Jachut

I'd lose tons of weight eating that, processed food is not good for you and I'd quit it but I really believe weight loss is about calories and little more, so there is a puzzling equation that's just not working out there. I'd really quit the treat days, obviously its just too much at this point in time. You work out a lot, I'd be tempted to try eating just a bit more healthy food on a daily basis rather than alcohol at the weekends. And you might just lose very slowly, but weight loss is STILL weight lost, no matter how much or little it is.

I dont know that I walk any different, I find sleeping on my side hard, my knees are too bony and they hurt! I certainly sleep more comfortably. I still overestimate the amount of space I take up and think I wont fit in places I fit easily too.

Its all to do with what you've been used to doing and how much of a change it is for your body at first, and then later on it becomes more about intensity and time. I think adding handweights will not add much more of a burn and you run the risk of injury too as it is important to maintain good form. Personally, for me, I was already well able to walk 5 miles or so in an hour before banding, so I started out with light jogging and progressed over a year to a six mile run or so a day - about an hour's moderately intense exercise. I now add in boot camp sessions and interval runs etc for more intensity and variety. For most people, I think a solid five mile walk in an hour should be enough for weight control and will probably result in good loss for many. If you want to use weights, you're better off adding in a couple of dedicated sessions a week as well as your walks.

I just cant believe how many people in the world there seem to be that think its OK to do this. Everyone here knows how blunt I can be but I would NEVER say something like that to someone. I might think it, I mean we all know people who have literally done nothing about their weight ever and then think this will be a magic solution. But you would always be encouraging, polite and even hopeful for them no matter what you privately thought, wouldnt you? You might even gossip behind someone's back about it, but not to their face. My mum did this a little, but that was genuine concern and worry, if you're sure its not that, I'd just ignore it and realise you're doing this for YOU and not many other people's opinions really matter.

You're looking fabulous!

I had surgery in the morning and was able to get onto my side and lie that way for short periods by that night - I was SO sick of lying on my back. I went home to sleep in bed, I didnt need a recliner or anything. It took a few nights to be able to easily and comfortably lie on my side, it hurt a bit like my stomach was hanging unsupported in there.

Collarbones are beautiful!

I've been taking childrens chewables too since there are NO adult ones here that I can find, however, having been diagnosed with rectal cancer recently and reading up on the importance of antioxidants and selenium, I realise that the children's Vitamin completely misses out some trace nutrients that most adult ones have, selenium being the primary one. I've decided to stop being a big baby and just take the big adult pill. I dont get stuck on them, I just hate taking pills and gag and carry on like a wimp. Adults need adult Vitamins I think.

It sounds like things are going great. Its understandable that you would be nervous, you've had some traumatic experiences in the past. I have not been banded and pregnant but I have been pregnant and lost significant weight. On purpose, with the blessing of my doctor because I was 220 odd pounds when I conceived and I had had preeclampsia twice before. I did NOT want to pile on weight, although in the ironic way these things go, that is not the way my body tends to react to pregnancy. Statistically, gaining weight during pregnancy within normal limits is associated with a healthy pregnancy. That's only a statistic. As my doc pointed out for me, the baby needs nutrition, not fat. You need to take in adequate carbs, Protein, Vitamins and minerals, you do not necessarily need to take in a lot of extra calories and gain fat. You can gain the average weight during pregnancy by eating Big Mac's or ice cream and pickles or whatever(in fact most women do!) and you have not done one single thing to increase your odds of a healthy baby whereas you can eat perfectly, not gain weight and have done brilliant things for your baby. If you are sure you're eating the recommended intakes of various foods and you are supplementing well, dont let minor weight loss worry you, if its getting a bit out of control, supplement with somethign healthy like a fruit smoothie, made with some milk, some fruit, even a bit of cream or full fat yogurt. That packs in calories AND nutrition (I wouldnt turn to artificial foods like shakes at this time, if you want to go that way go for a weight gain supplement without all the artificial ingredients). If you really cant eat enough, the unfill a bit, you'll probably get tighter and need to eventually. good luck!

It can vary for me, some months I notice nothing, but I have had probably less than 20 pb's in 5 years with the band and I would say they've ALL happened in the couple of days before my period starts. Its quite a noticeable pattern.

Not about to get banded, have been banded five years but I am in Melbourne. Where are you going?

I am not a low carber and to me, I've never gotten over the idea that Breakfast is carb time, lol. I like to fuel up at breakfast, and not eat so many carbs later in the day. I tend to eat oatmeal or muesli a lot - I dont waste my calories on very processed cereals. To me, oatmeal comes as rolled oats and you cook it up in a saucepan, it takes 10 minutes or so. I dont like bread anymore, i can eat toast but for some reason, bread doesnt "taste right" to me anymore and tends to nauseate me. I occasionally have a crumpet with butter and honey for a treat or quite often I'll eat wholegrain crackers with toast spreads - being an aussie, I love my vegemite. I am also quite partial to a bit of smoked salmon rolled around cream cheese in the mornings, and when I have time, poached eggs. But apart from the smoked salmon, I like flavourless cardboard as you can probably tell. I am not a fan of bacon and strongly tasting foods like that in the morning. I'd happily eat bacon and eggs for dinner but cant come at it early in the day and I really dont care for shakes and such. Cant eat cold yogurt either.

Oh, you definitely need top up fills once a year or so, only tiny but just to replace lost fluid.

Well, you have to find that work/life balance and you have to get darn selfish. I have 3 kids, i study and I work full time. I know what you mean about time, but I realised I had to find an activity that was time efficient. Swimming really isnt for me - since i cant go out in public with my hair dried naturally, lol, I have the most hideous hair that dries fluffy, frizzy, half curly and with cowlicks all over the place, you get the picture. Drive to and from the pool, get changed, bah, it takes way too much time. I took up running four years ago knowing I was going back to full time work and that some days I may only have half an hour to exercise. You can burn serious calories in half an hour running. I came to love it, really love it, but that wasnt really why I started it. I also have a treadmill so if that half hour comes at 10 at night, I can still exercise. I set myself up specifically with that aim in mind. And if it comes to 10 pm and I'm stuffed and just want to veg out in front of the telly, I run on the treadmill anyway. As it is most days I find forty five minutes to invigorate myself outdoors. My kids are old enough for me to leave now if DH isnt at home. I ran with my daughter in a jogger stroller (that was HARD work) for a year or two. I just did what I had to and really, as much as people want the secret, that's all it is, dedication and determination.

Whilst I dont in general agree with the eat no carbs/crave no sweets band, I do find eating sugar makes you just keep wanting it. I dont find eating wholegrain bread, or Pasta gives me sweet cravings, but if I eat lots of sweet things, my eating does go totally off the rails. Like you, I am just as bad with "healthy" sweets like granola bars, and even Protein Bars and shakes (which I consider junk, just masquerading as heatlhy foods) due to their very sweet taste just make me want more sweet food. Artificial sweetener doesnt cut it either, sweet is sweet and if I eat it, I want to keep going. First line of defence for me is to eat properly and regularly in the first place - Protein and wholegrain carbs. Then stop and think when I go to eat - I will ALWAYS prefer a coffee and a nd sadly, just willpower. The band has helped me lose a lot of weight, its gotten portion size under control for me but it has never ever ever made an impact on my sweet tooth. I have to do that.

I know a couple of 15 year or so bandsters, but they have had original bands replaced. Mine has been in place for 5 years now, and still going strong (touch wood). I do know someone who's had her original band nine years with no problems. My surgeon said his best guess was 20 years before needing replacement. He said parts WILL wear out, the balloon specifically, so I guess the less you muck around with it and the less full you have it, the better. As to a foreign body, I know you're a guy so you wont be considering fake breasts, but it astounds me how many people say that but are not phased by plastic surgery. People have pins, plates, knees and hips, pacemakers and stents in them, and dont worry about those. None of those last forever either. But I figure thanks to my lapband, I hopefully wont NEED a knee, hip, or stent!

The answer is simple - dont go! I hate it too. Its too time consuming. I ditched the monthly fee and bought a treadmill for a similar monthly payment as DH and I used to spend on gym memberships we didnt use. I can be on and off the treadmill and have burned 600 calories in 40 minutes. That's time efficent. That's only on crappy days (like today, its freaking freezing and HAILING in Melbourne today, lovely spring weather we're having). Most days I go outside and run, or I go to bootcamp, which I also love. But anyway you cut it, I havent set foot in a gym in my whole 5 years banded and i'm fitter than almost anyone I know. And I have an hour or less per day to devote to exercise.

Yes, I dont really realise I'm craving, but suddenly think "man, I've eaten CRAP for the past few days, I'd better get back on track". sure enough, then I notice sore boobs, the scale goes up, Auntie Flo pays a visit and a week later I"m back to normal weight and eating well again. I just go with it. I cant be bothered stressing over what is a very natural, normal cycle for many women and appears to do absolutely no long term damage to my weight control. I just stay off the scales that week.

you can lose weight without working out. The difference between you and someone who DOES work out is that you'll probably lose slower, wont lose as much and will lose more muscle/less fat. In a really bad scenario when you diet strictly (like Atkins) and dont workout at all, you might even become the dreaded 'skinny fat', where you're tiny but saggy, flabby and have not actually improved your health and vital stats much at all, if not worsened them. However, in most cases, you'll become more active as you lose and you might not formally exercise, but you are active and really, if that's all you want out of fitness, then what's wrong with that? Its no secret that I think that everyone who doesnt get REALLY fit is missing out on one of life's greatest secrets, but its also true that not everyone wants that level of fitness. Do what makes you happy and what you can sustain, but bear in mind that when you get to old age, you might be mighty glad you kept your cardiovascular and muscular systems in very good shape.

You cant actually know unless you're somehow measuring the output of YOUR body. You will in general burn more than average if you're heavier, less than average if you're lighter. I can set my treadmill to 4.5 miles an hour and walk that, but I can also jog that slow, and I am burning more calories jogging it than walking it because I use that extra bit of muscle to clear the ground with both limbs (the argument that running and wallking burn the same is a myth, there's not a lot of difference but there is a difference). Either way the treadmill will say I burned the same. An average worked out on your height, weight, age and level of intensity will be pretty accurate, but not 100% because people are not averages. But my treadmill doesnt ask for input of personal stats so I pay no mind at all to what it says. It doesnt matter really though, you're unlikely to be out by hundreds of calories and lets face it, there's huge inacccuracy in weighibng, measuring and apportioning calories to food too - and most people are not able to acurately predict their resting metabolic rates either. If you have a deficit then at the end of the day you'll lose weight. If you absolutely HAVE to know all those figures exactly so that you can be sure you'll lose exactly 100.75lb in 43.74 weeks, then you need a hobby, urgently, lol.

I agree, and I wouldnt eat that crap. I make Soup myself, rarely eat canned soup and I refuse to eat artificially sweetened products. there's losing weight and there's health and the two dont necessarily go together. I didnt have to do a pre op diet, I was lucky, not sure how I would have handled that because shakes are full of artificial sweetener. But I guess its a means to an end and wont hurt you short term. But longer term banded, I dont eat many processed foods.

I do, but I always lose it again, typically its about 2 lb.

I rarely go in a gym, but I do exercise five or six days a week of varying intensities. Generally on a Monday I'll go to bootcamp, which is pretty full on, I'd have no idea how much I burn, its very cardio/circuit/interval style stuff and generally someobody pukes, lol. other days I run, I do an interval run or two in the week and a couple of slower longer runs. Maybe one day a week I'll have a long walk instead. Sometimes I go to bootcamp for boxing on a thursday as well. I'd guess, but its only a guess, that I'd burn about 700 calories a session. Mind you, when I started, I run a mere 3kms at a time and burned about 300. Its all relative, it was enough to get weight moving at the time because my body wasnt super efficient at it. I was working as hard then to do that as I do now to burn more than twice as much. Gym machines just give you an average for the average person doing the exercise. Ellipticals are inaccurate because they sort of assume you're moving, when in fact your feet do not clear the ground. They're good calorie burners but nowhere near the 1000 and hour they tell you, you'd be dropping down dead. If you cant burn 1000 calories in a hour actually running (and most people wouldnt have the stamina) then you sure as eggs cant do it on an elliptical where you're not actually moving across the ground.

DH has clocked in with figures like 100/75 and such since losing 25kg with his band. But he tried coming off his meds and his BP went way back up again, although it was only ever 145/85 or so, not incredibly high. I think exercise as opposed to simple weight loss is one of the key factors as to whether it will stay down so you can come off your meds.

I havent heard of them, but I did use sea bands when I was pregnany - they sat on pressure points on your wrist and really did ease my nausea. I've also had a complete cure from sciatica and a dead, heavy leg that I had for 2 entire years from acupuncture, and have just come through half of my chemoradiation with the aide of acupuncture WITHOUT vomiting, nausea or hairloss. I really believe there's real basis to these sorts of things and I also believe that the postiive mental attitute they help you to attain works miracles. Good luck!