Some sage words of advice from an expert (not me!)

You know, there is always a lot of talk about what we should or shouldn't be eating and why/how we PB now we have a lap-band. There are a few of us on here who go by the 'no diet' theory. My own theory has always been I have done 'dieting shit' in my 'past' life... and now I have a band, I'm never doing it again. I haven't lost this weight of mine through counting calories, or weighing food or measuring sugars and fats and/or good or bad carbs. The only time I tracked my food was when I was well and truly stuck on the scale at the same weight for weeks and I needed to see if I was eating the right amount of calories. I wasn't but after some great advice from you girls and guys, I upped them and down went the scale again. I have lost this weight primarily though sticking with my portion sizes and never veering away from that. I still eat 'crap' sometimes but now it's a small amount of it and still, I lose weight. Here's what backs up my theory behind it.......

I was going through this book I bought before I was banded. It's called The Lap-Band Solution. A Partnership for Weight Loss. It's written by PAUL O'Brien MD - a world leader in weight loss research and Lap-Band surgery. Inside it has some words of advice that I thought were rather timely considering there is some confusion out there about the kinds and how much food we should/shouldn't be eating and also some about PB'ing.


Hundreds of books have been written by people giving you their 'secret' for losing weight. In general, they talk about this type of food versus that type of food, this way of eating versus that way of eating. They are missing the point. The key to losing weight is to eat less. The volume of food is far more important than the content of the food. The body can turn almost any food into whatever it wants. Don't get lost in the detail of the type of food; focus principally on the volume of food. (This last sentence is the one I like most: type/versus volume. It's what I adhere to.)


We have no way of beating the laws of nature, and one of the laws of nature - the Law of Conservation of Energy - states that energy can be neither created nor destroyed. If you take in more energy (calories) than you use up, it will be made into fat, the energy store of the body. If you take in less energy than you use up, the body will use up some of its stored fat. To lose weight, you MUST reduce your energy intake or increase your energy output or, preferably do both. 


So no great secret there: basically he's telling us what we already know. Take in less food, move around more and you will lose weight. BUT I like this bit... don't get lost in the detail of the type of food you eat. I mean let's face it. If our band is in a good place and this works for even those with only some restriction, we have already cut our portions down to a tiny amount compared to what we used to eat. For myself: I don't worry about good /bad/white carbs. No matter what carbs I'm taking in.. I can guarantee that it's a fifth or less of what I used to eat. And I ate a LOT of carbs in the old days. Especially pasta. Just try to relax your whole approach a bit is what he's trying to tell us, I think. 


The 2nd point which resonated with me was this. It's about why we PB. 


It is important to realise that there is almost no space left above the band for the storage of food. 
What you have is a 'virtual' stomach rather than an actual stomach. As you eat, space for the the food is created by stretching the small stomach that is there and the esophagus above it. We are wanting to avoid too much stretching or too rapid stretching. If you eat a meal too quickly or with too big a volume, you will stretch that area more than we like. If you do it repeatedly, three times a day for years, you will develop a pouch ABOVE the band which does not empty properly. Reflux of the food into the back of the throat, heartburn and vomiting can follow and we may need to revise the position of the band. This is why we constantly stress the need to eat slowly and eat a small volume of food.


So there you have it. Most of us know all this by now, but seeing it again in black and white is affirmation about weight loss. Eat less, take small bites and take it even slower no matter what we're eating and we will win this weight loss game. We just have to. The laws of nature tell us so. 


Cara xx