Jachut

I agree with Corrigan, keep at it, just do the right thing, dont worry if its 1000 or 1200, its all just a deficit, keep exercising (but dont kill yourself doing it) and eventually, the scale will move. Plateaus are a part of weight loss, they are going to happen regardless of what crackpot method people have as surefire ways to break one, it will happen when it happens. The basic truth is if you eat less than you burn, over time, you WILL lose weight. You cant control the rate or sequence of it, and you need to accept that. Just have faith that in a year, you will be much thinner than you are now.

Ditto to what Elcee said - having the sleeve now wouldnt worry me, I've lost half my colon and am doing fine without it, so meh, what's a bit of my stomach I'm not particularly using? You dont get malabsorption with the sleeve, that's bypass. You just have a smaller stomach. Also, it can be attractive to think of having restriction straight away with the sleeve, not finding it so elusive, and not having trouble with random foods. But make no mistake, all bariatric surgeries work best at first, and then you do learn to eat around them, the adjustability of the band is fantastic in that regard. If your sleeve loses its effectiveness, there's no tightening it up! Then again, I had to unfill my band totally for a surgery, have just got retriction back 12 months later and am now looking at an investigative gastroscopy (have bad Iron depletion, and am post menopausal which means a high likelihood of a GI bleed at some point in my guts and my colonoscopy this week was normal) so that means ANOTHER unfill. Groan. I've also endured my colorectal surgeon banging on all year about how skinny I am (I'm really not, I dont think). I'd love to have a sleeve that nobody could make me unfill! I'd love not to have to go back for fills. My band is almost full (only 0.2cc to go) and I dont have anythign like the restriction I had before I unfilled it. A sleeve, once it is done, is DONE. But the band is totally adjustable, totally reversible and it probably makes sense to try it first before you go changing your body irrevocably. In all likelihood, it'll work and be enough for you.

I now can say definitively that iron is a factor in hair loss. I came across this early on in the peace, when I had hair fall/breakage just that annoying hair all over the bathroom, I'd been like this for a while, and it drove DH nuts. Eventually, the ends of my hair thinned out awfully, had to cut it off. It never really improved, but the shorter cut got rid of the stringiness and my hair seemed healthy enough. Fast forward a few years and I was diagnosed with rectal cancer - and was very anaemic at the time too, no sooner had I had the very first part of treatment - chemoradiation - which killed the tumour itself than suddenly I felt on top of the world and my hair looked FANTASTIC. All through the surgery and chemo, I had fabulous hair, the fall stopped. Anyway, I noticed a month or two back it had started again, its one of those things that you dont notice for awhile. Had my one year follow up bloods and scan and what do you know, my oncologist says that although my circulating haemoglobin is low but normal, I have NO iron stores left in my body. And to be honest, I feel OK, but not that real sense of wellbeing I felt a while ago. I think when you have hairloss, there is no point posting here hoping for an answer. Protein is not the be all and end all of anything, let alone hairloss. Your B12 levels for example can affect how you absorb iron, taking other supplements can be a factor, there's such synergy between nutrients that you can easily get it wrong - and of course, you really shouldnt load up on somethinbg like B12 or iron without it being necessary. The thing you need to do is go along and get a full blood test to identify any problems. Then you can address it succinctly and efficiently and not waste your time buying expensive urine with supplements you dont need.

I have 3.8cc now in my 4cc band and I can eat bread without much problem, pizza is a little harder, but weirdly, I cant stand the thought of eating pizza now. It nauseates me, cant tolerate the smell of it, have to leave the house when the kids want it. I've had my band unfilled for 7 months and then taken 5 months to find restriction. Whilst I was unfilled, I liked pizza again, we went out one night as a family for gourmet wood fired pizza and I enjoyed it thoroughly, I would never have enjoyed crap like pizza hut much anyway, but good pizzas, yum. Then the minute I got any Fluid in my band again, instant turn off. So strange. Our pizza is a bit different here, well, compared to what we see on TV anyway. You guys seem to ahve truly enormous pieces, that are quite floppy with very cheesey topping! So when I say I can eat a piece of pizza, its not really the same thing at all, its about 1/4 the size, much crisper base, way less cheese, but more meat and vegies. Still junk food, loaded with salt, and very fattening though. But what you can eat and cant eat is totally individual and you should never measure whether or not you need a fill based on being able to eat a certain food.

I unfilled my band completely in October last year for cancer surgery and chemotherapy and I had very little trouble with weight gain. I really have patted myself on the back for a job well done, loudly and publicly, lol, but in truth, on reflection I think I had some assistance, what with being so sick. I remained unfilled for seven months and gradually over the last five have refilled my band up to decent restriction (althoug h I've not found the sort of restriction I had before, I've got what I can live with, thanfully as my band is 0.2cc from full). I found it very easy at first, I still couldnt eat a lot, and stuck to very small meals and healthy foods. It took months for my appetite to expand, I began to notice that dinner would leave me wanting, becuase I always restricted through willpower what I ate between meals fill or no fill. That sort of head hunger stuff was just the same. I kept running and going to the gym right through treatment. But I did gradually begin to eat more. Now with fill going back in, I dont feel any "different" like I was expecting to, but my meals are much smaller again. I might feel the same, thinking I had toast for breakfast, but then I realise that once again, the idea of two pieces of toast like normal people eat is like a major pig out, absolutely excessive and I realise yes, that restriction is there. Restriction really isnt a tangible thing that you can feel, it just subtly changes how much you eat, and you have to listen hard for it, and ignore the head hunger - that isnt real hunger. But its interesting to see what its like when restriction has gone isnt it? I think it has made me a better bandster, I kind of needed a kick in the pants after six years.

I had a BMI of 36 when I had surgery and am 5ft 10, so I would have thought weight loss would show quite quickly. But it didnt. I clearly remember the first WOW comment - I had lost 17kg - a bit over 40lb. I was halfway to my initial goal! It took that long to actually show and to actually go down a dress size. Now, I go down a dress size and look gaunt if I drop 3lb.

sometimes I get a prickly, peppery (for want of a better word) feeling on the roof of my mouth when eating something difficult. Its a warning to stop before I get stuck. And very occasionally, I get an aching pain which radiates up the esophagus and roof of the mouth, once or twice I've had it where its been alarmingly bad, like should I go to the ER bad, and nothing resolves it, until it goes away of its own accord. I've been banded six years and there's nothing wrong with my band, its just one of those things. My doc thinks its probably muscular spasms. But roof of mouth - definitely a place where I feel anything happening to my stomach.

Have they considered slippage?

I can eat bread but struggle with smoothies and juices. I had a bit of a try at green smoothies made with one or two fruits, water and leafy greens in the vitamix but it just wont go down. Its easier to eat hndfuls of raw spinach!

Youve made a life change and thats hard. Youre truly facing being a different person, and no matter how much you wanted to let go of the old one, theres an element of grief there.

the 11 cc realize band is not the oldest band there is either, there's plenty of us around with the 9.75 cm 4cc bands. Sorry but your doctor has "one" patient who lost 100lb? How many bands has he/she done? Most practices would have loads of patients (or should have) who have lost 100lb or close to it.

Yes and no. I've never been morbidly obese, my BMI "only" got to 35 before I acted and that was a bit of a ballooning over a few years after having babies. but, even though looking back in photos and stuff now, I wasnt huge, I was never a normal sized child and I got teased for being fat my entire childhood. I was tall, that was the problem, and I wasnt one of those stick thin kids, I was always what my mother called 'solid'. I had a tummy, as does my daughter. By the time I was 14 I was my full 5ft 10, and about 80kg (170lb), which in the 1980's was pretty freaking large for an early teen. It was certainly in the days before plus size clothing. I spent my teen years unable to wear jeans or buy clothes in any of the 'cool' stores. My mother had to sew for me, humiliating and soul destroying. I had a skinny small sister too, my youngest sister is more like me but she was 4 years younger and excelled at starving herself during her teen years, I was so envious of her willpower. At 16 I was a very good softballer, earning nicknames like "tank" and "shithouse". We have a saying in Australia that if you're big your built like a brick shithouse - outdoor dunny (toilet). I broke a hip at 16 and was put on tenuate tablets by a dietician recommended by the sports medicine doctor, got down to about 160lb for like 5 minutes. I got a little slimmer in my 20's, sitting around 170, 180lb but to me that is still pretty fat, I was never happy, couldnt wear what I wanted because I felt too fat in anything revealing. I remained sporty, did gym regularly and was in pretty good shape and not really that fat, slimmed down to a respectable size 12 for my wedding, but again, at 5ft 10, I was always just "big". I'm fairly fine boned, meant to be tall and pretty slender and even though 150 to 180lb might seem ok for a 5ft 10 woman, on me it was fat. I had rolls, lumps, bumps. I'm lightly muscled and just not meant to carry weight, 140lb suits me much better, even though I have a bony skeleton chest and my shoulder bones stick out. Of course between my late 20's and mid 30's I had a couple of babies, stopped working, stayed at home, did coffee and lunch and stopped exercising and it was all over. I descended into obesity very quickly. I never put on much weight during actual pregnancy, it was the swanning around living the stay at home mother lifestyle that did me in. I'm still utterly hopeless when I'm at home alone for long periods, I just eat and eat and eat. So despite having spent most of my time in the "overweight" category and not having suffered the woes of true obesity, I have never in my entire life been slender, fit and happy with my body until I got the band. I am amazed at the body I had, that it was hiding there all along and that it is actually not the big boned, unfemine tank of a body I thought genetics had blessed me with.

No, and I've never heard of it.

A few days late is nothing to worry about - anything can cause that.

Keeping it off is really the key issue. Personally speaking id never lost more than 20 lb on my own, i simply had no willpower! But with a properly adjusted band its nigh on impossible to really gain weight, even if youre only a moderately successful loser. My dh has put no work into his band, he eats what he wants and doesnt exercise, but he still lost about 70 % of his excess and has never regained.

The thing is, this surgery is so safe and so minor compared to some of the surgeries that can result from obesity! Personally, and unfortunately, losing weight and getting healthy didnt stop me getting rectal cancer, but in theory, obesity is a risk factor in colorectal cancer, and if you dont have the genetic predisposition that I have, then you may very well prevent it by getting control of obesity early in life - another reason why it is NOT insane to consider banding even in your teens. Or would you rather avoid such a "drastic" surgery? Hmmmm, would you prefer to fry your pelvic organs with radiation and chemotherapy, render yourself infertile and with multiple future potential issues due to radiation damange, endure an 8 hour marathon in which your rectum is removed and an ileostomy created, follow up with nine months of wearing a lovely bag to poo in, whilst having chemotherapy followed by another op to close it all and spend the rest of your life with annoying frequency and super duper sensitive bowels but feel thankful that at least you beat cancer? IF you beat it, that is. If it doesnt show up again in a few years time, either recurring, or metastising somewhere else in your body. People just dont realise how dangerous and deadly obesity is. This could just as easily be heart disease, you could have a stroke and not die, that would be even worse, you get to be a vegetable, perhaps even in a nursing home at a young age. Or physically disabled as a result. Perhaps you'd prefer to lose a few toes to gangrene due to diabetes? Or perhaps you kind of like to simply wallow in the misery of being fat, an object of denigration and disgust from those more fortunate, avoiding social situations because you cant blend in, dont have anything to wear and cant muster up enough self esteem and enthusiasm to even try to remain connected to the world. Or you could be the opposite, the fat jolly, pour the rolls into something super tight and short, put on too much makeup and go out and pretend its all normal, cheering on those stupid "i love my curves, I'm a real woman" obese women who pop up now and again to cheer on the cause. I dont get how people can bury their heads in the sand over their fatness, it is literally going to kill them and yet they think we're crazy for having weight loss surgery? That is NO way to live our lives, not when a simple less than an hour, light anaesthetic, very safe procedure can give us what we need to overcome this disease.

Surely you can not wash your hair once after the gym, come home and colour it before your shower? Or if you work out in the am. before work, then do it on the day you dont work out? It wont make really make any difference anyway, if you have washed your hair that morning.

A french dip must be different to what I'm thinking then - I'm thinking french onion dip and chips, but I can eat a sandwich - it fills me, but I can eat a whole one. Not a huge huge one that you'd buy at the food court, but something made at home, maybe a bit of ham, some tomato, lettuce and cucumber on ordinary bread. I still lost weight. There's not much wrong with a sandwhich for a meal if you dont then go snacking and it gets you through to dinner. But judging restriction by what you can eat is not really how its done, and nor should fills be done based on how fast Fluid goes through. My doc has me drink some Water just to check I'm not totally closed off, but I've never had a fill done under fluoro. Its satiation - that feeling of not being hungry (physically) that is what the band is really meant to do and you should be getting that on less food, regardless of whether you can eat certain things or not. You cant just get tighter and tighter until you're satisfied that you cant eat this or that. Its entirely possible to be overfilled and have the signs - nighttime reflux, etc and STILL be able to eat bread. I would love if my band could be filled to a certain point and I just simply could not eat more than, say 800 calories a day. I could get really really skinny. But it doesnt work that way. It gives you a certain amount of help and the rest is up to you.

I've got a good friend who'se a nurse who looked into banding briefly but she doesnt have private health insurance - which makes it virtually impossible to get done in Australia unless you're willing to fork out a lot of money, which she didnt have. Then she said "I was only half serious anyway, I've seen the terrible problems that bands can cause". Teasing more info out of her, its obvious she's nursed a few bypass patients and not banded people. But she obviously feels its a dangerous, very extreme surgery and she really doesnt want to get it done. She's never said I'm crazy, and I dont think she thinks so but she's just not interested. Mind you, she's not been able to conceive due to PCOS, she's luckily had one baby and tried for years to have another, had a miscarriage and is now 44n and knows that her weight is the cause of her problems, not to mention her kidneys are diseased, and yet, she's not interested in WLS? I dont get that. I've got another girlfriend who must seriously be 300lb, she's so obese now and gets bigger every year, gorgeous girl, she looks just like Dawn French. But she's never so much as expressed even a passing interest in what its like to live with a band even though she's seen me have such success. She's never asked me one single thing about it, she's been happy for me, never been jealous or nasty about my weight loss, just doesnt seem remotely interested or remotely motivated to do something about her weight before she starts to have major problems (we're all mid 40's now afterall). It baffles me. I guess its along the same lines of people thinking you're crazy. Dont people understand how GOOD they could look and feel? Dont they understand how dangerous obesity is? My weight loss may even have made the difference between me having a permanent ileostomy and wearing a bag for the rest of my lifea nd being able to have that reversed and being essentially normal, because as my colorectal surgeon said - in some people, theyr'e just too fat for him to get access so deep into the pelvis and there's just too much fat to stretch the colon over to rejoin it. I thank the heavens every single day for my lap band.

I've found at times (my band is ENTIRELY different now since it was unfilled for another surgery, I can eat much more and eat everything, I too seem to have no sweet spot anymore) that I would have trouble with the weirdest foods. Its stuck with me - I approach yogurt or any sort of fruit juice with extreme caution, expecting instant 'stuck' and pain, but I have always been able to eat bread! Soup - very difficult - steak, quite easy. There's no rhyme or reason to it. Although I'm glad after nine months unfilled to be almost full but still able to eat an apple this time round, it also means I just no longer have as good appetite control from my band. Whilst I agree with you that the occasional treat wont hurt, chips and dip will probably always go down easy - those are slider foods and you will always be able to overeat them. Now, try a steak or some eggs or a piece of toast and judge your restriction from that.

Well said! This is the sensible approach to a lifestyle you can maintain for the rest of your life. This panic over the holidays and the "inevitible" weight gain - that's fat thinking. That's all or nothing, food controls me and my lapband should do ALL the work thinking and whilst you indulge in that, you are never going to truly beat obesity. You can keep your band ultra tight so that it controls you with an unpleasant hard stop - until it slips or erodes or something forces you to unfill it. Or you can exercise some self control, allow a bit of indulgence on Thanksgiving day, eat healthy the rest of the week and do some extra exercise - put your shoes on and go out for a walk every day if that's all that's available while you're away. There is really nothing to stop you doing any of that. The only reason why a whole ton of extra food and alchohol make it down your gullet and cause a weight gain will because you choose to allow it. Christmas is a hard time, but normal people gain a couple of pounds occasionally too, and a couple of pounds is easy to lose. But a bit of self control and some extra effort around the difficult days will probably net that out. whilst I was unfilled and afraid of the same lapses in judgement, I would start my meal with a fairly large serve of raw vegies - carrot, cucumber, capscicum, mushrooms and a big glass of Water. It really did take the edge of enough to keep me to a bandster sized portion of the less healthy foods that were put in front of me. And despite having chemo, and feeling crap, I still ran and went to the gym almost daily. If you want it bad enough, you can do anything. Keepign it up long term is pretty hard, but you will get some fill eventually.

Yep, if this is what it takes to get you to do it, then that's a great thing to do. Start gradually increasing the 7 minutes. Once you can do 20 consecutively, its probably time to aim for single sessions. But sometimes, when I've got a few big social occasions on and am worried about eating more, I will do my normal exercise routine and make a goal of doing, say 6 extra kms on the treadmill during each day, in small increments.

It takes ll kinds, doesnt it?

Protein shakes are generally not pushed here in australia either, past th immediate post op period although i notice its a trend thats catching on in the general public. You never used to see it but evrytime i go to the gym now i see som meathead sucking down one as he gazes at himself and flexes one muscle at a time, lol. Personally i never drank them because i cant see the point of spending twenty minutes concocting some recipe like i see here on this board ( that recent pumpkin pie one comes to mind) that has four times as many calories, artificial sweetener and chemicals as a plain ol poached egg on toast AND is a liquid anyway and wont satisfy! Plus its just another way to prolong our addiction to the taste of sweet, creamy foods. As you can tell, im no fan of the concept of Protein Shakes as a daily food staple. I think theyre useful, sure, wont hurt if you like them and may be of real benefit at high level of intense exercise (which does not mean zumba or even a spin class).

Walking is great for the beginner. Its low impact but can be quite taxing for an obese beginner and it will strengthen hips and legs, particularly if you find some hills or pick an incline program on a treadmill and dont hang on! You could go to a spin class and just take it at your own level too, that would be great. So would the elliptical, again maybe pick a program and avoid going fast with no resistance on the machine because with the treadmill and the elliptical, slower but with resistance or hills is always much more beneficial than going fast but easy. You can always do unweighted squats and lunges too, those are great lower body strength builders.