stangslayerws6

I was banded in July 2008. My weight was 370 pounds. I did excellent with my band and was down to 195 pounds by Dec 2011 (Mainly on slider foods and horrible food choices). I was at my goal and decided to go to my surgeon to ask for a slight unfill because I did not want to keep losing weight. (I was looking anorexic) My surgeon became concerned that I may have a slippage so we had it checked out. When I did the barium swallow test, we found that my band was WAY too tight (4.7cc in a 14cc band). Just the slightest whisper of Fluid was going through the band and my esophagus was dilated. He did a complete unfill in my band for 3 months to give my esophagus a rest. I gained weight at an alarming rate (10 pounds in the 1st 7 days) I was back up to 235 pounds by the time we started adding .5cc back to the band every 2 months. I never, ever got my good restriction back. I had a complete unfill again May 2013 and was up to 294 pounds by Sept of 2013. I had my sleeve revision Nov 7th 2013. I will be 3 weeks out tomorrow. I am doing the puree and soft foods step right now. I am not sure if it is because I was so used to not being able to eat anything with my band, but I feel like I can eat far too much at this point. I hope this changes once I get to go back to solid foods. Any comments on how your feeling of being full was better after the puree stage will be much appreciated

I think that there are a couple of things going on. First the liquid and soft phases often do leave you hungrier as it just doesn't stick. When I started switching to firmer food, I really had a hard time eating at all for awhile. Second, if you are not being treated for acid, you should consider getting on a PPI. The stomach still produces enough acid for 100% size and it is 15% size... it takes awhile for the acid production to reduce on it's own. Acidy tummy feels like hunger. 3, nerves were cut and it takes some time for you to really "feel". It is easy to overeat and not realize it.
My advice is that the first say 6 weeks or so, eat by the measuring cup and clock - your body is not yet properly recognizing hunger signals.
I had the lapband for 10 years and been sleeved for 2. I think the key thing to success with sleeve is rather then thinking how much you "can" eat, thing in terms of how little you need to eat to feel the absence of hunger. You won't get that pain feeling, I never get that saliviating or other awful signals i got from the band. With the band, i often went from, hungry to vomiting with almost no warning. For me, with the sleeve, it is more like having a petite tummy - none of the weirdness. It takes time to get there though and I highly recommend developing the habit to eat as little as it takes to remove your hunger and to eat 4-6 meals a day while in the weight loss phase. (or 3 mini meals and a very small snack or two).
Good luck! I love my sleeve and hope you have tremendous success!