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You won't get the stuck sensation until you have had some fills. Prefill you are normally able to eat anything. Getting stuck can be because of eating too fast, not chewing properly, too big a bite, eating too much or some food that YOUR band doesn't like.Before being filled we practice small bites etc but I don't think we get it entirely right until after we have been stuck and experienced for ourselves! I read about getting stuck and was convinced that i would be able to eat properly so that it would never happen to me! Of course I was wrong and have experienced it a number of times.

I don't count calories or anything else. I don't do protein first or low carb ar anything like that. I don't use protein shakes.I eat the same food as I have always done just in smaller portions. Breakfast is normally a poached egg on a slice of wholemeal toast. Sometimes I add a slice of smoked salmon. Lunch depends where I am. I will have a wrap, toasted sandwich, tuna and crackers or leftovers. Dinner is some kind of protein - chicken,meat,mince whatever with veggies and a carb. So I might have spag bol,curry and rice, roast etc etc I don't have a huge portion and usually leave some on my plate. For snacks if I am hungry I will have tinned fruit, greek yogurt, a slice of cheese, diet mousse etc.Occasionally I will have a small piece of chocolate such as a Freddo Frog but I no longer have large choc bars on a regular basis and i don't spend my life with my hand in the fridge like I used to!

I would go to the appointment , see the Dr and follow his/her advice. You may have been prefilled at surgery. You may need a small fill or you may be fine as you are. I have read of others that felt like you do, didn't get the fill and a week later were starving as the post op swelling had all gone down. So the best is making a decision in conjunction with your Dr.

Maybe you are drinking too many calories. Try stopping the protein shakes and see what happens.

I would suggest you speak to your Dr not your dietician. It is important though to trust what your Dr say's even though sometimes it may be hard. Remember the Dr is the expert and we can't pick and choose which bits we like and which bits we don't. Yes bandster hell is hard but eventually you get to the other side. Most of us have enough reserves that we are not going to starve! I was advised to have a couple of serves of skim milk a day which helps. Also try things like OXO in hot Water, I find when I am hungry that makes a huge difference. Plus there is low cal jellyetc. Don't tough this out on your own - speak to your Dr.

Hi, difficult to say if you will achieve it or not.In the beginning you tend to lose fairly quickly, then it slows down a bit and of course there are the dreaded plateaus.If you work on 1llb a week which is the low average weekly weight loss then that is just under.5kg per week. you may lose more - you may lose less. A lot will depend on how you stick to the eating recommendations, how much you exercise etc. And don't forget there is a period after banding before you reach your optimum fill level(sweet spot) when you may not lose at all because at that point you don't really have any restriction. Where in Vic are you and who is your Dr. i live in Ballarat and was banded in June by Peter Nottle.

I'm surprised that the diet pills are actually still working. Most of them lose their effectiveness after you have been on them for a while. I managed to get down to 53kg about 5 years ago taking Reductil. I regained and was prescribed them again. The second time they made no difference whatsoever. I got banded in June with a BMI of 32. My BMI is now down to 25 and I have another 5.5kg to lose to reach my goal. I would get banded again in a flash. I wish I had done it years ago instead of all the other things I tried. Only you can decide, in consultation with your Dr, if banding is right for you. But don't let the fact that you have a lower BMI put you off. The sooner you stop taking the diet pills the better as they are really not good for you. A band is a far better option than continuing with those.

It is possible that even though you are only eating small meals you may be eating the wrong foods. If the small meal is high in fat/calories then you won't lose. I think you should go back to your surgeons team and see what they advise. Maybe the Nut can look at what you are eating and give you some advice. Maybe you are too tight and eating high cal slider foods. The best thing to do is try and find out why you are not losing before you go through more surgery. It may turn out that the lapband isn't working for you and you may need a bypass. But you should only consider that oce you have got to the bottom of the problem

It sounds like you are too tight. 5 -7 bites at a main meal is not enough. If you have some fluid taken out you will probably find that you can eat more at your main meal i.e the good nutritious stuff that you should be eating and then hopefully you won't be filling up on slider foods such as chocolate bars.

In this instance it would have been far better had your Dr not checked the fill level because then he could not have forgotten to put back in what was taken out. By only adding this situation could not occur. I'm wondering how this could happen as when I have had fill drawn out the amount that they intend adding is already in the syringe and the whole lot then gets injected back in without the needle being removed.

Can you order shakes on line? Or do they have any Meal Replacement diet type products over there as those are the same thing. If not then for your liquid phase stick to Soups,juices(fruit & veg) for Protein drink milk. My nutitionist also advised adding things like lentils, chickpeas etc to soups to increase the protein content - obviously you have to puree the Soup to make it liquid. After your liquid phase you don't need to worry about Protein Shakes anyway. Although using them seems to be a big thing in the USA its not something that is recommended here in Australia. it is perfectly possible to get more than enough protein without having to use shakes and powders. Hope this helps

Oops. Just noticed my spelling mistake in the title and it won't let me edit it. Obviously this should read recommended!

That is something that I have been wondering as well..........

I didn't realise that it was possible to be born with acid reflux.

Its a good idea to take measurements. I took mine preop and have done them once since then. It gives you a huge boost to see how many cms you have lost especially when the scale isn't moving.

I am glad that you eventually went to see your Dr. It is scary to think that you have had a problem for a year and not done anything about it. We have to remember that we are important and look after ourselves. I hope that everything goes well from now on.

I can still drink wine no problem. It is one of the things that I am able to drink whilst eating as it tends to be sipped slowly rather than gulped so there is no way that the band will help you to deal with this issue. I agree that it is something you need to address prior to surgery.

I made things like tuna lasagne.Really soft and easy to get down.

Sliming or productive burping are basically the same thing.They can happen if you eat too quickly,too big a bite, don't chew properly or eat too much. The food gets stuck which generally causes a huge pain in your chest or at least that's what happens to me. I believe some people may not have the pain or may just feel pressure. Your body starts producing extra saliva to try and help the food go down . You can't swallow the saliva so you cough or spit it up. It tends to be thick like slime -hence sliming(slimming is what we are all trying to do)LOL.Sometimes the food comes up others it may eventually go down.Sometimes it is resolved quickly others it can take hours. It is not something that you do every day and once you have done it once you vow it will never happen again. Unfortunately for a lot of us it does happen again as learning to eat correctly is a big learning curve. As time goes on and you get used to your new style of eating it should happen less and less.

I had chicken this evening, no problems at all. Make sure it is moist not dry. You are better off eating the dark meat rather than the white meat. Cut it up small, chew well and it also helps if you have some gravy with it.

I agree with the others. If you use a smaller plate and only put on it the amount of food that you are supposed to have then it won't be a problem eating everything on your plate. I think clearing your plate is something that goes back to when we were children. Our parents would make us eat everything and not leave the table until it was finished.they would remind us about starving children in Africa etc although I can't see how my finishing all my food and getting fatter helps starving children anywhere!

Most scales are extremely inaccurate. Especially the modern digital kind. the big old fashioned ones that they have at the Dr's are still supposed to be the most accurate. I always weigh myself in the morning when I get up. Some days if I get on and off the scales 3 times in a row I will get 3 different readings!

Sorry to hear what you have been through. I am surprised though that the band was removed without them fully investigating what was wrong. The fact that you are still having problems even though the band has been removed for quite a while would seem to indicate that maybe it was something else and not the band that was causing the problem. You say you also had a hernia repair - possibly the problem is/was related to this. If your Dr thinks the pain meds could be a problem i am sure he could be right. I have heard of lots of people in whom they cause nausea. Hope you solve your problem soon.

Your husband would soon learn to chew slower and stop inhaling his food. The pain is so bad when something gets stuck that you cannot carry on eating! You have to wait until it either goes down or comes back up. You tend to eat a lot more carefully after being stuck for the first time!

I also think its important that you find a bariatric specialist. Its a bit like going for regular pap smears,breast exams,blood work etc. We go for them even though we feel fine because the Dr may discover something through testing that may otherwise go undiscovered until its too late. Think of it as insurance - you want to meet a specialist before something goes wrong. Where are you located? There may be someone here that can recommebd a Dr in your area.