It has been exactly a week since I was banded and I feel pretty good. The problem is I know I should not eat but I started to just pick and now I feel hungry all the time. I have not had an entire meal but I did have mashed potatoes tonight and have had bites of mac & cheese from the kids etc. I know the band is a tool and you need to watch what you do but if I had self control and did not have these issues with food than I would not have been so overweight to begin with. I know that in weeks I will get a fill and then will be restricted (hopefully) but I wanted to know if anyone else was able to eat so soon after banding. I am also scared that I will harm the band, but I don't feel any pain when I do eat. HELP. Is it only me? Did the banding not work?

3 days out with my band, and I am doing really good. REAL SORE in the area of the port. No extra gas pain or downside to my procedure thus far. My incisions look good, and I am not starving. Soreness is the only thing I have that reminds me that I have had a surgical procedure. Remember this is surgery and we do need to heal. My diet is restricted to high protein drinks, liquid soups, jello, pudding and lots of liquids, water, etc. Vitamins 2 times a day and pain meds. Hope everyone else will do as well as I am doing.

CJV, Glad to hear you are doing good. You really do have the right idea. The early banding days are the time to make sure you heal well, and not the time to worry about weight loss. It will come on its own. I really went thru a lot of SF popsicles in the first week. That and lots of chicken broth....

Wow ! I had my band on Dec. 27th, 07. I have followed the diet to the mark ! I was told that the band and my stomach needed to heal on the inside. Basically saying that the dr wanted my stomach to not "work" to digest, thus the liquid diet....I am doing great and not feeling hungry or sick, and have followed the diet exactly as they said !?

I hear ya! I fell in LOVE weith cottage cheese with avacado mixed in and ate that ravenously for a few days. Thought I had died and went to heaven when I found Groton fish filets (Cajun!)....they were wonderful (and fall into soft food category) and I ate those for three weeks and they were a savior for me to feel like a "solid food" but not cheat. When I got so hungry I was thinking of licking the paint off the walls, I would go in and start eating sugar free jello cups, each with 10 cal, one after the other. I could get through about two of them before I filled up, but it kept something going down and I was doing no damage calorie-wise or consistency-wise.