ElfiePoo

Studies have proven that if you restrict your calories too much, your body will lower your metabolism in response and burn protein from your lean muscle because it thinks it is starving. Women who eat less than 1200 calories a day will lose more slowly than women who eat 1200 calories a day...and the lower you drop your calories, the slower your weight loss will be. When I was 18, I went on an 800 calorie a day diet. I walked for an hour every day and at the end of the month, I'd only lost 3 pounds. This was before their studies so of course everyone thought I was lying about sticking to the diet. My most successful weight loss attempts were when I stuck to 1200-1400 calories a day. I'd drop anywhere from 2-4 pounds per week. Of course that was when I was younger and weight comes off faster. .

I used to get cramping in my legs from drinking too much. I drank about a gallon and a half of water a day which can be a diuretic in itself and, as a result, created an electrolyte imbalance in my body. So too little or too much can be a problem.

Some people do get restriction after each fill, even if it's only temporary, due to swelling. I never did. I had a 3cc fill at 4 weeks post and felt nothing. Two weeks later I had another 3 cc fill. Again, nothing. I went in a week later so they could pull the Fluid out and make sure I didn't have a leak, but since there really was 6 cc in the band and I felt nothing, they stuck another 2 cc in. Bingo. At 8 cc I could only drink Protein shakes...nothing solid. So they took 1 cc out.

When I have a stuck episode, if I swallow a gulp of Water, it will go down and immediately come right back up, but that action seems to dislodge the stuck item as well. It's less painful than being stuck and takes less time to resolve than just waiting it out. My 'stuck' episodes are becoming rarer, though. I guess it means I can be taught. .

Wanna bet? Seriously...I think sometimes we have this spot in our brain that blocks out these memories of pain for awhile (probably the only reason women have more than one child) because we repeat these things until we 'learn'. I've only had restriction for a week and a half, but think I've finally learned to take small bites, chew well and put my fork down between bites and take my time. I've also recently learned that I can't pick up a food and just take a bite off it (like a chili dog or chicken wing) because it's too hard to monitor the size of that bite...resulting in a stuck episode. It's less painful if I just eat the chili dog with a knife and fork and pull the meat off the wings and eat them with a fork.

ROFL...lately you've been providing me with quite a few laughs. .

You are a stronger person than I am. My doctor only made me do each phase of the diet for 2-3 days each and I still thought I was going to die.

It's always nice when our sister makes us feel better. :frown: Mine has a muscle disease called Thompson's Disease (my dad and two brothers have it as well). Basically, her muscles are firing even when at rest so she's building muscle even when she's sleeping. She looks like she works out without lifting a finger. Despite that, she's still my best friend...but that's because she's capable of pounding me into the dirt if she wanted.

Send me your address and I'll send you one for free. I got this bright idea (pre-afghans) to do a cross stitch called "Ugly Duckling". It made me smile. Three cute little ducklings and a frog sitting in a row. I managed to get the eyes in and a few cross stitches before I figured out I was going to go blind before I finished it. Now it sits forlorn without hope of ever being finished. The waste just kills me. .

Congratulations on the 130 lbs lost! That is so awesome! As for the family members...hard to believe they still aren't supportive when it's obvious that this has worked for you but it sounds like your head is in the right place. We don't (or shouldn't be) doing this for anyone's approval. This is about *us* and for *us*. I'm going to print out your list of "RESPONSIBLE's" and tack it to my fridge as a reminder for my own self-accountability. .

A good article but I disagree with his 3 meals a day. Then again, I'm a diabetic and have a difficult time keeping my blood sugar levels from taking a nose dive if I wait too long between meals. My mid-meal mini-meals are always Protein. In the past they were a hard boiled egg, an ounce of hard cheese or something similar. Now I just drink a low carb/low cal Protein shake. It works as well and is training me not to 'eat' between meals while still giving me the protein I need for my blood sugar. The other thing I disagree with is the idea of skipping meals. They've proven that breakfast is the most important meal since it helps to stimulate the metabolism. People who eat breakfast lose weight better than those who don't...or so says the research. Otherwise, he's right on...ok, except for missing the part about the water.

I wouldn't worry about a stretched pouch too much. According to my doc you would have to seriously overeat for a long time in order to stretch the pouch. As someone who took that one bite too much the other day, I can tell you that kind of pain is not something I'm going to repeat often enough to have any kind of worry about a stretched pouch. I was wishing they made a throat plunger because I truly felt 'stopped up'. .I don't know about a slipped band. .

I don't know about that...I'll let you know when I step on the scale on Monday. That 7 lb loss last week may be history. But onward and upward...or is that downward? I've kept myself busy today and am pretty pleased that it's 4:30 p.m. and I'm still on track. I'm going through the whole carb withdrawal thing (massive cravings) big time right now but I can do this. Fortunately, my evenings are spent crocheting a couple of baby afghans and that keeps my hands busy and less tempted to walk them out to the kitchen. It's difficult to eat with a crochet needle in your hand. If you forget which hand is doing what, you could poke your eye out! :frown: .

Even though you're stopping when you're full and making good choices, you're still most likely eating more than you did prior to eating real meals. So it's normal to have a bit of a gain when you go back to eating. Hang in there. Also, just a heads up on watching what 'full' means. Prior to restriction, if I ate until I was 'full', I'd put away enough food for 3 adults. One thing I found helpful in controlling the amount of food I took (since I didn't weigh and measure) was to eat off a small dessert plate. It's pretty hard to overdo it on a 6" plate. .

I keep reminding myself of that. Two car accidents in the space of a week and we walked away from both. The car did not fare so well. .

Thanks, Denise...now...can y'all move closer so we can do this in person? .

I never turn away prayers and I'll put you and your family in mine as well. I'm sorry to hear about your mil. You know, we know we're going to lose our parents (usually) first but it's still hard when it hits us that we will never again be able to pick up that phone or walk across the yard and hear their voice or see their face. .

Jessica, A stall simply means that the amount of calories you're taking in equals the amount of calories you are expending. Assuming you have no medical problems (e.g. hypothyroid), you've either decreased your activity since Dec. 10th...or you are eating more calories. You may not be overeating in terms of 'quantity' but you may be in terms of calories. If you've been working out this entire time, it's possible that you've been building muscle. Muscle is denser than fat so while the scale may not be moving, your body composition is changing and becoming healthier. You should be seeing a drastic change in how your clothes fit and how your body looks. If not, then I'd start writing down what you're eating and journal your activities through the day to find out what you need to change. .

Great post and advice! .

Tori, If you go to User CP at the top of the screen and click it, you'll have some options to edit on the left. One is for your Signature. Click that and then scroll down. All you need to do is cut and paste the tickerfactory's code (I think it's the HTML code) into that space. If you hit preview, it will pull up what it will look like at the top of the screen. If it's just code and not your ticker, then it's the other code (IMG code) that you need. Then save. That's all there is to it.

Exactly! It's still hard work, but the band was the motivation we needed...just as WW or JC is the motivation others needed. That's why I just want to smack people who are stupid enough to tell me I 'took the easy way out' by getting the band. Easy...right. .

Ditto on what btrieger said. Keep in mind that even when you do reach restriction, it is still up to you do follow the rules. In the back of my mind I kept thinking "once I reach restriction, everything will be ok and I'll start losing." Nerk. Even after you have restriction, some foods just slide down well. At one point I was so tight that I could only drink protein shakes for a week, but the cookies went down with no problem (this was between Christmas and New Year's). If you want, you can graze all day. Restriction won't stop that. If you want, you can drink with your meals and help your food slide through. Restriction won't stop that. It is still up to us to follow the rules of the band... Don't drink with meals. Limit meals to 1 cup (or whatever your doctor told you) and don't eat between meals (or eat something high protein mid-meals to keep blood sugar stable -- hard boiled egg, an ounce of cheese, a low carb/low cal protein drink, etc.). Finish your meals in 20-30 minutes and then step away from the plate. Make good food choices...proteins first, then vegies and then carbs if you still have room. Drink 64 oz of water every day. If we do that, we'll lose weight. If we don't, and depending on how much we don't, we will lose slowly or not at all. We can even continue to gain weight. .

Ditto! This post needed an encore! .

Because you found the right tool that works *for you*. Some people will get the band and they won't lose weight...because it was the wrong tool for them. Some people lose on Atkins and keep it off. Some on WW...some on JC...etc. There is no one tool for everyone. We just need to find the one that is right for us...and when we do, the results may seem magical because we're able to work with it and be successful. My aunt thinks WW is her successful tool. She's gone on it and lost over 100 pounds...three times. Some would say it's not a successful tool...but the fault did not lie with the tool. If she had obeyed the rules of the tool, she would have kept the weight off. Same with the band. We have to obey the rules, or a year after we're banded, we won't be any lighter on our feet than we were the day we were banded. By the way, HB, congrats on the weight loss! .

They may 'want' you fully healed but if they have 'light duty' you may want to check with your personnel dept to find out what their written policies are. Check with unemployment as well. My cousin is an RN and went in for some elective surgery and was not allowed back to work until she was fully healed. She was able to collect unemployment for that period because she had no vacation or sick time to use. I don't know exactly what she filed, but I know it was through unemployment...even though she had a job she was going back to after her doctor released her to full duty. One thing I've found in working for companies is they rarely tell you anything that gives the advantage to the employee...unless they have to.