Jachut

Yes, even though the first week or two are huge water weight loss and not so much fat, they give you a huge boost in confidence and belief that something is going to work. As long as you're sensible that there will be weeks when you pleateau out or gain as your water levels come back to balance.

Such a good point. I was 38 when I was banded last year and for the first time in my life, I did begin to realise that I could be feeling a lot better. I think your late 30's are a time in your life where the way you've lived till then just ever so slowly begins to catch up with you. I feel I had a very tiny inkling of what was in store for me if I didnt act now.

Its a minute risk, of course you can die from anything, but generally as pointed out in the info evening I went to, if a patient were to die from lapband surgery, it would require everyone involved in the care making ridiculous mistakes everywhere along the line - ie. the surgeon would have to leave an instrument in the patient, the patient would have to fail to notice pain or inflammation, the nursing staff would have to fail to respond to the patient, the surgeon would have to refuse to see the patient again, etc etc. For some people though, the anaesthetic is more of a risk than for others.

Id speak to the doc about it. To me, it stands to reason that many people have become overweight because of metabolic issues and problems they may not even know they have, and which only become apparent when for the first time they really truly do everything right and still dont lose. Not that that's a professional opinion, just my feeling. I'm sorry that you're going through that, it would be horribly frustrating.

I get up in the morning and have half an hour on my forums while I have a cup of coffee, I usually get up at 6.45 and Iron a shirt for Doug first. Then its go go go to get the kids ready for school, I usually dont eat breakfast during this time myself. I try to stay off the computer during the days since its basically a sedentary activity, lol but I do have a forum I'm very involved in since the members are my real life dear friends too, its not lap band related. When the kids are dropped off I either head off to uni or I come back home, have some breakfast and go for my run and if I dont run and have showered earlier, I run in the afternoon after school.

You sound very much like me, and I say go for it. I had my surgery at a BMI of 35 and was still reasonably fit, although it was really due to an inexplicable ankle injury that was threatening to severely curtail activity for me that I had surgery. Like you, I was not a binge eater or an enormous overeater, just moderate overeating over a long period of time, on a normal diet, had packed the kilos on me. As such, surgery has just been an overwhelming success for me. I didnt really have to "change" my eating habits as they werent so horrible and I wasnt a terrible emotional overeater - I've had to find no alterantive means of expression for difficult emotions etc. So I've pretty much just gotten on with the business of losing weight. I choose what I always did - healthy food most of the time, treats sometimes, but I eat about half as much. When I do go out, I no longer think "I'm going to enjoy this" and just let go and pig out, I just enjoy my food in smaller quantities. Because I was fit and had no real comorbidities other than the ankle, within a few months I was able to start running and my progress since then has been incredible. I"m nearly down to my goal weight, but I'm certainly now a normal sized person. On the weekend I ran in the Melbourne Marathon, did my first 7.5km distance, ran it in 50 minutes and crossed the finish line bawling my eyes out at all I've achieved in this last 12 months. Yes there are some complications to surgery and things that can go wrong but its a small percentage, overwhelmingly the band has been shown to be a comparatively safe procedure, certainly safer than being morbidly obese. Some people would argue that but you can put a negative spin on anything if you want to. Its a risk worth taking if you ask me, chances are it will be a great move and one you'll never regret.

I eat anything and everything, just way less than I used to. As a supportive and caring spouse you would soon get to know if there's some things she jsut cant tolerate and perhaps learn to cook some lighter things, they're just as much fun! And some of the more evil things, like cake, are just about impossible for some people to eat. The holiday, well she should be well into mushies by 4 weeks and really, there's a huge variety you can eat, perhaps just call ahead and explain the situation, by 4 weeks you should be able to pretty much adapt anything.

Well you're certainly entitled to an opinion, but I disagree with it. I think mental health is every bit as important as physical and the discrimination and stigma that come from being morbidly obese are valid reasons for surgery, they are every bit as serious a comorbidity as high blood pressure. Its such an ignorant way to view the whole thing, to completely disregard mental health and the effects of obesity on mental health. Hmm, standard cosmetic surgery only affects your looks? Surely having bags of silicone put into your chest, necessitating several repeat surgeries as they degrade and making future mammograms to detect things like breast lumps very very difficult all for the sake of having bigger breasts is every bit as risky as bariatric surgery. Especially the lap band. Managed properly and with a bit of luck that you wont be one of the small percentage that experiences probl4ms, a lap band does NOT compromise your nutrition and health, and I'd hazard a guess its much less risky than carrying round a few silicone implants. We all know the health horrors that have occurred due to breast implants. I dont particularly care to stick toxins in my face either or slice bits of my face all for the sake of looking younger. I'd rather look healthy and fit (as a result fof my lap band surgery and the immeasurably healthier lifestyle that has followed it) but look my age than be overweight and lacking in energy and get up and go but having a nipped and tucked face. And I dont think there's many women around who can say totally honestly that vanity played no part whatsoever in their decision. Come on! So many of our NSV's are about superficial things like going down in sizes and such.

At 35 I guess I was relatively low BMI. But boy did I feel every extra kilogram. Like I said, even at that realtively low BMI I felt shocking, really lethargic. I was motivated a lot by fear of future problems and comorbidities as I could certainly have been said to be a "healthy" fat person so far as that is possible. No real comorbidities, just a total lack of energy and rapidly dwindling fitness. But do I enjoy looking better? Hell yeah! However, although vanity was certainly a motive for me, I'm not sure that had it been my only motive, I would have done it. I would like to point out though that physical health is only part of the picture. What a healthy self esteem and and self worth adds to your life is immeasurable. I think mental problems such as depression caused by weight is every bit as valid a reason for banding as high blood pressure. But if thin werent in, would this even be a problem? It doesnt matter, we dont live in a society that values plumpness do we?

Its time for some hard exercise. YOu need both - to be active all day every day AND you need to exercise, to push your fitness to a new level and to change your body composition for the better. It makes all the difference.

I've only had the slimes but my assumption is that that is pre PB. I tried my darndest to make whatever was causing my trouble on Saturday night come up but I am not a talented vomiter, I cannot do it on demand and my body needs to have some pretty severe signals to take over for me. It took me a 40 minute very brisk walk (almost a jog) spitting every few steps in the dark to dislodge whatever it was that was causing my problem, gosh it hurt. Worst one I've had and caused by overeating - not huge overeating, just ignoring the signals.

Hmm, I guess I've been subject to the thin is beautiful mindset too. Its almost unavoidable. I hate to say I had lapband surgery for vanity reasons but I did. First and foremost though it was about how I felt. I didnt feel well or good at all. I saw nothing but pain and illness in my future if I let my weight keep getting further and further out of control. I didnt even have a huge problem in the whole scheme of things but it had affected my daily life enough that I took action. The energy I have now is unbelievable, I'm a human dynamo. I am a more efficent person and even a better mother because I have energy, something I severely lacked before. And crossing the finish line yesterday to the cheering of a crowd in my first 7.5km race, I was bawling my eyes out at the sheer joy of being able to run like that. I am SO glad I didnt just accept the second rate life I had when I was 30 kg heavier. It wasnt as good as the life I have now, regardless of whether I was happy with the way I looked or not. But its also interesting that I havent put a lick of make up on my face for weeks now. I have a glow now, I dont need make up!

Hmm, been in this position twice since being banded. The first time I just started taking the medication straight away. I'm pretty sure I got the bug, as I had temperatures and hot/cold flushes and I'm also pretty sure I talked myself into feeling nauseous. Gastro is the one thing I'm like that about, I could almost cause myself to get sick just by worrying about it. In short, I think the medication worked. I also gave my husband a pill as he'd started feeling sick earlier that day and it didnt work for him, I think it was too late. He barfed his guts up all night, poor bugger. The second time the kids bought a tummy bug home (and the third, fourth and fifth times, lol) I didnt take anything, I decided to wait till I knew I was sick, but I didnt get sick any of those times.

with exercise I found something I loved - running. We were having a chat online about it the other day on another non lapband forum and I have two friends there that share my love of it. Anyway someone else piped up and said that you dont need to run, fast walking is fine and that she used to be a size 10 at 6ft but she ran ran ran and went to the gym etc and was very intense and that she was happier now that she'd given that up. I thought to myself "she just doesnt get it". Honestly, you dont run to lose weight. If you make yourself go out there and get it over with to lose weight its not going to be fun and it is going to be a chore to keep going. You run for the pure love of it, to me weightloss is a side effect, not my primary aim. If you can find something like that, its easy to keep going. Other stuff (like good food choices) you just do and do and do and then do them some more. I find 10 months down the track, I finally feel those things starting to become habit.

I'm not there yet, still have 8kg to go till goal weight. But I'd say the things I've done that have helped me the most are: settled in for the long haul. I havent gotten upset about my rate of weight loss. Its been slowish but not ridiculously slow. adopted a "normal" lifestyle with the band. I eat normal food. I remain aware of what I'm putting in my mouth, avoid too much high calorie stuff, and try to eat a balanced diet but I do not count calories, Protein grams, fat grams or any of it. I eat a predominantly carb based diet according to the traditional food pyramid. However I dont think this is so important, the point i am making is I try to think about food as little as possible. I basically eat what I feel like when I'm hungry. I eat treats occasionally. Exercise - this is the big one. I exercise and I do it hard. I run regularly. I've had to build up to this of course, but I was lucky not to be so heavy to have had some residual fitness (I wasnt seriously obese for all that long, perhaps 3 years) that I could start running early in the picture. I'm sure I would have done even better if I could get a weights routine going that I actually stuck to. But I found something I love, am passionate about and have just done it consistently week in week out. I dont run overly far or overly fast, but its long aerobic sessions five times a week for months on end that bring you the results. That's all its been for me. No great secrets, schemes or plans, just consistency.

Oh JamesA, afraid its not a porn star Ecup that I now possess, its a very very sad post breastfeeding 40 year old Ecup. Big difference. But they look pretty impressive all trussed up. Just look out when I let em loose.

Yeah, it seems insane to increase in cup size as you lose weight doesnt it? I've never been an E even at my very fattest. And when I look down, there's nowhere near the bust projection there that I used to have. I"m definitely smaller. Its all in the fitting.

I was a 20 DD (that's 40E). I"m now a 14E (34E). I saw Oprah's bra show here in Australia too and I went right out and bought new bras that day. I knew mine didnt fit well but hadnt dont anything about it. So I dont think my boobs have grown so much as I was wearing too large a back size and too small a cup size. But I havent been a 14 for a looooong time. In fact never in my adult life. I was wearing a 16D last time I was this weight at about 30, so my boobs are bigger having breastfed 3 kids.

I'm sorry you're a bit of a wreck, but as a bandster I think you have to anticipate and deal with your needs not being first and foremost on everyone's minds. If my significant other had failed to help me out of the car I would have just told him off and then been done with it. Other people are going to live their lives, eat what they want to and not worry about you and sometimes it might put your nose out of joint but you can just look out for yourself. If you were hungry why couldnt you just say "can we swing by somewhere else so that I can get something to eat too?". You dont have to sit there and stew about it in silence. Just speak up for yourself. As to how much to eat, well you cant learn that from a book. Commonly soon after surgery you probably shouldnt be eating more than a cup at a time so measure out what you're eating. But the biggest skill you need to develop is to learn to listen to your body - when you're getting full stop - BEFORE you're stuffed. YOu really need to develop that skill. There isnt a hard and fast rule, the band doesnt work that way, its individual for everyone, although a lot of doctors seem to like rules for their patients. But nothing necessarily happens if you eat more than what your doctor's rules say unless you're eating more than you can cope with and then you will be sick. So during the recovery period make sure to try to keep it to a cup or less OR stop before that if you're getting full and then you have to practice listening to your body. A book cant tell you that, what's OK for you at one meal might be too much at the next.

Oh yeah, I sang wrapped up like a douche too. Didnt everyone? There's a midnight oil song Blue Sky Mine, which was a hit back in the late 80's and I swear Peter Garret is singing "who's gonna shave me" not "who's gonna save me". Oh and Big Yellow Taxi - I thought "they paved paradise, put up a parking lot" was "they paved paradise, put up a f*&king lot!

I trained on an elliptical machine for quite a while before and just after my surgery due to a bad ankle. I could never stick it out, the boredom factor got me and I couldnt get the temp right, my thighs would ache from the unnatural motion. I'm a person who loves the treadmill because running to me is "natural" motion (or walking for that matter). YOu dont think about it, you just do it. But I find the elliptical or bike difficult because it hurts in places you dont use, etc. What I did was interval training on the elliptical. I used cardio coach (www.cardiocoach.com) on my MP3 and suddenly 40 minutes on the elliptical was no problem. It consists of bursts of high intensity activity - you find your own settings that work at the various levels - with recovery periods and the music its set to is good, and the trainer talks to you, tells you what to do and when to do it. It works well for the bike too, its harder for a treadmill unless you're just doing sprints - inclines take too long to adjust. Anyhow, I did that for about 3 or 4 months 3 or 4 times a week, and by the time I'd lost 14kg I was ready to try going for a jog (my main aim and now my great love). From being fat and sedentary for several years, I just went out and ran 3kms, so this elliptical training really worked. I'd highly recommend it. You probably want to aim for a longer period on the machine, more like 40 minutes, but by measuring your heartrate and the intensity you're working at, you can probably do that. If you can only do 16 minutes before you're totally shagged, you're probably working too hard.

I dont tend to get upset at stuff like that, I have a pretty thick skin. But I can understand why you were, that's awful. But I would be thinking to myself " and how many times have you joined weight watchers?". Because you can guarantee that this is their 10th attempt and will be far from the last. OK, well I would actually SAY that, lol. You are the smart one. Weight Watchers AND a lapband - nothing will stop you!

This is such a complicated thing to work out. Fat burning range is 60 to 80% of your max heart rate. But the trouble is that that 220-age formula is very very general and doesnt really apply if you're fit already. Also, if you want to get fitter and do more, then you have to move beyond the fat burning zone with interval style training, where you have maybe 2 minute peaks of very hard work before you slow down again. This will whip you into a whole nother level of fitness, and your heart rate may be up in the 160's to 170's during this time. You burn less percentage fat at this level but more fat in total because you burn more calories in total. So there's no need to think you're not burning fat by working that hard. Plus you get greater afterburn. But you dont need to make every workout and interval one, twice a week plus some more moderate workouts should do it. Thirdly, once you get fitter, 220-age doesnt apply, and your fat burning range moves higher, I found a different formula through coolrunning.com that was more involved and took into account your fitness level and my fat burning range at age 40 is more like 140 to 165 bpm rather than the 118 to 145 or so that I had thought. And I could tell this because I can easily run with my heart rate in the 150's and not be puffing and panting and I can talk (just). So really, the perceived rate of exertion is the way to go. If you can talk, but not carry on a detailed conversation or sing you're in the ballpark, and you should feel as though your breathing is deep and even (although the rate of respiration is increased), not puffing and panting.

I've been running regularly five times a week since February, now I've added five or so 6km walks to the picture as well. Its gotten my weight moving again, but I do spend upwards of 2 hours per day doing cardio exercise!

I've also learned a little something about how long it really does take to change bad habits. I'm 10 months into this now and only NOW do I find myself automatically eating less food, not serving up too much and then being unable to finish it. My head has gotten round the fact that I will not starve on half a cup of Cereal in the morning or a bread and butter plate sized dinner. IT seems normal to me now. BUT - I still eat inappropriately at times, I eat when I'm not hungry just because I'm bored and stuff like that. I dont know that that habit will EVER be beaten.