There are no stupid questions, only stupid people - right?

Right now I've had 2 fills and am at 2cc in my 10cm band.

I feel like I *can* eat a lot more than I *should* be able to. I never ever finish a plate, and I'm not eating anywhere near what I would pre-band, but I do eat more than the "2 - 4 ounces" in my dietician's guidelines. I feel like there is nothing mechanical that stops me from overeating - I'm pretty much exercising my willpower and saying, "I am no longer hungry, I've had enough." But as a fellow bandster once reminded me (thanks Robin!) - the band is there for you when your willpower is not, so keep it snug & ready to go when you need it.

I can eat pretty much whatever, haven't tried much bread, haven't tried rice at all - but I can do Pasta... and I definitely know it - in the worst way possible - if I swallow too much at once or don't chew well enough. There are also some foods that I know will be slow to move through, regardless of how well I chew. So restriction is there, but I ask myself - is it there enough? Do I need to get filled to the point that eating more than X ounces causes some sort of sign from the band?

So I've been thinking about getting another small fill, maybe .25 or .5 cc. But I've been losing well (in spurts, I've never been a consistent loser), and enjoy the fact that I only have band "issues" very rarely, and always attributable to my own mistakes... so my debate is -- maybe I'm filled enough, and getting any more is just going to make life more uncomfortable...

*sigh*

How do you know when you're ready for more fill?

I go through this same debate with myself. It's obvious from my sig. that I have not had a fill since Nov, and that I only have .7 cc in my band. I definitely can eat more than 4 oz...and like you describe, I get the gofball if I eat too fast or take too big of bites. Basically, I just decided to take it easy and slow, in the hopes of keeping my band and avoiding erosion problems. I also have a niece who is too tight, and she is having problems. I may get a little fill at the end of the summer, but for now, I am still losing at what I consider a nice pace, maybe 3-4 pounds a month (but not steady, kinda in spurts) and I'm happy. It's a personal choice, I think. Good luck with your choice! Cindy

I'd personally say "Are you still losing on what you are eating?" I don't think we should have to guage our fill level based upon the 2 - 4 oz's per setting but based upon if we are comfortable with the amount we are eating and are we losing weight?

If we are comfortable with what we are eating but not losing then maybe it's too much... I'd say the goal is to keep losing with the least amount of fill and to use the fill more when you stall or have a platau (spelling again - seriously I went to college but I believe spelling was covered in grade school and I must have been paying attention to boys that year - anyway I'm a math girl)

It was always my assumption that if you followed band rules ie. eating your protein first, then veggies. etc...stayed full for 4 or more hours..this is your sweet spot. If you follow the rules, but get hungry less than 4 hours between meals...you need a fill.

Am I right? I know we don't always follow the rules, but to make sure you do or don't need a fill.....wouldn't this be the way to check?

http://bigolalaskan.com/lapband/fills.htm

Perhaps this will help?

Odd site, not quite the information you'd expect to find from the title! So the adjustment-specific information I could find there indicates:

Not losing 1 - 2 lbs per week

Getting hungry between meals

Still eat white bread, fibrous vegetables, large portions

Struggling to lose

Gaining weight despite eating right & exercising

Just curious - I've been told that my doctor can "feel" how much fill you need by how much resistance he gets when injecting the saline. But at the same time, he's always given me a set amount, not an amount based on feel (as far as I can tell - unless it has just so happened to "feel" right at exact 1cc increments). Do any of your docs determine fill amt the same way?

Oy hey! That was my 1000th post!

Please - don't think I'm being argumentative. I sincerely am not. I'm "thinking out loud" so to speak, trying to make sense of this until I get into my groove -- many many moons down the road.

1) you are hungry too often;

2) you are not loosing weight;

Jack, to refer to your guidelines...

1 - I rarely feel hunger, even if I should be eating. I often have to eat when not hungry just to meet my base Protein levels. When I do feel some hunger, it's "superficial" hunger - nothing like what I felt pre-band. My stomach will growl and growl, but the hunger sensation never really hits. But there's no way I'm overfilled, methinks, so it would stand to reason that my loss of appetite is not a function of my fills. Actually, my appetite never came back post-op, and here I am in my 4th month after-the-fact... so I'm not sure that's a good guideline for me. Maybe it is. *shrug*

2 - This one is a generally good guideline, but really hard for me to work under. My proclivity to exception is part of what makes this process so confusing and uncertain for me. I'm a sporatic loser, which (fortunately for them) most people here don't seem to be. I have not lost anything this week. In the past 2 weeks I lost nearly 20 lbs. For 3 weeks before that I didn't lose anything. In the week before that I lost 11 lbs. For nearly 5 weeks before that I lost nothing... (and my 2nd fill came in the middle of those 5 weeks). So -- on average I have lost more than 1 - 2 lbs per week, but on a weekly basis -- I have no reliable information. I could stall for 5 weeks and think I need a fill, only to lose 15 lbs the next week.

2 - This one is a generally good guideline, but really hard for me to work under. My proclivity to exception is part of what makes this process so confusing and uncertain for me. I'm a sporatic loser, which (fortunately for them) most people here don't seem to be. I have not lost anything this week. In the past 2 weeks I lost nearly 20 lbs. For 3 weeks before that I didn't lose anything. In the week before that I lost 11 lbs. For nearly 5 weeks before that I lost nothing... (and my 2nd fill came in the middle of those 5 weeks). So -- on average I have lost more than 1 - 2 lbs per week, but on a weekly basis -- I have no reliable information. I could stall for 5 weeks and think I need a fill, only to lose 15 lbs the next week.

That's kind of how I lose also... it's never a steady 1 - 2 pounds per week but like 5 pounds and then nothing for three weeks... I've never been fourtunated enough to lose 20 in 2 weeks... that's a lot!

My doctor said it's all about the average and not the weekly amount. Is it averaging out to 1 - 2 pounds per week... Sometimes your body has to just catch up.

So it looks like you are at about 14 weeks which is an average of 5.14 pounds per week.

Sounds to me like you're definitely losing.. ALOT! Some of us tend to 'compact' then drop at once. That's not a bad thing. So maybe you need to think in terms of a month, instead of a week. How much have I lost in a month overall? Am I stalled? Am I gaining? If you are losing between 5-10lbs per month, there is really no need to restrict yourself even more. And your hunger (or lack thereof) may very well be a result of the band. It's my understanding that the band/upper pouch sitting up against the esophagus is what helps to trigger the satiety mechanism that is said to have stopped working for so many obese people (due to the stretching of the stomach, therefore this mechanism being displaced farther away). Just a thought..

And I thought the head games were only going to be dealing with food...

I keep having this little voice in the back of my head tell me, "You're stopping eating because you make yourself stop, not because the band is stopping you, so you need a fill."

*sigh*

This sucks. And rocks, at the same time. Great dichotomy, no?