Hi, I wanted to talk a little bit about my difficulties with soft food vs. textured food and my recent experimentation with the Atkins diet. I’m interested to know if anyone else has had a similar experience to me. I’m also keen to hear some opinions on whether I’m using my band in the best way I can.

I was banded August 2009, so coming up to a year ago. In the months immediately following the operation, I lost 2 stone without any problems. While I wasn’t restricted, I think the shock of having had the surgery and being very conscious of the band made me feel 'distanced' from food (I mean to say it made food a real thing for me again, I had to really think about it now, it couldn’t be this ‘off-switch’ that I could use as a way not to think).

About 4 years ago I tried Lighter Life, kind of an extreme version of Slimfast where all you have is shakes and Soups to lose a dramatic amount of weight. I lost all my weight, but put it back on (and more! I know, should have known better). I think this brief success with Lighter Life got this unhelpful idea fixed in my head that liquids = weight loss.

Still, I’d done plenty of research before getting the band and thought I had it firmly in my head that I needed to be vigilant to the danger of sabotaging myself with soft foods that could get past the band.

After getting banded however, I lost 2 stone straight away, staying in the post-op phase of liquid/soft foods longer than necessary. This success I guess reinforced the liquids = weight loss idea I was still unknowingly holding onto as a hangover from Lighter Life.

Eventually however, I started to get comfortable and seek out soft food that wasn't healthy, rationalising that it would be ok because I was still being so good with having Slimfast shakes and healthy soups.

No surprise, I hit a plateau which has lasted months and months, with me swinging between trying to strictly stick with the healthy shakes/soups, then giving in and indulging in unheathly food I knew would get past the band.

I have had only two fills since having the band fitted, my most recent being a month ago.

It may seem ridiculous, but it took me up until recently for it to dawn on me that using shakes and other soft foods as a crutch to lose weight goes completely against how the lapband is intended to work (yes, DUH! indeed)

When I went for the second fill (wrongly thinking that my problem was restriction) I had a talk to the nurse about my eating habits. I had the fill and went off to reassess how I’d been using the band.

My problem wasn’t restriction, but rather that I wasn’t eating textured foods enough and as a result wasn’t allowing the lapband to do its job. It shouldn’t have been a revelation, I can’t explain how I didn’t come clean with myself sooner, but I think I’d sort of managed to blind myself to how I was misusing the band, telling myself "liquids work, I’m just plateauing because of my snacking, I can fix it with liquids", and using the band more as an unrealised threat to myself rather than actually USING it. I think also I was obviously secretly pleased that I could seemingly still have naughty foods without major repercussions, and I refused to see the pattern in what I was doing.

My recent determination to stay off soft foods has certainly woken me up to the fact that I do indeed have a lot of liquid in my band, in spite of having had only 2 fills. I started a kind-of Atkins diet, having a lot more Protein and not eating carbohydrates – breads, biscuits/crisps(!). No soups or shakes either, nothing that will slip straight past the band. I started losing weight again immediately.

Again, as I write this, it seems amazing to me that I didn’t work it out sooner – ‘no soft stuff’ is like the first rule of the lapband, I want to smack myself in the fact for being so self-deluding. I’d somehow got it in my head that I was a special case and some crazy combination of lapband + liquids was going to work for me – a result, I suspect, of my initial easy 2 stone loss using liquids, which put me back in the Lighter Life mindset.

I’m back to losing regularly, but my problem may now actually be that I have too much liquid in my band. I find I’m getting stuck and brining up spit when I try to eat meat, except in the evening. I chew thoroughly and eat slowly, small mouthfuls, but it’s hard to have much more than a mouthful pre-evening before I start PBing. Is this maybe a result of the fact that I've never really tested my level restriction with meat? (Only with bread)

I’m also wondering, could this be like the other extreme of my earlier misguided habits? While morning/early afternoon meals aren’t going so smoothly at the moment, should I keep the level of restriction that I have as long as I’m managing textured foods? Will the restriction ease a bit on its own as I lose more weight? To be honest, I am worried that having an unfill will mean I lose restriction altogether.

As you have said in your post the band is not designed to work with liquids. You getting a band and then doing a liquid diet is certainly counter productive.

I assume you are from the UK as Lighter Life is a UK diet? I have no idea what the Dr's there recommend as an after diet.In the US the focus is mainly on Protein. in Australia the focus is on a well balanced diet that includes all food groups.

Obviously simple carbs are not the best choice of foods. You need to be able to eat meat/chicken/fish/veggies/complex carbs such as wholegrains etc.

It may be that your band is too tight (you don't say what size band or how much fill you have in it) or it could be that you are not used to taking small bites and chewing properley as until now you haven't been doing this.

I would suggest going onto a modified post op diet. Eat soft(but healthy) mushy foods for a few days.If you are able to tolerate these without getting stuck move onto soft foods(not mushy) and then finally real food that you have to chew. Exactly the way we progress babies when they first move from milk to food. If you still find even with small bites,lots of chewing and eating slowly that you cannot eat things such as meat then yes you are probably overfilled and may need some out.

Hope it all goes well.

Thank you for the advice, I appreciate it.

Egh - My band experience has been very positive and up until recently I was seeing consistent progress. With the past success I've had on the Atkins diet, I am very aware of the way carbs effect my body in retaining fluids and slowing weight loss.

I am a firm believer in getting in your Protein everyday and limiting carbs, however, I don't necessarily prescribe to the Atkins philospohy wholeheartedly anymore. I can eat bread that is toasted and on occasion when it isn't. But I have realized that a small portion (such as 1/2 piece of toasted bread or bun) with a firm protein like meat or chicken helps to keep me satisfied longer than with just firm protein alone. I don't know why, but it does.

It does sound like you may be a tad too tight, must the suggestions you received above are a good starting point. If firm protein is giving you trouble, do not be concerned about getting a little taken out of your band. I've been too tight in the past and just a miniscule amount of Fluid removed can make a world of difference in being able to eat comfortably and without pbing or sliming without changing the amount of food you can eat.

I subscribe to the notion that protein is essential, healthy carbs in moderation are okay (whole grains, veggies, fruits if tolerated), and moderate fat intake will help you on your journey. Along with adequate fluid intake and exercise of course.

I do believe it is very wise of you to try and figure out what works for your body...as I do think it is different for everyone.

Best of luck with your progess and your journey.

I stick with a high protein, low carb, low calorie diet. I definitely try to eat firm protein. It took me a long time to learn the lesson of eating slowly...still working on it. I got stuck a lot in the beginning. I think we are getting to know our bands that way. Now I don't get stuck very often. When you have a stuck episode you should do liquids for 24 hours because of swelling. You may be swollen and need to take it easy. And then again, you may need a slight unfill as suggested by PP. Take care...

Like Emjay, the best meals that last the longest and work the best with my band are the ones that inlcude Protein AND a complex carb. I can guarantee no hunger for hours and hours. Protein and vegies alone doesnt cut it for me, and carb heavy meals - even good carbs (like toast for breakfast) dont either.

I think Elcee's given you excellent advice. Go back to basics and work your way up to see if your fill is maybe a tad too much.

This slider food trap is just the easiest one to fall into isnt it? I find over time my taste for sliders (even healthy ones) has increased markedly whilst my appetite for foods like bread and meat is so so.

Thanks so much for the information guys, it's very helpful.

This is a great thread! Thanks to everyone for your thoughts. I'm still new to being banded, had my surgery on April 22 and first fill at the end of May. The best success I had in dieting before the band was on Atkins, but I had difficulty with the "NEVER" part...I'm like Emjay, find that eating small amounts of the carby stuff is helpful, but I have to really watch it with the amounts. My pitfall was not liquids, but the dreaded Lean Cuisines! They are pre-measured, they are easy, they are quick. I am working on eating "real" foods now rather than such highly processed ones.

Thanks everyone.

Nancy

I eat low-carb and high-ish Protein. I probably am not ever in ketosis--the Atkins aim--but do aim to keep my net carbs <50 g/day.

This is recommended by my doctor, whose patients have a really great success rate in terms of meeting goal---and staying there. At maintenance, more whole grains are added in (as you would expect when you no longer want to lose).

I've had really good success with this sort of eating plan.

I hesitate to compare it to Atkins, although more recent versions of Atkins have corrected, to a certain extent, the earlier (and still persistent, in the minds of many followers) insistence that saturated animal fat is not a cause for concern. While it is true that refined carbohydrate/sugar can blow triglycerides out of the Water, it's also really important, from a health perspective, to watch saturated fat intake. And Atkins does not adequately emphasize this.

If you were to pick a "diet" to follow, I think that South Beach is far more aligned with what we know about good, safe, healthy nutrition. Your band will, of course, limit portions to a large extent (once you have good restriction). You can't find much fault with a nice, well-balanced diet that emphasizes lean protein in adequate (not excessive) amounts, LOTS of nonstarchy veggies, heart-healthy fats, nonfat or lowfat dairy, and whole grains and fruit in moderation.

Atkins can be...well, abused. And this abuse can harm the body terribly.

I think the low carb thing is a no-brainer with the band, however, I also know it is hard to do when you are very restricted. I always focus on protein and I have to do a low carb protein shake in the morning, or I won't be able to do breakfast at all. I am much tighter in the morning, so you might want to do a low carb shake in the morning to keep you from getting too hungry, and also to even out your calories for the day. Once you do have a stuck episode, you need to return to clear liquids for a few hours then add back mushies and then solid foods gradually. Believe it or not you can still do low carb even if you are on mushies. I use a low carb cream soup and add either melted cheese or canned salmon to up the protein. I found high protein clear drinks online also. Just remember, you will be swollen for at least a few hours after a stuck episode, so if you try to eat again you will set off a chain reaction. I have done this a few times, and I really hate it. I do have to disagree with the poster who said the very low carb regimine is not healthy. I have researched the H___ out of this and I can say that it is in fact healthy. The main problem is that our brain likes to get in our way. We see non-stop commercials on TV telling us that cherrios are healthy, so we lose sight of our goals. If in doubt, get more education. This has helped me more than any other single thing. You might want to get the book "Protein Power". It is not written by Dr. Adkins so it is extremely enlightening. Best of luck and congratulations on your recent revelations. Hugs......