Jachut

I know that my "best" weight is around 70kg at 5ft 10. Most of the surgeon's literature says getting me down to just mildly overweight is about what they aim for. I told him I"m not paying $3,000 and going through this to still be overweight. Low 70's is where I want to be. He laughed and said dont worry, they take it on an individual basis. Meaning if I still require a fill after I've hit about 80kg to get down a bit lower, he's happy to do it, within a healthy weight range. But he did point out that having been much heavier, my bone and muscle mass is more than it was when I was 70kg, so I may be just as slender at 76kg this time, depending on how much lean tissue I manage to preserve while losing weight. I dont really care so much what the scale says as I want to make it into an Australian size 14. Then I can shop anywhere.

DeLarla's right, starvation mode as an ongoing thing is a bit of a myth, its not like a switch flips and you stop losing weight. But what happens is when you're body has burned its store of ready glycogen from within your muscles and liver it switches to alternative fuel sources and those arent purely fat, they include your body's lean tissue. As your lean tissue is burned, your energy needs decrease, because lean tissue is metabolically active, whereas fat isnt. So you need to eat less and less to continue losing weight and if you ever start eating "normally" again, well you'll blow up faster than you can say pancake. You wont need half the calories you previously did to pile on all the weight you've lost and more. What you're trying to do in avoiding "starvation mode" is trying to keep your body burning fat and not its own lean tissue. There's not a lot of consensus on how to do this, some believe in high Protein, low carb diets but there's not really any irrefutable proof that they work any better than anything else, although there's plenty of people around who will tell you its worked brilliantly for them, so that's an individual choice. The liquid/mushy phase is pretty short term, it will involve lots of Water weight lost and it will involve a loss of lean tissue, but its unlikely to cause you significant harm or problems in such a short time. But like mentioned above, it is perfectly possible to get a balanced, calorically sufficient diet in to your body in purely liquid form, a Meal Replacement program with added vegetable and fruit juices/smoothies (perhaps with some bran added for fibre) would be an easy way. And even though it caused a lot of disagreement, the information I've just gotten from my surgeon suggests mushies should be simply a stage of blending regular meals (apart from a phasing in process). Over the course of your weight loss, once it starts in earnest, your job is to maintain your muscle mass - you need lots of cardio to burn fat and keep the weight coming off but muscle building exercise is really important too, to build muscle and keep your metabolism fast.

I am hoping it will be like my third pregnancy, where my baby took up residence where my lungs should have been. Consequently I had very little room for food, I'd eat a tiny bit, feel really really full and cheated that I hadnt got to enjoy my nice meal (and worried that I wasnt eating enough). So I'd poke a few more mouthfulls down and throw the lot back up or sit up all night with foul heartburn and reflux. The food would sit there for hours too and I couldnt eat more than a bite for hours and hours after a meal. If being banded is anything like that I'll be extremely happy. And the weight literally fell off me to, for months.

I'd take a laxative - it sounds like trying to do it after you've just had a baby.

Yeah I'd have to agree with that!

Well the amount of fat around the outside of it reduces, that's why it "shrinks" but physically the actual muscular stomach doesnt shrink (and you'd have to eat an AWFUL lot in one sitting to stretch it) but you do make hormonal and psychological adjustments to less food. My surgeon told me that they dont know exactly why and dont really understand it but the body does make enymatic and hormonal adjustments to being banded so that you're not constantly starving. Remember that the pouch "tricks" you into fullness but your body would logically still know its on smaller rations. Yet it magically does adjust.

It does in Australia with lots of surgeons. They often wont consider self pay for uninsured patients but charge a "gap" fee of a couple of thousand dollars - mine is $3,000 and it covers forever all follow up visits, all fills and any revision surgery. They wont do self pay because if revision surgery is needed it quickly can get to mortgage your house levels of cost and they also insist you keep your private health insurance - no taking it out, waiting 12 months, having the op and then dropping it. Australia's health system is way different though.

I've found over here in Australia too a remarkable number of surgeons display no understanding whatsoever of what it is like to be fat. Its a bit like male obstetricians - you can learn everything there is to know but if you're not female you cannot know what it is like to be pregnant and give birth. From what people have said it is obvious that many surgeons are doing the surgery for reasons known only to themselves and having never been fat, they do not understand on a psychological level what leads to obesity, what it feels like to suffer it and why it is so hard not to eat what you know is doing you harm. Because they dont have those issues. Consequently they can seem remarkably blunt and very unsympathetic. Which often they are. If you stick to those rules 90% of the time you'll get there. But you do need to be totally honest with yourself, be sure you're not overestimating what you eat etc.

It will be interesting to compare actual replies with views in a few hours, lol.

Did you know you can do chest presses with a 2 year old? And if you put them on your back, those lunges are going to HURT. Then again you can just carry them around everywhere and wreck your ankle for good. On a serious note though, I have been spotted of recent times jumping on the kids' trampoline - I was trying to demonstrate to Eliza how to do seat drops. It is FANTASTIC aerobic exercise, after twisting from seat drop to stomach drop my heart was pounding - too bad my pelvic floor isnt in better shape though. We are seriously going to buy a new trampoline, one that holds up to 120kg (I was dangerously close to hitting the ground, lol) and I am going to jump on it regularly.

Fantastic news.

You need lots of cardio such as walking to burn fat and calories and keep the weight coming off, and you ALSO need lots of resistance type exercise which can be as complicated as a gym program or as simple as pushups, lunges, tricep dips and crunches to build and maintain muscle and keep your metabolism revved up. Or you need a 2 year old which is pretty much the same as all of the above.

I've had wisdom teeth removed, a deviated septum repaired, several manual debridements of my right eye, heel spurs removed twice and a caesarean section/tubal ligation. From those I know I cope just fine with general anaesthetics and after my caesar I was back to normal activity within a week so I'm not too nervous about the lap band op.

Personally I'd say you had a tummy bug last week and are still not eating properly or something like that, so he cant cajole you and try to convince you to eat more as people tend to do when they want to pig out and feel embarrassed because you wont join them. Well actually, I'd just say I had a lap band really, but if you didnt want to tell him that, that's what you could say.

Not planning on ever being pregnant again but interested in the answer. I had a health third pregnancy in which I gained no weight whatsoever and my baby was perfectly fine, I ate very carefully and followed weightwatchers throughout because I was petrified about how tired and sick I'd be feeling if I got even heavier than I was. So I woud say technically, if you're overweight there's no need as long as you can get in about 1500 calories of very high quality, nutritious food a day, maybe a slight unfill if necessary. But you never know either whether hormonal pressures and pressure from your growing baby will make your band tighter, I certainly could barely eat by the end of my third pregnancy. If having a band is anything like having a 3.7 kg baby sitting in a very high breech position blocking off your stomach, this weight is going to literally fall off me. I could see it week by week falling of my face and arms, while my bump grew. When I came home from hospital I was over 10kg lighter than when Eliza had been conceived, I had no recurrence of my pre-eclampsia that I suffered in my first two pregnancies despite being a good 20kg heavier before I started.

Hmm, I was thinking a reverse PB must be like those Doritos last night that actually leaped out of the bag and down my throat!

Our everyday dinnerwear is just plain white stuff that you can but in pieces almost anywhere, so although I have some huge trendy big white dinner plates, I also have a good stock of entree plates, just a tad larger than a bread and butter plate. We eat dinner off those and have done for the last couple of years. I would estimate I eat about half what I used to eat at night now. Unfortunately I think I probably just adapted to eating more during the day instead because its had no effect on my weight at all but I do find now when I go out I can no longer polish off very large meals, I always leave a restaurant meal half uneaten.

I dont know about actual amounts, I really dont want to live my life counting grams of this or that but if you stick with good quality unprocessed low GI carbs rather that processed white stuff you'll be right.

What I find with emotional eating - and for me its stress relief, have a busy morning out with a toddler trying to do errands and shop, come home, fire up the internet, make a coffee and scoff an entire packet of biscuits (cookies). I am so addicted to that sugar rush. But for emotional eating to be satisfying to me, as with any eating of 'bad" food or whatever, it has to be fast, it has to be in great quanity and you have to shovel it in. It just is not as satisfying to sip on a small cup (not mug) of coffee and nibble the edges off a cookie is it? Its hardly even relevant what the food is, for me its the mindless eating that provides the relief. I've thought about times when I feel like this, what it will be like with the band and I think its going to be very hard because whilst I dont really know yet what banding will be like, I"m pretty sure I'm going to be unable to eat that way without pain. So sheer physical restriction is going to necessitate me finding other ways to handle those feelings. Because I know I wont bother taking 10 minutes to eat one cookie. Plus I know the feeling will pass within that time. Today after a good healthy salad for lunch I was eyeing off some chocolate. I made a deal to wait 15 minutes and I honestly didnt want it anymore, the feeling had dissipated.

I absolutely loathe having my nipples touched since breastfeeding. Loss of sensation there wouldnt phase me.

On the side of environment though - I'm the only obese person in my family. My youngest sister and my mum have had battles with their weight at times but within 10kg over ideal weight, more of a vanity thing than a health thing. And my obesity, which results in LARGE part from just being too busy, too stressed and having too much to think about to make good food chocies, affects my family because the food choices I make for myself, I generally make for them too. If I want takeway because I'm too busy/cant be bothered to cook, they all get it. My DH is overweight too and was as a teen, lost about 30kg and kept it off for years until he met me, we got married and I would freely admit, I have fattened him up over the years, since he eats what I buy and what I put before him. So I'd say its definitely both. A genetic propensity for becoming obese doesnt mean its inevitable.

I think I'll probably need to get mine done, especially since I'd be really surprised if I needed a tummy tuck. But my boobs have always been DD's and saggy, even when I was young and not very overweight. I've breastfed 3 children for a total of almost 6 years and been pregnant 3 times and am now nearly 40 so I cant imagine there's anything good to discover when I've lost my weight. I'll take it as it comes though, I dont need to look good topless on the beach or braless in public, so if they look OK clothed, I probably wouldnt bother. Most of the last 10kg has gone onto my chest and arms which was never an area I gained weight, and I look decidedly matronly now. Oh to be flat chested.

Definitely - although not necessarily direct. I think your personal temperament, metabolism levels, outlook and even propensity to become addicted to things is either genetic or at the very least influenced by your environment when growing up. I look at my husband's parents, his sister, my husband and my eldest son. They are the laziest creatures on the face of the planet, I swear! They are incredibly dedicated hard workers when it comes to work and study, but as far as getting off their asses and actually moving a muscle, forget it. Doug's mum and dad sit in their chairs ALL day and listen to the radio and read the paper, they get excited about their once a day trip to buy Beans for dinner or something pathetic like that. Dougs sister (when we go on holidays with them) sits in a chair all day, moving only to go and have a nap, Doug spends all his free time on his ample bottom and moving my son of the computer or away from the telly is a major undertaking. Only my husband is overweight, his parents and his sister arent and my son isnt only because I ration sedentary activities strictly and also wont let him eat much of the wrong foods. On the other hand I'm usually running round like a blue arsed fly, as is my second son who is always out on his bike, playing cricket or kicking the footy on the road or jumping on the trampoline. I'm fat because I eat too much but when we bought a pedometer with a mind to doing the 10,000 steps program (is this peculiar to Australia? Its an aim of doing 10,000 steps a day with the point being that's enough incidental exercise to keep you pretty healthy), I did 25,000 steps in one day and Doug did 600. Boy did I laugh! Its just interesting to see that Doug's entire side of the family are very thrify with physical movement, they just are naturally slow and sedentary creatures.

Good for you. I dont think its healthy to live life counting calories, it never really got any of us anywhere did it? The thing about the band, the way I see it, is it should free you from that type of obsession and teach you to eat according to your (reduced) appetite and bodily needs.

Perhaps I'm naive and will get a big shock when I'm banded, but heck, that's just part of life. Big deal, the best thing about the band is that next day you cant really go "oh well, I blew it for this week, may as well pig out for the rest of the week and start again on Monday". One night out and a few more calories is neither here nor there in the whole grand scheme of things unless you're trying to madly please the lady on the scale at the next weight watchers meeting. You didnt eat all that and then order a 1 am pizza!