I have just begun my research on lap band, attended an information session last night, and am going through the process to see if my insurance will cover the procedure. I am so intrigued by the possibility of getting thin after so many attempts and failures.

Anyway, my question is after lap band surgery, will I be able to eat any regular food? Will I ever be able to have a piece of cake, or crackers or chips or potatoes...my comfort foods? I realize I will only be able to eat small amounts of food, but will I be able to eat a variety, or will there only be certain foods that I will be able to tolerate?

I am ready for the brutally honest truth...lay it on me.

Yes, you can technically eat those things but, if you want to be a thin Mom, why would you? That's my brutal honest truth. if you are going to have this surgery, your willpower is going to be tested. Sure, it is ok to fail every now and then but as a general rule it will be best to avoid cake and chips.

I have just begun my research on lap band, attended an information session last night, and am going through the process to see if my insurance will cover the procedure. I am so intrigued by the possibility of getting thin after so many attempts and failures.

Anyway, my question is after lap band surgery, will I be able to eat any regular food? Will I ever be able to have a piece of cake, or crackers or chips or potatoes...my comfort foods? I realize I will only be able to eat small amounts of food, but will I be able to eat a variety, or will there only be certain foods that I will be able to tolerate?

I am ready for the brutally honest truth...lay it on me.

Hi Wanna,

Every BODY is different as to what we can tolerate after surgery, some can't eat meats, some can, some can't do bread, some can. You really won't know until you are in it.

Remember that the band is a tool to help us eat less and steer us in the direction of making healthier choices, it doesn't lock our jaws shut when it sees cake flying into our mouths, even though it would be nice if it did lol. It's there to help us make every bite count as nutrition, not pleasure. Can you eat cake, chips and all the things that comfort you, sure you can, but should you?

It's ultimately your choice as to what you put in your mouth. I honestly think it's impossible to avoid these things forever, for me anyway. So if it's my birthday I might have a sliver of my cake and that's it, a few bites enough to taste it, instead of 2 giant pieces that day, and then some more on the next day, like I used to.

My "comfort" food cravings have almost disappeared since my surgery (Dec 13th 2010) once I stopped eating garbage, my "need" for these things isn't there anymore, my food fantasies are gone, as of now. Sure I might want certain things from time to time, but it's not worth it to me, and plus, this is the best part.. I don't have any room to eat them in the quantities I used to, even if I tried! And FYI they make fat free chips if you need to have a handful from time to time.

Getting the band isn't the end of eating, it's the beginning of fixing terrible destructive habits that have lead to us having so many other problems. If I have anything "bad" to eat I look at it as a treat and it's rare that I have them, but I sooo enjoy them more (in very small amounts) than I did when I was eating them every day.

This is an emotional, physical, mental, life changing thing and you have to want it more than anything. It has to be more important that indulging.

Research your butt off before you make your decision, this site is wonderful and full of all sorts of helpful things. Good luck to you!

I don't keep what I call trigger foods in my house (I live alone so not a problem); chips even low fat ones, crackers, sweet childrens' Cereal, candy. I try to live by the 80/20 or 90/10 rule that if you eat heathily most of the time you can have an occational treat. If I go to a family party and there are cheese and crackers I can have a couple but then have to stop.

So, yes having the band does'nt mean "never" having certain food again. I went to a birthday party and had a small piece of cake and some ice cream. No guilt, because I had also spent an hour at the gym earlier in the day doing some intense cardio.

However, and this is a big however; don't go into this thinking I'll eat like I always did just less. It's not just the searving sizes it's how often you eat them. Most of us did not get fat eating to much healthy food though we may like to think so. The reality is we choose high cal. high fat foods and eat alot of them; so choosing to eat smaller portions but still on a regular basis is a mistake.

I have just begun my research on lap band, attended an information session last night, and am going through the process to see if my insurance will cover the procedure. I am so intrigued by the possibility of getting thin after so many attempts and failures.

Anyway, my question is after lap band surgery, will I be able to eat any regular food? Will I ever be able to have a piece of cake, or crackers or chips or potatoes...my comfort foods? I realize I will only be able to eat small amounts of food, but will I be able to eat a variety, or will there only be certain foods that I will be able to tolerate?

I am ready for the brutally honest truth...lay it on me.

Wannabe - Yes you can eat real food - this isn't about dieting - its about eating healthy for the REST OF YOUR LIFE and exercise.. Cakes candies Cookies ice cream chips etc are not healthy foods.. and for the most part are sliders.

I have eaten real food every day for the last 3.6 yrs - I eat healthy 98% of the time an allow for treat 2% of the time.

During my weight loss phase I didn't indulge alot - but if I went to a bday party - I'd have a small slice of cake or a couple chips

Please don't rely on your band to stop you from eating these foods - cuz it won't - Your food choices are up to you..

I can eat all types of food - except tough meat. I don't do too much bread- not because I can't but thoses types of foods that we use to indulge in 24/7 - 365 is why we got fat in the 1st place..

The band is just a tool - it doesn't make your food choices - it doesn't take away your head hunger issues and it doesn't exercise for you

I say that I did 75% of the work by changing my eating and exercise habits and the band did 25% by providing restriction.

I lost 100% of my excess weight in 11 months 1 week by making the total lifetime lifestyle change in my eating and exercise and have maintained that weight loss for 2.6 yrs..

What ever you decide to eat after WLS is totally up to you, however why waste time and money if you continue to eat like you do now. Isnt that why we all were over weight to begin with. If you want to eat whatever you want then I would say dont have the surgery. Your whole goal is to learn how to eat healthy and eat smaller portions of healthy food then you will get where you want. If you dont then you wont lose one ounce.

I eat regular food all the time and unfortunately crackers and chips go down real good. The only food you may have a problem eating is bread but you realize it really isn't the end of the world because you learn to be satisfied eating small portions.

I have just begun my research on lap band, attended an information session last night, and am going through the process to see if my insurance will cover the procedure. I am so intrigued by the possibility of getting thin after so many attempts and failures.

Anyway, my question is after lap band surgery, will I be able to eat any regular food? Will I ever be able to have a piece of cake, or crackers or chips or potatoes...my comfort foods? I realize I will only be able to eat small amounts of food, but will I be able to eat a variety, or will there only be certain foods that I will be able to tolerate?

I am ready for the brutally honest truth...lay it on me.

The brutal honest, and painful to me truth is, I was under a lot of stress and found myself slipping back to some of those slider foods - I found I couldn't even keep small quantities of things around as I wouldn't leave them alone. I could eat them, I knew I shouldn't. Back on track now and want to nail my last 50 lbs and then maybe have my long awaited tummy tuck to really be proud of this body for myself. You have to decide for yourself its worth it to skip the comfort foods and find an alternative to get to your goal.

I don't restrict what food I eat or don't eat. To me, that is another diet which has failed me time and time again prior to getting my band. I count my calories anally, and I know that if I want to have a dessert or some other "special" food (like if we are going to the movies and I know I'm going to want some candy), I'll need to budget my calories for that. One thing that is important to consider however: binge eating or overeating are different stories than indulging in a treat, mindfully, now and again. I'm in therapy for binge eating disorder.

When I do have a treat, he nice thing is, now, instead of eating a piece of cake the size of my head with 9 scoops of ice cream on top (and then going back for seconds without thinking twice), I'm generally okay with a small piece of cake and a small scoop of ice cream (and if I want more, and I have the calories to spend, I'm cool with having a little more). Case in point: last night, we decided we wanted to have dessert and I had 500 calories left for the day, so I had some ice cream. And I didn't beat myself up about it either and I stayed within my calorie range. When we do that, if I'm still feeling down about something I ate, instead of eating MORE to comfort myself, I do something productive about it, which usually involves spending an extra 30 minutes at the gym, or taking my cross training class AND a spinning class that day. Today, I'll probably do 90 minutes of cardio at the gym, instead of the usual hour. That way, there is never any reason to worry that I'm consuming more than I'm burning. It used to be that if I consumed under 4000 calories a day, that was a pretty good day, as I was generally probably consuming at least 5000 calories a day and not exercising at all. Nowadays, on a really good day, I burn 2000 calories more than what I consume, and on a "bad" day, I burn 700-1000 calories more than I consume. Its wonderful that now, on the bad days, I'm still at a significant deficit.

So yes, you will be able to indulge and eat the foods you like. And if you play it correctly, you'll be able to do that and lose weight at the same time. Good luck!

The brutal truth is that you will probably be able to eat half a darn cake again when you're all healed up and that initital motivation that keeps you on the straight and narrow for a few months has gone.

I certainly found I could. What I found was that I had to graze to do it and if I did that (or a packet of Cookies or whatever) I then couldnt eat my dinner. So I didnt gain weight from the occasinal pig out, but yeah, you can do it for sure.

I have also never liked ice cream or even chocolate that much before banding but after, I will eat it more willingly because its an easy way to get a sugar hit. Your tastes change to accommodate foods you can eat. So even if you're lucky and cant eat cake, you might start to like something else.

Sadly, being banded is all about allowing it to control your portions of solid foods and staying away from foods you shouldnt eat. It really is easier than it sounds when your'e just not hungry. I think the comments above about indulging in a treat versus binging are excellent ones though, and its a great way to look at it. I certainly have a treat now and again and when I had fill in my band, I didnt even worry about allocating calories for it - but now I'm unfilled I do the same thing, count my calories, budget for a treat and do some extra exercise if I find I'm going to go over my calorie allowance.

You can eat around the band, especially in the early stages before you have alot of restriction.

If you are going in for the Band with the idea that it's a way to lose weight but still have all those foods, don't get the Band. It won't work for you. You will come to hate it. You will either not get the fills on time so you can eat or get fills and be mad you can't eat. If you don't follow the plan, you will not lose weight and then hate the fact you aren't losing weight and still can't eat alot.

I chose LapBand not because I could still eat fun foods, but because I didn't want to Dump. I had IBS for a year before it cleared up and I didn't want to live with those intestinal side effects for the rest of my life as a result of Bypass.

Really look at why you are choosing the Band.

During the weight loss phase I rarely allowed myself such things. Now that I am maintaining, I have my days where I can't eat certain foods and days where I can and after almost 3 years, I can tell beforehand what I can handle. Overall, if is not a tight day I can pretty much eat anything I choose just not a lot of it. I don't deprive myself of a small piece of cake or a potato chip or two on occasion and I wouldn't want to deny myself the pleasure of such goodies from time to time. I always make it priority to have my three nutritious meals a day then if I want a snack and am able to eat it, I do.

Having the band won't stop you from living life and having many things we consider yummy. Honestly you might be able to find many places here where we complain that we can eat bad foods like cake etc too easily.

For me I have been banded more than a year and no one knows I am banded. I am able to go out and eat,drink etc with my friends without setting up any red flags ( unless I am overfilled etc).