Jachut

My doc does require it but didnt for me with a BMI of 35. He said the same thing - pretty minimal benefit in those circumstances for such a harsh thing to put your body through. although I've jsut been told very smartly on another thread that Optifast actually magically primes your body for weight loss. and if you believe that, I've got these wonderful pills to sell you..... I have to disagree though with the idea that if you cant stick to the pre op diet you will struggle post op. In my experience, practice doesnt make perfect with dieting, its hard no matter what you do and I had FANTASTIC restriction after surgery, I didnt even want to think about food for eight weeks. Lets not forget, you're doing post op with a band! I'd just hate for people to be down on themselves and terrified about what is to come - for a good portion of people post op is actually quite easy.

Try adding intervals to your workout routine - 60 second long bursts of SUPER intense work like sprinting (depending on your level of fitness) where you max out your heart rate, then recover for 2 minutes, then do it again, perhaps five times over, throw in 5 minutes of steady state and then perhaps a couple of intervals where you up the incline to 8 or 9 and pick up the speed a little bit, so its like 3/4 of the intensity of the sprint intervals etc etc. If you do this and get off the treadmill ready to barf (lol) you're probably going to see a sudden drop in your weight. It even works for those of us on 18 month long plateaus! Its hard to lose any when you're already a healthy weight but this really works for me. Check out www.cardiocoach.com - MP3 download interval probrams, they're only $14 or so and they really intenstify your cardio and make it fun, tell you what you should be doing etc. And your treadmill probably has some good programs too. Try them out. Steady state cardio is great for you, fantastic for your health and enjoyable once you become fit. You should continue it. But to keep weight loss really going, you need to add in some harder stuff.

I really believe the lapband should be a new lifestyle and in any lifestyle we ARE going to occasionally make some less than ideal food choices. I would have a little of whatever you fancy and just keep it small. Dont overdo it. Then move on and eat well again at your next meal. It wont hurt your weight loss and its important to learn the kills about how to deal with not being in total control of what you get to eat on certain occasions. Its just food at the end of the day.

Maybe you're a bit swollen from the fill. I can leave a fill appointment and go straight out to lunch and eat. DH has to baby his through with a day or two of liquids and mushies. Perhaps that applies to you too. The thing is, with a fill, if its tight but you can still drink liquids and eat fairly well, then in all probability, you will loose weight and it will loosen off. And you also adjust at each stage along the way to what you can eat and how fast you can eat it. But it still is a shock when your ability changes in one single day. I think if you feel any side effects like reflux/heartburn, night coughing, difficulty getting liquids down or pbing and sliming that cant be honestly attributed to eating a bit too fast or just learning that you cant eat this or that now, then if it were me I'd take a tad back out. YOu dont need to live in discomfort to lose weight. But if its just really tight and you have no other problems, then you can probably afford to stick it out, enjoy the weight loss and enjoy the inevetible relief when it loosens. Which could as you say be in a few days time when the swelling (if any) goes down. Its really up to you and what you can tolerate.

Here's to a skinny christmas! The fill will no doubt work!

My doc laughed at the suggestion that you cant have coffee, so dont feel guilty Heather. I know though that I wouldnt be able to drink my normal amount of coffee and that I'd had to save my stomach space for more nutritious fluids. So I began to switch to decaf about 2 months before surgery, a cup a day per week. I was off caffeine totally for 2 or 3 weeks before surgery. No withdrawal. Then I went back to drinking it when I was healed up. I dont know why I didnt just stay with decaf and allow my normal five or six instant coffees a day to creep back in. I do fine without the caffeine, its the ritual of a hot drink that I like. I drink all my Fluid hot just about.

I dont think anyone is criticising Oprah for having a weight problem and even those of us whom she annoys have sympathy for that. Everytime there's a fat Oprah pic in a tabloid, I think leave the poor woman alone. I dont even really care if she's against WLS. Her loss. What I object to is her continuing to go on and on and on publically about it as if she's actually going to beat it this time, and as if she's found the amazing person who has it all figured out and will help her and how we all should do it too. Shutup already. I really dont believe she has anything constructive or helpful to say about weight loss.

Simply incredible. I dont know why but I had never realised that you'd lost almost 200lb. You're not even recogniseable.

Oh for pete's sake Sarah, grow up! I say heaps of positive stuff on this board, I just happened to disagree with YOU. In my opinion you were stating highly questionable opinion as if it were fact and it was misleading. I objected is all. And then I objected when you said that I could find proof on Wikipedia. Like Heather says, if you cant take being disagreed with and choose to take it as insults, get a blog instead.

Yeah, I agree. I always like exercise but didnt feel like doing it hard six days a week! But once you see what happens when you combine it with consistent diet, you become totally addicted!

Sounds so easy, have bookmarked this one!

Breakfast: small glass OJ and a crumpet with butter and honey. Yes, I know, CARBORAMA. Gosh it was nice though:tongue2: Mid morning: an Optifast Protein bar. Making up for Breakfast Lunch: meat bolognaise sauce on stir fried zucchini ribbons, with a bit of parmesan afternoon: 2 Scotch Finger biscuits dinner: a greek lamb sausage (barbecued) and some tossed salad (included walnuts and mango, yum). Going visiting tonight, planning on a glass of wine.

Oh, that completely sucks! I agree, alarm bells should have gone off when he wanted to do a fill that big but its not that easy when you're already there in the situation. I can think of lots of times when I've had the feeling I'm about to get poor service (bad haircut, fungal nail infection at a nail bar, etc etc) but you just dont want to speak out at the time. I hope hope hope for you that it doesnt mean replacing your band.

Widipedia? Are you serious? Oh boy. Yes, having a fatty liver is bad for you. That's what justifies putting your body through Optifast for 2 weeks. Surely you're not seriously suggesting that long term Optifast is the way to lose fat, preserve your lean body mass and end up in glowing good health? I would guess that if your surgeon suggested that Optifast somehow magically prepares your body for losign weight, what he meant was that the huge Water loss on the scale is rather satisfying and motivating and a great start to your new life. Not that some miraculous science occcurs. its simply starving yourself of calories therefore you lose weight. Same as anything else. This thread was originally about what different doctors suggested, why not discuss it here?

Nope, i drink about the same. In australia, instant coffee is a lot more common, we have a lot of really good instant coffee, and people dont on the whole have their filter machines going on a daily basis. In general whislt I love really good coffee, I am an instant coffee drinker, so its not quite as high in caffeine as the brewed stuff. I get through five or six mugs a day, with just a dash of cold milk. I dont make a habit of fancier coffees - our coffee is very European style, strong espresso, and a latte is 1/3 glass espresso 2/3 steamed milk, all those confectionary coffees that Starbucks does have not really taken off here, in fact Starbucks is having to close down. so that's not a habit I need to worry about. so given I ingest about a cup of skim milk over my five or six mugs of instant coffee and not too much caffeine, I have no intention int he world of cutting down on one of the greatest pleasures in life.

Dont lose hope and dont listen to the little skinny instructor. Its incredibly hard to put yourself in another's shoes physically, I get really frustrated with DH becuase he wont/cant powerwalk as fast as I can and totally forget there once a time when I couldnt keep up with HIM. The trick is to slow down. You shouldnt feel like you're having a heart attack, that's too intense. You only push like that if you're doing cardio intervals, you maintain it for like a minute and then you slow down and recover. If you can adjust your intensity on the arch machine, then do so, otherwise do something like the treadmill, bike, rower or elliptical. The rules change as you get fitter - I love to grind myself to a pulp these days, lol - but for now, you need to keep it at a level that you can sustain for 20 minutes or so - becuase early on, you need cardio sessions that are like 40 mins to an hour to really burn fat off. So its pointless going so hard that you're whacked after five minutes. Getting used to the sensation of exercise is hard, if its not difficult and has you sweating and breathless, its not going to achieve much long term. You have to commit to working quite hard. But you shouldnt be about to die or throw up or both. Dont be afraid to ask for help either - say to the skinny biatch "look, this is just too HARD, I feel like I'm about to die, how can I moderate this a bit to work me until I *AM* able to do it that way". also, a heart rate monitor can be a REAL help at this stage, where you can read your heart rate and know that your intesnity is safe, until you can read your body more accurately. If you're not a long term exerciser and dont know how it should feel, you can have trouble finding an effective level of intensity. I've read lots about the "perfect" exercise and I've come to the conclusion that its the one you will do. It can also be very offputting and bamboozling when people scoff at your exercise choice and bang on about how you have to build lean muscle with weights etc etc when you're just starting out. For what its worth, what worked for me was pure cardio for the weight loss part of my journey. Yes, I was lucky to be fitter and I chose to take up running, but honestly, the intensity of what I did over that time was long and slow, with sessions of 30 to 45 minutes. I probably could have lost faster with a high Protein diet and lots of weight lifting, but I just plaind idnt want to do it, I wanted to run. When I got to goal, I upped the intensity of my running purely becuase I had other goals like personal best times and stuff, the cardio on its own WAS and IS fine for me to lose and maintain weight. But being the perfectionist that I am, I want this perfect body, I need hard cardio interval training and serious strength training now - I'm fine tuning. If you want to do those things that's great but if you want to keep it uncomplicated, walking, progressing to powerwalking and even running, and things liek the elliptical and bike are absolutely perfect and can be done at a low enough intensity to enable you to gain fitness without killing yourself.

:wink::thumbup::thumbup::ohmy::thumbup::tt2: Here here. I am not about to say that discrimination against obesity doesnt exist, but I really believe that in a lot of cases, its more about what you project and put out there than people despising you becuase you're fat. And there is definitely an "us and them" mentality that people read. I can honestly say I was never to my knowledge discriminated against because I was fat. Not openly and if I lost out on jobs or something because of it, well I didnt look as good or project as much confidence as I could have and if someone had the same qualifications as me and looked better and was more upbeat to boot, I'd hire them over me as well! I had every opportunity to do whatever I pleased as a fat person, just as I do now. I can truly and honestly say I've had WAY more bad vibes, open hostility and the like from heavier people since I hit goal. You seem to be OK as long as you're not too thin - if you're "normal fat" meaning you're out of shape, hefty but not obese, you seem to fit right in with everyone. Lose past that and everyone suddenly seems to see you as up yourself, obsessed with diet and exercise or better yet, as being after their husbands. They find you intimidating, assume you're richer than them and dont have the same day to day troubles, the list goes on. Its not nasty, its just an underlying assumption that you're not one of them and that you somehow think you're better. That's my rant. I hate this "fat discrimination" vein, I think its undervaluing yourself. I will openly admit that I have never been super obese or morbidly obese though. I was a fit right into the crowd obese person. I've been laughed at once or twice for my size, sure, but I really dont know what its like to really stand out and I cant pretend to speak about that I was trying on swimsuits the other day - traumatic for ANY woman. I had my girlfriend with me, I was asking how it looked from the back, could I get away with these boy short bottoms with my saddlebags, did my boobs look OK or too saggy. All the normal stuff you check when you're buying a swimsuit, whether you're a size 6 or a size 20. Everyone has body insecurities. Anyway I get out of the change room and I didnt buy the bikini because honestly, it didnt suit my body shape that well. Anyway, this woman says under her breath (having witnessed my trying on I guess) "f..ing bitch" WTF? Do I not have the right to go into a public store and try on swimwear in case I offend someone who happens to be larger than I am? It happens all the time.

Nope, baking has never been something we've done pre christmas - nor when i was growing up. We dont make shortbread, mince pies, Cookies, Christmas cake, nothing. We have plum pudding on christmas day and that's it. I dont bake at any other time of year either, so I guess that helps. I hate it, I'd far rather make a good curry. But I agree with the opinion above. If you eat a few cookies, so what? Just dont overdo it. I honestly dont find the Christmas lead up to be a fattening time at all. Christmas day is big and then its over. So I dont worry too much. Dont talk to me about Easter though :wink:

Wednesday i did Cardio Coach vol 6 on the treadmill - 55 minutes of vomit inducing hill and sprint intervals - I was very impressed with myself, last time I did this one, was about 9 months ago, my recovery speed was 4.5 mph, my sprint speed 5.5. This time, I recovered on 5.5 mph and did the sprints at 8mph, and even manaed 8 mph with an incline of 5 for a couple of 60 second sprints. Yesterday i did a really hard circuit again, my treadmill sessions were 40 seconds at 8mp, 20 seconds at 5mp, five times. Had 4 treadmill bits, and the rest weights, the whole thing lasted an hour. Felt sick as a dog, took a good couple of hours to recover. Realised that I've done 3 hard hard workouts 3 days in a row and was perhaps in need of some recovery now. So that night I went for an 8km walk with doug :wink: Fell asleep at 8.30 pm, didnt budge till 8 am this morning. Having a day off today. I've done super duper well with trying to eat 5 times a day and include more Protein to fuel this though.

Oh yes, we can definitely be like reformed smokers! People need to remember what it was like facing that whole journey, very daunting. I just cant stand Oprah though. I wish she'd go away. And its one thing to struggle with your weight, consider the issues, that's why we're all on this forum, but why does she think the whole world wants to know or gives a flying feck about it? Poor meeeee, I'm sooo rich but I'm just like you! Pah. Lol.

Sorry, I dont like to be argumentative but that's all a bit nonsensical. there is one purpose of the pre surgery Optifast diet and it is not to "shock" the body into anything. Its to shrink the liver. the reason it shrinks the liver is because its low carb/high Protein - this leads to massive shedding of Water weight (since every carb molecule holds 4 water molecules with it) and depeletes the liver of all its glycogen, so it shrinks. It is in no way healthy for you and it does not shock your body into letting go of fat. You do not lose much fat in 2 weeks on optifast, you lose water. You're eating 800 calories a day, to reduce body fat and maintain lean body mass, you need to EAT, on 800 calories a day your body will have to let go of some of its lean mass. So you're right on that one. If you keep up Optifast over a period of months, of course you will lose a lot of fat - also a lot of water and a lot of muscle. Have you ever seen anyone who's lost to goal on a diet like that - they look appalling. I'm not denying though that losing 14lb of WHATEVER in 2 weeks isnt motivating right before WLS. It feels awesome. But your body has not somehow been primed to lose weight well. In fact so many people are disappointed that after surgery it doesnt fall off like they expect - precisely becuase they're already totally glycogen and water depeleted from the pre op diet. Sodium does increase water weight. But in the overall battle against obesity, water weight is irrelevant. If your body suddenly lets go of 4-5lb, mine does too, after your period, you havent suddenly lost fat. Fat loss is a slow process that takes a long period of time and over the course of losing 100lb, expecting to see it coming off every week is pretty unrealistic. Those are different issues to whether you need a low carb/high protein diet for weight loss. There's credible information to support BOTH sides of that argument, and I think we have to work out for ourselves what fits our lifestyles, suits our bodies etc.

I had clear liquids for one day (the day of surgery only) then more varied liquids thickening up over a 3 week period as I could tolerate. Then 2 weeks mushies, then cautiously onto solids. If you've done clear liquids for 1 week, then other liquids, you'll be absolutely fine. What youv'e done may not be exactly what the nurse thought protocol was FOR THIS SURGEON but its well within the normal instructions and I wouldnt waste a second worrying. And she's right, if you've had no discomfort, you'll be OK. You really only need to worry about cheating and eating solid food too early.

I'm not 50, just a baby of 41, lol. But of course its possible! I think you have to really realise that band statistics are just averages. And when you consider weight loss surgery statistics, you're not considering only how people's bodies work over 50, you're considering people's BEHAVIOUR. Sure, it was much harder (and slower) to lose weight getting banded at 37 than it was in my early 20's. My body had been through significant changes, borne 3 children, I had an entirely different lifestyle. But i have a better (stronger, fitter, and more attractive) body now than I did at this weight in my late teens/early 20's. I would hazard a guess that more of the over 50 group struggle with the exercise part of the equation - a large percentage for example would consider walking daily as adequate exercise. Not that there is anything bad about walking, great daily exercise, it will keep you out of the cardiac ward, for the first part of your weight loss journey, it is ample and will help speed your weight loss along. It gets harder at the other end, you need more vigorous stuff, weight training etc and that can be hard to even think about when you're out of condition, obese and not 18 years old. You dont really even need to think about it at first, but see how you feel as the weight comes off. The point is, it really is up to you, its a function of what you want to achieve and what you're prepared to do to achieve it. I'm certainly not suggesting that you must spend 2 hours a day in the gym, but the choice is there to do it if you want to. Losing 100lb is your choice also! The reason your doc was close lipped is probably because choosing to really throw yourself in the deep end like that is less common in older AND younger patients. Many many people get banded, eat less and lose some weight, end of story. Some get banded, work the band, exercise smart and hard and lose TONS of weight. You can be in whichever group you choose.

Oh thank god I'm not the only one to miss out on the Oprah love! I wish she'd shut the feck up and sort out her issues without telling the whole world about it. She always talks like this time she's found the answer. Yeah. Snore. Self love and positive affirmations and all that stuff is fine and dandy but every now and then you've got to just face the bald fact that your own behaviour is causing your problem and that you either want to do something about it or you dont. I've already had an Oprah rant on another thread this morning, where I said I think she's against WLS because she actually doesnt WANT to solve her weight issues. She's all about the struggle, we've all had shoved down our throats for years all the adversity Oprah has overcome, she's so strong, she's so grounded, she's so darn gooooooood to have no goal other than to help others when she's had so much to cope with herself. I think maybe she keeps the weight issue going because without it, she's lost the whole foundation for her personality. She'd have to invent another disorder to overcome.

In fact, there's quite a deal of evidence that the lapband works even better for people of lower BMI's. I'm another low BMIer, 36 at the time of surgery. It worked absolutely brilliantly for me, and I was really thankful that my obesity had not progressed to the point where I was totally unfit, sedentary and my eating habits were worse than they already were. I found the adjustment pretty easy - for me it amounted to an old fashioned method of sticking to 3 healthy meals and cutting out junk - and I was able to start effective hard exercise (running) pretty much right away. I lost about 100lb in 2 years, so it was slower than a lot, but I havent got much loose skin, I can wear a bikini in public at 41, which is pretty darn good I think. No jowels, batwing arms, hanging stomach. I think banding BEFORE you become morbidly obese is the way to go. And in Australia, you'd be approved.