Okay, so my surgeon said that I will need to continue drinking 64oz of water after the band. I've also read in the material he gave me that you cannot drink for 30 minutes before or 60 minutes after meals. He prefers that I eat 4-5 small meals daily. So four meals means no drinking for 8 hours during the day. Here are my questions...how and when do you get your fluids in? How much can you drink at one time? I know you can't gulp your fluids, it says to sip...can you continually sip so that you're actually just drink a glass of water very slowly, how slow do you have to go? Thanks in advance!

I don't understand the not drinking for 30 minutes before a meal, that is one of the rules I don't follow :biggrin:

An hour after breakfast, I start on a 16oz bottle of water ... it can sometimes take an hour to drink it. After I've finished with the water, I have a small snack and an hour after that I have another water. The process continues for lunch, another small snack and dinner so by the end of the day I've had my 2 snacks, 3 meals & 4 bottles of water. Staying on schedule like this usually keeps me from grazing & snacking throughout the day too. :smile:

Yikes! Do you feel like your entire day revolves around eating and drinking? I am a busy mommy and hardly have time to pee on my own during the day...maybe it just seems more complicated than it is in real life???

Yikes! Do you feel like your entire day revolves around eating and drinking? I am a busy mommy and hardly have time to pee on my own during the day...maybe it just seems more complicated than it is in real life???

LOL ... I'm a busy Mom too (and can never pee on my own either :smile:) but yeah I guess it sounds more complicated than it is. I do that though to make sure I get in all my fluids ... I wasn't a huge fan of Water pre-band, matter of fact, I HATED IT! Now it's my drink of choice ... who'da thunkit :biggrin:

I follow the drinking rules exactly (I'm kind of anal about rules...) and have never had trouble getting my full 64 ounces in. (I'm allowed to drink 30 minutes after a meal, not 60) It takes some planning but it's not that hard. You eat three meals a day, right? Well, I pour a 16 ounce glass full of water 30 minutes after breakfast and make it a point to finish it as soon as I can. That is 1/4 of what you need for a whole day. If you do that after each meal all you need to do is squeeze in one more 16 ounce glass somewhere and if you keep it in mind you can do it. Drink your 16 ounces after dinner then get one in before bed. This keeps you from snacking, too. Like anything else, it just takes retraining yourself. I have never had trouble getting pretty good sized drinks of water down. (and my doctor said you should be able to take a good sized sip). Water is the very thinnest thing to go through your band. If you have trouble getting water down you are really going to have problems with food! The key for me I guess is to take the glass of water and sit and drink it until it is gone before I go and do something else to distract me. Other wise it is meal time, I'm hungry and I'm in trouble!!

I've also read in the material he gave me that you cannot drink for 30 minutes before or 60 minutes after meals. He prefers that I eat 4-5 small meals daily. So four meals means no drinking for 8 hours during the day.

Actually (sorry - I kinda cringe at posting this) your math is off. If each meal prohibits drinking for a total of 90 minutes (30 before, 60 after) then that's a total no drink time of six hours. May not seem like much, but an "extra" 2 hours a day makes for a good amount of Water, and it's not as hard as it may seem at first. Here's a very simplified example (my math is probably wrong too!):

Start drinking at 6:30 or 7 (on your drive in, while getting ready, whatever). Stop drinking at 8. Breakfast at 8:30, resume drinking at 10. Stop at 11:30, luch at 12. Begin drinking at 1. Stop drinking at 6, dinner at 6:30, resume drinking at 8. Bed at 10.

With that schedule, you have about 11 horus in the day available to drink. At 64 oz, that's about 6oz per hour. 6oz is what, a Dixie cup? No problem.

Of course, who's going to live their lives on a water drinking schedule? Not me! But that's just an example to show you how this really isn't as hard as what you're thinking it will be. :eek:

Thanks guys! I don't know why this is one of my biggest worries...silly, I know! I guess I envisioned only being able to take these tiny sips and then having to wait before another one. You know, the 2 hour bottle of Water, haha!!

Oh, and I had actually added 30 minutes for actual eating, that is how I came up with 2 hours.

I'm nine days post op ( banding) I'm taking lots of fluids with protein drinks and then to add 64 oz of water to that woowee, do it feel bloated adn spent way too much time in the bathroom. My question is: does some of the liquid used to make protein shakes count as part of water intake? Thanks for your help.

Am I the only one that does not really care for the taste of plain water?? I have started adding Crystal Light drink mix to my water,makes it easier to tolerate also gives me a burst of energy! I figured with only 5 calories no sugar I cant do much harm advice??

Am I the only one that does not really care for the taste of plain Water?? I have started adding Crystal Light drink mix to my water,makes it easier to tolerate also gives me a burst of energy! I figured with only 5 calories no sugar I cant do much harm advice??

I use the Wyler's brand, it's just like Crystal Light (but cheaper) and I add it to at least 2 of my waters throughout the day ... only 5 calories each so no harm done! :glare:

I like to add the Special K protein water mix. It is more expensive, but 5 grams of protein. Every little bit helps!!!

I don't care for the taste of my water either so I add the WalMart brand packs and they have no calories. Crystal Light has an after taste to me so I tried this brand instead and I love them.