Maybe this info will help, posted on the Yahoo graduatebandsters board (I hope this is not terribly bad form to post here without his permission - if so, my apologies):

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HI again, folkses! Wellll, I promised I would post regarding the significant something that I learned last weekend, tomorrow, but I'm at work with not too much to do today and need to look busy, so I'll type this on wordpad and cut 'n' paste into an e-mail! >;o)

When I was in Tijuana last Saturday getting my fill, Dr Kuri showed me that my restriction was in fact adequate on the flouro. Being the stubborn cuss I am, I asked him for a small top-up anyway, because I've been HUNGRY for the last three or four weeks, and my weight loss has essentially stopped. (Please see my post just prior to this one for the continuity) I could also eat a horse; hooves, tail, shoes and all! I have had some meals in those last three weeks or so that would AMAZE any bandster! An Example: one dinner was a McD hamburger (bun and all), a Del Taco bean burrito, and a Del Taco taco-supreme (WITH the tortillas). Any ONE of those should have been enough, but in LESS than 20 minutes, I ate all 3, with NO golfball!!!! I felt like my band was WIDE open. I wasn't even particularly careful about chewing well. I felt each bite I took go through the stoma within SECONDS of swallowing it - it wasn't staying in the pouch, and I wasn't getting filled up! - Logical conclusion: My band is too loose. Maybe I have a tubing leak, or a bad port. Maybe I just lost too much weight and the fill I got on Jan 9th wasn't enough. - I dunno, so it's off to see the wizard, and I wind up telling Dr Kuri what I have just related to you all.

Dr Kuri asks me what I eat for the whole day, and I tell him. I have ALWAYS been too tight to eat solid food in the morning and ANY attempt to do so resulted in me looking at my Breakfast again! I always had 20 oz of hot tea and then 8 to 10 oz of lowfat milk with a scoop of powders?utm_source=BariatricPal&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=CommentLink" target="_ad" data-id="1" >unjury Protein in it, instead. lunch isn't much better, but I could get a Protein Bar down if I took my time and went slow - DINNER was the only meal loose enough to be able to eat solid food.

When I told him that, Dr Kuri was HORRIFIED! He told me to make LUNCH my biggest meal of the day and to have a very light supper (dinner - whatever you want to call it...). I have heard this advice before, but I had always discounted it as "cultural bias" because that's the way Latin American countries customarily do it, and then they sleep off the big meal in the afternoon siesta before returning to work. A very nice custom, but not conducive to the way things work here in the states!

Welllll - I was wrong! Dr Kuri explained the reasoning behind it to me and it made sense: the big meal doesn't pass out of the pouch before you go to bed - a large portion just LAYS there in your stomach while you go to sleep. The stomach isn't designed for prolonged food storage. It is designed to help break the food down and mix it with the acid then send it off to the intestine quickly. When the food just sits in there, it irritates the finicky thing and makes it swell up, so when you get up in the morning, you can barely drink WATER! Because you have to wait for the swelling to go down, you get insufficient nutrition during the day. So, by evening you are HUNGRY again and you get your maximum hunger at just the same time as your band finally opens. You then overeat, which causes the whole cycle to start over again! By having a larger meal at lunch time, you are still fairly full by dinner time, and you can get by with a light meal - say a bowl of Soup or some such, that passes out of the pouch completely before you go to bed. Result: no overnight swelling and you can eat breakfast again the next morning!

Sounded good in theory; Lets see how it works out in practice.... I wanted to wait to post this info till I had had a chance to try it out and could report ACTUAL RESULTS! Well, the results are - Dr Kuri was (as usual) Right!!!!! I have been able to eat breakfast again every morning since I started following his advice (note: for this to work, you HAVE to start with a big lunch, then a light dinner, then sleep, then the next morning's breakfast will go down!), and my weight loss has resumed. If anything, I'm almost uncomfortably full all day without eating NEARLY as much as I was before I tried this and was still hungry within an hour or so even then!

I took a banded friend with me who thought she also needed a fill because weight loss had stopped and she was able to eat the whole house, including the linoleum, in the evening, too. She got no fill, but DID get the same advice from Dr Kuri as I did. She has been trying the same regimen as I have, with similar results; weight loss started again, no more HUNGRY feeling all evening, and the restriction provided by the band is again adequate to the task.

I now believe that MANY American bandsters are in the same situation and for the same reasons as I have just discussed. And, MANY others are OVERTIGHT and suffering reflux from getting too tight a fill to try to deal with this very problem! Instead of getting another fill when you are already at your sweet spot, when the loss begins to slow and stop, and the hunger returns, LOOK AT YOUR EATING PATTERN!! If your big meal and/or problem time is in the evening, this is very likely what is affecting YOU! Before getting another fill and becoming overtight, try altering your meal pattern as discussed above - give it a week or two and try to really follow it carefully - I'm here to tell ya, IT WORKS! What the heck - if it doesn't, you can always still go get another fill, but hey; it's worth a try isn't it? (Not to mention being a LOT less expensive!) What have you got to lose besides a hundred pounds or so... ?

polarbear Mike, Hesperia CA

Dr Kuri, 5/8/03, 378 at surgery

427/250/227-180 (-177 so far)

BMI 53/32/22 (50 at surgery)

Keeping it bumped because I'm stalking Celest. And Donali. This is such a great thread.

Thanks for bumping this! I'm gonna try it! I have been feeling guilty about eating so much in the evenings cause I know it is so bad to eat that late. It's worth a try!

I truely believe this works but as a working person, its tough to follow. Yesterday I had leftover tortilla crusted tilapia and oven roasted green Beans, cauliflower, onion, and carrots for lunch. (This sounds like a commercial)

After work, I had a couple of potato chips and started reading some materials. I didn't even notice I missed dinner until a tv show came on at 7:30. I quick grabbed a Protein shake since it was so late.

This morning I was able to eat a Protein Bar for breakfast - something that used to be impossible in the morning.

Now, how can I get myself to have decent lunches every day?!?!

Aww I thought this was another X rated thread. :target:

Seriously though.. and all due respect here, but I find it hard to take advice from someone who is banded and still eats a hamburger, a bean burrito and a taco supreme in 20 mins time.

I would think that all things in moderation would be best. As for me, Ive tried to stop eating anything three hours before bedtime. Ive been going to bed around 10 lately, so I dont eat after 7. A walk after dinner to move things along should do the trick, wouldnt you think?

Count me in.

I can eat a bit in the mornings but if I just drink enough to stay hydrated then I'm fine if I don't eat at all. Afternoons are when I start getting a bit hungry and by late night, I could eat a horse.:target: (Luckily I'm not carnivorous!)

By night fall, I have to be soooo careful not to overeat but at night it's when the damage could be done.

Add to it that I'm a nocturnal sort, so I hit my stride much later than other folks and stay up later, tooo.

My restriction isn't where it should be (not by my choice) and I notice this is more of a problem when I don't have adequate restriction.

It's been this way in any periods where I'm not well- filled; since I've been banded, I think.

I so dont want to go from one bad habit to another - ie. overeating in the daytime (I've never ever had a problem with night time eating) to eating all my food at night. I would go so far as to say that if any particular fill takes me to a point where I cant eat in the morning, I will be back having that fill removed pronto.

I just want to be able to eat 3 small meals a day and if I have to be unfilled enough that that requires some willpower and ignoring of head/stomach hunger (ie. the late arvo munchies) then so be it. I am pretty sure I can manage that, I'm blessed that I wasnt truly a disordered eater in the first place, just lost my way a little. Heck, I'm losing well now and have barely noticeable restriction.

It just isnt good for you to eat almost your whole day's intake and then go to bed with it sitting in your stomach. I've heard that theory before and it makes perfect sense to me, plus your metabolism works much better if you spread your intake evenly over the day.

What does bumping mean? - Blissfully ignorant

Aww I thought this was another X rated thread. :bananajump:

LOL

BB - Posting a comment that basically says "Bumping" is when you don't really have anything to add to a thread, but you post a short comment ("BUMP" or something similar) so that it comes back to the top of the list as new posts so people will read it. This way they don't have to make up some sort of inane comment just to get a thread revived.

Some find bumping old posts annoying, because they've already read that thread months ago, but some people find it helpful because they're new, or they'd forgotten.

Really interesting! I'll try to do this but it's hard because I really like to eat at night! Don't want to get acid reflux though!

bump- good one to remember!