After having a band on Feb 11 and losing no weight on it, I have been handed over to a new consultant, who recommends totally different food, with an emphasis on baked potatoes.

I am still feeling my way (yes, I know, it has been months) - but I have finally found that 3 boiled eggs in the morning (=6 weightwatchers points) make me feel quite full up for a long time.

Some people on this forum say they physically cannot overeat - I am afraid I am not that lucky. I could easily order two pizzas and eat them, and I was not expecting that to be the case with a lapband.

But I am finding that a very specific list of food (a very short list in fact) can work well with the band and make me feel full up.

I don'ṫ think this is how the band is meant to work, or at least not how it is advertised - which would make you think as long as you avoided ice cream and a few "slider foods" that you would be unable to overeat. But having worked out that few high glycaemic and solid foods make me feel fuller for longer, I might have hit on a way of working with the band....

That sounds a little unusual, to still be able to overeat non slider foods.

But I sort of hear you on the certain foods that work better. I've never found the solid Protein and then vegies routine all that great, I am still looking for food when I eat that way. The inclusion of something like potato, rice, Pasta or wholegrain bread makes all the difference to me with hunger levels. I get physical satiation either way, but it lasts longer with a carb included but more importantly I have that vital psychological satiation that blocks the craving for rubbishy foods like cake, biscuits, all those deadly between meal nibbles.

But have you investigated WHY you've got this capacity - I mean 2 pizzas? I couldnt have eaten that BEFORE I had a band, it just screams that something is not right or that you just plain havent got enough restriction and need to be filled more.

That sounds a little unusual, to still be able to overeat non slider foods.

But I sort of hear you on the certain foods that work better. I've never found the solid Protein and then vegies routine all that great, I am still looking for food when I eat that way. The inclusion of something like potato, rice, Pasta or wholegrain bread makes all the difference to me with hunger levels. I get physical satiation either way, but it lasts longer with a carb included but more importantly I have that vital psychological satiation that blocks the craving for rubbishy foods like cake, biscuits, all those deadly between meal nibbles.

But have you investigated WHY you've got this capacity - I mean 2 pizzas? I couldnt have eaten that BEFORE I had a band, it just screams that something is not right or that you just plain havent got enough restriction and need to be filled more.

I have had 3 fills so far. I now have 10mls in a 14cc band, and I been told not have pizza again - that was one of the instructions of my new consultant, so I have cut out pizza. The previous consultant approved of anything non-runny. The new consultant has banned paella, banned fish in batter and Breakfast Cereal, all recommendations of the previous consultant. So now I am on a new diet, of fish, chicken, baked potato, new potato, omelettes, boiled eggs, bananas, wholewheat spaghetti and low-fat cereal bars. That is really all that is on the new list.

I don't think I have very good restriction, as I had thought that with the band I would not be able to eat fish and chips, pizza and all the normal fastfood stuff, and yet I find that I could eat them in the same quantities as before. I was on the point of exploring legal options to sue the hospital for the money back, but they have given me a new consultant to see once a month, and she has recommended a completely different set of foods to before.

I think the boiled egg for breakfast approach is worth other people exploring. There is considerable impatience on this board with people for whom the band seems not to be working - maybe no one wants to put off of what they are doing - but it is quite a conundrum why the band doesn't seem to work for some people. I told my previous consultant about this board and how there is a man here who had 19cc in 14cc band and no restriction, and had to be rebanded, after which it was a success - and her full reponse was "never read Internet forum on the LAP-BAND®" - as if this were an answer. I would recommend people struggling with the band to try boiled eggs and baked potatoes - they are solid foods and eggs are high in protein, so they might help the band work.

The question I have, is whether a high glycaemic diet would have woked without banding. I suppose I'll never now. I also wonder if my band has been badly positioned, so that I ought to be rebanded? The hospital says no, but their interest is in doing the least they can get away with, and in any case find it easier to suggest that I must be doing something wrong.

Anyhow, I am going to give this consultant's foodstuffs a go...

Hi:

I think that you might want to try seeing a different band doctor and have that surgeon do a barium swallow to see your band positioning. It sounds like you're not restricted well enough if you can eat as much as you said you could. When I had good restriction (small slip right now and unfilled waiting for rebanding in 3 weeks) I could only eat 1 piece of pizza. My band is like a belly cop and it puts up the stop sign when I've had enough food and allows no more.

Hope your new food plan works for you, but make sure you take daily Vitamins too because sounds like there aren't many veggies there.

Keep us posted on your progress.

Take care.

Sue

Hi:

I think that you might want to try seeing a different band doctor and have that surgeon do a barium swallow to see your band positioning. It sounds like you're not restricted well enough if you can eat as much as you said you could. When I had good restriction (small slip right now and unfilled waiting for rebanding in 3 weeks) I could only eat 1 piece of pizza. My band is like a belly cop and it puts up the stop sign when I've had enough food and allows no more.

Hope your new food plan works for you, but make sure you take daily Vitamins too because sounds like there aren't many veggies there.

Keep us posted on your progress.

Take care.

Sue

Thank you for comments. So it sounds like I shouldn't be able to eat a whole pizza. I'll have to get on their case and get them to give me another fill. In the mean time, my high glycaemic index approach should bear some fruit. I will add some veg now you mentioned it!

My consultant recommended Dolmio (tomato-based Pasta sauce) with chicken lumps (and not minced beef, which would be a slider). So I diced up a pound of chicken, cooked it in 10 calories of oil, added a pepper and then half a jar of low-fat pasta sauce, and cooked some wholewheat spaghetti - and it made a really great meal - filling for a long time, and low in Weightwatchers Points overall!

I would agree you're not restricted enough. I know someone who has a 10cc band with 9cc of fill. this is what it takes to restrict her and she has lost the weight. Get a second opinion. You paid good money for that thing, make sure it works for you.

I hope you've hit on what works for you.

I also hope, though, that instead of accepting that the band just doesn't work for you, that you work with your doctor to achieve good restriction.

10 ccs in a 14cc band leaves a LOT of leeway for adjustment! (I have 8.5 cc in an 11 cc band, and am only beginning to toe the good-adjustment line.)