So it may be becasue I am in Bandster Hell and eating what I want and not seeing the end of the tunnel. I sit here and think how do these people lose the weight, if all it takes is the will power to eat right and eat the right foods then why couldn't this be done pre-surgery?!?!?!?!?!?!?! So then I think ok the band must really help alot, but what if you are a picky eater like I am, will I fail because I can't eat the "right" things. Or is the band really going to crack down on the portion control. Being in bandster hell has really got me depressed thinking this cannot work for me in in turn making feel like maybe I made a bad decision for myself. I go for my FIRST fill next week worried of what it is going to feel like, I want to be able to eat and feel full, I mean actually feel full without eating a whole plate! this is work I am telling you.

But as I read someones blog this morning she stated the band is in place but without a fill I am not going to actually start my journey of losing weight until then, it's like having a flat tire on a car it won't move until it is fixed and has air in it.

So having a fill is alot different I am sure please re-assure me that when I get fills my appetite will be less or how is this going to work. Encouragement needed over here can you tell????? :biggrin:

Edited July 24, 200818 yr by rcruz

I'm about to get my 3rd fill today. I was banded May 16th had my first fill mid june and still had no restriction. Received a second fill 1 week later and for about 3 or 4 days did feel some restriction. Was not due for my 3rd fill until Aug 5th but felt it was important that I got it right away as yet again I feel like I could eat a small cow. (Not sure that I actually could as I havent' tried). Was at the gym today and thankfully am still losing (about 2lb's a week). But I think that is more about eating right and exercising... my portions sizes are still way too big IMHO. Anyway hoping for more success soon. Since pre surgery down about 60lbs. 27 since surgery so not great but OK.

slinderella2b,

I have my first fill on 8/7/08. So I will keep my head up until then. Please keep me posted I want to know how you feel after your first fill. Hopefully we will be some of the lucky ones not to have to many fills before we reach our sweetspots.

Wow great message string everyone! It is so great to have a place to come and relate with others going through the same thing I am. I just got my first fill yesterday. I'm on liquids for two days then soft solids for a day. I can't wait to see if the first 3.5 cc's are going to do much good for me.

What I did to make it through band hell was had my daughter hide the scales in the house. I didn't want to know how I was doing because I knew it was going to get me down. So I consider yesterday the beginning of my weight loss journey.

We will all look back on this period and laugh one day soon! It's been a hard ride but the pay off will be worth it!

slinderella2b,

I have my first fill on 8/7/08. So I will keep my head up until then. Please keep me posted I want to know how you feel after your first fill. Hopefully we will be some of the lucky ones not to have to many fills before we reach our sweetspots.

I SURE WILL!!!!!!!:smile2: :ohmy:

Thank Goodness!! Some feels the same way I do. I was banded on the 11th of this month and my Dr. told me I could start my mushies when I went for my post-op exam 3 days ago. I am blending everything, but it takes quite a bit to feel full. My first fill in on Aug. 11th and I am hoping this will help. What a great place to talk to people who know more on how we feel than even the Drs.. I have a great Dr., but I doubt he understands the mental part of all this. We are all so anxious to get the weight off and feel quilty or discouraged is we feel we ate too much. What is too much? I was never told what amount of mushies to eat. Just to eat healthy foods and stay away from fat, sugar and fiberous foods. Thanks to all of you have been through the stages us newbies are going through. You are a great help. I would be in a constant panic and worry without this site.

That is my same issue. They don't tell you how much mush to eat. Sometimes I feel like I have messed something up bc, at a little over a week out, I get hungry. I just feel like I'm a diet. I feel a little ridiculous. Thank you so much for posting this. Some of the people I have spoken to in person make it seem like you're not supposed to be hungry for like 5 weeks after surgery. But this same person has gained back about 25 lbs after losing 90 lbs in 8 months.

You are definitely not alone in this!!

thank you, slinderella, for this post, and thank you to everyone else who posted. i am post first fill (two weeks) and have NO restriction and still no self-control. next fill on august 4.

can we keep this thread going and keep each other posted? after reading how everyone has lost 60 lbs. after a month i feel so much better reading this thread. it really made my day.

best of luck to all!!!

hi everyone! i think we can all relate to what's being said here in one way or another! i too find i'm emotional at times. and while i do have restriction (don't hate me but i have since surgery and my first fill made it slightly more - 5.5 (5 was prefilled at surgery) in a 10cc band) i get frustrated because i still want to eat after my band tells me to stop! so that's another take on it.

many people gave me great advice before surgery - one told me "this is an individual journey - it's different for all of us but eventually we wind up with the scale going down". the amount of patience we need to have and the faith that we must have in this process is enormous.

so hang in there and know it's going to take time. it will work. it's a matter of when and how but we are all over the hump of the surgery and that's a huge huge step!

What I am scared of is the feeling of being hungry and not being able to eat slow something I need to learn.

I too threw out the scale 3 weeks ago. I know I am not eating right and I don't want it confirmed. I just thought surgery was such a huge step in itself that surely there would be results. I know Dr. Zapata in Mexico actually filled one woman patient (she had surgery the day before I did) with 5 cc's in a 10cc band because he said US doctors were too conservative and its too easy to get discouraged early on. I like his theory.

hi, this whole process is as much mental as it is physical. just getting the band - even with 5cc's prefilled (as mine was) does not mean you'll lose weight. you have to change your habits to work with the band. it's a tool. it's not like gastric bypass that makes you lose weight no matter what you do - at least for the first year it seems.

today i'm having 'goldfish' crackers as a snack and sure they go down fine and all but i KNOW i should not be eating them. i need to throw them away - make a decision - and stop having empty calories even tho they 'fit' and 'don't make me sick'. why am i eating them? they taste good. that's about it. it's up to me to make good food decisions to lose weight - even with the band in place.

this is just like any other program in that there are rules and you have to figure them out and find what works for your body and your band.

if anyone is thinking the band is a cure in itself for obesity is misinformed and maybe needs to do more research.

a friend just asked me today - is this easy? i said heck no, it is not easy and if you think is, you are probably looking at the wrong procedure. is it effective? yes. but it takes a lot of work and patience and trail and error.

i would like a quick fix for sure. realistically, it's not going to be quick. what ever is anyway?

My question is if it's the same as any other program why should you do it? I am scheduled to have my band this Thurday July 31st and I was all ready to go until I started reading some of the post. Now I have an overwhelming concern that I'm going to fail at this. If the past I have been successful at weight loss programs but only for limited periods of time. From what I'm reading on here a lot of people feel little to no restriction at all. How will improve your chances if it doesn't? It now seems to be a dramatic and expensive procedure that may not have as much of a benefit as I thought. It's not that I'm not committed to changing my lifestyle...I have already lost weight just from the pre op diet. But now there's a fear that if I fail I will be looked at with even more scrutiny. Sorry to be so negative.

chic - the best advice I can give is if you do decide to go ahead and get banded don't give up! If you are 100% committed to do this (and it is a big decision) you can succeed.

Yes it is tough the first few months. I'm not going to lie to you and tell you it's been a picnic. You have to get there mentally. Your life will be different. You will approach food differently. I think the biggest problem people face after surgery is the stages. The 1st six weeks is for healing - as you move from liquids to mushies to solids you start getting hungry again (as your body heals). Then once you are all healed and start eating food again you realise - hey I can eat almost like I did preband. You start wondering if you've made a huge mistake. Why have a band if you can't use it? Is it useless? By now you are into month two and have probably had a fill. Hopefully you have restriction with it - most don't. Stay focused - keep thinking of the big picture. This weight you've gained the past X number of years took how long to gain? It won't come off overnight. Now you are probably getting discouraged. You haven't lost anything - you may have even gained a few pounds. Realise you've gone from eating probably 3000 calories plus a day to 800-1200 - your body is in shock and is holding on to every ounce of fat. By now you are probably exercising like a fiend! Why isn't the weight coming off?? Month three has flow by - you are still doing your best and following plan. You go into your next fill - AH RESTRICTION (some don't get it for another fill or two). You are so happy! Finally this band is working. You weigh in the next week - pounds lost. Now you find with restriction comes restriction. Now all of those habits you've been practicing - chewing, Protein, not drinking with meals comes into play. If you don't follow them you'll be hungry and possibly have things get stuck. It hurts like hell too! Month four comes...you think you've finally got the hang of this. You look at the scale and realise you've lost 40-50 pounds and don't remember doing so. You forgot the weight you lost pre-surgery. The whole liquid-hell was worth it - you lost a ton then. Then you realise those .5 to 1 pound losses you were so angry about (for not being so big) add up over time!

This is my story - and though it isn't the same with everyone - know we all have struggles. I came into this with my eyes wide open and got discouraged and upset sometimes too. If I wanted a quick fix I would have gotten another kind of WLS. I wanted to lose slow and make this a way of life.

I didn't write all of this to scare you. This is something each of us have to work at daily. Even when times get tough and you are down. Keep pushing. You'll push through the plateaus and realise you are healthier and happier than you've been in years.

Good luck with your decision. Everyone says it and I'll agree - the band is the best decision I ever made for myself. God bless and take care.

hi! if you are willing to change your lifestyle then that's what counts. if you do that AND use the band - and have patience - i believe it'll work out fine. it is not magic but it is a miracle. it's up to each of us to make it work.

i had the same fears going into this as you chic28. i knew i was committed to making it work. i read some posts here before hand and had to stop because it was scaring me out of it. only you know yourself and if you believe you can do it you will.

also, the band program i went thru had very good information on what and how much to eat and that really helped make this work. and what i couldn't find thru them, i found in books - look out on amazon - there are good books out there to help you make the most of this tool.

some days my attitude is not so good, other days it is great. just like before surgery. but now i have the band to help me even more than just sheer determination and i'm glad i did it. i would do it again. i'm slowly losing and sometimes i get stuck (the scale that is) but then it moves down again.

this is not easy. it's not fast (tho for some people i can see it is faster than for others).

in all honesty, i think people who think this is a quick fix are the most sorely disappointed. this is a huge learning process and you have to work with the band to make it work. and with your dr. to get to the right fill level for you.

I'm having some of the same concerns. I had my 1st fill on July 21st. I now have 5cc in a 10cc band. I'm not really feeling any restriction, and I worry that I'm eating too much when I eat. I am certainly not eating the amount I used to eat (only a small portion), but I'm not getting the feeling of fullness that I thought I would be getting. With that said, I have noticed that I am not hungry between meals, so I don't do any snacking. I guess maybe it's working somehow. It's just the feeling of the "unknown" that worries me....like "how do I know if I'm full?"..."how do I know if eating too much"...etc. I also had my first "stuck" experience today. Oh well, I'll keep trucking along. Thanks for this post. It helps me to realize that I'm not the only one with concerns.

What I am scared of is the feeling of being hungry and not being able to eat slow something I need to learn.

I actually feel the same way. There have been times where I come home from work and cook then when I get to the table to eat I am so hungry that I have gone to fast some times and paid for it. I am trying though.