Jachut

You're right, I think the word "meals" is a misnomer. I mean I just said I dont snack if I can help it but I just did because all I ate at lunchtime today was sliced cucumber and red capsicum - no Protein, nothing of any substance so when school finished, I was genuinely hungry. So I had an apple, and two little babybell cheeses with a cup of coffee. That's as much as I would eat at a meal anyhow. Its protein and carbs/fruit, so its quite balanced. Now that I'm not starving, and wont devour the packet, I'll have that cookie I was thinking of to dunk in my coffee. I thought of it as a "meal" because I'm going out tonight and dinner wont be till 8.30 and its only 3.30, now had I thought of it as a snack, I would have gone straight for the Cookies (because that's snack food, right) and eaten ten becuase I was starving. Always listen to your stomach. You know when you REALLY need food and when its just head hunger. And when I have a snack craving like the cookies, I make a deal with myself. I eat properly first, if I'm really hungry I do what I did - if I'm not really hungry but know I'm still going to cave in, I make myself eat a raw carrot (or two) first, with some Water. That blocks me up, it sometimes backfires but usually makes me so full and a tad uncomfortable that then I can have a small piece of something or the cookie or whatever without going wild on it.

I eat about 1500 per day now, if I'm being good. I am maintaining, and a pretty low BMI at that, but I can easily eat over 2000 calories a day. I hve never ever ever been able to do the 1000 calorie a day thing, my body just goes nuts and drives me to eat around my band if I try to do it. But I lost weight well on 1500 so I guess that's why - my size, activity and energy needs are such that I dont NEED to eat 1000 calories a day to lose weight. I dont really understand how on the one hand, my band worked well enough that I lost 120lb and have kept it off for four years, but on the other, I can eat sandwiches, Pasta, rice and if I add in a normal person amount of Cookies, chocolate and little treats, I'm up at that 2000 level, which I cant do for very long or I begin to gain. I stick to 1500 a day fairly easily with my band almost full - my doc reckons because I'm so slim - and he said I didnt have a "big" stomach to start with - an almost full 4cc band doesnt provide as much restriction on me as it might on someone else. I also dont understand how on earth I can be 5ft 10, 140lb, run an hour a day and go to a couple of body pump or circuit classes a week and do the whole running around mum/wife/worker routine and have to eat 1500 to maintain. All the charts say I shoud be eating 2,500 a day - yet there's patently no way I can get away with that. I no longer try to understand the math, I just do what I know works for me.

I now have surgically induced IBS and a band and I find my band helps me enormously to manage my triggers. I had rectal cancer, diagnosed last year, a bowel resection in which my rectum was removed and a new pouch created from my colon to function as a rectum. For nine months I had an ileostomy and the most irritible gut you can image, I literally poured my lifeblood into that damn bag day after day, so much so that at the reversal surgey, I gained about 5lb overnight simply from rehydration. Since my reversal eight weeks ago, my colon has had to learn to work again and it is not liking it. To start off with, I had to live off a low residue diet meaning I ate white bread, white rice, white Pasta, cheese, apple sauce and little else. No fruit and veg, little Protein and fat. If I didnt have my band to keep portion size down, I would ahve ballooned on that horrible diet. I have been gradually introducing regular foods and I will be OK in the long run but for now, I have an ongoing battle with foul, eyewatering gas and accompanying pain and bloating. Every single freaking day after lunch. It is revolting, I am so stinky. I have the urge to have a bowel motion about twenty times most days and only pass skinny little nuggets that give no satisfaction at all. What makes all of this worse is eating big quantities. On days I work, I cannnot afford to eat lunch - I'm a teacher and once int he classoom, I cant go to the bathroom, so eating is really problematic for me during working days. With my band, I can eat a bite and a cup of coffee at lunchtime and make it thorugh the day without passing out from hunger. I thank the powers that be for my band every day. It got me through the stodge diet without major gain and it makes working possible for me at this very early stage. Eventually my bowel will settle, but that's what I find - eating very small helps and avoiding eating all togehter in situations where you wont be able to handle the result is vital - and a band makes that much easier.

Left to my own devices, I eat meals AND graze all day. My weight loss is best and I am most in control when I eat 3 meals, no Snacks. I truly do not need to eat between Breakfast and lunch, and dont have a lot of desire to either. The stretch between lunch and dinner is much harder, but I find, add a snack and it just breaks my resolve and I keep on eating, its easier to just ban eating all together. And as long as I"m busy, I dont really get hungry. However, its a good point above about not eating just because its snack time at 3 oclock. That's what I tend to do when I plan snacks and becuase I wasnt really hungry anyway, they dont satisfy. Snacks to me are much more about "hmmmm, I fancy a bit of that....." Which is not good, diet wise! If I"m truly hungry between meals then I will eat something and I find that when I was really hungry, for some reason I can stop eating more easily. Probably because if I eat despite not being hungry, I was eating out of boredom or something, and eating doesnt satisfy boredom and never will but I keep going looking for a stop signal that just never comes. There's no real evidence to suggest that eating sixn times a day increases weight loss either, its a negligable effect on your metabolism. But there's plenty of evidence that our hunger hormones are much better controlled with long breaks between meals. Humans are opportunistic, meaning they traditionally at anything, anytime, anywhere, sometimes the gorged and then didnt eat for days and other times they might have eaten much more often as they came across something edible. What really matters is that you do what fits with your lifestyle, your eating personality and seems to have a positive effect on your weight loss.

It is scary no matter what your age - I was 36 and whilst I'd always insisted I wasnt an emotional eater, when push came to shove, and I was on the verge of the surgery, I realised I was about to let go of a very old and very dear friend and coping mechanism. What pushed me forward was that I thought, sure I could not have the surgery, but if things were goign to change, I had to say goodbye for that friend, regardless. You're not as young as you might be. By 23, I was able to resist peer pressure and not feel like I had to drink heaps and eat junk food just coz others were. I mean, i did it, lol, but because *I* wanted to, not because I had to fit in. You will be able to lead a normal social life only now you will eat and drink like the thin girls we always admired and hated at the same time. This is the best thing you could possibly do for yourself, you're heading off a raft of health problems before they happen, whereas most of us have to experience the beginnings of them (and of old age) before we act. Deep breath and have faith, this will be wonderful for you!

Its insane, isnt it. I feel enormous at the moment, like a big fat cow because I've regained 4lb. My bmi is now, wait for it, hold onto your hats - 20. Yep. Just 20. I feel like my gut is bursting out of my jeans and I have rolls on my back. I see a photo of myself and assume its not even me becuase in my minds eye I'm seeing double chins and fat arms. I put on one outfit today that this time last year was one of my skinny outfits, a huge thrill, black skinny jeans and a slinky top. The jeans are way too big for me, they kept falling down. So I felt skinnier last year 8 or 9lb heavier, than I do today because my BMI has gone from 19 to 20. I had cancer for crying out loud, that weight loss was unhealthy weight loss, it made me underweight and it was never ever going to stay lost. I looked terrible. And I still feel fat and disgusted because my now healthy body is regaining its equilibrium. I have accepted that I am disordered - I'm obsessed and illogical about my size, and I'm way too obsessed with what and how much I eat. It is never going to change. Its within the realms of healthy, I mean I dont do things that could physically harm me like severely undereating or purging or any of that stuff, but I know its just a fact of life. I will never have a completely easy relationship with food and my body. I will always be working hard so that I feel like I'm the boss of it.

I dont find it worth the taste sacrifice - I mean if you look at labels comparing a low fat and a normal yogurt serve for serve, for example, you'll often find you only save 40 calories or so and are getting a lot more sugar and carbs and less Protein in the low fat one. Its the same with so many foods. I buy skim milk only, always have done, becuase I really dislike full cream milk or even the 2% stuff, cant bear any taste of cream in the milk - yet I will eat my morning muesli with skim milk and a dollop of cream on it, lol. Totally different taste sensation. Low fat Cookies and such - well those are crap foods whatever way you cut it, you shoudlnt be eating them anyway and if you do, it should be so occasionally that the full fat version is not going to make a difference. I think real, whole foods should be your focus, but I'm as guilty as anyone when it comes to eating a cookie as a snack rather than a small can of tuna, and then taking Vitamins to make up for all the real food I dont eat. I like my salads with a very small amouint of olive oil (or flaxseed oil, full of Omega 3's) and salt and pepper - its heart healthy and you actually absorb a lot more of the nutrients in a salad with a bit of fat. Just a teaspoon is enough to lubricate it and you can also use vinegar if you want that tangy flavour.I'm not fond of low fat salad dressings. One thing I do do though that makes a huge difference - Soups and curries and stuff that use cream or coconut milk - I alwasy substitute low fat evaporated milk in those - cant taste the difference, and it saves sooo much saturated fat and lots of calories and the coconut flavoured evaporated milk tastes just like real coconut milk in Asian dishes.

That is so so true. I often look at the top of the fridge, stacked with chips, Cookies, snack foods and think, how can I do so much for my own health and still let my kids eat this crap? They dont need it, it doesnt need to be in the house. But you would have to seriously be superhuman to withstand the tirades of abuse, whining and nagging you would get from teenage kids asked to eat carrot sticks. I feel like I really failed them, letting them ever get a taste for that sort of food, but really, it was always going to happen, if they dont get it at home (which they didnt prior to starting school), its only going to come from their peers later. But it seems I'm a little insane - I buy the stuff then yell at them about how bad it is when they eat it! I usually dont touch it, but occasionally I just go wild. I have to reiterate - keep busy. Had 3 days last week where I worked, barely managed 1000 calories. Four days where I didnt work, over 2000 calories each day. Its so bad for me to be at home with no pressing schedule.

Its tough, really tough. And you're in the hardest part of it. If you can get through the first week, the other two are not quite as bad, but it does take a lot of strength. It made me so ill, the doc took me off it as I didnt have a big liver anyway (had had a liver ultrasound) and was a BMI of 35. I couldnt hack it, I couldnt even stand up without passing out! I do wonder just how much liver shrinkage you'll get in the shorter time frame? I guess a few days is enough to deplete the liver of glycogen (and a lot of water) quickly but you wont get a lot of true fat loss in that time. But I guess the doc knows what he's doing. Never mind, hang in there, this is all for the best cause. If you cave in, which you must try not to do, but if you do, avoid any carbs at all costs as those will just undo your hard work as your body squirrels them away filling up your liver and muscles with lots of glycogen again. If you MUST eat, make it Protein.

To be honest - its probably you. I am in exactly the same spot myself at the moment. I have restriction because I cant eat what others eat, but I can eat enough to gain weight, easily. I can still overeat, because I was never a sit down and eat five courses kind of eater, I was always a grazer. I'm doing it again. I'm home, I'm bored, my cancer treatment has finished and I'm waiting to start my life again. I havent had a job because teaching in Australia works by contract, the jobs are all being advertised for next year now, but you cant just go and look for a job at any time of year, so I've had to do relief teaching work instead, which means i've been home on my own lots and lots and lots of days. So what have I done? Eat, of course! Go to the shops for coffee and cake. Go out for lunch with my mum. Moodle away the afternoon on the computer munching Cookies and eating coffee. I've regained weight I really really needed to put on. I've passed that point and regained a few lbs that dont matter much. Now I'm moving into danger territory! I went back and got fills. I've got more fill than I had before I was unfilled last year. And I'm still eating. I'm exercising, but there's no amount you can do to overcome mindlessly munching on cookies, cake etc all day long. I keep feeling frustrated because my band isnt working, but really, its me. I'm not hungry and I cant eat an awful lot in one sitting, well, not of healthy foods anyway. I almost picked up the phone to book another fill yesterday but I know that it will be too tight - when i'm in a work situation, cant nibble all day and have to stick to 3 meals, I find it hard to reach 1200 calories - its me me me, not lack of restriction. I"m now back to 65kg, I wont go any higher! Some of it is rehydration (was chronically dehydrated with an ileostomy), a little bit of it *might* be the result of my efforts at bodypump (I certainly havent gotten larger) but most of it is stuffing my face with the wrong foods. Its so so hard to put the brakes on and get yourself back on track, but we must do it, its the only way. I tell myself really, its only weight, it can be lost again, its simply choices, that's all there is to it. You have to quell the incipient panic that sets in and has you racing off vowing to lose it all again in four days and just take a deep breath, realise what is sensible and get back to it. This is life, I'm afraid, its what we will ALWAYS have to do. Even the most successful bandsters will relapse if they dont remain vigilant and many many people falter at that last 20 or 30lb because it takes real dedicated effort to get it off!

I think of it the same way - I've never "dieted" with the band. I also do eat more on special occasions and on holidays and stuff, but its no longer enough to really affect my weight, or not for more than a day or two anyway. Consequently, I lost well, but not particularly fast, despite running for an hour a day. I lost 80lb in my first year, about 20 in my second and another 20 over the past FOUR years!! I've gotten down to a very low BMI of 20, and I like it that way. The toothpick look is what I like, lol, I'm 5ft 10 and about 140 lb, I consider myself fat at 160! I alwasy wantedt to lose this much weight, but I did have that sense of disbelief that it was even possible. But as I got c loser, I realised it would be.

Sorry you're feelign disappointed - 12lb is a great loss, but honestly, its not a lot of weight when you have 100 or more to lose. Especially at the start of your journey, you lose a lot of Water weight too, so its probably not much of a change in your body composition at all. Also, when you've very overweight, you have to lose a LOT of weight to actually get smaller - I started off at a BMI of 35 and I had to lose about 20lb of the 90 or so I had to lose to go down a complete clothes size! I carry weight pretty evenly with a slight pear shape, other people who have a big tummy might even find that that tummy stops them going down sizes for much longer. I never had a very big face or double chins though and I saw changes very quickly there, but the thighs too much longer! You really need to appreciate the weight loss for what it is, a start, a good achievement and just keep getting on with it. Sooner or later, you'll get to the point where 10lb makes a huge difference and an entire clothes size, the less fat you have, the more a small loss shows. But you've got to go through this bit now to get to it. A mile a day's great, but its nothing like the sort of exercise you need to do to keep fat coming off your body. Like it or not, you really do need to suck it up and just do it. A mile a day is the kind fo thing you should be doing just as part of your everday life, and not even count it as "exercise".

I get it from my doctor! The way my surgeon's practice works, I saw him first, he did the surgery and a follow up visit and I can see him any time I want to, but for fills and general check up, the practice has about six doctors working there. They've changed over the years of course, people come and go. The lady I've been seeing is really one of those pull yourself up by your bootstraps and stop stuffing your face kinda people - never been fat ever i her life, doesnt get it, doesnt understand the issues, but at six years out,, I wasnt that fussed. Anyway, i saw her last year when I went to report that I had rectal cancer and was going to need to be unfilled, and could she just run me through the process, what to expect, when could I refill, basically a vist ot relieve my fears and anxiety, which she did well. I saw her six weeks later, she totally unfilled me at that point. She said to me that most people totally unfilled will gain, she woudlnt recommend removing my band (not that I mentioned this) as regain was likely, that I woudl have to hang on and really try my best but dont worry, we can start refilling you three weeks after your bowel resection. She seemed to understand that I would have an ileostomy (her mother has one) and big swings in body weight would cause me problems with bags fitting and leakage etc. So I get unfilled at 63 kg, BMI 20, go back about four weeks after my surgery at 60kg (BMI 19) - I really knew I didnt need fill that point, was jut touching base and as expected she wouldnt fill me. But over the months, after I finsished chemo and my body returned to healthy, I regained weight back up to 65kg. Great, I needed to, but I knew I wouldnt be hanging round there for long without some fill. That's when she started the "but you're not overweight" routine. Well, der! But I'm not going to manage that for long! I left that time, but came back weeks later, and really threw a major tantrum to get any fill. After that, she was OK about getting me back up to my previous level, but she gave me the lecture each time about how to eat. In the end, I just booked in with another doctor. Stupid woman, the reason I'm not overweight is that I have had a functioning, filled lapband for the past six years!!!!! the other doctor was fabulous and understood my reporting that since unfilling, my band was simply not the same anymore. I have more fill now than I had with less restriction! Its adequate restriction for maintenance, but its less than it was.

Protein shakes and bars give me gas - and horrible, offensive gas at that. I bloat up, get really rumbly and couldnt possibly be in an enclosed space like at the movies! I just avoid them. They are not necessary at any rate, I have managed perfectly well for six years, lost a lot of weight, kept it off and am not "skinny fat" like the so called experts say you will be without mega protein. I just eat normal food! They are expensive, not necessary and if you dont even like them, or they cause you digestive distress, dont drink em.

I had a burst of very good weight loss first up, but overall, I was a slow loser, I lost about 75lb the first year, 25 the next year and another 20 over the following four years - and I can tell you I couldnt care less now how fast I lost it - its gone and that's all that counts. Every stage along the way is enjoyable, so dont worry about how fast its coming off unless you're really not happy with the sort of effort you're putting in and know you could do a lot better.

Indian food can be hideously fattening, and horribly bad unhealthy fats at that. I'm not sure if the sorts of Indian menus we have here translate, but when I dont want to just let go and indulge, I stick with Tandoori chicken - its delish. Tandoori paste is aromatic rather than spicy - generally mixed with plain yogurt, the chicken is marinated in it and baked in a tandoor (special type of oven). Its a fairly healthy, low fat option. There should be a few yogurt based curries - and lots of mild things that arent too hot, and you generally get a choice about how hot and spicy you want it. I dont ever eat the naan bread, its like pita - just too tough for me to handle, but I'll have a spoonful or two of rice. Or have some poppadums instead, they're crunchy and very large but there's nothing to them, very band friendly. Steer clearb of anything labelled korma - about 90% of it will be cream - and dont eat the butter chicken whatever you do - mild and extremely yummy but enough calories and fat for about a week!

It can be just because too. I sometimes find that I thought I was hungry and ready to eat and all I manage is 2 bites and I just know that its going to be ugly if I push it. I'm particularly like that after exercise, but its just random. If it resolves itself and you can eat next meal dont worry about it - sooner or later you'll cautiously try the same foods again and may find that there's no problem. I actually also find that's more likely to happen if I've let myself get really hungry.

Its why i have always, within reason, eaten and drunk together. Now, I'm not breaking *my* doctor's rules - he advises most patients to wait half an hour or so after eating to drink because drinking will flush food faster, leaving you less satisfied. But I honestly find completely the opposite, like you're saying. I like a coffee with lunch and Breakfast and I find that it puts the full stop on my meal for me (or period, as you guys say, lol) I dont feel complete without it, and it definitely fills up my tummy more and lets me eat a much smaller amount of food. I have experimented and it does NOT make me hungrier sooner. So my doc is absolutely fine with me doing that. But he did explain that I shouldnt be looking for stuffed full, nor should i be trying to eat virtually nothing and fill the space with coffee! Drinking a heap and eating at the same time could stretch your pouch. It depends what i"m eating though - I absolutely cannot, for example, eat toast and drink coffee together - the toast swells in my stomach when the coffee hits it and the explosion follows soon after. Nor can I eat cake/muffins etc with coffee - not that I should and not that I do, but I do know from early experience to just avoid that one.

When I look in the mirror, I love my shoulders and arms, my collarbones. I think I look very toned, very fit, but also slim and feminine, no sign of Madonna freak arms but my upper body is way more toned and slender than most people's, even people that are normal weight - simply due to the fact that I'm a classic pear shape and lost a lot of weight very easily from the upper body. When I see a photo, I look freaking skeletal, you just see what you want to see when you look in the mirror, dont you? Nonetheless, my head is goign to remain firmly in the sand and I am going to continue seeing what I want to see and ignoring the photographic evidence! I love that I can move so much more easily now, exercise is an absolute joy and I really really really love that I can wear whatever is currently in fashion and that size 10 shoes will alwasy be guaranteed to fit now, and often I only need a 9. I love that a special night out is not cause of panic and tantrums, I can choose from some lovely dresses I already own or simply buy another one, in any store I fancy. Without having to shop for shapewear and other ugly foundation garments first - I can match my nice dress to some very teeny tiny lingerie!

So I've learned a few things about snacking lately, six years into my journey. I've always been a 3meals, no Snacks kinda dieter, only becuase once I start to snack, I really have trouble stopping. That's because I snack on snack foods, d'oh. Simple, evil, white carbs that leave you wanting more, so you suddenly decide stuff it, I've had 2 Cookies, now I'm gonna eat the rest of the packet. Recently I had an ileostomy reversal, so that now my colon is doing its job again and after nine months, I'm back to doing number 2's the regular way. This is not an easy surgery and it takes a long long time for the body to recover and adjust, I have no rectum anymore. What I've found is that my insides are just so messed up through chemotherapy, radiation and havign to adjust to working again that I simply cannot even think about eating a regular sized meal - even a regular sized bandster meal. First up, I was forced to live on white carbs - white bread, rice, Pasta, mashed potato, rice bubbles and other cereals were all I could manage, with some chicken, tuna etc and I couldnt even think about fruit and veg and yeah, I actually had trouble keeping my weight stable despite eating hardly anything - those foods pack the fat on faster than you can blink. So now I've managed to transition to healthier foods again, but in order to avoid awful bouts of gas, bloating, flatulence that would fell a horse and diarrhoea/urgency, I need to eat six small mini meals, rather than anything approaching a normal sized meal. What I've found is that it is MUCH easier to not overeat, with this constant input, I'm having trouble reaching 1200 calories a day! I'm a bit gobsmacked, but I guess the moral of the story is that if you're a snacker and want to eat this way - then you need to abandon the idea of "meals". For me, Breakfast, lunch and dinner would be too large to allow the calories for snacks as well even though I mean large by bandster definitions. So, I had a half a cup of greek yogurt with a few teaspoons of muesli for breakfast - a teeny serve of nuts and dried fruit at mid morning - a small tin of tuna, 4 crackers and some sliced cucumber for lunch, I'm planning a puree apple snackpack and babybel cheese for the afternoon and then I have whatever the family's having for dinner, but just the amount that will fit on a saucer. There's not a cookie or traditional "snack" to be seen in that plan, which is how it needs to be for me, nor is there really a "meal" which I define as containing some sort of carbohydrate. If you can do that, snacking's great. If you still want "meals" and simply add snacks, then its not so great.

If you're fasting for 12 hours or so before you'll be fine, but you can be extra sure by doing liquids - they wont stick around. Not only will your stomach be empty, but most likely your entire digestive tract.

You're entirely normal. I hate to be blunt, but I've found that my particular problematic eating behaviours - eating when I'm bored, or eating without thinking like you're describing, or needing a snack, and instead of choosing something good, caving in and eating six Cookies, then thinking the day's a write off, so may as well continue to be bad - those behaviours have all remained for me, six years after banding. But its not as bad as it sounds. I have way better control. Every day is work, yes, every single day I have to think about my approach, plan to be sensible, and most days I achieve it without having to actually white knuckle it. I find I'm OK so long as I"m busy. But you know, you dont have to be perfect, I still lost 120lb, got almost TOO thin and have kept it off for years now. and yes, more fills will help.

Early on hunger felt similar to that for me too - no longer an almost pleasant emptiness and rumbling (pleasant because satisfying it was just round the corner) but crampy and painful. Nowadays (six years out), I will get mild hunger that feels like ordinary tummy growling, but if I dont eat and I get really hungry, I start to get really bad heartburn. Its the only time I get heartburn with my band. Once that's happened, eating can actually be unpleasant - acidy and painful, so I try to avoid it. Which, given I've always been a strict 3 meals, no Snacks kinda eater since banding, is not always easy, coz I do tend to go long periods without eating.

I still cant get my head around that, I'm always feeling guilty that I've overdone it, becuase I'm so satisfied! In the previous 35 years of my life before I was banded, the only "successful" days were the ones where I felt deprived all day and went to bed hungry. Now I eat the same amount that I might have eaten on one of those days and I feel like I've cheated, I cant have done well enough because I'm not starving.

More than ever, I think. Since being banded, I'm not afraid of food - I know I'm not going to eat so much that I gain weight. I can go out and enjoy good food, even enjoy eating to the point of being full, have a drink and yet, I'll still have only eaten a quarter of whatever I've ordered and its simply not going to do much harm. I can eat rich food for the same reason - I was making salmon mornay for dinner, and the recipe calls for milk and cream combined. Normally I would substitute the cream, but I couldnt be bothered going out to buy evaporated milk, but I had cream in the fridge. I thought "you know, I"m only going to eat like 1/2 a cup of this, what does it really matter". So I enjoyed the flavour of the recipe as it was meant to be without substituting a lesser product. For the same reason, I enjoy full fat yogurt, and sweet things with real sugar not artificial chemical crap. It tastes much much better, is therefore more satisfying and I only eat small quantities, what's the point of depriving yourself of flavour to save 40 calories?