Jachut

Sure. Anyone else want to have a go while I'm at it?

I dont drink them. I dont think about Protein at all really. I've just had some follow up blood tests 15 months after surgery, all my Vitamin levels etc, are fine, liver function improved out of sight, but I'm very low on Iron. That's what I need to concentrate on. I do eat plenty of red meat, but I guess just being female puts you at risk of low iron levels. No hair loss, no problems losing weight, nothing - and I still love my carbs too!

I noticed no difference day to day early on but now since my last fill (and I had a small fill yesterday too) the last 3 cycles, I've noticed increased tightness just before AF arrives. Not sure if its a function of the fill or the fact that I am beginning to suffer some menstrual irregularities I've never had before and am getting PMT for the first time in my life so I may be bloating up a bit whereas I never did before. But I have to be quite careful the week before my period, with what I eat.

I've been normal weight as an adult so I pretty much knew what I was headed for. Doesnt stop me looking like Cindy Crawford in my head though, lol. However, the body that's emerged at 39 years old having lost all that weight isnt *quite* the same as the one I had at 28 when I was last 80kg. Its basically the same, I'm pear shaped, dont have a high muscle mass, and am very tall, so I tend to be willowy but not *fit* looking, just average. However, this time I'm MUCH thinner on the upper body,a round the arms, shoulders, neck and face, that's aging for you I guess. I was looking at a photo of myself the other day when my son was born, when I was 28 and I had big chipmunk cheeks compared to now, yet I was about the same weight. I actually could use a little lipo around the behind, I have a wicket set of saddlebags now that I never had before. My husband gravely informed me after a reading a cosmetic surgery add in the paper that I suffered from gluteofemoral adiposity. Yes I punched him.

I really believe all fast food has its place. Its not dysfunctional to occasionally be late, busy or tired and grab something like that. Eating it for lunch five days a week is problematic, eating it once in a blue moon isnt. But I find it becoming less and less desirable to the point where I'd choose to go without eating these days. Too much like hard work getting a cheeseburger down. I definitely cant do fish and chips (common takeaway here in Australia). That heavy batter is just too much for me. pizza is doable but takes soooo long to eat a piece. McDonalds is just plain hard and it just tastes awful when you really chew it rather than inhale it. I'd rather open a can of Soup or grab a piece of fruit on the way out the door if its breakfast time.

today I've had 2 weetbix for breakfast half a yoyo(cookie) and a coffee at MT a yogurt, 4 Water crackers with cheese spread and a small banana for lunch about six macadamia nuts 1/2 c spaghetti bolognaise for dinner and I just had 4 more water crackers because I just did a big run and I'm starving. I had a fill today which explains the tiny dinner, I normally eat a lot more than that.

I believe it can self correct if you are unfilled for a few weeks. Its very hard to not overeat with a band. I mean, you dont overeat to the point of taking in too many calories, but to stop the very second you feel the signal, that is hard. I consistently shove in a mouthfull or two more. .

It depends on your build. I havent had a bad case of fat rash since I was a teenager, I always sat on around 84kg as a teen, and I used to suffer badly. But then I havent tried to wear a tight denim skirt in the height of summer since I was a teen either, I dont generally wear skirts if I"m going to be active or if its very hot. I did have a skirt that I wore this past summer and didnt get any chafing, and I'm 80kg so not a lot lighter than when I used to suffer. I suspect if I wore what I wore back in 1985 and tried to walk kilometres in a skirt I woudl get it as my thighs still touch. I know my thighs still touch at 70kg, its jsut the way I'm built. But they just brush past each other now, not fight to get around one another, lol. I dont wear out the legs of my pants and I dont find shorts climbing up my legs either.

I think its a fill/doctor issue too - I'd had about 4 fills on six weekly schedules by the time I was 6 months banded and had lost about 60% of my excess weight. Of course, it costs me nothing in Australia, its way easier to use the band properly when the aftercare doesnt send you broke. Hopefully someone from here can help you find something a bit more user friendly.

I have to agree on the calorie intake thing too - I eat 1500 to 1800 most days and have lost. I need to cut down more now as I"m now maintaining on that level but most people without metabolic issues should be able to lose without starving themselves.

Dina, its totally individual. If you're losing weight then you're not eating too much. The more you can eat and still lose the better, nutritionally speaking. What you've listed hardly sounds like a pig out!

Had a fill this morning, a good visit all round actually. I didnt have as much in my band as I thought, I've got 2.6 now after a .2 fill, I thought I already had 3. So I wasnt so apprehensive because I thought I'd be getting near to capacity. Had a coffee just fine at Chadstone on the way home too, so all is well. Had lost 3kg since my last visit and now have a NORMAL BMI!!! Woohoo, I'm not even overweight anymore! I still want to lose 8kg though. Bought a pair of pants in Giordano, grabbed the 16, tried them on, waaaay too big. The 14 was a little tight but that's a week or two, so I got them. I also went for the results of my 12 month blood tests, which it took me until 15 months to show up for. Liver function has improved off the scale, from values of 280 and similar down to 18's and 19's. Cholesterol stayed the same at 4.8 but my LDL/HDL ratio is excellent. The only problem is I'm horribly low on iron so have to start a supplement. I've been feeling dead on my feet lately so that will be why. And I mentioned the bowel problems I've been having, dont know if anyone remembers but I did mention on here once, I get these awful bouts of cramps and cold sweats that come without warning when I toddle off for number 2's in the mornings, it's happened 3 or 4 times now, lasts a couple of hours. No diarrhea but copious amounts, lol, like where on earth was I hiding all THAT. Just horrible, awful pain, as bad as labour, if it happened to me in public someone would be calling an ambulance. My period always starts next day. Periods have become painful, PMT diabolical whereas I've never suffered since before I had my first baby. And then off and on, just low grade crampy irritated bowel for no apparent reason. I mentioned it to my lap band doc because I've assumed its probably associated with hormonal disruption due to all the weight loss. He concurred with that but said that it sounds awfully like endometriosis, which both my sisters suffer terribly with, one to the point that she's been rendered infertile as both tubes are very damaged. Great. So off to my gynae I go, given I havent had a pap smear for 4 years that's probably good. I'm glad to find this out AFTER I've had the 3 babies I wanted but I dont fancy the constant laparoscopies to control the stuff if that's the case. Anyway, we shall see. All in all a good visit today, lets just hope the .2 he gave me is enough to get the rest of this weight off and not enough to have me barfing up everything I eat!

Puddin loves hers, I'm sure she'll respond when she sees it. They look awesome - I'd love one but the kids need shoes more, lol. And a bigger house!

I've had only one tiny PB in 16 months of being banded.

It does change as you lose weight. Unfortunately for me, good restriction after a fill tends to last about a week, lol. I did have one, my third, I think, that lasted a month, but I lost heaps of weight and it petered out. Having on this morning, hopefully this will be the one!

Weetbix so far today, with some sliced banana. Its only 7.15 am. Yesterday I had a bowl of muesli for Breakfast, a yogurt and a banana for lunch, a chocolate chip cookie from the batch I made for the kids and we went over to SIL's for her birthday where I had a glass of wine, a small serve of roast pork with some salad and coffee. I couldnt fit the birthday cake in. today we're going on a picnic, we have rather a nice cheese platter put together for lunch, with some fruit and I'll probably pull some bolognaise sauce out of the freezer so we'll have an easy spaghetti bolognaise when we come home. Not many vegetables today!

Dont know about you but I certainly can! I just made a batch of choc chip cookins this arvo. Whether I can eat them AND lose weight is a whole nother debate, lol.

Hehehe, many people here tend to think so too!

We call cilantro coriander here and I LOVE it too. My ultimate comfort food though, cookies. Or anything horrifically white and high GI really.

If you exercise a lot it happens. Running has definitely done that to me. I've lost a grand total of a whopping 2kg in the last 5 months yet have gone down an entire size and a bit.

I've not counted anything and have gone from 113kg to 80kg in about 15 months. I've been really pleased with that, I only have about 8 to lose. But years of dieting mean I know the calorie count of every food known to modern man, and by rough guessing I've eaten 1500 to 1800 a day on average - which seems to be a lot for a female but its done me fine. I do run a lot though. However the last bit isnt budging, there does come atime when its absolutely necessary!

You sound pretty tight. I have 3ml in a 4ml band. I can eat "normal" sized bites. Not huge hunking fat person gobfulls like I used to. I'm always the last one finished at the table, and I dont usually finish. But I"m not ridiculously slow either. I have to chew carefully and sometimes I forget but I dont have to chew to liquid either. Its more I have to take a bite, wait, make sure its down and then take another because I find I can get in 3 or 4 more bites before pain strikes from the first kind of thing. But this rarely happens to me, when it does its normally from the very first bite of food. I suffer a bit from first bite syndrome and then no restriction after that. If I had even ONE more fill, which I'm contemplating on Monday, I think my bites and chewing will have to become more particular. I dont have great restriction at 3mls.

I think its more European - American sizing is different. I've bought bras online before from Victoria's Secret and had them shipped to Australia and I had to send them back, I'm an Australian 14E and the 34E's that I ordered were like an Australian 20Z!! I've also bought size 14 clothes online and they were as big as my old Australian 18-20's. Actually I love it because I can get on here and say I'm a size 10 to 12. Which in Australia is rather tiny, hehehe.

This still happened to me after my fifth fill. Good restriction for a week and then BAM, its gone. Its extremely annoying!

I buy into the pressure on the nerve dampening hunger theory too. My doc does as well. I had NO hunger, no appetite for a good 4 months after surgery and thereafter, despite more fills, I have had a normal appetite (although not quite like pre banding) but reduced capacity for food. As a result, I lost 18kg in the first four months after banding and have lost 15 in the 12 months since then. But on the days when my band is tighter (pre period etc) my appetite goes away again.