2muchfun

Receiving fills will help you feel more satiated and may cut down on the head hunger. Make sure your band is working for you. Try to find healthy Snacks if you're a grazer. It's better to not graze but if you must, eat healthy. I munch on pickles, cucumbers, beef Jerky, chicken salad, apples, cutie oranges, pears, blueberries. tmf

Weight falls off easily the first month. Much of it is just water. I read some of your other posts and it sounds like you still don't have restriction? Losing weight is simply a matter of burning more calories than you consume. You should track your calories if you're not already doing so. You should look at some of the calorie calculators available to know how many calories you need to maintain or lose weight. I plateaued from week 2 post op till week 18. It took me 3 fills and a visit to my nutritionist to finally get the scale to go down. A nutritionist can tell you where you're going wrong. Good luck. tmf

Cloud, you have some misconceptions about how the band works. Take some time and watch these videos from a renowned bariatric surgeon. Part 1 part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Sometimes it's great to be a guy

I lost 12 lbs the first two weeks and then nothing for the next 3.5 months. Then I saw my nutritionist. She gave me a lot of advice because I was eating some of the same food you're eating. Soups, crackers and oatmeal are slider foods and should be avoided if you want to avoid feeling hungry. Set up an appointment with your nut and by all means, stop eating a box of junior mints? Maybe one or two mints, but never a box. tmf

You are not alone. I found this comment on another site and I find it to be so true: " In my case, the most fearful thing I had to do in order to succeed with my band wasn't switching to skim milk, surviving a liquid diet, or giving up bread. The most fearful thing was giving up my emotional attachment to food. In the nearly 5 years since I was banded, I've made a lot of progress with that, but the attachment is still there. It forms one of the innermost layers of my turtle shell. Working on that layer will probably be a lifetime job for me. At times I'm not even sure I truly want to get rid of it altogether. At times I'm afraid that if I shed my shell completely, I won't be able to survive. On the other hand, I seem to be doing fine without that thick old b***h layer. So I'm going to pay attention to my dreams rather than my fears and pray for a miracle. And why not? It can't hurt to try!" Your addiction won't go away in less than a year and maybe never. But as long as you keep up the fight, you're making headway. tmf

You'll be in "bandster hell" until you get the fill that gives you enough restriction for the band to work it's magic. That may be 1 fill or 6. No one knows. Till then, like our esteemed forum member B-52 says, "Until there's restriction...It's just another diet" tmf

Go to your profile at top right of this page. Click on your name and then click on settings and then click on notifications. You can't delete threads. Only the moderator can do this. If you access this site from anything other than a windows based computer, the above instructions may be invalid. tmf

My 2 bits? Seems like there are many posts similar to yours. I can't help but wonder if you never learned to eat like a bandster? Going 10 months without a fill is a long time. If you went back in for a fill, was it because you could eat anything you wanted? Not trying to be judgmental here. But if you can drink fluids, eat soup, but you're having difficulty with solids, are you not taking small bites and maybe not chewing enough? If you take small bites and chew properly, the bolus of food is pretty much soup when it hits your stoma. If you don't chew enough, the chunks won't pass through and you could be bringing up food too large to pass through the stoma? Are you getting stuck, sliming? Do you throw up from your stomach or from your pouch? And, are you throwing up or PBing the food? Sorry to ask so many questions but I had this epiphany(or so it seemed) this morning about why so many people post they get a fill, can drink fluids but can't keep food down? It doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but I'm a simple man ya know? I know for me, back in April and May, I thought I knew how to eat right. But I didn't. I think I know now but I don't always follow the rules and still get into trouble. Some bandsters could think they are eating the right way but in reality, they aren't. And that could be why so many go back and forth for fills and unfills? tmf

You should google it since it's rather complicated. The short answer is if you don't eat any carbs, simple or complex, Your body will turn to it's fat reserves for energy. One of the side effects of going on a no carb diet is that you lose a lot of excess Fluid weight and this doctor wants the patient to trim her liver down by going on a no carb diet. Ketosis is the state where you have used up all your stored carb energy and your body is burning the fat for energy. Your body secretes ketones which can be measured with ketostix to see how deep in ketosis a patient is. Told you it's complicated tmf

I can eat all meats. I have a problem with dry chicken or leftover salmon. The drier the meat, the easier I get stuck. The wife and I eat a lot of brown rice and Beans which gives her the Protein she wants. We also add seafood to our diet quite often. I guess I was thinking along the lines of atkins, vegetarians and carbs. Seems like the perfect storm? tmf

Watch this video. It explains it in finite detail: part 2

20 gms/day of carbs is what Atkins recommends to achieve ketosis. You'll never make it on 81/day. Better find a low carb shake?

Sorry, wrong video. Good one but the drinking explanation is in this video around 7 minutes: Part 3

This drinking question comes up a lot and it's like itching an old sore. You should follow your doctor's advice but I agree with you. In fact, I drink before and right after. Sometimes I sip during a meal depending on what we're having. There is a new theory on drinking and eating and maybe you should talk to your doc about it? Here's why! Watch this video and watch all 4 if you have the time. Go to about 6 minutes into the video to see Dr. O'Brien's drinking theory. part 2

If there are any carbs in those shakes, you won't hit ketosis. imo It takes very little carb consumption to evade ketosis. tmf

Some docs will not do the surgery if the liver hasn't shrunk? My doc didn't care and required no pre surgery diet. But, I think each doctor may modify the diet depending on each patients anatomy and eating habits? I guess I've never thought of this before, but after surgery it's important to consume 60-80 grams of Protein daily. Are you going to be able to do this? Just throwing this out there but is lapband a good idea for vegans? I'm a big meat eater so this is an area I know nada about? tmf

Good luck with doing it on your own. I know that won't work for me, that's why I'm banded. Making your decision to have the band removed or unfilled seems to be based on wild fill fluctuations? Why not try a more conservative approach and have .25-.5 removed and see if that helps? Surely it will make a difference in drinking and that seems to be your biggest concern?

Most of us were able to eat whatever we wanted. It's a time where you discover what your band will tolerate and how restricted you might be. Here's a link to another practice's manual. Maybe you can glean some information that might be helpful. Susan is right. Learning how to eat with the band is one of the most difficult tasks we bandsters have to learn. It doesn't come easy as most of us have been big eaters, big bites, greedily swallowing chunks of food so we can follow that bite with one as big or bigger. Remember, eat slowly, eat small and chew big. Link: http://www.peachtreebariatrics.com/docs/Gastric-Band-Patient-Manual.pdf

Why no fills? If you're hungry, you need a fill or three. Otherwise, the tool isn't going to work. OK, so I went to your overview/profile and I see that you have a very stingy surgeon. In my opinion, that's just not right. Seems like this guy does not understand how the band works and is putting most of the work back on you as if you had never tried to diet before? That is sad. You have a couple of options. One, go in and demand a fill. You may have to get pissy and in someone's face to get your way. Two, find another doctor or office that will give you fills. Either way, you've got to be proactive or risk failure. tmf

Definitely check into a fill with flouroscopy to check out your restriction? And, it sounds like your surgeon may not have been very experienced with fills? A very tight stomach can push back on a fill making it seem like there's no more room? tmf

I think it's natural for our bodies to retain fluids when we sick. That would include your stomach and just a little swelling can create more tightness. tmf

There's that "we're all different" theme again. Now for me, I wish my nerve was a little more sensitive? I find it hard to feel that "stop eating" signal still which comes from that nerve. Sounds like yours is hypersensitive! tmf

What does your doc say? I like Missy's advice. Maybe you could set up some kind of sequence where you get .1 a week or .1 every 2 weeks so that your body can acclimate to the new tightness? tmf

You are so right. Great feeling isn't it? Just make sure you're eating small, chewing big and taking your time at meals. You will see a stuck episode if you don't but thats quite normal for patients who are at this phase.