I was banded in September of last year and have had 5 fills so far. I had a bit of weight loss before and after surgery, but nothing near what I expected. I did find that I was eating less, but nothing like what was advertised as a 1/2 cup portion. My experience was that for a day after a fill, I would be very restricted, then for a week or so later it would loosen up a bit, but by week 2 I felt back to normal and could eat virtually anything I wanted. After fill #5, I decided to give them a rest for a while. My port is at a difficult angle and usually requires up to 20 minutes of needle digging for my doc to hit it. It is not a pleasant experience to say the least.

Anyway, fast forward to April. I decided the band wasn't going to end up being the solution for me, so I started working out with a trainer at the gym. The types of exercise are all freeweight circuits with very little if any rest periods between sets. The weights when used are not extreme amounts or anything like that. We do a lot of core training though, like planks, and many exercises on the stability ball. I did not notice a change in my eating for the first 4 weeks or so, but in the last 2 weeks, I have noticed a serious change. I can suddenly feel my band. Full force. I can barely eat 1/2 cup of food and if it is something of steaklike consistency, forget it. Bread and tortillas are suddenly completely off the menu.

Now I am NOT complaining here at all. I am happy that the band appears to finally be working. But why now? Is that normal or could there be something wrong? I know that food is going through so I am not all that concerned about it, but the suddenness of the change was startling. Suddenly I am back to watching my Protein level more than ever and am struggling to get enough protein in.

Thanks for any advice.

I've heard of similar experiences. It's all about the amount of calories you eat and the amount of activity you have that burns those calories. But you have to eat the right amount of calories to match the activity you do on a daily basis.

If you are consuming 1000 calories but you have a mild work out 3-5 days a week, most would say that you would burn 3k of calories on that kind of diet/exercise plan...

What was your bariatric doctor's thought on it? if you havent seen him, perhaps you should have a checkup!

I have to say the 1/2 cup thing in my opinion is crazy. My doctor wants me to eat 3 oz of solid Protein PLUS veggies and some fruit. That is never, ever going to fit in 1/2 cup. It just isn't.

Band tightness can come and go. I had a fill day after Thanksgiving. I had restriction before but this moved me more into the green zone. I've noticed in the last month or so that I've gotten a little tighter. Not in a bad way at all. In fact it took me a looong time to get to restriction and my band is almost full.

I can eat bread but not cheap dough white bread. My only concern would be if you can't eat 3 oz of solid protein and some veggies.

This may not be connected to your weight training. The band is connected to living tissue; which can and will function differently for apparently no reason.

That's funny you posted this I'm having same issues after exceeding core workouts. Do you know if we are supposed to up more protein? I think I'm in green zone but sometimes feel restricted as I'm doing exercise 4 nights per week.