I am trying to figure out why others have chosen to have the lap band surgery.

For me it seems I can eat and eat and eat and never feel full. As a matter of fact there are very few times in a year when I do feel full. It cant just be me that has had this problem can it?

( I have not had the lap band surgery yet. I ma trying to see if this is how some of you felt before you had it. )

hello akgraves, are you sure you have had the proper fill level? It sounds to me like you haven't had a proper fill.

I chose to have the band because I wasn't terribly interested in dieing from resperatory failure, other people aren't such drama queens.

I have updated my original post

Hi akgraves - welcome to LBT

Before being banded, I had two modes - starving or stuffed to the point of wanting to vomit. There was no in between and when eating, there was no off switch - I stopped when the food was gone. Add to this, I generally made unhealthy choices in my meals.

The band has helped me to realize what feeling full means - not stuff. It has also helped me to make better food choices. It's not a miracle fix, by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a tool that if worked correctly, can help immensely.

Good luck in your research.

I'm the same as Jess, either starving or stuffed to the gills. Its strange, some days I can be full on a little bit of food and other days what I eat will make most people sick.

I am not banded yet (October 24th) but after all the research and reading I have done, the band it the way I want to go.

I keep thinking OMG the doctor is going to need a band the size of a tire tube to get around my stomach lol

GOOD LUCK with your quest.

I have the opposite problem, I would stuff myself until I got that so full feeling pre-band. Now I am never full, but satisfied by the small amounts I eat. I am hoping that is how skinny people do it when they eat the little bit on thier plate and say how full they are. I think it is actually satisfaction rather than fullness. I still miss the fullness since the band, but and learning how to deal with the satisfaction of eating enough food to stop me from feeling hungry any longer. I know this doesn't help you much. There are actuall conditions I have heard of in the UK where the person literally NEVER feels full. Even after eating for hours. I forget what the condition is called, but maybe you should do some research on that too. I remember the column I read was about a child who had this condition and his parents had to lock his food up so he would not die from eating too much. Good idea coming here and researching also. I know these are extreme cases but you just never know...thanks for listening to me babble.

I think many of us for the first time feel "satified" with our meals is after we've been banded, many times after our first fill.

I think maybe what skinny people feel as "full" is what we come to know as satisfied. What we used to feel as "full" is skinny for "stuffed." And stuffed for us? wel... I don't know if skinny has a word for that.

Hope this helps

I think what Vines said is right. After I eat I feel FULL but not sick or anything. Jack reminded me that full is not the same as "full after Christmas dinner full". I eat anywhere from 3/4 - 1 1/4 cups of food and I feel the need to stop and feel satisfied until the next meal.

Ditto what Jess and Eileen said. I was always either starving or stuffed. A lot of that had to do with the fact that my job is so crazy that I would go most of the day without stopping to eat (huge mistake), and by the time I walked in the door I was so hungry that I could eat a horse (well ,maybe not a horse, but there were days when my dog wasn't safe-HA HA)

Now that I have this band, I force myself to STOP for 15 minutes in the middle of the day to have a protein bar or shake, I do not walk out the door without having had some sort of breakfast- a scrambled egg or yogurt, and I eat dinner, but even pre-fill I can't do much at dinner. I just returned from lunch with my hubby and I ordered an 8 oz. prime rib (YUMMY). I had 5 small bites, 3 bites of potato, 2 cooked baby carrots, and about 1/3 of a dinner salad. I felt very full and have at least 2 more meals left from this in the fridge. To me, this was a pig-out now that I have my band!!! You should have seen what it was in the old days!

The lap-band was the perfect procedure for me. I was never a food obsessed type of person, and have always made pretty good food choices. My probelm was that I could eat and eat and eat (all night long and all weekend), and no matter how healthy the food is that you are eating, too much of it is always going to make you heavy. I can no longer eat very much, and I do feel full. Not stuffed, but full.

I too am banded and have yet to turn the hunger off. In fact just today I was thinking I should get another fill because I'm hungry all the time! I have 1.5 cc in the band but an hour or two after eating a meal - I'm hungry again - its sucks because I'm really trying to stick to the 3 meals a day! I eat until I am "satisfied" at least thats what I think I'm doing - the hunger pains go away and I've got something in my belly and I ate about a cup of food, but then 2 hours later I'm hungry again! I hope it won't be like this forever - I have ok restriction - I could use just a little more fill, but I really should be ok where I am at - so its got me a little worried.

There are actuall conditions I have heard of in the UK where the person literally NEVER feels full. Even after eating for hours. I forget what the condition is called, but maybe you should do some research on that too. I remember the column I read was about a child who had this condition and his parents had to lock his food up so he would not die from eating too much.

It's called Prater-Willie Syndrome and it's usually associated with mental defecits along with this odd always eating/hungry thing. I saw a show about a guy in the UK who had it...maybe that's what you saw, too? Anyhow, people are born with it and you'd know it if you had it. It's not your typical eating disorder. I know a young man that has it and he is also Severely Mentally Retarded.

Anyhow, banded eating is a whole new experience. There are lots of thread discussions about Head-hunger, Skinny Eating, Why Are You Fat? is a great one, etc. so plan on some really good reading here. I used to think I didn't eat all that bad, but something was keeping me fat. I'm fighting my metabolism, that's for sure, but I'm amazed at how little food I can get away with eating when I am properly filled.

Maybe you will be one who is amazed, not at feeling so full/satisfied, but at how your band will stop you in your tracks and keep you from physically being able to shovel down the unnecessary. It really is pretty amazing most days. good luck!

what casued your slip? what does it feel like?