Jachut

Personally, I'd rather do that than drink shakes. I dont fancy the artificial sweeteners and additives in shakes, I dont consider them "real" food, whereas yogurt to me IS real food. I guess some people would worry about the carb content? But I never avoided carbs and lost weight fine, so I'd prefer to yogurt any day.

Personally, I think someone forgot to tell our bodies all these rules! It makes sense to me that your body will absorb what it needs -what? You're Protein deficient and starving and suddenly catch and kill a wooly mammoth and you're only going to absorb 20g of protein? But by the same token I totally believe human beings are not only omnivores but opportunists. I absolutely dont believe there's a "perfect" diet out there, there's ways of eating that lead to weight loss, ways of eating that lead to robust good health, ways of eating that lead to strong bones, ways of eating that increase your memory and mental powers but its very difficult to combine them ALL, all the time. This high protein/low carb mix appears to be great for weight loss and that's why people do it and why its recommended NOT because the body absolutely needs x grams of protein per day, or that carbs cause cravings (debatable for many) or that your hair will fall out if you dont eat whatever. I think making sure you get enough protein is a sensible action to take, in the context of a balanced diet, obsessing over how many grams of it you absorb is just unnecessary (unless of course you're paying through the nose for the shake!).

Suburban Melbourne. I live in a fairly outer suburb, property prices here are amongst the most expensive in the world, in terms of comparison with annual income and unless you bought in at the right time, you can never catch up if you missed the boom. So even though we've got a nice big six figure income, we're pretty much resigned to cheap, modern housing. I long for Melbourne's genteel, tree lined inner streets and Victorian/Edwardian architecture, but a 4 bedroom brick veneer is what I have. Still, I have a nice home, nice suburb, plenty of good facilities. I live near all my family and all of DH's family, except for my sister who lives in Sydney. Climate here is awesome - its temperate - nice and mild in winter - usually above 10 degrees celcius, lovely and warm in summer, with long stretches of high 20's and then nice manageable bursts of really hot weather when it can reach above 40 degrees celcius. We dont live far from the beach, Melbourne is on a bay, and a very beachy city, we can easily drive down to pristine, non city beaches inside half an hour or so down on our Mornington Peninsula or South Gippsland. Melbourne can tend to have 4 seasons in one day, it has a reputation for that, it can be cold one day, hot the next. It doesnt snow here, although sometimes it can on the very outskirts up in the hills. Melbourne is a very multicultural city, with large Asian and Italian communities, and as a result we have loads and loads of really great cultural activities and fantastic eating out from all cuisines. I love it here, its a very liveable city, with good road networks, that are well planned in a grid structure, so its easy to get around. But if I could live in my dream location it'd be Byron Bay - up on the border of NSW and QLD, I'd love the tropical climate, its gorgeous scenery and the mix of hippie and yuppie culture, its a fabulous place. Unfortunately although as a teacher I'd find work there, there's not much call for CFO's which is what DH does.

To me, you cant feel restriction unless you are either getting full or have done something wrong. Restriction reminds you that yes, you're satisfied after only a small amount of food or it reminds you forcefully that you're eating too fast or too big a bite or a food that doesnt agree. It doesnt equal any sort of regular stuck or pbing to me, it doesnt equal strange or uncomfortable sensations with normal eating and it doesnt equal fear of eating in public in case a pb happens. But there are always niggles. Some people cant eating in the morning, for instance. For me, I absolutely cannot sleep with anything in my pouch - if I eat even a little near bedtime, I can feel fine, but I have this "unease", I can feel it there and the minute I slip into sleep, I tend to wake suddenly with an instinct that I'm about to vomit. I never do, I never get reflux but that feeling is there. As long as I have my evening cuppa an hour before bed and dont eat I'm fine. Last night I was hungry and had a small handful of cashews, I went to bed and had to get up again and sit up for an hour and a half until they were gone and I could like down! Yet I can eat bread, I can eat a cup of food at a time, i can eat any food at all and i never pb so you could hardly say I was too tight. Its such a personal thing, restriction.

Well, I eat a lot more than that, lol. I lost easily on about 1500 a day (more slowly than some, but still steady and easily) and now I maintain on closer to 2000. So no, i dont feel weak. I have plenty of energy to run almost daily and do bootcamp and work on my feet all day and run around after my kids etc. You might feel weak in the early days though, when your calorie intake is very low. But 1200 or so ought to be enough for most women to function normally.

Hmmmmmm......, no I suspect not, depending on factors such as age and also what you call reasonable tone. My avatar photo looks OK, yep, I lost 100lb and I dont have a hanging belly or bat wing arms. I didnt end up with a lot of lose skin. But I am VERY fit and I just dont look it. I am "soft" for want of a better word. Nothing I do will ever get rid of that last amount of flab for a washboard stomach, toned legs etc. I cant wear things that grab at the waist, or I get a bad muffin top, I suffer bad VPL, lol because my flesh is soft, same deal with falling out of the bra cups. That's as much loose skin as I have but its annoying. And I just dont want to wear spanx every day. C'mon, its a GIRDLE and I'm not a grandma! I refuse to wear those garments, they're hot, uncomfortable and tight. So whilst you can certainly have a great result and not need PS (I certainly dont) there will probably be a few residual signs of your previous weight, but hopefully they'll be ones only you will notice. Everyone else wonders what I'm talking about when I complain - the old skinny chick complaining she's fat!

Its possible, but it wont be 20lb of fat. You've lost a lot of water, which is what always happens when you go on a very strict diet.

The plank and variations is the best exercise! I do one on the ground, where you do a plank on your hands, then go down one side at a time, onto your elbows, then back up to hands, back down to elbows etc. Side planks too. Also, man pushups make my abs really sore, it really targets your core, just like planks do. That and plenty of running, and I've never found a real need for crunches and sit ups. I have very strong, flat abs.

We have a huge child obesity problem in Australia too - my kids are healthy weight but all topping their healthy weight range and that's despite a healthy diet and all the sport they play. So they all think they're a bit chubby because they're not that gangly skin and bones that a lot of kids are. Where I think Australia and the US differ is that whilst Australia has every bit as huge levels of obesity (in fact I think we actally outstripped the US percentage wise a year or two back), ours seems to be more overweight, just obese levels. Everyone you look at is carrying a little extra, but those really large 300lb plus people are fairly few and far between. Its just not so common to see anyone REALLy fat. We dont quite have the same disconnection from food in its natural state here YET. I dont know many Australians that would consider eating a Lean Cuisine every day a healthy option for example. We dont have everything in a can either. But its conming, and the weight will follow.

Lol, its nice not to be hot all the time and to really enjoy summer. But its only Autumn still here 15 degrees celcius today which is probably quite tolerable weather for many of you northern hemisphere dwellers. But I'm freaking freezing and I cant turn the heat up in my classroom because it makes the kids feral. They're all in their summer uniforms - tshirts and shorts and hardly any of them have jumpers on! I havent taken my coat off yet and its 1.40pm - they're just eating lunch now before they go out which is why I've done a sneaky LBT check!

I certainly dont have the capacity for rich foods I once had. I think part of it is eating slowly and really tasting it, a lot less satisfies.

The last 15lb or so that got me to 150 took over a year to lose! Ideally, there's still a bit of weight to be lost from my lower body, but its just never going to budge, I have stayed here for about 2 years now, even longer probably. To lose it, I'd be looking at intense one on one personal training sessions, and a very scientific eat the right thing at the right time sort of diet. What a joyless existence! I've no wish to live like that when to be honest, just a little lipo on the love handles would make me totally happy! And I'm not sure I care enough to actually spend that sort of money. I wouldnt assume you wont lose anymore, if you just stick to a healthy diet and consistent regular exercise of fairly high intensity, then you might find similar to me, that every now and again you notice a few pounds gone.

It is my personal belief that a higher carb diet consisting of carbs from foods like legumes, Beans, nuts, seeds, vegetables and wholegrains - in other words an ideal vegetarian diet - is MUCH healthier than a low carb diet consisting of a lot of animal products - particularly manufactured ones like cheese and deli meat or processed Protein shakes. a perfect low carb atkins style diet can be very healthy - where the Proteins are lean, low fat and lots of good fat from fish and avocados and nuts are consumed (too many carbs???) and mountains of fresh low carb vegetables are eaten to provide nutrients and fibre but in reality who eats like that banded?. Most of us could never hope to fit in the large quantities of produce an ideal diet like this requires. Truth is, most of our protein foods and animal products come packaged up with salt, trans fats, other additives that are terrible for us and cause major health problems, so to base your diet on those, and avoid healthy relatively unprocessed foods because of the carbs makes very little sense. However, nobody needs donuts and ice cream. Well, not often anyway, lol

I'm finding a BMI of 22 pretty good too - its slender, I mean people will probably describe you as "thin" but not skinny, as in you dont lose all your curves completely. Mid range is pretty good for a lot of people if they arent very muscular. I think although my body type could be lighter, its harder for your face to carry that well when you're older.

Its what you can do with an honest effort that matters. If its only 5 minutes then that's what you do. But perhaps you could do that a couple of times a day, gradually trying to build into a longer session. What someone else can or cant do is really irrelevant - I mean, I started on my treadmill when I bought it, slow jogging at 4.5 mph for 40 minutes or so. I was starting from a way different base obviously. What matters though is the effort that's involved in it - the effort and work is what brings you results.

Running worked miracles for me. It took a while to build up to really decent runs (say 5kms or over at decent speeds) but it was worth it. Then I added in circuit training/bootcamp type of stuff in group training sessions. I've never set foot in a gym since being banded, lol. I do it all outdoors. Nowadays I do four or five runs of about 8kms a week and two bootcamp sessions. For me, althought what I now do is long range, takes a while to build up to it, cardio and lots of it was what made the most difference. The strength stuff with bootcamp I bought in later to tone and fine tune, it was running that burned the fat and caused the most weight loss.

Well, I wouldnt think this would be common unless your kids were very overweight in the first place, I mean, my kids were 2, 7 and 9 when I got banded so they are growing! I'd be very alarmed if any of them actually lodst weight, as they're physically active and normal weight. I guess what you're really looking for is has their diet improved, and the case is probably no here but it didnt really need to, although like everyone they probably eat a little too much processed snack foods. You just have limited input into childrens' diets these days, dont you? So many other factors and influences, they eat away from home so much etc and I always did focus on feeding my family well, it was the crap I snuck in around that that did me the damage, and I didnt feed my kids that rubbish. Our core family diet has always been healthy - I cook from scratch using fresh ingredients, buy organic etc. We dont ever have soft drinks like Coke, and my kids dont consume a lot of liquid calories like juice, milkshakes, flavoured milk, cordial etc. You get Water or skim milk here, lol. The main problem I've found is that I chronically underfeed my kids and predispose them to snacking by failing to give them enough to eat! My cooking has graduated to accommodate the foods DH and I like best (he's banded too) and my idea of a normal sized meal is kind of small, so I tend to give my growing teenage boys a small meal off a salad plate and then yell at them when they're prowling for food an hour later. They do well when I swerve them what I consider a mountain of healthy food.

5foot 10, my goal was 170 ish (79kg, top of healthy weight range) officially, but I was always aiming for more like 154 (70kg exactly) and I got there pretty easily, in fact surpassed it. I generally sit between 148 and 150 now, and stay here pretty effortlessly. I'd actaully like to be 8lb or so lighter, but anything I lose I tend to just put back on with one decent meal, lol, so I think this is where I'm meant to be. Truth be told even though my lower body would be fine 10lb lighter, my face really doesnt need to lose any more.

driving home in the car after school has finished is danger time for me. I really cannot quite lose the habit of winding down and relieving tiredness and stress with sugar. I truly can feel it hit my bloodstream like a drug, and it really does calm me. I find it very hard to drive past the several supermarkets on the 40 minute trip. It is so easy to stop, go in and buy a packet of chocolate biscuits! For me, its simply a matter of willpower. Most days I avoid it without having to go to such measures as leaving my wallet at home! But yes, its a very strong association, almost automatic.

The guideline is for 10,000 steps a day but this is totally dumbing it down for a sedentary population - meaning if you've been totally sedentary, then great, this will help you on your way to being more active and as a general healthy lifestyle its a good amount to do. For really good long term weight loss and real aerobic fitness, you have to do more and it has to be harder. But that's up to you, fitness goals are personal, some people totally want tto just stay out of the cardiac ward and others have much more athletic goals. I dont really use a pedometer, but have on occasion. For me, on a normal day when I do my normal running around (work as a teacher, a bit of shopping, the kids sports training etc) and also go for a normal length run (about 8kms) I do about 18,000 to 20,000 steps.

I would think she means the mayonnaise. I dont have any foods that I absolutely cant eat but some are harder than others. I'd agree, fresh fruit like apples, raw things like carrots, stuff like that is really hard. Bananas, ugh. I've never liked fruit much anyway, I dont know why but I'd starve before I really ate it an enjoyed it, so perhaps that has something to do with it, but looking at a banana and thinking about eating it is pretty similar to looking at a housebrick and thinking about eating it!

I've never counted carbs and in fact eat a more wholegrain carb based diet. It works better for me. I never had any trouble losing weight, although it was slow I guess - 2 years for 100lb, I had a BMI of 36 to start with. I actually dont consider that slow but I know others would.

I can see the benefits of it, and how it keeps control of forgotten calories. I did type my opinion of what I think of journalling, but I've said it often enough and this thread was more about the positives of it, so I've edited. I guess we're all different. What works for me is different than what works for the next. As long as what you do works for you and you can sustain it, what else matters?

I'm thinking you cant possibly expect to live your life on 500 calories a day? I dont have a sleeve, I have a band, and i get that restriction is more constant and less adjustable, my band is such that I can now eat about 1800 a day. But I have been a dedicated exerciser, I run for an hour four or five times a week and do two bootcamp sessions and I lost absolutely fine on 1200 to 1500 a day. It was slower than what you've experienced - took me 2 years to lose 100 lb but I definitely didnt find problematic hunger with exercising, probably because I was taking in enough nutrients and I did eat wholegrain carbs too to fuel my running. I understand that if your sleeve is going to serve you well, it needs to be made of a size that probably will restrict you to under 1000 calories for a good while, but do you really need to be as low as 500? its no wonder you are hungry, you cant sustain even your resting metabolism on that, let alone fuel activity.

I agree. At only 5.5 weeks out, you're not back to full strength yet and may need to avoid anything that really increases intra-abdominal pressure - such as very heavy lifting or stomach work. But you dont need to tell them what it was you had done. If you were much further out I wouldnt think there was any need to divulge the info. I've certainly never told my trainer that runs the bootcamp I go to that I have a band.