Jachut

I think you're doing great and you sound like you've expressed your frustration and are feeling better. Yes, the band is a tool, yes, you have to do the work and yes, it's not designed to create more than 1-2lb lost per week when you work with it. But I think if we're honest, weve ALL harboured that secret fantasy that the weight will simply pour off and we all want to be thin yesterday. Its normal to feel a bit impatient. However, if you want to influence and speed up your loss, there's five other days in the week that you're not exercising!. Twice a week wont cut it for that long, you really do need four or five sessions for the best results.

Well, this is a very good point that indicates that you do have to eat enough to sustain yourself to lose weight, but I still dont believe its anything to do with "starvation mode". Here's why: there is ony so much you can restrict your calories and be able to hack it. Even WITH a lapband quelling actual hunger, i find I can only cut back so far before cravings (particularly for sugar) set in. And when I've thought I'd be clever and done a gargantuan day of body pump, a spin class AND a run, I tend to spend three days binging afterwards. I tend to lose when I decide I"m going to eat bigger meals - not because I'm putting in more calories but because it cuts back remarkably on the grazing. I'm very bad at skipping meals and eating sugar and caffeine all day long, way way more calories doing that than eating sensibly. So it feels like I"m eating more but in reality, its the same calories but a much better balance of Protein, carbs and fat that actually gives my body something to run on. Note: I'm not a doctor or a nutritional professional, I'm just doing what I always do on this forum, talking as if I know what I"m talking about, lol. But have you ever noticed how complicated nutrition and weight loss is these days? Pre workout supplement this, post workout shake that, so many grams, eat at precisely this time, have precisely this combination. When I was a teenager and my mum wanted to lose a bit (or I did), we just went to Weight Watchers, which was, and always will be - wait for it - portion control. No science, no blarney, no expensive supplements. You ate less and moved more! I dont think our bodies have undergone much evolutionary change in the last 30 years.

So jealous! I think its finally hit me after six years that things aint getting any better, that last few lb is not going to make the difference, lol. Very best of luck, hope its easy to recover from, and I'm sure you'll be thrilled with the results.

There are pkenty of low carbers around ho will tell you ketosis is a good thing and the way your body is meant to run. Now you know just how dangerous and stupid tha is. You cannot live on protein alone, you need good carbs too and at this stage even yogurt, pudding and custard are acceptable. Blend som frui into purprotein shakes for example.

My heart goes out to you and you never know whats around the corner in life, but for anyone just considering the band it is not a good tool if you cant afford to maintain it! Its pretty much useless if you cant afford to have fills and it can take a fair bit of tweaking to get right. Jaza, obviously a fill is what you need but be very cautious about such a big one, or you might find ypurself going back again fir an unfill. Just because youve had it full before doesnt mean ypu can go back there in one step, the band can behave quite differenly when its been unfilled.

I think go for it. So many people seem to think that we shoudl just accept near enough. I've had the same argument on another forum, you know, I've lost 110lb, I've gotten extremely fit, then I got cancer, had a year of treatment, some horrible surgeries. They used my caesar scar during the laparscopic bowel resection and my surgeon, great as he is at saving lives, is no artist. He butchered it and it now has hernias at each end, looks like I have testicles. I want it fixed, I raised the subject with him and he referred me on gladly, but I did mention I'd probably ask the guy to take out an inch or two of skin. My main loose skin is upper abdomen and it will only marginally improve it, but why not take the chance to perfect a bit of yourself if you can. It wont cost me anything much, as it is "reconstructive". My surgeon said to me somethign along the lines of, why would you want to do that, youv'e got a better stomach than a lot of 44 year olds, nobody is ever going to see it, you look fine. .Because dammit, I deserve perfection, that's why! My view on cosmetic surgery - I'm all for it, but with three teenage kids I could never ever spend that sort of money on myself. Im not in a space where I could do it and if we had spare money like that, it'd be for a family holiday, not to beautify me. But if I can get it done for virtually nothing, then I'm bloody well going to. Likewise with the weight loss - you're right, you dont NEED to, but there's nothign wrong with wanting to. Near enough isnt good enough for high achievers!

Not necessarily true, I have no trouble with bigger pills - other than gagging and being unable to swallow them, that is. Once I get them past my throat, they never get stuck in my stomach. The thing is with children's Vitamins for adults, they're often not nutritionally complete. You miss important minerals like selenium for example, and they dont usually contain Iron if you're of childbearing age you probably need.

Its very possible, but I'll third the notion that dont be hard on yourself. Weight loss just is what it is. You simply cant control it to that fine a degree. I lost about 80lb in a year, I was a slow loser, but that was all my "excess" (I went on to lose about 110), and I'm not a stringent dieter, so I'd say it is definitely about what you eat. Weight loss is always more about what you eat, but that doesnt mean exercise is unimportant. You'll lose faster, more steadily and more importantly keep it off more easily if you make exercise a part of your life and I really find exercise makes me less sensitive to little indulgences, my weight just doesnt fluctuate. Ever. I was and am primarily a runner. I really believe though in finding what works for your body.I do Body Pump (and not with teeny weights) because everyone needs some strength training but I do find that cardio (lots of running and spinning) gives me the body I want - lean with toned muscles and my body fat is low enough that I have muscle definition.

Yeah, I just dont like tomato anymore, the skins are just too hard, I love tomato flavour - Pasta sauch, ketchup, cooked tomato, no problem but I dont put tomato in my salads. I need lube with a salad now. I usually just use olive oil, salt and pepper. When we eat salad with dinner - we dont do it the way you guys do, salad isnt served first and then you eat your main, we serve salad with the main course - a tossed garden salad would replace hot vegetables in the summer, with a barbecue or whatever. I used to be a person who ate everything on my plate separately, now I eat my salad with a bite of my meat and use the gravy, or the relish or whatever condiment. Sounds disgusting, lol, but I really like the cold crunch of the salad with the hot flavour of whatever Protein we're having. I do like salad for lunch - with a can of tuna or something but truth is, while it fills and satisfies me, I will have a sugar binge at 4pm. It simply is not enough food to get me through, I do way way better to load my salad and protein onto a piece of bread or toast or even make a sandwich with two slices of bread. I know that's not the norm for a bandster but it works for me. Better to eat two slices of wholegrain bread than seven oreos at 4pm! as to being hard to digest, I suspect you mean hard to get past your band, but it is in fact quite hard for your body to break down - whilst I had my ileostomy I had three bowel obstructions for which I had to be hospitalised and have bowel rest, each time was after eating salad. And even when it didnt block me up, I would um, recognize most of what I'd eaten when it came out in my bag. Chew chew chew indeed.

Try not to think of yourself as different to the average person either. Yes, its hard at your weight, but that 20 minutes on the treadmill is doing as much for YOU as my 30 minute outside run does for ME. You're working just as hard, and that's what matters. Your body will burn a gajillion more calories per minute than someone of normal weight, so what you are doing is fine. Just keep pushing, a little faster, a little further, as you are able. But if you keep pushing just slightly beyond your comfort zone, the rewards will come. You're on the right track. How do you think that people train up to run marathons? Its no easier for someone normal weight and unfit to get to that stage you know, same process, same feelings, same fatigue, same wanting to die or just roll off the back of the treadmill. Just a different level of exercise, same level of "I'll never get there".

Do you ever get a shock when you really see yourself though? Like photos, when you were fat and you'd see one that you inadvertantly got caught in and you'd not recognize yourself for a minute, then be completely devastated that that fat pudding in the middle was you? I do that now with photos and the occasional suprirse view in a window or mirror. Even after being below goal weight for three years, I *STILL* dont think of myself in my head like I do. I still have the same fantasy me in my head that I did when I was fat, and it doesnt really look like me at all. When I get these little suprirse snippets I can see why people would tell me not to lose more weight. But I still think its really warped how people see normal weight as unusually skinny.

Calories are different for everyone, but somewhere between 1000 and 1500 is likely to hit the mark depending on height, weight, activity levels. Diet is personal, for me, ive had bowel cancer so I eat a low fat, lower Protein, higher carb diet, as wholegrains, fruit and veg prevent bowel cancer whereas a higher protein lower carb diet is much riskier, despite how well it may work for weight loss and diabetes. But i can tell you i lost weight easily and very successfully and have kept it off despite never giving up (wholegrain) bread. Calories are all that matter for most people.

Lol, the trouble is that I go so into the zone when running, its so like moving meditation, that I rarely even notice the view around me.

Leftover meat is dangerous! I actually tried to eat left over corned beef in a sandwhich, you can imagine how that ended.

Exactly. I think this is the healthy way to look at it. I also dont bother with leftovers, they're never that good reheated anyway and thinking you have to get your money's worth out of food is a fat way of thinking. Eating with others is more about socialising.

It wasnt a choice for me either - and nor was bypass which is very rarely done here in Australia. The band is really it as far as bariatric surgery goes. I like the adjustability of the band - but by the same token, its that very adjustability that leads to situations that require adjustment! I personally have needed to unfill due to illness, lost a heap of weight and needed to regain, so for me that's been a good thing. I'd be attracted to the sleeve now though I think - imagine restriction without being unable to eat certain foods! I'm missing half my colon and all of my rectum now, and doing OK without those, so I dont think I'd balk at reducing the size of my stomach anymore.

I imagine flax milk would be super duper healthy for you, full of Omega 3's! You can only talk to your doc. The liquid diet pre surgery is meant to be a high Protein, low carb fast diet which shrinks the liver and may - and I stress "may" - make surgery easier. The magic in it is the low carb high protein part, not the liquid, so you could do a solid diet that fits the bill, you dont have to do shakes. And there's plenty of us around that didnt even have to do a pre op diet. Post op liquids are not such an issue, some people have conniptions if they think they are not going to get 5000 grams of protein per day, but I didnt drink a single shake and I"m still here, I lost weight, I didnt lose all my muscle and turn into a bag of skin.I relied on things like home made soups with lentils and such because powdered, man made protein doesnt really appeal to me as something I'd like to make a staple of my diet. And if you do want to do shakes there are vegan ones around, and you might just have to have them with Water rather than a mix with any type of "milk". I'm sure with a list of intolerances like you have, you're already pretty resourceful.

Good for you! Yes, its a big number, but its the same process as it is for everyone. You just start with the first pound. The only difference is the amount of time it will take. And you know, even if you've just lost 50, and still have 150 to 200 to go, you'll be feeling great about that. Every pound gone is thinner than you were, and it feels good - you dont have to wait till you've lost the whole 200 + to feel good about yourself, feel healthier. The whole journey is enjoyable if you take the time to appreciate the process. There'll be major victories along the way too, you might be looking forward to the day when you can run a few hundred metres, or that first dress may come at 100lb down or whatever. The rewards arent all at the finish line, there's plenty along the way.

Ugh, smart phone typing. I so miss my old Nokia with a stylus!

Have all those symptoms except for the trouble losing weight. I just had my thyroid level checked, it was nornal, however, some experts belueve you feel better with TSH levels in the low normal range, rather than high normal, which can actually be subclinical hypothyroidism. My sister is hypothyroid and she was very ubwell before being diahnosed, with terrible bowel and menstrual symptoms. Id suggest ypu ge full bloodwork done as I am also anaemic with complete depletion of bodily Iron stores and post menopausal - induced by cancer treatment, and tjose symptoms also are connected with those conditions. The brain fog is terrible. I los my car, can find th words fir things I want to say, cant articulate thoughts an have no short term memory.

Ive got some in the pantry, i was going to do it like cous cous, cook it in stock, fluff it with a little butter, then use it as you would rice. I think you can lo cook it like porridge for breakfast.

The band can stay in you forever in terms of the materials and your body, and the longer its been there without slipping or eroding, the less likelihood ther is of that happening. The silicon the bn is made of should last a lifetime. However, in all probability, at some point either the balloon part of the band may fail or the port itself, due to the mount f anipulation those components undergo. This would require surgery if you want the band to remain effctive. Look at it this way though, ive seen so many eople express that criticism, both here and on the sleeve board, yet in their signatures they list tummy tucks, boob job, arm lifts etc. You could say banding leads to further surgery in that sense too.

My colorectal surgeon is obsessed with me gaining weight, as i dropped a lot during cancer treatment, most of hich has gone back on. My bmi is 21, perfectly healthy. He freaks coz you can see ribs in my chest, thats nmy shape, im a classic pear - small shoulders, small breast, no fat on upper but comfortably cushioned rear! He says stuff like "you looked great when you first walked into my office" Well, im only about 5 lb lighter, ive regained ten much needed pounds, im a healthy normal weight, but i think its like howvwe love plump children, people want to see a cancer patient plump up! In truth, that would only increase my risk of recurrence! People lke to see you hv some success, but when you truly change to a very different body they are disturbed by it. I think were genetically programmed to connect weight loss with disease maybe?

In all liklihood you will be left with an apron of skin, which can be fixed surgically with outstanding results. It my even be medically necessary rather than cosmetic so you might get it covered.

Could you have been overtraining? I know im bad at this, i want to run, i love spinning, i know i need bodypump and my hubbie needs walking regularly too. Some days I might do all four of those things but i often find i get moody and lack motivation and thats my sign to take a few days off. Also, nutrition is important. I had bloodwork done recently and i thought i was a pretty good eater, hmmmm. Apparently, i have NO stored Iron left in my body, circulating harmoglobin is also low. It stands to reason that Im probably low in other things. Even when we eat well, wet dont eat a lot, I certainly cant eat enough red meat to make much difference. B Vitamins are Water soluble so safe enough to experiment with yourself.