AirKuhl

Banded Sept '08, was 260, now 175, goal 160-165. 3 fills so far. I only weigh myself maybe once a month at the most. Waist went from 44 to about 32. Most of the fat is gone, I'm guessing I probably have 5-10 lbs of that old loose skin/fat thing going on, although working out seems to help that. I never did diet, it was very important for me to not think of this whole thing as a diet but just the way I eat now. So I still eat out all the time, have some dessert, grab some fast food now and then, and drink and party with my buddies as normal. I lost around 50lbs then stopped for a few months, started working out and the fat started melting off again. I am losing weight a lot slower now, but I have gained a substantial amount of muscle since I started weight training and my waist line kept shrinking. No complaints, I'm down to high school weight and I was athletic back then, football and wrestling. Never thought I'd see it happen.

Awesome!!! The benefits last far outside the time in the gym. An hour workout raises your metabolism for as much as 48 hours, even while sleeping. You also end up with more energy in general, so you are more likely to do the little things around the house and yard you've been avoiding, which burns even more calories. Keep it up!

Excellent advice from Jachut. Look for small opportunities. Walk somewhere nearby instead of driving. Take a stroll after dinner. Use the stairs instead of the elevator. Take a walk around the office building parking lot during a break. Play Wii Fit or some other active game. Jog in place in your living room while watching the news on TV. Clean the garage or attic or whatever you have been putting off. Paint a room that needs it. Find a scenic trail nearby and hike it. Many gym's have one week trial memberships for free, bring some head phones and watch the news or Oprah or sports or whatever for 30 minutes while walking on the treadmill. Exercise is a chicken and egg thing. If you don't, you don't want to, if you do, you want to. Find a way to jump up on that carousel and soon you'll find yourself looking forward to it and it becomes a normal part of your day instead of some big, intimidating thing.

You need to read the labels, there is a LOT of variation. Turkey bacon can have more sodium and cholesterol than pork bacon, slice for slice. Either way, enjoy occasionally in moderation, not something you should be eating every day.

1) Who cares what anyone else thinks? 2) One of my best friends is a personal trainer and karate instructor and has always been built like an oak tree. His opinion is that he LOVES to see out of shape people in exactly the place they should be, the gym. My own experience has also been one of encouragement. Don't fear the gym, it's the right place for you to be.

Unfortunately the skin on your upper arms doesn't shrink well, especially for women. Your option is to fill "the bags" with some muscle. There are many different machines in the gym that work out your triceps and biceps. Push-ups at home work too. There is always surgery as well, IMO a last resort.

Jogging has become part of my daily routine. I do about 15 minutes on a treadmill @ 6.5 mph as a warm-up, then I work out. I do this after work and watch the news on a big TV while I run. On days I don't plan on working out, I'll jog around the neighborhood, there is a nice 1.5 mile trail that seems like the right distance for me. Very strange at first as I used to get winded climbing stairs, and jogging over a mile would have killed me. Now I crave it, lol. Work your way up slowly so you don't get discouraged. This isn't a competition. EDIT: If you are looking for a way to get started in private, the Wii Fit was a great tool for myself and many others. Highly recommended.

Don't worry about the internet critics, every Doc gives different instructions. I was eating solids within a week with the blessing of my doctor. Having said that, you have food issues. You will not lose weight if you don't try. All the band does is make it a bit easier. People can and do gain weight with a band (and other surgeries) all the time. It seems like you think it will do all the work for you and you are just along for the ride, and it's not like that. Assuming that you really do want to lose weight, here's a tip. You get used to eating certain foods over time. Most of use got used to eating ones that made us huge. The good news is that you can just as easily get used to eating stuff that's healthy. For example, don't eat ANY sweets for a week. None at all, not even artificial sweeteners. It'll be hell for a few days but then you'll realize that you don't crave it as much anymore. It's an addiction and you need to treat it as such. Same thing with rich, high fat fast food. These days most sweet Desserts are just cloying to me, and anything richer than 2% milk or fat free cottage cheese seems almost too much to get down. But if I get past it and snarf down a candy bar, I have to start over. Good luck, I think you'll need it.

I drink tea all the time, I like a whole bunch of different flavors. I really like the red tea made out of Rooibos, it tastes good and is naturally caffeine free so I can drink it right before bed. You can also go to Peets coffee shops, they have a whole bunch of loose tea you can smell and decide what you might like. I can't stand sweetened tea, I only like it straight up or maybe a touch of lemon in some flavors, so I can't help with sweet tea.

Fiber is a very good thing and you should eat a lot of it. Aside from promoting a healthy colon and digestive system, it also helps moderate blood sugar, and helps you feel full so you eat less overall. And I agree there is no food inherently bad for a banded patient. Any food can be painful if you don't chew enough or overeat, fiber or no.

I had shrimp for the first time about a week after banding, no problems. I still avoid rice though, because it's tougher for me to eat and also a lot of empty calories. Every doc seems different, mine let's me eat and drink anything anytime after the first few days, he just made sure I understood that I could sabotage myself pretty quickly. His ONLY specific advice was to not drink for around a half hour after eating so that I could stay full feeling long enough for my body to decide it's not hungry anymore. Best advice is probably to follow your doctor's advice, he's the one you'll end up calling if anything goes wrong.

Started at a tight 44x30, now at 33x32 fairly loose after 10 months, starting to buy 32x32 as I'll be there within a month. Shirts went from 2XL and 3XL to M. Funniest thing is that a lot of my non-laced shoes got too big, I mean WTF, I never thought I had fat feet. :biggrin: I still sometimes have a hard time finding clothes on sale, just now it's because they're all too big instead of too small. Nice problem to have.

The average weight loss is 50% of your excess weight in one year. Some will do better and some worse. I'm at 80% at 10 months and tracking to 90-100% at one year. The first 60% went pretty easily. Since then I had to work for every pound. I do not diet, I eat anything I want but in much smaller portions. I have always eaten fairly healthy food, just way too much. I stalled for 4 months and didn't lose any weight, then I started working out and started losing again. Everyone follows their own path. There is nothing that can stop you from hitting your target of "normal" weight, other than you. Just don't expect it to be handed to you.

I went to Nordstrom yesterday to buy some clothes during their anniversary sale. They had a rack of sale shirts that I really liked and I started going through it looking for my size. They were all too BIG. That was a first, I never left a store without buying anything so happy. :crying:

I think I might be at a perfect restriction after 3 fills. I'm at 10 months and around 80% of excess weight gone. I'm hoping to hit my target size at one year. I eat 5 small meals a day. Large Cappuccino made with 2% milk for breakfast. lunch is part of a sandwich or taco or whatever looks good in the cafe at work. No measuring, I just eat until I don't want anymore, maybe half a sandwich. In the afternoon I'll have a small snack, maybe 100 calories, go work out, and have a 160 calorie chocolate Protein drink afterward. dinner is whatever we make or order that day, quantities depend on what it is. A common quick dinner for me on a busy day is a can of Progresso Beef/Veg Soup. In the evening I'll usually have another small snack, some Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, half a chocolate bar, small bowl of reduced calorie ice cream or Cereal, maybe some popcorn or beef Jerky, just depends what I'm in the mood for. I drink Water throughout the day. Once in a while I'll drink zero calorie soft drinks, and occasionally splurge with some booze on weekends. That's pretty much a typical day for me.

Lol, funny idea. They'll do it as soon as they figure out a way to fine us for all the impact we had up until now. :crying:

Agreed on Tanita. I have one where you step on these metal plates and it measures your body fat% as well as your weight. This is good because since I started working out I've been losing pounds slower, but inches faster. It can track that instead of just making some inaccurate BMI guess.

I'm not sure, it's either 15 minutes or 1 hour. I jog on a treadmill for 15 minutes, about 7mph and a target HR of 140. Then I do 45 minutes of weight training with 2 sets of 20 reps at a pretty quick pace which keeps my HR up. A trainer is good. I don't need one hovering over me, but I hired one for 2 sessions to write out an alternating day A/B plan for me to follow. I find I do better if I have a plan and stick to it, or else I'll get distracted or find excuses to skip something. With the checklist I have to do everything on the list.

Agreed with all the above. The only caveat is that if you have weak stomach muscles, they will bulge out. Picture the typical skinny guy with a beer gut. If you tone them up, they will get flat. But it won't get rid of the fat over the top of them. Bodies store fat in weird ways. I've lost 80% of my excess weight so far and my arms and legs lost so much fat that you can see big thick veins and the muscle striations. I don't think I ever saw a vein on my body before, lol. My remaining 20% is completely in the area between my armpits and hips, even though that's the first place I wish I could have lost fat.

Get a Wii and the Wii Fit game. Awesome way to get you started with some good cardio and some easy core strength excercises in private at home without feeling self-conscious. Time flies and you'll have 30 minutes of cardio in before you know it. There is another Wii game called EA Active that takes it to the next level, you will actually feel sore the first few times and build muscle with this one. At some point the games will get boring and you'll be ready to hit a gym, jog outside or other stuff in public. That means that mentally and physically you are ready to exercise for real. I am a HUGE supporter of these 2 games. I'm not sure how else I could have transitioned from total couch potato to 4-5 times a week gym rat without them. If I tried to go straight to the gym in the shape I was in, I would have gotten discouraged and quit. Now I can't wait to go and it feels weird to miss a day.

Great post, seems like you found your path to success! But: Don't grieve. You were NOT eating like everyone else. You ate way too much, period end of story. Rejoice instead that NOW you are eating more like "everyone else."

There are a lot of options out there. They all have their pros and cons. For my own personal reasons and seeing the issues that one of my friends had with another type of surgery, the band was the only surgical option I would consider. IMO, the KEY is finding a great doctor. Don't shop doctors on price! A good surgery "A" is always better than an average surgery "B", no matter what "A" or "B" are.

This right here is the core issue. Sugar and sweet foods really are addictive in the classic sense of the word. I have gone back and forth with sweets and I have found that if I force myself to not have anything sweet for at least a week, the craving stops. It's exactly like quitting smoking or drinking. It's really tough for a week, but then it gets easy. This is also why current research is showing that zero calorie artificially sweetened drinks are actually fattening. While they don't make you gain weight themselves, they reinforce your desire to eat sweets, and for some people that means they make poor choices. So many of us are so used to eating sugary foods and drinks every single day of our lives that we can't imagine not eating them, but just try to cut them out for a week or two, you'll be amazed. As far as whether the band is good/bad for sugar addiction, the band let's you drink a gallon of milkshakes 5 times a day if you want. If it can pass through you won't get full much quicker than before. Could be a gallon of creamy Soup too for that matter. It's not the sugar itself, it's just that many liquidy foods are sweet. The band makes losing weight MUCH easier, but you still have to make good choices.

I eat when I'm hungry and don't eat when I'm not for the most part. The only time I force myself to eat is right before I work out because I know I'll need the energy. I've gone whole days only having a cup of coffee in the morning and maybe a burger in the evening, and other days when I know I ate too much. IMO your body will tell you if it needs food.

The average loss after one year is 50% of your goal. You are still way ahead of average. It's natural to quickly lose at first and those last few pounds are always the hardest. Lot's of things to try. Pretend you just got the band and go through the liquid/mushy/soft stages again. Make sure you REALLY are only eating 1300 calories a day, that's pretty close to maintenance intake and if you are missing accounting for a 100 here or there you won't lose. Try a different meal plan for a couple of weeks. Go on the South Beach diet or something like that, just to kickstart things again. Increase your activity. I have no idea what excercising 5 times a day means. Is that a full hour where your heartrate stays above 125 the entire time or a leisurely 10 minute stroll around the neighborhood, or somewhere in between? I started working out pretty hard the last 2 months and I have lost less than 5 pounds. BUT, I have gone down 2 inches in my waist and my arms and legs are noticably more muscular, so I know that I probably lost at least 10 lbs of fat. Gotta fight for every pound near the end. Keep it up!