Well.. I am 10 months out... 5 fills in a 14CC band... I am up to about 9CCs full..... I can eat most things if I eat slowly... I do get stuck.. or have pain if I don't chew enough... but I can get most things down if they are not too dry...

I am only down 25 pounds......I have stood still.... I know I eat too large a portion... But I get really hungry!!!!

Wonder.. If they make the band smaller I will get stuck more... ?

I don't know if I just don't have enough restriction... if my pouch is too big now... if I am hopeless.. ... whatever... Discouraged... I thought this would be just a bit more help.. ... I eat when I have physical hunger... .. I drink Water... I walk and do that jazz...

Anyone have this happen? Anyone break the cycle and lose...? Should I just opt for a RNY? I feel like a failure...

PS I am going to be on a 6 hour flight to and wonder if this will have an effect on my band? Anyone have any advise... let me know... thanks..

Hi Nina,

The most important thing you have to understand is that everyone has a different reaction to the lapband. Some like me, loose weight at a fast pace and some dont. However, you must be proud of yourself for the 25 you already lost !!!

Also, you must also start working on your eating habits, have you tried going to therapy. Remember that the lap band helps us physically, but if your hunger is psychological then sometimes we have to take it a step further. Dont feel discouraged. fight on !!! slowly but surely you will get there !!!

try to make healthy eating choices, and uptake your exercise routine a bit. you would be surprised how much that has a change on your weight loss.

GOOD LUCK

JR

Hi Nina,

Sometimes I feel like I am not losing enough nor fast enough, but my physician states that being able to eat a variety of foods is better than being so filled, you cannot. I know I have changed my eating behaviors, but I cannot say it is easy. It is hard. two months post op and have lost 33 lbs, but have not had the first fill. My doctor left me with a 3 cc fill at surgery. So, I can eat lots of things, therefor it is my head hunger I have to control. I have not had any fast food, nor pasta or high carbs in 2 months. I exercise two or three days a week, should do more but have a damaged ankle, so I do what I can. I sometimes say, well if this is what I have to do, why did I do surgery, but then I think of the times, I ate half the box of bread sticks on the way home with the Pizza and still ate 3 slices of Pizza too. Those days are gone and I am so glad. Try eating low carb foods if you are eating more. Just a suggestion. Keep hanging in there.

Hello, I have had the exact same problem. I have been trying to follow the tips given to me in my program. What has helped most is Taking a bite and waiting 60-90 seconds

after I am done chewing to take another bite and after 6-7 bites I am finished. I also eat the Protein first, this helps reduce the appetite a lot. I started doing this because I was really afraid I had stretched out my stomach. About 2.5 weeks now and still doing ok. If your pouch has stretched you can go to all liquid for a couple days and start again, this should help too. That way the surgery doesn't seem like a total waste. It seemed this way to me a month ago. Hang in there! I am 7 months out and have lost 53 lbs.(I started with about 200 to lose before surgery).

Well.. I am 10 months out... 5 fills in a 14CC band... I am up to about 9CCs full..... I can eat most things if I eat slowly... I do get stuck.. or have pain if I don't chew enough... but I can get most things down if they are not too dry...

I am only down 25 pounds......I have stood still.... I know I eat too large a portion... But I get really hungry!!!!

Wonder.. If they make the band smaller I will get stuck more... ?

I don't know if I just don't have enough restriction... if my pouch is too big now... if I am hopeless.. ... whatever... Discouraged... I thought this would be just a bit more help.. ... I eat when I have physical hunger... .. I drink Water... I walk and do that jazz...

Anyone have this happen? Anyone break the cycle and lose...? Should I just opt for a RNY? I feel like a failure...

PS I am going to be on a 6 hour flight to and wonder if this will have an effect on my band? Anyone have any advise... let me know... thanks..

Thanks for those ideas. I am going to try a liquid start here and do that chew and stop thing too Ralph. These may help. This is so much harder than I expected. Keep those ideas coming. Thank God for you wonderful folks!!

With regards to flying, it shouldn't affect your band. I fly often and have not noticed a difference.

I fly all the time and never had any problems. I do have problems with getting the band to fit right! I got the surgery in Mar 2008 and I have still only managed to lose about 25 lbs. I am so frustrated and disappointed!! I just went in for another adjustment, it is definatly too tight, I can;t eat anything without it coming back up but STILL not losing any weight! I just can;t figure out what is wrong. Maybe now I am in starvation mode??? But I am afraid to go have any fluid taken out since this is the first fill I've had where I can really feel ANY restriction. Anybody out there have any suggestions???

I will keep trying, you should too! What else can we do?

You can not live off of 6 or 7 bites of food you will become malnutritioned for sure. You probably are eating too much and even though you can eat as much as you want you have to stop that. You are not going to lose weight if you continue to eat how ever much you want. Thats why I dont understand why people get all filled up right after surgery. It should be done in small increments now that you are so full you have nothing left to work with and your not even a year post op. You have the rest of your life with the band how will you manage when you are already full.

You can not live off of 6 or 7 bites of food you will become malnutritioned for sure. You probably are eating too much and even though you can eat as much as you want you have to stop that. You are not going to lose weight if you continue to eat how ever much you want. Thats why I dont understand why people get all filled up right after surgery. It should be done in small increments now that you are so full you have nothing left to work with and your not even a year post op. You have the rest of your life with the band how will you manage when you are already full.

Shorebaby you and I need to team up! I am in a similar situation. Not loseing. I think I eat too much still. I am looking at trying to make changes maybe going to weight watchers. I had expected the band to restrict me more. I am still hungry!! It seems like I have no restriction from this at all. I feel your pain !! I get stuck all the time but don't feel the bands restriction. It stinks.

If you are getting stuck all the time you have restriction you just dont realize it. You cant be getting food stuck all the time and not have restriction you are just eating too much. Are you really hungry or just want to eat that is the question.

I am a slow loser too. There really are a lot of variables to weight loss, eating less is just one of them.

For example, 10 years ago I dieted by eating less and counting calories-much like today--and lost 12/pounds in a month. Well now, I'm 10 years older and guess what, the weight just doesn't drop like that anymore. Keep the faith though and keep working on it. I too get discouraged but am convinced that if we continue to eat as instructed and commit to the lifestyle change, our bodies can't hold onto the fat forever.

Honestly I feel hungry but I know I am eating too much. Maybe I need to slow down. I guess I expected that I would feel full longer. If I last 2 hours on a meal that is alot. I was hoping to get 4 hours out of a meal. If I have dinner at 6 by 8 I feel hungry. .

Honestly I feel hungry but I know I am eating too much. Maybe I need to slow down. I guess I expected that I would feel full longer. If I last 2 hours on a meal that is alot. I was hoping to get 4 hours out of a meal. If I have dinner at 6 by 8 I feel hungry. .

Oh I feel for you......I have a 14cc band with 11.5cc fill in it and I cant eat break or rice but can eat almost everything else.......you know the best advice which I am sure you have heard before is to take 20 mins to eat your meal then stop (apparetly it takes that long for our brain to realise that we are full) and to take tiny bite sizes.

You know I got a plate just after I had my surgery, and on it it has a spot in the middle with a circle that says take bites this size and the circle is about the size of 2 peas (maybe a little less). I find it very had to take bites that small but when I do the fullness lasts.

Also dont drink for about 20 mins after a meal as it will wash it through the band and stop you feeling full.

I have a big drink before a meal, then no fluids again till about 20 mins after I have eaten and if I do all those things I have just said I last till my next meal.

You probably already know these things and somedays work better than others for me for some reason.

Good luck

well i do have occasional bouts of PBing (throwing up in non PC terms) but less than i used to, i have a lot of restriction and i've done well with it. it also was a learning curve...meaning that my stomach had to learn it wasn't hungry and you cant teach your stomach, it has to learn on its own

these days i get a couple hunger pangs when its dinner time or i smell food at a time when i should be thinking about it, but i dont want to knaw the leg off a stray dog, i'm just sayin': btw, i was banded in Mexico by Dr. Ortiz in Tijuana and live in st louis and looking for a doc who will service foreign bands...most here won't...thanks for any referrals or helped

Well.. I am 10 months out... 5 fills in a 14CC band... I am up to about 9CCs full..... I can eat most things if I eat slowly... I do get stuck.. or have pain if I don't chew enough... but I can get most things down if they are not too dry...

I am only down 25 pounds......I have stood still.... I know I eat too large a portion... But I get really hungry!!!!

Wonder.. If they make the band smaller I will get stuck more... ?

I don't know if I just don't have enough restriction... if my pouch is too big now... if I am hopeless.. ... whatever... Discouraged... I thought this would be just a bit more help.. ... I eat when I have physical hunger... .. I drink Water... I walk and do that jazz...

Anyone have this happen? Anyone break the cycle and lose...? Should I just opt for a RNY? I feel like a failure...

PS I am going to be on a 6 hour flight to and wonder if this will have an effect on my band? Anyone have any advise... let me know... thanks..