Slow Losers Unite!

[LadyBugRed 2]

Hi everyone!

It seems that my restriction is fading a bit. :shades_smile: Is that normal? I had a fill on 2/12. I am attending a banding class tomorrow for my checkup after the fill. Banded patients all talk to each other and share experiences. Sounds good. I also have started picking at night and right when I get home from work. I will have to shoot out the door to walk quicker!

I am actually going to get on the scale tomorrow morning. :ohmy::ohmy: I know I have unrealistic expectations of what I should lose. Does anyone else share the fear or am I the only one?

[Oregondaisy 2,021]

Yes, it's very common for fills not to last long. Even if you aren't losing very many lbs on the scale, you're losing the fat pad around your stomach. That loosens the band.

The evenings are the worse for me.

[badonkadonkbutt 1]

The evenings are killing me. I have awesome restriction right now but those Snacks sure slide down easy every time. If this weather would just break up here, I am sure it would help.

[LadyBugRed 2]

Hi everyone,

I just weighed myself. Of course I was devasted. I have lost 3.4 lbs since 2/24/08. That was the last day I weighed myself. In total I did lose 8 lbs from 2/5 to 3/5. They did say 1-2 lbs per week right? I walk so much that inches are falling off a lot quicker than the weight.

Well, I am off for my 4 mile walk. Can't give up! I think I will start weighing in monthly. What do you do?

[shortgal 5]

Exercise alone ( unless it is very intense and several hours a day) is not enough to lose weight it must be combined with lower Calorie intake.

I think the problem with exercise is we can tell ourselves we worked so hard walking etc. that we deserve to treat ourselves to more food.< /p>

You can go online and type in "Walking calculator" and you can figure out the calories you burned by entering in your weight and the speed you walked. If you walked 3 miles in one hour than your speed is 3 MPH.

To lose 2 pounds a week, you must reduce the amount of daily calories you need to maintain your current weight by 1000. There are also web sites to estimate your BMR. For example, if your Daily calories to maintain your weight is 2000, then you need to eat 1000 calories a day to lose two pounds, if you walk one hour you can add about 300 calories, so you could eat about 1300 calories and over the course of a month you'd lose about 8 pounds.

Obviously you need to be consistent with this formula, if you don;t walk one day, then your calories would have to go back to 1000.

More intense exercise will burn more, like step aerobics. If you don't have a problem with your knees, you can buy a step and a DVD program and do that in front of the TV. Depending on the length of the tape and intensity, you might burn 500 calories or more in less than one hour.

That's why the Biggest Losers do several hours of intense workouts and they lift weights to increase muscle mass.

You lost 3.4 pounds in about 10 days. That's great. That's not slow and eight pounds in a month is great, too.

[LadyBugRed 2]

Thanks ShortGal. The weird thing is I am not overeating. Some days I would have an 800 cal intake which I know is too low so I started working on taking in more Protein. I watched the Biggest Loser last night and you are right. I started weight training this week so we will see in another month.

Thanks for the support. I really appreciate it!!:thumbup:

[shortgal 5]

I mix my calories up to confuse my body. If one day I have 800, then I'll have 1000 and occasionally 1200. I think if we have the exact same calories every single day our bodies just maintain our current weight on those calories.

My thinking is the caveman probably had to hunt for food. One day maybe all they'd find is berries and another day they'd kill something and eat big. I mean they didn't have a supermarket or refig. to keep things, so it was all about what they could find in a day.

So I do the mix up once in awhile. Maybe, we are all just fooling ourselves and none of these silly things work, maybe it's just that we naturally fluctuate and eventually we lose again. Who knows? I just feel better if I think I am trying something.

We are all so impatient when it comes to losing weight. We can't help it, we just want it gone. All we can do is hang in there and keep working at it. One day we'll wake up and it will be gone. Then we'll all be on the forum figuring out how to keep it off!

My next fill is tomorrow! Hope this one gets me my sweet spot. After three months of waiting for good restriction. I'm ready!

[Doddie63 6]

SHORTGAL; Your postings are sooooooooooo right on. I sure hope a lot of people struggling read your messages. We are impatient, no doubt about it. When snacking, I wonder how many look at what they are doing at the time. Are they alone, sitting in front of a TV? Are the choices poor choices. For instance is the snack something you like as a soother that goes down smoothly or is it one you have to chew, chew, chew.

Doddie

[shortgal 5]

Thanks Doddie, I am one of those practical "tough love" kind of thinkers. Maybe I'm just an old cranky lady!

The band has a process to it. It CAN be very difficult when our restriction is not right. I still struggle with that. I know I could eat more, but fortunately the band does help my willpower to say, NO.

I know I can't rely on willpower forever.

When I get fills, I get some swelling for a few days and after the last fill, I had one day on soft food, where it felt like the band REALLY worked. I ate a measured portion of Cereal for b'fast and stayed content until 1pm.

Now that's what I'm talking about! Without good restriction, many days I watch the clock waiting for the next meal!

I lurk on this thread and post sometimes, but I hate to "label" myself a slow loser becasue I worry that's a mentally defeating statement. I would rather think I am losing at the best rate I can, as I know I am really working at it. And really, this is the fastest I've ever lost compared to previous attempts, so no doubt the band is helping me.

I'm also lucky that I don't have children at home. I don't have Snacks or food that might tempt me hanging around the house and I don't have to cook for a family. My husband cooks and he cooks things I can eat. (although, I have to remind him a lot that Soup is not band friendly, unless I'm on liquids, LOL).

On the other side, I'm older, less active than when I had kids and had laundry and constant house cleaning, work, etc. so in ways, it's a trade off.

I struggle with trying to get everything we are supposed to eat. Enough Protein, enough Calcium, enough veggies, enough Fiber, but oh yeah, don't eat over 1200 calories a day. Yeah, right.

I guess I just think that if everyone on the forum had tried every diet known to man before getting the band, then surely sticking to another diet until we reach restriction is possible.

I do feel bad for those whose Dr.'s wait months to give them a fill, when it's obvious they need one. I mean, how can they be that good for that long, that's why they ( we) needed the band. That's just mean and they should know better, that the band doesn't work for the patient without some restriction.

But sympathy for those that constantly eat around the band, especially when they are still trying to lose? nope, no sympathy here. Lock up the stupid Cookies and chocolate and give your kids the key.

[Mischievous1 6]

I'm also lucky that I don't have children at home. I don't have Snacks or food that might tempt me hanging around the house and I don't have to cook for a family.

The part I am having a hard time with is that I forget to feed my daughter sometimes(she's 3) ...I mean don't get me wrong, she isn't starving and she LET'S me know, but I sometimes feel guilty that I don't have a planned meal (nutritious) in front of her and will quickly put together something to curb her hunger as when you're 3 you don't think about food until you're STARVING and she does NOT want to wait for mom to prepare something. The guilt is good though as i'm learning to have quick things on hand I know she likes and will eat and are better for her (hard boiled eggs and dole peaches are her favorite lately and are ready to eat at a second's notice) but MOM is still learning. Any suggestions from you experienced mom's out there for quick nutritious snacks and lunch ideas for 3 year olds?

[Oregondaisy 2,021]

String cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese and fruit, actually cottage cheese mixed with yogurt is delicious.

That's all I can think of at the moment.

I have to say again that I have never lost 2 lbs a week. I lose 5 lbs and then I won't lose anything for at least another 2 months. I exercise 6 days a week.

I have to agree that it's very hard to get everything in that we are supposed to. Fiber is a big problem. Can't drink for an hour yet drink 64 oz of Water per day. Protein first bla bla bla. It's hard to balance it all.

[shortgal 5]

The part I am having a hard time with is that I forget to feed my daughter sometimes(she's 3) ...I mean don't get me wrong, she isn't starving and she LET'S me know, but I sometimes feel guilty that I don't have a planned meal (nutritious) in front of her and will quickly put together something to curb her hunger as when you're 3 you don't think about food until you're STARVING and she does NOT want to wait for mom to prepare something. The guilt is good though as i'm learning to have quick things on hand I know she likes and will eat and are better for her (hard boiled eggs and dole peaches are her favorite lately and are ready to eat at a second's notice) but MOM is still learning. Any suggestions from you experienced mom's out there for quick nutritious Snacks and lunch ideas for 3 year olds?

I haven't fed a three year old in a looonnnng time! But this is a good chance for the little one to learn good eating habits with you.

My husband will make chicken at night and then I have leftovers for lunch the next day ( warms fast in micro) or he'll make a turkey meatloaf and we do the sam thing. That way I get my Protein in the next day at lunch. Will she eat tuna?

For moist chicken that reheats without drying our receipe is. Strips of chicken breast. Lightly coat them with a bread crub and parmesan cheese mix ( no egg on chick first) and line them in a baking dish. Saute a little oninon in a little butter and add milk and cook a little, Add one box of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained well to the milk mix. Then pour the milk mix into the chicken pan and bake. Stays very moist, good since some banders have a problem with dry chicken. And a veggie is already in it.

Beef stew is also good, if you can eat beef. Just leave the potatoes for your family to eat and you can eat the beef and carrots. Easy leftovers.

We also like the morning star soy chicken patties over a salad.< /p>

[NJ_gal_in_VA 0]

Well, I had my fill, finally, on Friday (March 7). I found out that I have a 10cc band and I had 7cc's of Fluid in it before the fill. She put in 2 more cc's and so now I am up to 9cc's in a 10cc band. So why do I not feel much of a difference? At first after the fill, I was full easily, but now I am not. I know I have a lot of "head hunger" to overcome, and I think that's one of my biggest problems. But I feel genuinely hungry and my stomach growls. For example, I had 3 pierogies for dinner tonight and had some chopped onions on them. I know....not the greatest meal to have. That was about 1 hour ago and I'm starving right now. I don't want to eat because I'm trying to cut out my after dinner snacking but it's so hard. I mean, I am a compulsive overeater at night. I can't seem to eat something and control my portions. If I eat a cookie, I have to have half a sleeve or why eat it at all. If I eat a few potato chips, I have to eat the whole bag or it was in vain. That's been my thinking for so long. Nothing healthy seems to satisfy me no matter how much of it I eat. I guess that's why it's called "head hunger" because it's all in you head that you need JUNK! Does anyone else have that way of thinking that "you can't eat just one" as the Lay's company claims?

[shortgal 5]

Maybe you're not having food that is "solid" enough? Pierogies are kind of soft. Try firmer Protein for a couple meals and see if that doesn't satisfy you longer.

And if you're hungry after dinner ( me, too) can you have an apple or some cottage cheese with fruit or a sugar free popsicle? Just so you don;t feel deprived.

[Oregondaisy 2,021]

I have only recently discovered how I feel full so much longer with solid Protein. You would think I would have known that, since it's been told to me over and over again.

I had steak for lunch at noon and it's 6pm and I still feel full. When I have salad for lunch, with a little bit of chicken breast mixed in, I am hungry again right away.