hunger and physical hunger with my body's new ability to cope with food. The band has never stopped me getting hungry - but then its NORMAL to get hungry and to eat in response to that. What the band does for me is slows me down to the point where I have to think about what I'm eating and whether or not I've had enough. Appetite control and lack of hunger are not a part of it for me. I get that only briefly post fill, but it dissipates and I become normal again within 2 weeks. However, I didnt take lots of fills to get restriction, I found EVERY fill gave me adequate restriction, the main difference came with getting tighter - then the restriction would last longer. Like, my first 2 fills were only 6 weeks apart, my 5th and 6th fills over a year apart. Although I've had great results, I would DEARLY love to be another 14lb lighter or so, it would be a really spectacular result for me. And I am seriously tempted to go for a tight fill (which I've never really had) to get me there, just to try to dampen my natural inclination to always want to be eating. But with that will come super tight restriction and that I dont particularly want, in this sense I'd say I've had more bandster hell later on in my journey than early on. Not that I'd call it hell, what a problem, to have a BMI of 22 and want one of 20! Hardly worth getting too upset about.

Its actually not THAT much exercise, it just sounds a lot for totally sedentary non exercisers. If you're constantly tired, start to get sick, dont sleep well and get depressed, then perhaps you have to start thinking that your body needs a bit more rest. But what you are doing is fairly low intensity cardio, even though to an unfit person it would not appear so. Its gentle on the body, fairly low impact, unlikely to result in injury and unlikely to seriously exhaust you. Covering 6 to 8 miles per day on foot is entirely reasonable and probably what most of us ultimately need to do to reach and maintain a normal weight, as opposed to a just a better weight than what we started at. Our bodies are designed to move and very well equipped to cope with this amount of exercise. When you ramp it up and do the really hard stuff like full on weight lifting and interval training cardio, then you have to have days off to recover, you will wear yourself down to nothing doing that daily. But a day off might mean walk 6 miles at a nice pace, not lie on the couch with a bag of chips. Its only addiction if its affecting your life - if its causing you stress, putting other people out, if you're doing dangerous things like going out alone at midnight to run. Its not addiction transfer at all, I dont think, unless you are seriously weird about having to miss a day - I mean, I dont like to miss a day if I can help it but that's because consistency is the key to good results, not because it makes me panic. If I'm busy, I'm busy, end of story. And I have to do stuff like get dinner for my kids so if I've run out of time, I've run out of time. Being committed and dedicated to your routine in a healthy way is not addiction, its what it takes to maintain a fit healthy body. Being easily distracted to miss sessions becuase of a busy life is much more problematic and a much less healthy attitude.

You might have a different experience this time around. Saying you do not eat meat or chicken when the band is tightened indicates a few possibilities: the band is TOO tight. You should be able to eat solid Protein in small quantities. You have been slipped or had some band troubles for longer than you think - thus causing you to not be able to eat solid protein or you are not eating right - too big bites, too fast, etc. Again, you should be able to eat solid protein. My experience of the band has been the exact same normal diet I had before without all the treats, just in much reduced quantity. Portion control plus a lot of running worked together to get rid of about 40kg for me. Oh, I occasionally have mishaps that lead to vomiting - like when I shove something in my mouth because I need to run out the door, or when I am talking and socialising and forget to chew enough or when I'm starving and cant stop myself taking big bites and swallowing too fast. But generally, its trouble free as long as I follow the rules. Eight years ago, there were different bands, less knowlede etc. You'll probably get much more information, different information etc. A lot more research and development has been done, so hopefully this time around you will have a band that works even better for you. Its entirely possible to lose all your excess weight if you work it right.

Erk. Yes, when you see some of the special drinks the half marathoners and marathoners leave out rather than take the water at the stations, you wonder how they drink them! Milky stuff just sitting tables!

What post op pain meds did you have? I could literally tear my skin off when I have morphine.

Really, I think the answer is to cut down severely on processed foods, and that includes Protein shakes. We take in so many additives, artificial sweeteners etc, its just horrid. Learn to drink Water, train yourself to drink you coffee and tea unsweetened and give up the enormous confectionary coffees. That way you dont have to worry about sweeteners OR sugar in your drinks. Make smoothies with milk and eggs and fruit instead of Protein Shakes if these are a staple of your diet. There's a lot of protein in an egg and a glass of milk blended with say, some vanilla and a banana and its real food too. I would vastly prefer to take in real sugar on the occasion that I want something sweet - that way I know I keep the vast proportion of my diet healthy and unprocessed and keep the sweet treat foods to the small proportion they should be.

I'm very intrigued by it because it is supposed to result in some skin contraction. My tummy is a bit weird. I have a patch, nothing more, of loose skin ABOVE my navel, despite being completely pear shaped and never having a big stomach. It must be more from pregnancy than weight loss. To grab my stomach and pull the skin down has minimal effect on this upper stomach loose skin, and my lower stomach is absolutely flat. I would NEVER consider a vertical incision down my stomach as you cannot even see this loose skin under clothing, you would assume I have a perfect stomach. In this centre, portion of my stomach and over my entire stomach, I also have some residual fat, just enough to overhang tight waistbands and annoy me. All I'd need is a bit of lipo, rather than a tuck. So I was indeed planning on looking into this later this year. I'm also intrigued by abdominal etching, lol, do you know they can lipo a six pack stomach for you?

Actually, that's a point. I did have lots of activity focussed goals - once I ran a 4k, I trained for a 7.5k and then I did a couple of 10k's and then I did a 14.2K and then a half marathon. In fact, losing weight was almost secondary to my running through this whole process.

Hmmm, I dont know that I'd risk it before pregnancy to be honest. My first two pregnancies were text book, so easy, my third baby was breech, she sat high, I could BARELY eat by five months in. I had the most horrendous reflux and heartburn too, I'd bend over to pick up something and just vomit everywhere. I honstly dont know how I'd have coped - I had more restriction with pregnancy than I do with my band, I could only eat teeny tiny quantities. If my teeny tiny sleeved stomach were as squashed and misplaced as mine was, then its NOT as simple as eating an extra meal a day, not at all. It'd just about have to be a constant infusion of tiny morsels which would not be a pleasant way to live for six months I dont think. Then again, I'd be nervous about a band before pregnancy too, so many stories of just never getting back to good restriction. Personally, I'd say that its safest to have no WLS pre pregnancy but obviously that's not an answer for everyone. I think its one of these things, like with a band where the literature says fine, no problem, but pregnancy does weird things to your body and the way it works.

I often drink milk after a tough run, I tend to crave it - and at most other times, I really dont like milk as a drink. I dont really see any need to spend big money on Protein drinks or sports drinks, Water to rehydrate and milk to recover work just fine for me. And again I think its a case of taking what's maybe appropriate for an Olympic athlete and trying to apply it to the layman going on his daily run - a bit of overkill. You dont in general deplete your body so much during an hour long jog or your average gym workout that you need serious scientifically formulated recovery drinks.

Going by my LEAN body mass, not my total body mass, I need about 60 grams a day. Most people overcalculate becuase they count their fat mass in as well. I can do 60 on real food so I dont supplement protein at all. I hate protein shakes too, they all make me want to hurl. I dont count protein really at all, other than roughly occasionally just for interest sake. I must be getting enough, I'm lean but with muscles, I'm healthy, hair, nails and skin are fine, and I have plenty of energy. I dont think supplementing is really necessary unless you're too tight to get in enough solid food.

I only really had the one weight goal. I made the right noises about having mini goals along the way but that's not how my mind works. I wanted to be 70 kg and no amount of saying lets just get under 100 first does any good for me, 70 is what I wanted and what I focussed on and I didnt consider getting under 100 as reaching any sort of milestone. Its just how I am. I make it hard for myself becuase there's many things in life I didnt achieve because it was such a huge challenge to do it kind of thing - breaking it down into small parts helps some - but I just cant think that way.

I was 5ft 10, about 245, BMI 36. It took me 2 years to lose about a hundred lb, I easily surpassed the top of my healthy weight range and settled at about the middle. I found losing weight quite easy - I ate less and did more exercise and it was as simple as that. I continue to practice the same behaviours to keep the weight off.

I think different strokes for different folks - I have never found it necessary to limit carbs to lose weight, nor fat either really although I do mainly eat good fats from fish and olive oil etc, and very little butter, full cream dairy and the like. For me, its as basic as calories in/calories out. I ate less and upped my exercise and I lost weight - I've never journalled and I've never counted any more than just roughly adding up in my head. I lost well on about 1500 a day.

I have the 10 cm 4 cc band which was in use more commonly when I had mine over three years ago. Its quite quick and easy to get to good restriction with this band as it does not take much - I think my first fill was 1 cc, then I had 2 at .5 cc and since then I've only had .2 and .1 cc fills, and I have 2.8cc in mine now. I actually need just a touch more, as I'm able to eat what is to me alarming amounts, lol, like entire sandwiches at times. My band has been absolutely and utterly trouble free, no reflux, no excessive pbing, no swinging from overfilled to underfilled, just steady and reliable. I must say though, I attend Prof. O'Brien's clinic so I'm quite confident in the skill and knowledge of all the surgeons there. Those fills are inconceivable to me - simply ENORMOUS, and most definitely not proper practice. Something really ought be done before this guy causes somone some real damage - your experience has been bad enough!