Jachut

I can tell you, having lost 15lb from my already thin (BMI 22 or so frame) it made a HUGE difference. I have loose skin now that I didnt have 15lb ago. I got bonier and flabbier and looked no better being thinner. I can see now that any further improvement to my body would have to come from plastic surgery. Do you really NEED to lose the 18lb (ie are you already a healthy BMI)? I can tell you, I have a flat (if flabby) tummy, but I sure wish I could put some fat on my chest, neck and face, sadly if I try it will just go straight on my bum! If you really need to lose the 18, then wait. Why would you go through PS, all that expense and healing, if you werent going to be sure you'd get the very best result possible?

Abstinence, lol. Failing that having my tubes tied and being menopausal would probably do the trick.

I've recently filled again from being totally unfilled and in my 4cc band I got 1.5cc, 1 cc, 0.5cc. So three fills over a twelve week period. I dont need any more, but if I chose to, they would now be tiny 0.1cc ones.

You're looking absolutely fantastic! I reckon you've entered that "but you're not big enough to need weight loss surgery" realm now. When people say it to you, resist the urge to reply "Uh, that's because I *HAD* weight loss surgery you numbskull" and just bask in the compliments.

My weight loss experience was exactly what Dave describes. I hope you get this sorted with your doc, but it *could* simply be that you've irritated your stomach, particularly the stoma area and you're swollen and having difficulty eating. i'd go right back to liquids for a couple of days, its probably what your doc will tell you to do anyway.

At 350 lb you'll probably lose plenty of fat just cutting back on food intake. But effective exercise needs some building up to, so its time to start! I've run 6 to 10 kms five or more days a week through my whole journey. Its been a vital part of my success and I'd say the number one factor in keeping the weight off.

I actually think the 4cc bands sound a lot better than newer bands in terms of finding restriction and keeping restriction. It only takes a fill or two, not seven or eight. And every fill I had took me to the sweet spot that was right for me at that particular time.

It is so safe for the average person. Your risk of anything happening is miniscule, less than 1%. I even had a mega huge six hour operation last November and the anaesthetist told me he's NEVER lost a patient in his entire career and he was 58.

I think its briliiant - it could add a LOT to your quality of life as you get older - and likely mean that you WILL get older!

Hmm, I was told 4 weeks also. But I had an ileostomy reversal a little over a week ago and today i took the steristrips off the incision. It is completely, and I mean completely healed shut. I cant see how I could be possibly risking an infection to go to water aerobics tomorrow night. A cold or gastro yes, lol, I always seem to get colds when i go in public pools, but I think an infection in the scar is highly unlikely at this point in time. If you've got any open areas on your scars though, err on the side of caution.

Its really A) and C) together - I eat what I want in much smaller portions, with the odd treat here and there, but what I want truly IS mostly healthy food. Although...... a lot of people here would call my diet terribly UNhealthy because of the carbs (and types of carbs) it contains. Normally I wont touch white carb foods apart from as a treat. But for the last nine months I've had to be on a low fibre, low residue diet, pretty low on fruit and veg and thus high in carb foods. I cant handle too much fat or Protein, so that leaves meb with, well, carbs. Today I've had: breakfast: 1/2 cup weeties flakes with some tinned peaches on top and skim milk Lunch: 3 cruskits with avocado, cranberry sauce and brie, a choc chip cookie dinner: (is going to be) lamb rogan josh (cross fingers this works for me, its not TOO hot and spicy), white rice and well cooked green Beans. I'll probably throw a small skinny latte in there somewhere, and a small glass of whine with dinner. That's a very average day forb me. One or two things like Cookies or a wine, the rest healthy food. I dont faff around with protein or such and I need the stuff like white rice to prevent diarrhoea. My poor old digestive system is very very touchy after what its been through. Hopefully, now my ileostomy is reversed, I can gradually add in more fruit and veg and wholegrain products. I would normally like salad for lunch, or a good Soup like minestrone, but cant handle it right now. I think its calories in/calories out. Plenty of people would tell me I cant lose weight with so many crappy white carbs in my diet but truth is, I'm thinner than I've ever been, I'm struggling to keep weight ON. But Healthwise, if you're a C) and the foods you choose are McDonalds, packaged donuts and white bread, then you may be thin, but that only means you'll make a good looking corpse, lol. There's health to consider as well.

If you're hungry at 10 pm then you've got the right idea having healthy Snacks at hand. But personally, that late, I'd just go to bed, lol. I may be completely freaking stuffed in the head but I feel really good when I go to bed hungry. Makes me think tomorrow on the scales is going to be joyful. Of course, it rarely makes any difference, hunger is just that, hunger. It wont kill you if you ignore it.

Very true.

What do you eat? I mean, I was never told 2 to 3 tbspns of food, I was told a cup or so per meal and that's how its pretty much been, but I do fill up on fibrous foods like salads and stuff and for that, you need your band to be a bit looser. Its easy to fail to recognise just what the band *can* do for you and get tighter and tighter in this crazy Quest to be satisfied eating virtually nothing. Your body is too clever for that, you WILL be hungry no matter how tight you are. I got quite tight myself in that quest to lose the last 15 mid last year. Got diagnosed with cancer and had to have a surgery for which my band had to be totally unfilled. I suddenly could eat bread, salads, fruit, all the hard stuff I'd missed. All the hard stuff that is low in fact and calories - unlike the denser slider foods I'd been unconsciously consuming. My weight actually dropped alarmingly with an UNfilled band, simply due to suddenly eating properly again. I took control of the portion sizes and the avoiding eating between meals, and it was harder with an unfilled band, but with the right foods, wow, I lost a lot of weight. Maybe an unfill and a committment to that sort of healthy diet could help you? I dont know about anyone else but for me, if I can stick to something like oatmeal and fruit in the morning (say 3/4 cup hot oatmeal with a few tinned peaches on top), a protein/salad based sandwich for lunch and then a regular family meat and 3 veg type dinner, with no Snacks, I lose weight pretty darn fast. As long as my band is loose enough to allow me to eat about a cup at a time that way, I exercise and I avoid in between meal eating even if I'm a bit peckish that is. Its hard to tell when someone posts like this whether they are simply missing the signals and not quite "getting" it, in which case I think some people genuinely need empathy for their frustration and guidance in how to fix the problem, and some people need a wake up and smell the coffee kinda lecture. But I think there's also people who simply cannot find that balance between good restriction and overtightness, whether due to some physical/physiological reason or simply due to their particular brand of eating issues. I even think it may take a bit of soul searching for you to realise which of those apply to you personally.

Entirely normal after an abdominal surgery and also when you're on any morphine based painkillers. What you're doing is the right thing, but I agree, ask for stronger nausea medication if you need it, dont vomit whatever you do. I was given zofran whilst having chemo its VERY effective.

You dont become a new person after surgery, one who can suddenly stick to a diet and exercise regime and have "willpower". Unfortunately, you'll wake up the same person you were the day before. However, there's a few points to consider. The first is that if you're putting yourself through weight loss surgery, one would assume that you're committed like you've been committed no other time. I think its important to have the attitude "right, lets have a crack at this one more time and this time lets do it RIGHT". I think going under the knife in desperation hoping that THIS will work is not guaranteed to fail but that you're going to have to face up to a few realisations and a steep learning curve when at first you dont get the results you expected. If you're not committed like you've never been before, then think carefully about how you can become that way. Secondly, it really IS easier to stick to a plan when you're not hungry. Which can be immediately or can take several months of fills (until you get restriction). And some people would disagree, but I find that the band DOES stop true diet breaking for me. I'm not an icecream, milkshake or chocolate eater - my vices are Cookies, muffins, cakes and the band does restrict those quite significantly for me. Especially since I always loved to eat those foods with a good cup of coffee - drinking coffee and eating cake together is hard to do in anything other than the most ladylike nibbles. And if I actually DO pig out in the afternoon, with a band, I just cant eat dinner. Not particularly healthy or functional eatibng but it keeps the calories in check. There's lots of automatic checks and balanaces with the band - for example, I just cant get down two big pieces of buttery toast and jam in the morning (my previous Breakfast of choice, with big cup of coffee!). I can do half a cup of Cereal with a few peaches on top and a dash of skim milk though. The calorie difference in those two choices is quite large. There's all sortsof things like that - I'm no low carber, but the band DOES tend to restrict those carby foods like lots of bread, rice and Pasta and not eating a lot of those foods DOES make a difference to your weight. Exercise wise, well no band will make you exercise. You have to grow up, suck it up and do what you need to do there. But even there, its SO much easier and more rewarding when you are actually seeing weight loss for your efforts. And that's the biggest factor, for me personally. I couldnt stick to diets and exercise plans before. But now I'm a runner, a dedicated one. Because for the first time in my life, I managed to do both together for a couple of weeks, saw a phenomenal result and was hooked! Once you realise it does work, its much easier to do.

Oh, lol, well, no maybe you havent turned back the clock quite that much, tee hee.

I would not eat steak in public for all the tea in china! I dont get stuck often, but steak is a high risk food for me. I dont eat out an awful lot, so when I do, my main focus is just something easy. I will go for the pasta/risotto/caesar salad every time. I dont eat the whole meal, its only once in a while I eat out, so I dont really care about the best nutritional choice, I just dont want an episode. I eat less of my meal than I would eat at home, stopping well before any possible overeating stuck episode can occur and enjoy a nice glass of wine instead. Dare I say it, Desserts are easier so I might even only have a bite of a starter, and have dessert instead.

I agree - even if its true that you store more fat from what you eat, more easily, if you eat late then go to bed, well if you're eating to make up for what you DIDNT eat during the daytime, you've also burned fat to meet your energy needs. As long as overall calories ingested are less than overall calories expended it doesnt matter when you eat. You still need to eat well, and make sure its not just boredem late night eating of course. For those that eat well during the day and get in their daytime calories, you either need to just shut up shop once dinners done and have a rule of no more or you need to plan a little late night pleasure into your daily calories. personally, I think weight loss is ALL about what works for you. Realistically,that's what you can sustain!

I think that's great for everyone, not only bandsters! I like to know what I'm eating. I will eat things that are not on anyone's diet plan occasionally, but I always like to know what I'm ingesting. I dont count calories per se, but I do keep a rough tote in my head most days, its a lifetime habit. I hate hate hate eating a meal that looks as if it might be only 300 calories, but knowing that in reality, it might be 1000.! I have a pretty good idea of the calorie count of most things, but restaurant meals are impossible to guage.

Well, I wouldnt donate a kidney even if I DIDNT have a lapband. But thank god there are people that will.

Not giving a fig about Protein makes it easy, lol. I have no idea how much protein I ingest in a day. I just eat what I feel like eating. So I never worry about it personally. I just try to make each meal include a protein source so as to keep the overall glycaemic index of my meal lower. I eat carbs like bread, rice and Pasta but try to do it as part of a balanced diet, not as my staple foods.

That's what I'd do too, call in your lap band doc. I had a huge sugery last November, but it was to remove my rectum and part of my colon and create an ileostomy, so it wasnt quite so close to the band as the kidneys are. But surely, they'd take your right kidney, not your left? As far away from your band as possible? Its all in the skill of the surgeon, I was just amazingly lucky that a) I got into to see probably the most respected colorectal surgeon in Melbourne and that he'd spent the earlier part of his career working with Prof. O'Brien doing lapbands. He understood what he was dealing with, but he told me there were no guarantees, that the tubing can be troublesome, it can be almost anywhere in the abdomen and adhered to things. Nonetheless, my surgery was laparascopic. I was instructed to unfill my band prior, which I did. I spent the next six months with it unfilled and at various times it still reminded me it was there. I started refilling and just last week, I had my ileostomy reversed, with fill in place. I've been maybe marginally tighter for this past week or two whilst my tummy is a bit bloated, but nothing major. Its been absolutely fine. Truthfully, if you're 25lb from goal then you're going to be easy to operate on (my colorectal surgeon never shut up about how glad he was to have someone thin to work on for a change). This should be able to be done laparascopically barring major complications or oddities with your band. Surgeons actually do have clearer vision and better access in a thinner body and your condition will increase your likelihood of not having to be opened up. By the way, you're amazing.

my doc just advised caution and not to eat any of my problem foods. She sort of leaves it up to the patient. I've never had any need for liquids, I can eat straight away after a fill.

I so love to see these posts, rather than the "did you eat everything not nailed down before your surgery" posts! This is the right attitude! You'e made the decision, you may not have had the surgery but you've started your journey and its great to start it on a positive note. Ok, so you dont have a band yet, dont put the pressure on yourself to eat tiny, or to be that successful at eating slow (that is SO hard!). But what I did was try to eat three meals a day, I wasnt trying to lose weight but I tried to eat three healthy meals a day and stop the binging. I tried to chew well and eat slowly. I started some regular exercise to introduce that habit. I didnt have a carbonation habit so I didnt have to worry about that. But I did wean myself off caffeinated coffee, onto decaf because I knew that with my post op tiny stomach in those first few weeks, drinking a cup of coffee (aka lifeblood) would fill my stomach and take up the room for something nourishing. I also knew that bad caffeine headaches ensue for me after an anaesthetic when its a day or so before I'm given one, lol. that was all, I just wanted to be healthy, no heavier and in a place to heal well and quickly - but above all, it made me feel positive and proud of my efforts, a great place from which to start. I didnt to feel that I was a fat pig punished with a life of stomach restriction, I wanted to make myself feel like my banding was one step in a positive journey.