I've had 4 fills and the last 2 were both .5cc. I can feel restriction but if I eat slow enough, I can eat as much as I want. Is this normal? I feel like I should feel full since I know the band is tight. If I eat too fast or foods that disagree with the band, it just comes back up. I think this is called sliming. If I drink right after eating sceptic for tiny sips, that also comes right back up. I call it spitting up since the food hasn't made it to my stomach yet. I know because I drink a lot of powerade and it's still cold when it comes back up. Generally, I spit it out because it seems like more coned up than went in. Does this make an sense to anyone?? Does it sound normal?

It's called Grazing.....you can do it all day if you wanted I suppose....

I remember one of the rules they taught me early on, with all the rules about eating, bottom line...come 20 minutes and you're finished.

I think it was 20 minutes, could be wrong. But they did set a time limit per meals to prevent me from grazing....

Fortunately, I don't graze because I have no interest to in the first place....

You hear about people "Cheating" the band, or working around it...and that is one way to cheat it.

My band only lets me eat so much....it does not stop me from doing it every 20 minutes all day. Actually it does, but in a different way.

Edited September 20, 201411 yr by B-52

You may have been misinformed that the band will stop you from eating too much. It won't for the vast majority of us. B-52 is one of the very fortunate ones. Not many like him around. But you don't have to have his high level of satiety to be successful.

You still have your lower stomach so you can still eat a lot of food. Food just passes through the stoma into your stomach and if you eat enough you can feel very full.

But full is not what we looks for and this isn't talked about much before surgery by the nutritionists or surgeons. We look for that feeling of satiety. We seek to be no longer hungry. Soft stop signals like burping, runny nose, hiccups and the feeling that the food on your plate is no longer appealing is what we look for.

The band does require some cerebral awareness. It's not a tool that will just say stop. You need to be very aware while eating and stop when you don't feel hungry any longer. The signal to stop can be very very subtle. Like a songbird far off in a forest. It's a tool, a tool that requires that we participate and be mindful of our hunger.

tmf

I have to agree with both posters. Twenty minutes is the time frame to stop eating and you should always eat your protein first, then veggies and if there is room which for me and many others if you're at the proper restriction you can't eat another thing. It is possible in the beginning to slowly eat all day but that's not what you want to do. Your meal should be no more than 4 oz total and that's it. 1/2 to a cup of food. If you're eating more than that at one sitting then that's too much. Good luck

Edited September 20, 201411 yr by Lady VS

Yep, you can eat around the band... as others have mentioned, you still have all of your stomach. All the band can do is slow the passage of food between the upper new stomach chamber, created by the band, as it flows into the lower stomach. The band should give your body a signal that the stomach is "full" long before you eat too much. You have to listen to the signals that the band is sending.

With the band, especially one that has been filled, you need to chew your food and eat slowly. Break the rules and you will slime or get have an episode where food gets stuck in the opening for a few hours--both are very unpleasant. My APRN told me to eat slowly... chew eat bite at least twenty times, and to put the fork down for 30 seconds between bites. TMF and B52 gave you good advice. I'll also add to make sure you eat your Proteins first! Veggies and other foods last. Protein takes longer to digest, and it also will help curb your appetite for at least four hours between meals. If you have to, break your meals into four a day, spaced 4 hours apart. Always eat the required amount of protein.

Good luck!

I count off on my fingers after a "meal" and check the clock -- one, two, three, four hours. So if I finish at noon I should not be looking for food again until 4:00 or 5:00. I wonder how on earth I'll ever make it, lol, then I mostly go right though without even realizing it. I still graze but I try not to......that's an evening problem for me.

I do much better when I don't snack between meals. Three meals a day is best for me. When I snack it wakes up my appetite. I aim for satiety, not fullness, during a meal, and relief from hunger for four to five hours between meals. My band seems to be at the right fill level now. If I eat meat too fast, I get stuck. But I can still knock a big garbage salad out very quickly if I don't slow down. So for me it's the type of food combined with how I eat it. At this fill level, I am really understanding how longtime Bandsters can cheat the band and run into problems. It makes me nervous and makes me want to be careful.

Yes, it is scary. I work in a hospital and actually had a physician tell me the band doesn't work. When I disagreed with him, he said "It doesn't work because you learn how to cheat it." And he proceeded to sit down and tell me that he's been banded for more than 10 years and that his love for food hasn't changed and that, even with 10 cc's in his band, he could eat anything he wanted. He said it wasn't because he didn't have restriction either. He said he just learned how to eat "around" it. And he told me exactly how he did it. I was shocked. And I'm actually a little mad that he told me those things because I almost feel like he was trying to sabotage me. I refuse to be like that though. I will use my band the way it was intended and I will make the right choices for myself and for my health. THAT will be the difference between me and the doctor who tried to teach me how to cheat my band. I care more about being healthy than I do about eating a bunch of garbage. Health obviously isn't very high on his list of priorities.

Doctors are the worst when it comes to eating habits. I don't understand why he would have even told you those things. I think it's because a lot

of doctors have the need to be right. I love that you made the decision to not listen to him! I don't care what anyone says. I'm in control of how successful I am once I get banded.

Edited September 20, 201411 yr by angeldivine1

Thank everyone for the replies. I think my band may be a little too tight. In 20 minutes, I can get in about 4 bites of something. And then if I try more, it comes back. It takes me forever to eat even 1/2 cup! And I've pretty much given up on most proteins. I'll stick with the shakes. I'm still losing weight steadily so I don't worry that I'm eating too much. Now it sounds to me like I'm too tight and can't get much in. Of course, I'm kinda ok with that too.

Too tight can cause a lot of complications. Very dangerous and lethal complications. It's better to take the slower road to being healthy. No need to rush this.