have you been overweight most of your life ?

[stacv]

hey,

i've been overweight over the last few years. i did not grow up overweight or was overweight as an adult until the last probably 5 or 6 years. i am emotional eater though which is why i put on weight. does it get easier not to eat emotionally when you have the band ? i have tried diets over the past few years and am started to get worried i might fail. i have had the hardest time on preop diet and when i weighed today, the scale was up. i'm worried i'll get to occ this week (surgery is friday) and they'll refuse because i haven't lost my preop weight.

[B2010]

Hi Stacv,

I was NOT overweight growing up and through my 20's it's when I hit 30 that the weight really started coming on. I was also a very emotional eater and yes the band makes this close to impossible. Of course you can always turn to slider foods and things like that, but for me It's taken away my ability to emotionally overeat. you just can't physically do it any longer.

And once you try (because you undoubtedly will at some point) you get sick and throw up which makes it really not that satisfying anymore.

The weirdest experience I've had with having the band is actually "missing" the ability to overeat. Never thought I would actually miss being able to overeat but I have. It's the weirdest thing. It really hit me within the first month or two of having the band. The emotional changes are more noticeable at that point then the physical.

The band is a tool that forces your physical and re-directs your mental.

I started reading after the band and this has actually helped a lot. It give me an outlet to go to when I can no longer turn to food for comfort.

And as far as the pre-op weight. I really really screwed up with my pre-op diet. I was 200 lbs when I decided to have surgery and that's the weight I put on my application. Well after I signed up I went on a mad eating frenzy and gained 15 lbs. Well 10 days before surgery I buckled down and lost 10 of the lbs that I had gained. When I weighed in at the OCC I was 205. Dr. Miranda did ask how I had gained weight and I was just honest with her. I told her I got up to 215 and had lost 10lbs and she was satisfied with that.

Of course losing the weight is important, but I was nervous during that time and I felt so much change was upon me that it was close to impossible to resist my temptations. If you're really that concerned about them turning you away just send Dr. Miranda a note and let her know how much your're struggling.

Don't stress it too much though - they understand why we're getting the band in the first place is because we have a hard time controlling our food intake.

[Lindsay]

I've always struggled ...

i was over weight as I child, and was brought up with the mentality that i ate too much, and was seeing a dietition at the age of 8 years old for weekly weigh-in's. In my opinion, this only made things worse for me as an adult.

[CaliGirl]

I gained weight after I got married. My husband is a meat and potatoes kinda guy. I started eating like him and my body didn't like it.

[EcMjawad1]

I was a normal weight until around 18, when I stopped my daily swimming routine, ate the same, and hit female development...then it just got worse..two pregnancies later, and 80 pounds heavier for the past 20 years..I didn't keep gaining though, and now I can't loose..my body fighting me every step of the way!!! I won't give up though..feel the best in 20 years..

[EricaG]

I was just considered "chubby" all my life, ofcourse I was on diets all my life. Then at about 20 I lost alot of weight and dropped the extra weight but i did it in a very unhealthy way. then i started to eat normally again and gained it back twice fold.. now im here. working on this again, but doing it the healthy way.

[suzettem]

I have been overweight my entire life. I weighted 123 lbs in the second grade (report card) and 200 lbs in the 6th grade (report card). Hit 300lbs in high school.

[edmund]

I have been overweight most of my adult life (since about age 25) I am now 55.

[trcousins]

I was actually quite thin growing up, but around 30 it started piling on and has just been doing so slowly through my 40's as my metabolism slows down I guess. Menopause arriving has not helped things any either.

[ktb2904]

Hi I did not have a weight probem in my teens, 20's to my mid 40's.............but during my whole life I was either going on a diet to lose that 10lbs, or going to start one of those crazy diets on Monday. Here's what I have learned..................I had a distorted imagine of myself. No way at 130lbs was I over weight, but I thought I was.................I think there's a name for that distorted body imagine, just can't think of it. Then in my 40's my weight went totally out of control. I gained and gained and for about 6 years I was about 170lbs. I only knew this because I would have to weigh in at my doc office, I didn't own a scale until just before my surgery. I went by how my clothes fit................and as years went by I had to buy larger and larger sizes. Last year I peaked out at a very tight 16 and finally last fall a very tight 18 and 2X tops. I finally realized if I didn't get my emotional eating under control, and fast I was going to end up being a full blown diebetic just like many of my family members. I was already on high blood pressure meds. The straw that broke the camels back was having to buy yet another size dress pants for a family function because the pants I had made only a few months earlier was 2 sizes too small.. This was the best decision I ever made for myself. I'm not sure how it happened but my emotional eating has disappeared. And I have had some quite stressful situation happen since my surgery date, and a huge mircle has happened.............I didn't turn to food..........I wrote more in my journal,.............walk more...........and starting taking better care of simple things like using a good skin care line, making a point of fixing myself up every day, something I haven't done in years and years. Somewhere along this journey of mine, I recognized taking care of myself isn't so much about the numbers on the scale each week....it's about simply focusing on taking care of me including eating better, drinking the 64oz of water, and simply moving around more......I like going for walks now..............so it's so much more than those weekly weigh in numbers. Took till now to realize this, guess I'm a slow learner. K:)