Help!!

I have had my lap band since April. I have had 5 fills and I am still not losing weight. Sometimes I do have pain up in my chest, feels like the food is not going down but I am still hungry. I have noticed that I am picking softer foods, cereal, soup or even shakes to fill me up so I do get the pain. I have no idea if I need another fill or is this another failed attempt to lose weight.

Sorry to hear you're having a difficult time losing weight! People with and without the band face the same issues so I tend to look at what the common factor is and thats the person and not so much the diet or tool they're using to lose weight since the band can only do so much and be filled so far but you on the other hand can do several things to boost your weight loss. Sometimes you have to get creative and find out what works for your body. Its great to get tips from other bandsters but we are all different and what works for one doesn't always work for another so dont give up just because you dont have the same results as another. Talk to your doctor, as with each fill he should be noting some concern with your lack of progress if its actually an issue as in 6mts he could only expect u to have lost 20-48lbs if you were losing a pound or 2 a week. Have you lost any weight at all or literally none? If you've lost some (but maybe not as much as you wanted to) then maybe you're just a "slow loser" and will require more effort on your part if you want to have some of the extreme results you have read about. If you've lost nothing at all I would think the problem lies more in what you're doing or not doing because the band requires certain nutritional changes be made and even someone without the band would lose something if they followed the dietary guidelines.

From your description of how you feel when you're eating there's a good chance you actually are adequately filled if you find yourself choosing a diet of soft and liquid foods just so they will "go down" without pain and satiate your feelings of hunger. The pain you refer to may indicate that you're either eating too big of bites, not chewing thouroughly enough or eating foods that your band doesn't allow you to tolerate- these foods are different for most bandsters or just overeating. But either way getting a stuck feeling suggests you definitely have some restriction going on. How many fills you have had doesn't really matter so much as how full your band is (you could be getting 2ccs at a time or .2cc which is a major difference). Not to mention every bandster reaches their green zone at different points and some people prefer to be tighter than others so judging what efforts you need to make to achieve some weight loss based on how many fills you've had may be null.

I find myself stuck on plateaus too more often than not these days and it can get extremely frustrating and its very easy to blame the band. But something to remember is that the band is not actually meant to get us to stop eating but to feel satiated with smaller quantities. We still have to choose the right foods and the right portions and stop eating when the measured food is gone. The hope is we'll feel satiated but not actually "full". If you're waiting for the "full" feeling everytime you eat you're doing yourself a disservice and the band will not work for you because you're not eating objectively you're still eating subjectively- with how you feel rather than whats enough for the purpose of eating. Eating a high content of "slider" foods is tempting when you're hungry and dont want to feel the pain the band causes when we're overeating, but for me personally I consider this one of those times when Im being bad and eating "around the band". I have figured out ways to eat the quantities I know I shouldnt and even almost every kind of food that supposedly "won't go down" when I want to. Its not easy and it doesnt always feel comfortable but theres a fat girl still inside me and sometimes shes louder than the skinny girl I want to be!! But doing this doesn't help my weight loss so its something Im learning to control, and at 18mts out its still doesnt come naturally. A big indicator to me would be the answer I secretly have when I ask myself why I am eating? And what kind of hunger do I feel? Is it a mental/emotional want or actual physical need?

So I would suggest taking a good long honest and objective look at your lifestyle- what you're eating, how much you're eating, count calories, what times of day are you eating, are you drinking enough Water and getting enough Protein? Are you falling back into old habits? Are you excercising or at least burning more calories a day than you consume? You dont have to be a gym rat but if you naturally burn say 2k calories a day and you're eating 2k calories a day its a given you're not going to lose any weight you're just maintaining. Do the pouch test over a weekend or go on liquids for a week. Try to retrain your mind to eat for purpose and not pleasure. Avoid high caloric slider foods. shake up your routine with different low cal foods and a little more excercise. This band takes a while to get use to and weight loss doesnt come effortlessly for most of us but if you put in the work Im sure you'll find things that work for you in the long run. Talk to your doctor and nutrionist if possible and tell them exactly what you're doing and they can give you more personalized and concrete suggestions. Dont be too hard on yourself, this doesn't have to be another failed attempt at weight loss. You can still do this! Stay positive, motivated and dont give up! The band is there to help you just take the time to learn how to use it to your advantage. Best of luck to you!

no sliders, no cereal, no soup, no shakes.

meat first, small eraser size pieces and chew chew chew, then 1/3 to 1/2 cup veggies

I'm sorry, but do you mean a pencil eraser?

yes, my dr says bites no bigger than a pencil eraser, seems small but it works

Thank you. it's all great help. I had not heard the pencil eraser comparison.

I had my lap band in Oct 2010 and didn't start losing weight until Jul 2011. Don't get discouraged. Once you start losing, it will just fall off. My doctor told me not to eat anything larger than a small post-it note size amount and always eat Protein first. By the time I finish the protein I barely have room for anything else.

I also know someone that didn't start losing until they had the band for one year. Then it just started disappearing. Like overnight. Now she looks great. Just hang in their and eat lots of protein. It will happen.

Thanks nurseshay that was some good advice