Jachut

Dont beat yourself up though, at the end of the day it comes down to calories in v calories out and there's no amount you "should" be able to eat or no founds you "shouldnt" be able to eat. What matters is your diet overall, not the odd choice, so whilst nuggets and such are best avoided when you're trying to lose weight (and even when you're not) the fact that you can eat them is not the point. You should aim to generally choose not to. I've lost all my weight, had my band five years and I can STILL eat bread, pasta, rice and potatoes, I can still eat a heck of a lot of chocolate and I still like my wine. But I've changed the balance, to be more in favour of healthier foods and that's what made the difference.

I believe this is the wrong way to look at it. Any weight loss surgery has potential for regain. What you should be asking is not "will this surgery work for me?" but rather "can I work this surgery?". No matter which surgery you choose, at the end of the day it is YOU that will make it work. Surgery makes your job easier, but most of it still comes from you. You need to have faith in yourself tht you are taking a positive step but it is a journey that you are steering - you are not at the mercy of any surgery hoping that it will "work".

I just gradually stopped losing and have maintained ever since. No real change in habits, maybe I do eat a few more treats these days and dont worry about stuff like having a glass of wine. But no unfill and I probably do more exercise than ever.

I did homemade soups and things too, made sure they had meat, Beans or lentils in them, blended up and thinned down to whatever I could handle at the time. I loathe Protein shakes, icky sicky sweet muck. I never drank a single one. You have to put in a bit of effort but it is perfectly possible to cook for yourself, from scratch, fresh foods and get enough protein. I've never seen unflavoured protein either in stores or online here, but I would definitely have tried that.

I didnt notice an increase in this, but my hair is like that ALL the time. My brushes are always full of hair, there is always hair on my pillow, there are tennis ball size plugs of hair in the shower drain weekly, I serve up my hair regularly to my family in their dinner, it drives me freaking nuts. But I never go bald and my hair is not thin either. So dont panic TOO much just yet, but all you can really do is make sure you're as well nourished as possible.

It might not be the whey, protein shakes in general can really upset your stomach, its quite common if you google it. If you're talking gas, protein farts are a recognised phenomenon!

I love bootcamp. there's always a wide range of fitness levels and yep, some people puke, lol. I finish the class drenched and really exhausted, but its like any fitness activity, you put in what your fitness level allows you to. so dont be afraid of it, its great fun.

I'm a bit baffled, 50lb since April is great, 10lb a month is great, and 55 lb in a year is great! Look at my avatar photo, so many people say to me, you look great, I hope I can end up looking like you. Well, how fast do you think I lost it? 2 years to lose 100lb. I lost 1lb or less a week. 1lb lost is 1lb lost, no matter how long it takes. I've kept that weight off for almost 3 years now. I couldnt give a fat rats ar*e how long it took to lose it. I was thrilled when every single pound disappeared. This surgery is not magic and this slow steady weight loss is really a good way to come to terms with it all mentally as the physical changes occur. It can actually be very difficult to become a completely different looking person seemingly overnight.

Wow, that's amazing - losing weight without a fill is great enough, but 100lb in 6 months is pretty phenomenal, as is 55 lb in 7 weeks. That IS pretty rare. I lost about 35 I think, without a fill, in about 12 weeks. but I sure needed the fills I had to lose the other 65!

It'd have to be a pretty extreme diet - although purposely putting yourself in to ketosis and staying there seems a pretty risky thing to do for weight loss. Maybe it might tip you over the edge if you already have an underlying kidney problem though, high Protein diets are not recommended if that's the case.

I've got a vitamix and its absolutely the best investment I ever made for family cooking. for myself, I use it to make fruit smoothies, it breaks them down completely and I usually add spinach or some sort of green as well as its so healthy for you. It gets blended so well you wouldnt even know it was there. At least with somethink like a vitamix that gets things completely smooth, you are still getting all the pulp and fibre that you miss out on with a juicer.

I dont think there's much to that theory - I'm in my 40's, I mainly run for exercise, and do boot camp and I dont have loose skin, well not significant skin requiring surgery anyway. I bump and shake all over the place when I exercise! I think its the luck of the draw really.

There's also the factor that some people tend to get very fat in the face when they're heavy and fat plumping out around your eyes does affect your vision, just like drooping eyelids as you age can.

If you exercise whilst you are losing, you will help to make sure that the balance of fat v muscle lost is optimal. You will lose muscle anyway, but you can maintain a healthy body composition by exercising, whereas you can lose weight, be a normal weight and still have an unhealthy composition - its entirely possible to have a 33% body fat measure when you only weigh 120lb, and we've all seen those small but flabby people. But the real benefits of exercise are on your other areas of general health. Its uplifting emotionally and mentally, you'll be more stable, healthy in a mental sense and capable if you're fit. It will keep you out of the cardiac ward, stave off diabetes, prevent cancer and make any major health issues you do develop easier to deal with. If you're hanging around waiting to see defninitive proof that exercise is good for you, then you're missing the point. You wont know or feel what you're doing for your body necessarily, you may not appreciate the absence of disease or you may take for granted that you have an operation and you're over it and feeling well in a week. But those benefits will be there. Its like cleaning the toilets or brushing your teeth, just do it and it pays off but it may not be what you feel like doing at the time. Not exercising is really one of the worst things you can do to your body but if youv'e never known what it is like to be really fit, you dont know what you're missing out on so you dont realise how much better you could feel.

It really depends why its falling out, and like Betsy said, its generally just a disruption of the hair growth cycle, due to the shock to the system of surgery and possiby hormonal reasons as well due to fast weight loss. I didnt lose hair, but over the course of a year, the condition of my hair (which has always been coloured and had been chemically straightened with that supposedly non damaging bio ionic system) deteriorated and it was breaking off (which my delicate hair does all the time anyway), so I thought I was losing it but it wasnt coming out from the follicle. It got better as it grew back in, I cut it much shorter too, but not really short. If its falling out at the follicle, it could simply be normal fall but not a lot of regrowth, which will right itself fairly quickly and probably be minor. The really bad loss is when the follicle dies as in chemotherapy and you can be bald in days. I've never heard anyone on here report that. Its like loose skin, you feel better putting stuff on it but in reality if your generally fairly well nourished as most of us really are, nothing you put on it or take in Vitamin form is really going to make much difference.

I can really eat anything if I want it enough, but some foods are very difficult. My worst are bananas fresh or canned fruit (other than a peeled and sliced apple), I eat most fruit blended into a smoothie fruit juice - HOW can juice block me up? I dont know, but it does I can eat bread absolutely no problem, only just not with Soup, it must absorb the liquid. meat doesnt bother me, red or white although pork is a little difficult.

The best exercise is the one you'll do and if you do anything regularly and cosistently it will work. I hate the gym too, I really cant be bothered going through that routine. But I love running and I love bootcamp and I've been really consistent with them and they've worked wonders. Dont feel pressured to go to the gym if its not for you, walking is great if its what you like to do.

The weirdest thing, a kahlua and coke. Do you guys have kahlua over there? Its such "tart fuel", lol, only bimbos drink it. I'm a wine drinker, and fancy myself as a bit of a sophisticated one too, lol. I never drink those girlie drinks, but I really want something like that. I think I want the relaxation of acohol but wine can actually be unpleasant to drink now, it burns a little sometimes. I've drunk waaaay too much Baileys too lately. Very fattening!

Yes, its normal. You probably need a small top up fill. I went recently (have had 2 fills in the 2 and a half years I've been at goal) and both times I'd lost about 0.1cc out of the band, just needed to top it back up again to halt that slow increase in intake. Fluid evaporates out of the band over time, only tiny amounts, but it does and you do have to replace it every now and then.

I havent and dont need a hysterectomy, but I was diagnosed with rectal cancer a month ago and have started chemo, radiation is starting tomorrow and I'll be having a fairly major abdominal surgery in November. I was VERY lucky because my surgeon has some experience with lapbands, but i checked in with my lapband doc, he and all the other people involved in my care are happy for my band to remain as is with its current fill. I dont have a very fickle band, I barely ever get stuck and vomit. Everyone concerned feels that for me to pile on the weight now woudl be detrimental health wise and not good for my mental outlook either. I have a very positive prognosis as this has been caught early enough and everyone wants to help me maintain what I've worked so hard for. The major precautions we're taking - i came home from getting my chemo infusion set up today with strict instructions to take the Maxalon regularly from now, dont wait to see if I feel sick or not. I will meet with the anaesthetist too to endure that although I've never been nauseous after an anaesthetic before, we wont be taking chances this time, there's goign to be plenty of anti nausea meds in the mix so that I dont wake up vomiting and it will be managed likewise afterwards. Its not a given to have to unfill for a surgery, its a precaution some docs insist on but I'm quite comfortable leaving mine as is. Oh and good luck, hope it goes smoothly and results in good health for you.

Its so scary isnt it, there's been so much activity around the entire Pacific Rim over the past few years, starting with the Boxing Day Tsunami a few years back. We were going to Thailand in 2 weeks time, a long awaited and anticipated holiday, which we of course had to cancel when my cancer was diagnosed. I have this gut feeling somehow that there's going to be an earthquake or tidal wave or some sort of natural disaster in Thailand during the time we were meant to be there. I hope I'm wrong, but it really seems that over the last few years there's been alot of activity along those plates. We've even had tremors in Melbourne a few times over the past year or two.

Stay safe Rach. dont worry bout me, my biggest headache is getting my lazy kids to school. They're not above milking this situation for days off!

I ate somwhere in the range of 1300 to 1500 calories a day and never counted fat or Protein or carbs, but I do/did eat wholegrain carbs like decent bread and cereals all the way through. I run most days and do bootcamp once or twice a week. I lost steadily and well, and got the whole 100lb off without trouble, but it wasnt at the rate your desiring. I lost more like 5lb a week for the first two or three months, it literally fell off and then I settled into a pattern of an average of more like 1lb a week (although in actual fact it came off in chunks, nothing for two weeks then 3lb kind of thing). I was fine with that though, believe me, at the other end of this you dont sit around worrying about how fast or slow you lost.

when i got banded, I always imagined it would be like my third pregnancy. My daughter was breech and sat really high, i could barely breath and eating was uncomfortable. I'd eat two bites of something and be really really full. Banding feels exactly like that did to me. Its very common to not be able to eat a lot in the latter stages of pregnancy. I couldnt bend over without whatever was in my stomach coming out my nose either. All that AND I barely had a bump, that's how far and deep inside she was. So even though I'd tend to be thinking you need another unfill, it may not entirely solve the problem. It might just be the pregnancy. Its also unlikely to be any real problem with the band, just a problem with extra restriction. Its probably up to you whether you unfill more or not - it depends what you're managing to get down. You need nourishment of course, but as long as you can manage that, you probably dont need to gain more actual weight now.

This sounds awful, how traumatic for you. You're right,this must be rare, its not something I've every heard about on here. Dont you just love being the one in a million, sigh? My caesar wound was similar, but it wasnt red blood, it was clear reddish Fluid that it leaked, but it did it for WEEKS on end, I'd be out and about and suddenly soaked as if I'd wet myself. It was more annoying than painful or serious though.