Hello,

I'm 27 days from surgery and I feel great. I don't feel very much restriction at all, and it scares me. I am eating about 1500 cal. daily. I'm scared. Is this typical? I have not had my first fill yet. I am hoping and praying that it will create some restriction for me. I fear I will fail at weight loss with the Lapband. Has anyone else felt this way? Have you been able to overcome and have you been succesful in losing weight?

If the band worked without fills it would not have a port. Probably less than .01% of band patients are lucky enough to never need a fill. So basically 99.99% of us feel like you do.

Once you start getting restriction you will feel full on less food, for now just fake it till you make it. Eat like you have restriction, practice getting small portions, cut your food in small bites and chew, chew, chew.

Wow I totally feel you. I am going through the same thing. I have not had my first fill yet either and am scared that I will not be successful either. Good luck, we can do it!

Don't torture or starve yourself. This is not a diet; diets end and they suck too! Eat what you are comfortable with if you are losing weight.

The amount will diminish as you get fills.

I am the QUEEN of fear of failure :scared2:. Alot of times (as embarrassing as this is to admit) I won't even start something because I don't want to fail. It's a horrible way to live because I am sure I miss out on alot. So, I obviously felt the same fears even pre surgery, but I can tell you if you follow your doctors instructions (and remember we all slip up sometimes so don't be too hard on yourself if you do) and get regular fills when you can...it is almost impossible to fail! You wil find restriction and the more changes you see in yourself the easier it gets to make the food changes/sacrifices and you'll find it makes you want to exercise more.

I am in the exact same place. I was banded on May 10th and am finally supposed to have a fill on July 7th. I have lost about 20 lbs, but I am beginning to think that is all I am going to lose. I constantly fight my appetite to try not to get back to where I was. Even worse that port sticks out so badly already that it bugs me constantly. The reason the surgeon delayed doing any fills to this point was that he thought I might have a hematoma under the port which might resolve ... but no, its just the port which seems to be on top of my bottom rib on the left.

I am very disillusioned. I guess I fell for the advertisements, and thought this would be the thing that would get me where I wanted to be. Now I realize it probably isn't going to make a difference, at the end of the day weight loss is a combination of self denial and hard work. I should have just dieted w/o the lap band and then I wouldn't have had this huge port protruding like some horrible tumor.

Things may get better... I am hoping after I get my 1st fill I will find losing the weight to be less of a struggle. But as for the port, who knows. Others on this site continue to have the same complaints about theirs. At this point if someone asked me "lapband or bypass" I would say bypass may have been a better decision. You don't have to diet with a bypass, and there is no obvious physical deformity afterward like there is with a lapband. If I had possessed the willpower to lose all the weight I need to lose on my own I wouldn't have gotten a lapband. :scared2: