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The main thing I notice in restaurants is that whenever I am eating with friends they will come by with the plates and without asking plop down the jumbo angus burger with fries in front of me and everytime I have to say, "actually I ordered the side salad with soup, the angus is for my skinny friend over there" haha oh the joys of not being at goal yet.

I'm from Ottawa and was banded in October 2014, how did your surgery go?? I'm also looking to see if anyone knows of a WLS support group in the Ottawa area, anyone know of anything?

I am in a bit of a lull myself, I am 5 months post op but I only have 1.5cc in my band, clearly this is not enough since I'm starting to snack at night again, which was my downfall my entire life. The most helpful thing for me so far is myfitnesspal such a great app and it lets me track everything that goes in my mouth. Sorry I couldn't be of more help but maybe someone else has a better solution and can help the both of us! Good luck.

In my experience I am not comfortable drinking while I eat, I have to wait a few minutes for everything to pass through the band then I am good to go. I would suggest not drinking while eating you will do yourself a favour and reduce your risks of complications.

So I am about 5 months out of surgery and everything has been going really well. I have been out of the country for work and I couldn't go for a fill for 3 months now. The past month I have noticed that I have been hungrier and eating more food. I have been fairly strict on my diet and the types of food I eat, but I am still a bit worried that some old habits will start to creep in. How did your fills affect your level of restriction? Does it ever last for ever or does it seem to diminish after time and you start to get hungrier? Any insight would be really helpful.

I just had to share this very exciting day with everyone. It has been 13 years since I was last under 300lbs and today I weighed myself and was at 298! I couldn't be happier with my choice to get banded and am still not in my "greenzone" so I know there is more work to do and more success to be had.

I chose the band for a very simple reason. I wanted my anatomy to remain intact. I think it is all up to personal choice, but I wanted to keep my body functioning the way it was meant to. My career as an opera singer requires me to be very in touch with my body, especially my diaphragm. I knew that with the VGS or Bypass if something were to go horribly wrong I would be stuck with it, with the band however I could always have it removed. Thankfully everything has gone incredibly well and I am loving my band. Do what ever feels right for you.

Congrats on making the hard decision to have this procedure. So, I am a month out of surgery and I can honestly tell you it was not as hard as I thought to adjust to my new way of eating. So the pre-surgery diet was a real pain in the butt, for me it was the hardest part of all this. Once I had my surgery things were no longer in my control so that was easier. A couple days after surgery I was feeling really unwell, I was weak and dizzy and was even afraid to take a hot shower incase I fell. I think that was just my body adjusting to the lack of "nutrition" (McDonalds). After I started pureed foods things started to get a whole lot better, I could eat "normal" foods again and would eat about a cup at a time, funny enough my thoughts before surgery were "That will NEVER satisfy me" and I thought I would be starving all the time. Not the case, I didn't feel very hungry between meals but come meal time I was ready to dive into my mashed sweet potatoes or cream of celery Soup and after about a cup to a cup and a half of food and 20-30min later I was full. I will be honest sometimes you "forget" that you have the band, for a split second and don't chew enough but then you are kindly reminded that you need to take your time. Now that I am on almost solid foods I have never felt better, I am down 35lbs and fitting into clothes I have now worn in years. Honestly it is a frightening experience as your surgery date creeps up on you and you will wonder, did I make the right choice, but in the end I would do it all again. Feeling the way I am feeling now is so encouraging. Yes eating after the band is different, yes there will be times when your friend walks by with a pepperoni pizza with double cheese and you want to jump them. But! You will sit down with your small chicken salad or tuna wrap and half an hour later you will have forgotten all about that artery clogging pizza. Good luck to you on your weight loss journey, and don't lose faith in your decision.

I have read so much literature about this topic and there doesn't seem to be a right answer, I personally feel that 800 is really low, especially for a 6'1, 31 yo Male. So I have been sticking to about 1100-1200 a day, I feel pretty satisfied between meals and rarely feel like I need a snack. So I think the answer is if you don't feel satisfied or "well" then you should probably up your calories per day. I have been using myfitnesspal on my iphone religiously and I am really loving the app. Helps me stay on top of things and has basically every food you can imagine.

Since I have only been out of surgery for a little less than a month I haven't really noticed much of a difference in the mirror. I've lost about 30lbs so far and people are just starting to notice the weightloss, I can feel it in my clothes but so far I am not seeing it in the mirror. Maybe it will just take time for my own perception of me to adjust. On a related topic, I am having a bit of a hard time accepting that at some point I will actually succeed in losing this weight. I have done all the diets out there but usually give up after a couple weeks, having the band has changed everything for me, I have completely embraced my new eating habits, some of my closer friends who have seen me eat both before and after surgery are amazed by the change in how much I eat and how long it takes, they also love that if we go out to a restaurant they get to eat my leftovers

Amazing amazing amazing! You look great and you sound so happy, Congrats Jim. I am only a couple weeks out and have dropped 22lbs, I am a very results motivated kind of person so I am a bit worried about "Bandster Hell" but I guess if it happens I will just push through. Thanks so much for sharing your story.

I completely get what you are saying, I have a lot less restriction than a week ago, but at this point I would not chance any bread. I had a few veal meatballs (I'm Italian so my house is made of meatballs) and they went down after chewing even though they are pretty soft to begin with. I had a larger bite and it didn't get stuck but definitely was uncomfortable and had to wait for it to go down. That being said, I think in a couple weeks they would go down a lot easier so I will eventually need a fill, before I get to hamburger time. My fill is on Dec 2nd. Compared to what I would normally eat I think 3 small meatballs and half a cup of cooked veggies is pretty darn good. Keep up the good work guys!

Thanks! I was just about to write a post asking about this!

Hey guys, I thought I would post a small update. I am now 12 days post op and have lost an awesome 22lbs it has been years since I have weighed this little. The two days after surgery were a bit unpleasant, I could not keep anything down, no Water, no juice. This was due to a small complication that left me with a lot of swelling around the band. As of day 3 (my final day in hospital) I was able to keep down liquids and could feel it pass through my band(very strange feeling but not uncomfortable). The first week was liquids only and that was fine, a few days ago I moved on to puree foods, loving the broccoli Soup. I am still on "purees" but of a thicker variety, so I am easily able to pass mashed sweet potato and mashed potato/cauliflower (trying to limit all the starches). Yogurt and soy milk. If I am very careful I can get ground chicken and beef down. I am a little wary of anything that would absolutely need to be chewed so I will wait another week or so before trying cheese. What I love about my band is that the choice has been taken out of the equation for me. I would consider myself a "foodie" in the sense that I love eating good healthy food, however the old me would always choose the more decadent food. If it was a choice between a big beautiful hamburger and fries I would always choose that over grilled chicken or fish. Now I don't have the option, I know that there is no way in hell a hamburger with bacon and cheese and bun and all the fixings would ever pass through my band. So I choose a better option, it has forced me to really sit and think about what I am eating, it all has to be planned. I am very excited about my diet now, because I get to be creative and really love the food I am putting into me. Getting this tool has been the best decision of my life, and I am grateful to live in a country that covers the surgery free of charge. I hope everyone is having a similar experience, if any of you pre-op bandsters have any questions feel free to ask!

I think the stigma that comes with being overweight is the reason some people choose not to tell. The public at large (read: skinny bitches) don't accept that obesity is a disease like any other and that WLS is a treatment like any other. People who are ignorant of what WLS is really about think it is the "easy way out", those of us who have gone through it know that that is bullshit, it's the hardest thing I have ever done in my life (and I am only 8 days out). I don't blame some people for not wanting to admit to their WLS, it is their choice and if it allows them to avoid negative comments and the damn "life coaching" that people try to give you on a daily basis then being private about it is fine. I think if people ask how I am loosing weight I will always tell them that I had WLS, I am not ashamed of the choice I made and I am a pretty forward person so I'm not shy to tell the more moronic ones to shove it. I think that once we can educate people about obesity and they understand that a lot of us are big ol' fatties because we are sick and not because we are lazy or pigs, but that we are addicted or trapped in a cycle it will be a lot easier to talk about WLS openly with everyone.