I am up to 8 3/4 cc's in my band. i am not sure if I am at my sweet spot. I seem to have a hard time figuring it out. Should I make some chicken breasts and see how many i can eat? This may be a dumb question and I just may be crazy. I guess I just dont know how i am suppose to feel.

I am at 8.5 and still dont have restriction or sweet spot. The only thing I do have is difficulty getting some things down, but I can eat over 1cup and still have plenty of room. I am thinking that the sweet spot is where you can only eat a couple of spoons and feel full, but everyone says their sweet spot means something different. I am not sure where you started, but I started @ 185lb and below 35bmi, and my doctor says that since our stomach is smaller than those who are well over weight, it takes longer to reach restriction. Im not sure, just my experience.

Restriction - sweet spot whatever you want to call it is not about seeing how much or how little you can eat before you feel full. To test to see how much you CAN eat would be dumb(your words).

Ideally with a band you should be able to eat ANY food.Yes some foods are more difficult than others and some people find they cannot eat certain things but you cannot test restriction by whether or not you are able to eat something.

I think a lot of people believe that they will hit a point where they have a lightbulb moment where they suddenly think wow this is it. In reality it is not like that at all. With a band being full is different. You should not be aiming for full you should be aiming for satisfied.

If you can eat a small portion of the correct foods e.g protein/veg and maybe carb and feel satisfied and not get hungry again for 3 - 4 hours then YOU HAVE RESTRICTION.

Most bandsters need to eat more than 3 times per day and that is fine so long as the snack is planned and healthy.

If you are looking at restriction as only being able to eat a couple of bites of food , 3 times per day and not feel hungry in between then you will end up being too tight. When you are too tight you cannot eat properly so you resort to high cal slider fioods that do not fill you up and you PUT ON weight. It is also dangerous to be too tight as you can slip your band, get reflux etc.

Hope this helps.

Excellent post, Elcee! That's exactly how I ended up being overfilled and what I ate when I was. I ended up having them take me back down to 6cc (was at 8.5) and just stayed there for 7 weeks letting my stomach and band rest before going back in and getting 1cc in.

To the OP...I can still eat as much as I *want* and anything I *want*. The difference is that I measure out my portions (3-4 oz Protein, 1 cup low carb vegies, 1/4 cup starch - rice, potatoes, noodles, bread, etc.) and put my fork down when it's gone...and I'm content and stay that way, usually to my next meal 5 hours later. Some days I find I need something mid-meal and I'll drink a low carb/low cal Protein shake. That boost of protein gives me back that satisfied feeling and still fits within my daily calories/carbs. In the past, there would have been no satisfied feeling so the band must be helping with that.

.

.

Full is a very different feeling once you have restriction. Like another post said, you want to get a feeling of being satisfied. By that, I mean not hungry anymore. For me I need to eat often, usually 6 times a day. 3 meals and 2-3 snacks. Hope this helps.