Jachut

Yes, I know, and that's fair enough. I'm sorry, I didnt realise what forum I was in as I tend to just click "new posts". But the point remains, 75lb ovrweight is still fat and its still a good idea to do someting about it.

Ah, my guess is that if YOU were able to lose 75lb and keep it off, you wouldnt need lapband surgery either! Once upon a time, YOU were exactly 75lb overweight, did you do anything about it? You probably tried, succeeded for a while, gained even more than you lost right? So why is it illogical to step in with effective action BEFORE you get hugely obese and BEFORE you have major health problems? Should i have waited till I was 200lb overweight? I dunno, I've lost 120% of my excess weight and dont really have loose skin, to me, that means I probably took the right action at the right time. It must feel like the thin girl moaning about being fat but the truth is, it IS fat. Its just not as fat as some. I have said a lot of blunt and opinionated things on this board but I have never ONCE pretended that I understand or know what it is like to be morbidly obese. Yet I dont have enough fingers and toes to count the times people have intimated that I am/was not as deserving as they were. Its the one area when obese people get upset about the way they are treated in public that I feel moved to remind them about their own prejudices and biases. Because you've just demonstrated one very clearly. Now, I'm not offended or angry, but consider this - were you deliriously happy about your body and yourself at 75lb overweight?

It'll be the same as any other very low calorie liquid diet - OK for shrinking your liver and losing some weight very fast (assuming its nutritionally balanced), but useless for long term weight loss and maintenance. And a lapband doesnt necessarily help you stick to a very rigid diet like that anyway, I can tell you right now, my husband wants me to do Optifast with him to support him and I would find it as hard now as I ever would have.

What I would do is raise it with her. I'm not sure I'd want to get a single mother fired either, afterall, her kids didnt do anything. But that is just so unacceptable. If I wasnt going to let her superiors know then I'd surely be letter HER know what I thought!

You'll find many opinions on this. I've given up NOTHING, absolutely nothing. I eat all foods in moderation. The proportion has changed, I'd choose to eat a Mars Bar for lunch way less often than I used to but I still do it on occasion. I can eat bread, I can eat most things. Things I no longer enjoy because they can make me stuck or unfomfortable are stodgy foods like pizza and unfortunately I have a lot of trouble with fresh fruit - I can eat it but only at home, peeled and sliced up. No more grabbing an apple for my handbag for a morning snack! But the things that you dont tolerate well you naturally tend to lose your taste for anyway, you dont miss them.

After what I said, I got on the scales this morning and have dropped to 150lb since my fill, which I am pleased about, I'm 5ft 10 and to be a size 6 or so would be great, I like to be thin, its the body type I have and luckily its also what personally I find attractive. So - my fill which was meant to keep me in place with a bit less variation week to week has actually caused me to lose a little, that 4lb has come off over a couple of weeks. I've got about 10 more I could play with, anything after that and I really would think about a slight unfill, I dont want to be emaciated. But at this low weight end of things, even losing 10lb would significantly loosen up my band so it will probably stabilise again.

Yes......ish. When I was heavier, it was one thing I really felt and one thing that led me to surgery, the pain in my feet (and I only had a BMI of 35!) I wore birkenstocks everywhere, and I still do because I missed out on the shoe gene. I just dont give a rats about them. I can wear a nice heel in a work situation and be fine though, but I always could.

Fanny this board is way more fun since you arrived. I can let you say all the blunt things and get caned for it instead of me, roflmao!

I prefer to be looser and eat more filling foods like bread etc as well as protein and veges. As long as I stick with that I always lost well. When I've been tighter - as I have post fill before I lost more weight, I just tend to eat around the band, eating all day in little nibbles. I find this a very hard thing to avoid, I do it without thinking. Three bigger meals a day works much better for me and keeping ALL food groups in the picture kills cravings, so for me, looser is better.

Of course its possible. The thing with exercise is you just have to do it. It really isnt that hard. You put on your shoes and head out the door. Why do people find that so difficult? I have no idea, compared to managing your eating I think exercise is easy. It takes an hour or less at a time and then its over and done with. Hopefully you can love it, but if not, well I hate cleaning the bathroom too but I have to do that as well, I'd view exercise the same way. I did exercise before surgery but I wasnt as committed as I am now, I walked, didnt push myself that hard and let it go for weeks at a time before starting up again. I've now learned to put myself first and not make excuses and by pushing myself harder and running, I've had rewards I never dreamed I could get from exercise. But you have to be realistic. I love the gym, but I dont have time for it, which is why I run. YOu have to do things that fit your lifestyle and interests.

The blender definitely - but a small stab blender like a bamix is enough. I never weigh or measure my food.

True, I think you really have to weigh up your weight loss versus your overall health. Higher Protein does tend to lend itself to fast and spectacular weight loss (and the skin that goes with it, lol). But its not necessarily best for your overall health. Higher protein also means higher fat, and often saturated fat. Its very hard to do high protein low carb without eating in a way that increases your risk of cardiovascular disease. Yes, it can be done, but most people are not doing it that way. There's also risks involved with the high level of soy intake people have with their beloved shakes.

I ended up at 154lb at 5ft 10, my weight loss just gradually petered out, and I've not needed to adjust what I eat. I eat slightly less carefully now that I'm at goal, I try to choose healthy foods but I dont worry or even think about amounts, I just dont eat uncessarily or when I"m not hungry most of the time. I'm not afraid of little treats and moderate alcohol intake. I recently had a small fill of 0.1 cc as I found I was getting hungrier and could eat more and faster, I want to stay on top of it. So far from needing to be unfilled, you need to remain aware, although there's plenty around who have been unfilled. I guess in terms of how much I eat, its less than average for a woman of my height. Its not noticeable to others that I'm banded, they just probably think I dont have a large appetite and that's why I'm thin. I dont eat loaded platefuls of food and I dont eat entree main and dessert when I go out. I notice in the staffroom at lunch time I eat WAY less than most others though not so little that it causes comment. I continue to run for an hour four or five times a week, its a very important part of maintenance. I have more fitness goals I wish to pursue and although I've relaxed my eating somewhat, watching what I eat is part of my lifestyle. I accepted a long time ago that I just cant eat what some others can and stay thin. Because I have to eat less than normal people to be thin, I need a lap band, end of story. I didnt really have a problematic appetite in that it was abnormally huge or inappopriate, but what I ate was too much for my body. I cant say I ever downed 3 quarterpounders at a time or lived on huge milkshakes or ate 24/7, I just tended to be heavy (190ish) on quite a normal amount of very normal (and really pretty healthy) food and when a few lifestyle factors such as having babies and becoming less active hit me, I gained some alarming weight (up to 245) and made it into the obese category which is when I acted.

I dont have a choice, if it gets stuck and doesnt want to come up, I cant make it. I have no ability to vomit at will, never have been able to. In fact I can go out for dinner, everyone at the table can be dying of food poisoning and it will all stay in my cast Iron gullet. So if I'm *lucky* enough to PB quickly and be rid of a blockage, I'm very thankful. Usually it doesnt happen and I have to endure it. Putting my fingers down my throat makes me gag but not throw up, although I should try the Water. It might look a bit odd to go to the toilet in a restaurant holding a glass of water though!

I agree with you in entirety Crystal.

No, I chopped off my long hair and have loved it ever since. I wanted hair like Rihanna's, lol. And I got it, a lovely concave bob, and it was pure fluke but its the perfect hairstyle for me. I have great shoulders, collarbones, neck and chest, its the best part of my body and to have my hair skimming my collarbones at the front, but not hiding my best features still gives me a feminine length of hair but its also short and funky and in really pleasing proportion to my shape. I wont change it for a long time now and I know I'll never go back to long hair. I've also gone back to being dark, I had foils for years and now I look at photos and think erk, my hair looks yellow. Now my hair looks shinier and healthier than it has for ages. And I can colour it myself! Do it, a change is a great thing!

Down the road you shouldnt ahve any issues, but take it easy now. I always found after any abdominal trauma (natural childbirth and caesars included) my core muscles take a beating and I find myself very weak in the back for a while. I personally couldnt wear my babies for a good few months after birth for example, and I'm big and strong at 5ft 10.

No, I'm a bit too far in the opposite direction actually. My husband shakes his head in despair over me becuase I go out and run right after complaining that my back is sore and my right toes have gone numb. He'd be in emergency having scans! I get so frustrated with HIM because I reckon if he listens to every ache and pain he'll have excuses to put off exercise for the rest of his (probably short) life. I'm not afraid to push my body, I know real dangerous pain and would obey it, but having a sore back is no reason not to run. I was the same after banding, I was the idiot that decided I was going to run at 100kg. I went for a long walk the day I got home from hospital. Lol, if there was one type of person I can barely control myself around, and want to slap its people who are frightened of every little squeak their body makes, every ache, every pain, kids who panic when they bleed and parents who encourage that etc. My kids know not to come asking for a bandaid unless they've actually severed a limb. I think I'm a bit nuts to be honest.

So so true. If you'd asked me to write a blurb about willpower and obesity I'd have said something similar. I really view it as one day I just suddenly grew up and stopped making pathetic excuses blaming everyone and everything around me for my fatness. I truly do not mean to insult anyone here, but over and over and over again, that victim mentality, where its someone else's fault, too many external factors to blame comes through in people's discussions about their weight and weight loss. Not until you TRULY accept that you're trying to pass the buck, sidestep the responsibility and refusing to face the true consequences of your actions will you be successful in losing weight and keeping it off. Once you can do that, you will not need "willpower". You're not hanging on fast while it lasts because you take responsibility for each and every decision you make every day and you know you CAN eat that chocolate cake, its no problem because you have the ability to make good decisions too and that they will outweigh the indulgent (not bad!) ones because you've taken control of your weight. Of course I have evenings where I think I'm too tired to run, I just want to watch telly. But at the end of the day I know that if I do that too often, and dont choose to run most days, I will get fat again and not continue to enjoy what running gives me. I know how that will make me feel about myself. So I do it. That's not willpower, that's facing reality and accepting my responsibility. I really think many obese people struggle with this and its truly the most important part of our weight loss journey. We can debate endlessly about high Protein v high carb but its not the issue that's important, its taking responsibility for your own health. People that appear to have the magic willpower in general are just not excuse makers, they simply take responsibility because they accept that their actions have consequences.

Yes, ketosis is not seen as a desirable or healthy state to be in here. There's no doubt that lowering carbs is a good move for weight loss but that doesnt mean no carbs or ketosis. Its more of a low GI diet here.

Snacking is the best time to get in your quota of fresh fruit. If I dont feel like fruit I have some nuts. I try to avoid packaged snack foods.

Lol, probably not. Well I think it would be worth doing pilates type exercises, but why would you kill yourself doing crunches when its going to be tightened for you anyway. Although I'd imagine it could get slack again if you got really out of shape? So perhaps the habit is a good one to get into.

Oh come on ladies! You may have been lucky because of course genetics plays a part but everybody knows how bad smoking is for your skin. OK, I"ll rephrase. You can tell *a lot* of smokers by their skin. They often look sallow and dull or get that leathery purple and red complexion and get those telltale vertical lines around their mouths. Smoking decreases the blood supply to your skin and retards collagen production and repair. It also yellows the whites of your eyes (and can destroy your eyesight). Some people are luckier and you cant tell as much. But if you smoke you probably look older than you otherwise would. I havent got loose skin following my weight loss yet would you use that as the basis to say that weight loss doesnt cause loose skin? It does, I was just lucky. I just think if you want to lose weight to look better and improve your health, its kind of illogical to then go and maintain other habits that will destroy your health and looks. .

I wouldnt. I cant go anywhere near an indoor public pool without getting some foul cold or flu. Every single time I go I can guarantee I'll get sick. No way would I risk infection in fresh operation wounds.

Ack! At least you're OK and cars can be fixed. Dont you hate that though - I did a similar thing about eight weeks ago, turning left (same as your right hand turns). I tend to look into the oncoming traffic and drive forward without checking that the car in front of me has moved on. I've had about four accidents in my driving career where I've taken off and the car in front of me is still there. I thought "dont do it, check first, be careful". BANG. AAAAARGH. I still havent taken my car in for a quote to be fixed becuase I cannot do without it. I dont want to have to go without it for a week or two to be fixed.