Hey Everyone, I am less than 2 weeks away from my surgery and have spent the last hour reading everything negative I could about life with the lapband (call me a crazy). I recognize complainers are always more vocal than satisfied people so I take it with a large grain of salt. The only major concern I have is what you can eat after you have gone through the healing stage. I have read that some people can eat very little in the way of foods. My expectation is that I wll be able to eat much less and have to avoid a couple types of food, but should be able to eat most foods if I eat slow, chew a lot and eat a lot less. For example I used to eat for breakfast, 4 scrambled eggs, bacon, and 4 slices of toast, and a large glass of milk (I guess that's why I gained so much weight). My future expectation is that I could eat 1 scrambled egg and a slice of whole wheat bread or some oatmeal. For most people s this reasonable. I realize that everyone is a little different but I am looking for the most common results.

Yep you'll eat less and you basically have to find out yourself what you can and cannot eat - its so personal to you.

The main thing is to eat slowly - a minute between bites and to chew chew chew. Stick to these two rules and you'll be OK

It really depends on you and your band. I am really tight in the mornings so my breakfast is usually a protein shake or a yogurt. I could never tolerate eggs in the morning. I am 2 years out and even when I didn't have a lot of restriction I am still unable to eat red meat. So it really is a matter of trial and error. As the last poster said take small bites and chew, chew, chew. Some people have success using smaller forks and spoons to help with bite sizes. Good Luck to you!!

There aren't a lot of things I CANNOT eat. Quite frankly, I am always surprised of what I still CAN eat and in bigger quantity than I anticipated. With that said, I don't test the limits and stay on track, make better choices, etc. Don't get all hung up on the negative. There are some of us that are living well with the band, losing weight, keeping it off, and still enjoying our meals (albeit in smaller quantities). Good luck to you!

Everyone's experience with the band is a bit different. I'm able to eat almost anything, and I haven't had any stuck episodes. The most important thing is to learn how to read what the band is telling you. I can tell that I am feeling fuller sooner, and that is my signal to stop eating, even though I could eat more if I wanted to.

Everyone is definetly different. In the morning all I can do is drink my coffee, I dont get hunger pains for at least 3 hours after waking up. Then I can only manager either 1 egg and a piece of toast or a small bowl of oatmeal. You probably wont be able to eat both an egg and oatmeal, but you will learn your own body on what you can and cannot eat. Some days I can do a little rice, the next day up it comes. The key will be to listen to your band and it will tell you yes or no. Good luck.

I'm about a year out and could eat almost anything until last week. Now I'm REALLY tight and am not sure if this will ease up or if its the new normal, but I'm getting full on 1/2c Soup. food mourning to come if this continues...

For the last year though, the only things I avoided were things I felt like I was chewing forever and not breaking down--seaweed on sushi, chewy steak, jasmine rice in Indian food for some unknown reason, lobster...

The only real surprise was not being able to easily drink cold orange juice! I LOVE juice, but I mostly want it with breakfast and I want to gulp it... Since I really can't drink anything cold the first hour or two after waking (because my band's too tight) it's no fun anymore... I can drink it later I guess, but super cold drinks are hard ant time...

Anyway, here's my theory... Right now you're like an expectant parent, and you're worried about how you're going to deal with the terrible twos and having a defiant teenager... But you really don't have to worry!! They're not born teenagers, they're born infants and you'll have time to experience joy and to learn tools to deal with them.

You're not gonna start out with a really tight band. When you first start, you'll have some swelling so it'll be tight, but then it'll feel really loose you'll be able to eat anything for a while. Then you'll get a fill, it'll be tighter. And you get used to that. You'll have another fill, and so on. You will be in control! You can either fill it up really tight right away, and you'll have trouble eating a lot of things very early. Or you'll get it filled very slowly get used to each stage and be able to eat along the way.

But either way, you're gonna do great!

Thank you all for your replies. It really helps deal with the uncertainties. As a parent of two grown sons I can really appreciate the comparison to children.