The Violet Rose

I am flat out getting down 30g Protein a day. More and I start vomitting. It's always been a bugaboo for me. As to red meat; it seems to be about quantity and frequency. Most of us bandsters couldn't get through the quantities required to cause cancer. See the following link: http://www.cancercouncil.com.au/editorial.asp?pageid=1861

I envy you. I love apples and I haven't been able to eat one in the 12 years since I had my band put in. They just sit in my stomach and make me feel awful.

I'm in a catch-22. I can't afford to have it removed and too afraid that my weight would balloon if I did. I already have other health problems that would be seriously worsened with weight gain. Its not like I'm thin now. I weigh around 132kg. It has only really slowed my weight gain, not stopped it. Until i had my last and first fill, I needed to eat every two hours...

Not true. I was 25 when I had mine done and I could pull a pleat around my waist 3in deep. I looked like the saggy baggy elephant.

The yo-yo thing gets old and banding may not be the end of it. It wasn't for me. To be frank, I've been at this so long, that I am well and truly over it. Weight loss helped my health and I got pregnant but in the process it half destroyed my life. My personality changed. I hated the person I became. My husband became really jealous (there's a big age difference between us) when I got down to a size 8. Thinness brought as many problems as it solved. Losing weight doesn't fix anything but you weight. For newbies out there, try and remember than. This is an important fact that isn't put about much in these kind of arenas.

Don't be disheartened. The Biggest Loser is an idiotic and flawed weight loss program that is a guarantee of weight regain because of the ridiculous and impractical levels of exercise and excessive restrictions. What we are goin for here is long term sustainable losses. That doesn't happen quickly. Next time someone hassles you about Loser, point out the holes in the program. You don't have a problem.:wink2:

Sorry to tell you this love, but I lost about 415 pound over my life time, some quick, some slow. You ALWAYS get loose skin. Skin can only retract marginally. If you are losing more than 50 lb, you are going to have some sag. After my intial weight loss after the band, I could pull a pleat in around my waist 3in deep!

In 12 years I have not had a meal that didn't hurt in some way. I'm just happy when it doesn't end in violent vomitting (not pbing, projectile vomitting). I just thing that this is the way it is. They tell me my band is fine. i just think its a flawed surgery. A bandaid for the bullet wound that is obesity.

Hi Setagirl, I am feeling ya. I might actually be able to help. I had the same problem as you and it nearly drove me insane, but it helped me figure my body out. I discovered that my appetite is largely dependant on blood sugar swings. if it swinging around wildly, I am hungry and seek out sugar with vengence. A few years ago I put myself on a low GI diet and stopped craving sweets for the most part. If I vary from this I start craving again. Up until that point I was putting on weight again and it pretty much stopped. I also realised I had an alcoholics relationship with chocolate. It I eat even I tiny amount I start craving it again and I can't stop. It's worth a try. I also find I get really depressed on the high Protein diet they recommend. Like you I can't digest it; even after twelve years I still can't deal with chicken. The only think I can suggest it pureeing it. That seems to help me.

I feel your pain. I felt full but my hunger was never satieted. I stuck with the tiny portions but went mad with hunger. I later read about people in concentration camps and I was acting like them. I started to behave like I had anorexia. Some people will never feel full because of the way the nerves in their stomach work. Some people need the food to reach their duodenum before satiety will hit. I was a success story (150lb in seven months) but then I got pregnant. I had my band done in 1997 and back then they didn't loosen them during pregancy. I had to nibble, but I was still only eating half what most people ate. I was also walking 1hr-1hr 1/2 a day. I regained 30kg in three months because I stopped the four hours a day of exercise I was doing. Over the next decade I regained all the weight I lost. I have vomitted, I have obstructed, I have rotted out all my teeth. If I hadn't had a child (my reason for doing it), I would have regretted it forever. It's made my life a misery. Recently I was forced into having a fill by a new GP. He refused to treat me unless I complied with a weight loss goal, not something I wanted to do. I am experiencing fullness now, unlike before, but I can barely eat. I really hate my band and if I didn't think my weight would balloon I would take the damn thing out. It's good to hear from someone who is not all sunshine and roses. The reality can be very different.

I've just had a fill three weeks ago and have lost 15lb. When I first had it done years ago, I lost 15lb in my first week!

Hi all, I am an old timer (banded since 1997) who has just had a radical re-adjustment and has been thrown back into the fresh hell that is being newly banded. I have all these new problems I didn't have before and it's driving me nuts. When I was first banded I lost 70kg in between mid Feb and November the same year. I worked out like a demon. I nearly went nuts. I was constantly hungry. It was the worst experience of my life. I got pregnant and couldn't work out for 4hrs a day. I regain 30kg in 3 months. That was still working out for an hour everyday. My surgeon retired and there was no one for me to consult as this was still a very uncommon surgery in Australia at the time. Since then I have regained every kilo I lost. My current GP decided my band was too loose and sent me to a local surgeon (a new addition) who has adjusted my band very tightly (3mm stoma):drool:. I have lost 5kg in two weeks. I am miserable and back where I started. Does anyone out there have a good way of relieving gas? I feel like there's a rock in my stomach. There are days I wish I had never been banded... Do you no what really annoys me? No one ever speaks ill of the band and some days it is very difficult living with it. I spent my wedding reception with my head over a toilet because I'd eaten the wrong thing. There have been weeks where I have thrown up every meal. No one mentions that...

Hi Sooverit, I found those calcium chew tended to lower the acidity of my stomach and made it difficult for me to digest especially difficult things like Protein. Try not to eat them near a meal if you can avoid it.

I think PBing should be correctly termed positting. Its what babies do. Vomitting is more forceful.

I've had my band for 12 years and that sounds about normal to me. I spent my wedding reception in the toilet after one such incident. Not chewed enough tend to be what the problem is for me, but as a few other have pointed out, the band can be an unpredictable mistress. Try not to let yourself get too hungry. We tend to bolt our food at the moments. I wish you luck. I have had periods where I have thrown up every meal...

Silly me!:tongue_smilie: I was actually trying to reply to Delivered who was. Sorry. I'm only new here. I actually liked the original post. It is very honest. I have talked a couple of people out of banding who thought you could just have it and lay around and lose all your weight. That's a fantasy. The idea the this is the easy way out annoys me a lot. This has never been easy!

Hi, Initial weight loss is dependant on starting BMI. Those with a BMI of 40 or above are going lose more than those whose starting point is lower. Exercise is the key. I lost 155 pound in seven or so months. I committed to a hard core exercise program (4hrs of hill climbing a day). If you are not prepared to go this hard (and I wish I hadn't; I destroyed my knee joints on this program), you are going to lose weight more slowly than this and this is a good thing. Slow weight loss is more likely to stay off. Take it from someone who has been living with this for over a decade. Be patient.