I have gained half of my weight back after keeping it off for 5 years. When I get even the smallest fill, I spend the entire night coughing. I have tried not eating after 6 and even skipping dinner entirely. Any suggestions? I have had a scope done and everything is in place.

Can they do a barium swallow or monitor the amount of Fluid you have in your band? The reflux after a fill makes sense for being too tight but the gaining weight back suggests something else is wrong. I believe the barium swallow would show if your pouch was stretched and the saline monitoring would detect a leak.

Other things like these can be wrong even if the band is still firmly in place.

Actually, a band too tight often leads weight gain. When your band is too tight, people often resort to slider foods or develop "soft calorie syndrome" leading to weight gain from not eating the right foods. Have a look at this article: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/page/index.html/_/support/post-op-support/tighter-isnt-always-better-r118

Plus, reflux is a major red flag sign of a band too tight.

You don't need a fill, in fact you still may need some Fluid removed. I would recommend seeing your nutritionist to get back on track by eating the right foods in the right quantities.

Best wishes.

This seems to be a common problem.After a long period of time your band seems to get less and less effective, you get hungry quicker, you can eat anything or almost with no discomfort whatsoever.

According to the charts those are all the reasons for getting a fill but as you have discovered doing that gives you problems.

It would be good if solving this was as simple as an unfill but for the majority of us it isn't. Although it might sound as though removing Fluid will help it doesn't. This happened to me last year and I have been struggling ever since. I got reflux, got a blockage, got a partial unfill and slow refill and have struggled ever since to get to the green zone.

In the past year I gained 4 - 5kgs. I have now had another fill that eventually seems to be making a slight difference. I have lost 1kg of the weight that I gained but that has taken me 2 months of watching every mouthful, logging what I eat and daily exercise. All things that I never had to do to lose the weight initially.

Good luck in figuring out what the best solution for you is.

Mis73 nailed it!