Hi All,

My surgery was 9/11, so I'm two weeks post op. I am absolutely starving today! I'm on "normal" food, which my MD approved. I don't have my first fill until 10/6, and I don't want to gain back the 12 pounds I lost during my pre-op diet. Any suggestions?

Hope your getting all your proteins in that helps and drink more water it will help. Good Lucky on your jouney.

I've had the same experience, which I keep reading is normal, until you get your sweet spot with the fills. I just got my first fill today, and was really excited because I haven't lost anything in 2-3 weeks! My doctor said that is normal. Just hang in there. Try to pick low-cal foods and exercise.

We all go through this phase. Just hang in their until you start getting fills and keep following the plan. Also make sure that you are getting your proteins in first because they are more filling. Good luck.

I'm on regular foods now too, but I haven't gained anything... I'm still a bit apprehensive about foods and still eat mostly soft foods like mashed or baked potatoes and cream of wheat and oatmeal... I do eat meats too, but just once a day. (yah... I'm a whimp LOL!) But I'm losing about a half a pound a week still more or less... You won't be able to eat as much as before banding... I was sure I would have gained, but nope. Just don't splurge on sweets and junk food and fast foods and I think you'll be fine.

If your doctor has approved you for "normal" foods, my advice is this: Stay away from the Protein drinks, Soups and slider foods and eat more lean meat and fresh green vegetables. The soft foods and liquids are very important in the healing phase, as you don't want your stomach to be churning a lot to digest more solid food, but once you have healed, they are the antithesis of what banding is supposed to do for you.

Liquids and soft foods will slide right through your band, especially in the early stages before you've had fills and start to get restriction. You will find yourself being very hungry, because the food isn't sitting in your pouch, slowly trickling through over a period of hours, as it should. When you eat lean meats and fresh vegetables, you need to be very careful, cut it up into tiny pieces (pencil eraser size!) and chew every mouthful to absolute mush or liquid - no lumps! This type of food still has enough fibre and solidity to sit in your pouch and give you that "full" feeling, but if chewed fine enough will slowly trickle through, making the feeling last.

Don't worry so much about portions at this point. You haven't got full restriction yet, so 1/4 - 1/2 cup measures might not satisfy you. Allow yourself to go up to 1 cup at each meal if you need it, but eat slowly and chew thoroughly. As restriction kicks in with each fill, the portion sizes will naturally come down.

In my opinion, the worst thing you can do for yourself AFTER healing, is to prolong the liquid/mushie stages too long, which leave you hungry and fighting the urge to snack and get you into the habit of opting for slider foods. It actually takes quite a lot of lean meat and veges to go over a 1000-1200 cal a day limit, but it is very easy to do on soft slider foods. If you fill yourself with good nutritious food, you won't have to fight hunger so much and you will have more willpower available to fight head hunger and bad temptations. It is a self-fulfilling approach - eat soft and easy foods and you will get hungrier and eat more, eat the more "difficult" foods and you will be less hungry and more able to make the right choices.

Disclaimer: Every doctor has different ideas about how long you should spend at the liquid/mushie/soft/normal food stages. 2 weeks is quite quick to be given open rein again. Introduce every new food very carefully, make sure you really concentrate on tiny bites and chewing - you do NOT want to be PB'ing at this stage in your healing.

Edited September 25, 200817 yr by Fanny Adams

I'm feeling really fortunate, I too and 2 weeks post-op, it's the last day of my liquids tomorrow and I'm still happily living on 3 meals of 200ml a day, I do get a rumble but my soups satisfy me, I am looking forward to going onto mash!! Its my favourite!! I am fully expecting my hunger to come back tho!!

Hope your getting all your Proteins in that helps and drink more Water it will help.

Lots of sugar free liquid helps with the hunger pangs. I was there 2 weeks ago myself. It's a tough time, but you have to tough it out. My second week was my roughest week.

Bryan

Banded August 26, 2008