had a scary thought today. Getting banded May 9th. I was wondering what is the difference in stopping at full with the band vs. not stopping at full pre-band. I know for me, I am this way because I eat past full!! Thoughts?

The difference is pain and discomfort. If you eat past real "full", you will suffer the consequences for it. So you will learning quickly what full really means. Right now, I don't have restriction so I stop eating on my own and not waiting to get full. Another thing you should teach yourself even before the band is to stop eating when satisfied - not full. With the band you really don't want to eat until you feel full because if it is too much, you won't know until it is too late and you can suffer from that too. Try practicing that now so you don't get yourself in trouble. Good luck with your surgery!

From everything I've read here, it appears that definitely P-A-I-N is the answer. I'm getting banded 5/7 & was grateful for our "lengthy" pre-surgery program that helped me to re-learn what "satisified" feels like & what "fulls" feels like. Funny that one of the most powerful things I've heard is that we have always spent so much time thinking about food..that is until we start eating & then every ration thought flies out the door! What a simple statement, but sadly how true it was for me too!

Thanks for the thoughts! I know when I eat less I recognize full quicker then when I am just eating to be eating. Congrats on the 5/7 date...we'll have to touch base. How do you get the ticker thing on?

The difference is pain and discomfort. If you eat past real "full", you will suffer the consequences for it. So you will learning quickly what full really means. Right now, I don't have restriction so I stop eating on my own and not waiting to get full. Another thing you should teach yourself even before the band is to stop eating when satisfied - not full. With the band you really don't want to eat until you feel full because if it is too much, you won't know until it is too late and you can suffer from that too. Try practicing that now so you don't get yourself in trouble. Good luck with your surgery!

That is excellent info....Thanks..

There is a definite difference in the feeling of "full" pre and post band.

After you are banded, your stomach doesn't get full from "over"-eating, your esophogus does! You literally get full up to "here" <motions toward base of throat>!

If you eat too fast or don't chew well you will get pain in the stoma area.

It is literally impossible to eat until you are "full" in the pre-band sense.

Before the band I would feel full from my belly button to my chest, really, I could eat so much my whole body felt full. Now it is more in my chest area and I don't feel it anywhere else.

Think about it honestly - you eat past satisfied, but do you eat past REALLY full? To the point of feeling ill?

Most people dont, its just that that REALLY full feeling came way too late after way too many calories. And it was followed by discomfort maybe but never (for me anyway) did I eat til the point of puking. When I felt uncomfortable I stopped.

In fact I realise, I responded to hunger and fullness quite normally, its just that I was hungry too much and not full soon enough for the energy balance in my body to be right. With the lapband, the hunger comes less, the fullness comes quicker and the energy balance was tipped the other way.

I havent had to learn to behave any differently on that score, except that I do avoid uncomfortably full becuase it really hurts, much more than it used to. So I've learned to recognise satisfied, but pretty much by default, not because I'm some perfect bandster.

It will work, dont panic.