Search the Community

I was banded in 09 and am having my band removed in Sept. my surgeon said it barely slipped but my reflux was so bad they had to take out most of the fluid. I have already gained some weight and I have been strict on WW trying to maintain. Hoping to have the sleeve in November. I am angry too and fear having it out because of the weight gain. My self esteem is soo low right now it's depressing. Nicole I hope you start to feel better. You aren't alone .

When is the last time you had it checked? I worry you are showing signs of a slip, which would explain the night reflux as well as the weight gain. I'd get into your surgeon ASAP. Best wishes to you.

I did. I was denied due to weight gain during the program. I had to go through the appeal process.

I was just approved to have my lapband removed on 10/30/13, but I am freaking out a bit. I have had an unfilled band for 3 years now and weigh about 10 lbs less than I did when I got banded. My weight keeps rising, and would be higher, but I work out religiously. My BMI is about 35. I am terrified of gaining weight after the band is removed. My surgeon has a policy of waiting 3 months before scheduling a sleeve, so that's three months of potentional gain. Also, I don't yet have approval for the sleeve, so working hard to lose weight during the 3 month period will make approval even more unlikely, especially if my BMI drops a little bit. I know myself and while it would be wonderful to get my BMI down after removal, it wouldn't last and I would be exactly where I started before I got banded. I am 53 years old and losing weight gets harder and harder each year. I guess my question is, do people who have gone thru the removal gained much between surgeries? Was the lapband removal surgury difficult to recover from? Days? Weeks? Terrified of going backwards. Thanks.

Hello everyone so my surgery was June 12th and I was losing weight pretty steady and as of this week I've gained 9 pounds and I don't understand why cause all I have each day is my protein shake and some meat like turkey or chicken and I can't eat that much when I do so I'm getting really discouraged and depressed is this normal or is there something wrong please help

I am exactly two years post-op since I was sleeved in April 2015. Losing a regain after undergoing bariatric surgery involves no special insider secrets or magical sorcery. My personal mantra is this: "The road to regain with a sleeve or bypass is often paved with snacky slider foods such as Lays, Pringles, Fritos, Ruffles, Doritos, popcorn, pretzels, crackers, breads, Oreos, Fig Newtons, and ice cream." Sliders (a.k.a. slurry foods) do not produce that important feeling of satiety or fullness in the sleeved stomach or bypass pouch, so we can eat unlimited amounts of them. They slide rapidly out of the stomach and into the intestine, promoting fast weight gain. If you eat sliders, I suggest you cut them out your life cold turkey ASAP. Revert to what you did during those first post-op months. Eat abundant lean protein such as chicken, fish, and beef. If you are still hungry, eat non-starchy veggies until full. Due to its high thermic effect, protein cranks up your metabolic rate because it requires more calories and energy to for your body to digest than slurry carbohydrates. Consider this: after eating 10 yeast dinner rolls you will never feel full. However, you cannot eat 10 tilapia fillets or 10 chicken drumsticks. You will be stuffed with one or two servings or fish or chicken. The 10 yeast rolls had 1200 calories and you are still hungry for more. The one tilapia fillet or chicken drumstick had 110 calories and you are feeling full in relatively short order.

@@heidikat72 About the patient that gained 1 lb...is that the total amount of weight gain for the whole 6 months? Or was their weight fluctuating and they gained 1lb and then lost it? I hope I'm making sense because they seem like they make more sense when I say them out loud as opposed to typing them lol. At my weigh in today, I gained 1 lb from last month. I have my period now and that 1 lb is most likely Water weight. I called my patient liaison at my surgeon's office and she left a message that said something along the lines of "if your weight evens out at the end, you'll be alright". I'm just hoping that when I submit all of my stuff to the insurance company, they don't look at this 1 lb gain as me not trying to lose or something.

I had a ugly run in with my depression a few weeks ago. I was 182 and by the time my staying in bed and not eating mood was over I was 179. Well I started eating again and well now I'm 185... what just happened?

Its been 6 yrs since my bypass I got pregnant 5 1/2 yrs out its been 8 mnths since I had my baby and cant loose the weight regain ive failed I need help @@sweethonesty261 Sent from my SM-N920P using the BariatricPal App

Let me just say this first: If I read this two years ago, I would have had second thoughts about having the surgery. Having had the surgery, I don't regret having it- at all. This story is mine, and I'm ok with it. When I had my surgery I was 336lbs. I am 5'6" and at the time I was 29 years old. That was 2012. Today, I weigh 260lbs. In October of 2013, I got to my lowest weight of 210lbs. Gaining weight was never a fear, not losing was a fear. Gaining back 50lbs has been a nightmare. I have a million reasons for how the weight gain happened. That feeling, that nagging hungry/craving feeling returned in August 2013, I got married, moved and started a new high stress job. I felt exposed at 210lbs, I was afraid to get smaller. I was not sure how to handle being "not fat". It's all crap. Here is the truth, I'm a food addict with a super dysfunctional relationship with my weight and my body. The sleeve, it didn't fix my head, and I didn't either. What this surgery taught me is what behaviors help me to lose weight. I have a powerful tool and I know how to lose. Today, I begin again. I worked out today, drank Water, ate high Protein & very low carb, and I planned my food and tracked my intake. I told on myself about my addiction (you all) and I held myself accountable. I know if I do this, I will lose. I'm a food addict. One day down. Tomorrow: Begin. Again.

I think your doing awesome, throughout my weight loss I've lost a lot for a bit then not so much! If your weighing yourself often you could even see a pound or two weight gain at times, but the great part is it does come off !! So don't get discouraged, You are and will do great!!!! Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Three Years Later - What I've Learned Here's my experiences from the sleeve process years ago. I wish I had this information before getting the sleeve, so I wanted to share it with all of you: GAINING WEIGHT Gaining weight is easy: you simply eat when you're emotional, lonely, or not hungry. Even though my stomach would barely fit a slice of pizza, I could still suck down an entire large meat Lover's Supreme by eating a single slice, waiting until my stomach could fit some more and then eating another. Until the pizza was all gone. You can also do this with ice cream, burgers, fries, and all the other miscellaneous crap food widely available via drive thrus. This is why you're required to see a counselor and nutritionist - to handle your eating issues. If these aren't handled, then DON'T BOTHER WITH THE SURGERY. You will simply get fat again by eating smaller portions more frequently. If however you only eat when you're hungry - and stick to good foods then you're golden. Now OBVIOUSLY if you did that in the first place you wouldn't be fat. So surgery is a booster shot to your weight loss, and new way of life. Think of it as waging a war, and surgery is a tank. Now a tank is a formidable weapon. Can run over enemies, shoot some big artillery but eventually if all you have is that one tank, you'll probably lose a prolonged battle. So you gather some strategy and military air support (diet changes), some recruits and soldiers (lifestyle changes) and NOW you have a master battle plan for your war. And ultimately a better thought out path to success. You invested a lot of money and pain into this - don't screw it up. FIRST FEW MONTHS The first six months your weight will drop amazingly fast, because you're out of surgery and can only eat Soup broth for a week. And then slowly mushy foods come in, followed by a few solids. You don't really need a blender, there are ample canned goods you can eat. Baby food, blending a steak and other shocking posts you read about aren't required: just shop for other things that qualify. Going out with friends during this period is depressing, since your diet is so restrictive, you're staring blankly at the menu for a long time and finally decide on Water. Get everything you need together before coming home. You'll be on some pretty loopy meds when arriving home, and won't be in any shape to hit the local WalMart. Nor will your family want to bother with it - so plan ahead. FOOD AND STRETCHING You can only eat maybe a half cup of food during the first couple months. Then a cup after about five months, then two cups after longer. You can hurry this process along by stuffing your face until your stomach hurts so bad you need to go lay down, or vomit. But if your eating problem is that severe then see my multi-faceted approach to surgery from above. Each person is obviously different, but stretching your stomach (to me at least) seems difficult and a venture of pain and suffering. I can feel my stomach naturally taking in more food over time, however I've cycled that back down by going a few days drinking only delicious fruit smoothies. This makes my tummy literally shrink back to where it was after surgery, or pretty close, dependent upon how many days I go. You can also accomplish this via more extreme methods like water or veggie juice fasting, however banana/stawberry/pineapple with some coconut water and ice in the blender tastes much better in my humble opinion. If you do continue to gorge like a tick on bad foods, then yes your stomach will stretch. I've met a few people who's stomach has returned to normal size. Again - everybody is different, I'm just telling you MY story. How much food you can eat varies by food type: RICE - I can eat maybe five spoonfuls of this before I feel sick. Stuffing in another three before my body registers that I'm full and it's a vomit party. You need to eat slowly - there's a point in which eating more means bending over the toilet. And once you've experienced that joy, you quickly learn where the limit resides. Rice expands so you gotta be careful. An average meal of fried rice and an egg roll is a full day's worth of food, that requires splitting up. SODAS - Equivalent to drinking battery acid. I've met some people who've acclimated back to it, but why bother? MEAT - Steak is bad, try like five or six bites before calling it quits. chicken is similar. Fish goes down a little easier, and you can eat more, maybe because it's flaky. SALADS and FRUIT - I can eat one banana. Two is painful. Ditto with grapes, strawberries, etc. These foods process through your stomach quicker, so you can eat a little more often compared to stuffing down a sirlion. PIZZA - Takes me about 12 hours to suck down a large thin crust. Regular or deep crust, I end up tossing half of it into the trash. Desserts - They hurt. Bad. And then make me sleepy, ticked off and depressed. I mostly stick with natural sugars now like fruits and veggies. RESTAURANT EATING Eating out with friends has a lot of rules tagging along. You must wait 30 minutes after drinking water before eating (which works out great, since that's how long food takes to arrive). I order an appetizer or split a full meal with a friend, so this is not a big deal. I see and hear lots of drama about this mingling around, but it's not THAT bad, and you can easily make it look perfectly normal without telling people you had surgery. You don't need a little happy note from your doctor saying you had surgery, just get a doggie bag or go halfsies with a buddy. CONCLUSION These are just my two cents, and I hope they help someone. I lost about 100lbs, then gained back 50. I'm in the process of losing again thanks to a diet change (I went 100% raw food) and exercise.

.... here is the rest of the list... Generalizations about Gut Bacteria Each healthy human maintains a subset of a couple of hundred of the couple of thousand different species of bacteria found in humans around the globe. The diverse community in each individual may differ in species, but has approximately the same complement of genes in people sharing the same diet. 1-200 different species of bacteria per person 1-2000 different species of human gut bacteria 1 million different genes among the different bacteria Most genes are involved in digesting plant carbohydrates, i.e. soluble fiber, inulin, pectin, fructans, algal sulfated polysaccharides, etc. Diet diversity, e.g. the Modern American Diet, reduces the diversity of the gut bacterial community, presumably because the rapid change in foods permits survival of only generalist bacteria that can digest many different foods. Simple diets produce gut flora diversity, but only if there is access to diverse bacteria. Health may result from diverse gut flora developed from a simplified diet and ample bacterial resources. Obesity and other diseases may result from simplified gut flora developed from a changing, complex diet and a sterile environment/isolation. Vegan and paleo extremes can lead to healthy gut flora diversity, if the gut bacterial community is permitted to adjust to the diet composition by avoiding rapid changes and providing diverse bacterial sources. meat contains complex polysaccharides, e.g. glycosaminoglycans, such as chondroitin sulfate and heparan sulfate proteoglycans, which are bacterial fodder equivalent to soluble fiber. Probiotics are unique bacterial species that do not persist in the gut of adults, but dominate the gut of milk eating babies and stimulate development of the gut and immune system. Probiotic bacteria can temporarily provide developmental signals for immune system development that are normally provided by a healthy gut flora. Damage to Gut Flora is Not Repaired by Diet Alone There is little or no effort being made by the medical industry to develop approaches to repair gut flora damaged by disease, unhealthy diets or medical procedures. This is similar to a surgeon stepping away from removal of a diseased organ without closing the wound. Antibiotics leave a gut flora that will remain permanently damaged without systematic, monitored repair. It might also be suspected that disruption of gut flora by antibiotics and the introduction of large amounts of new foods, such as high fructose corn syrup and vegetable oils may contribute to or cause the modern prominence of obesity. After all, gain or loss of weight changes gut flora, obese individuals have damaged gut flora, and trading gut flora between fat and lean animals, trades weight gain/loss behaviors.

I would like to ask a question on this thread that relates to balance of hormones and shifting the body into fat metabolism. It is related to this thread topic and response above, I promise. A lot of health stores sell a product pair called Dim and DHEA for shifting the balance of sex or anabolic hormones in men towards more optimal Protein synthesis. Dim is short for diindolylmethane and DHEA is short for dehydropiandrosterone. Long names, I know. Both hormone precursors are naturally produced by our bodies or can be extracted by the body from cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli and cabbage. Dim and DHEA supplementation works by freeing up the available "free" testosterone and reducing bad estrogen in the body in order to develop more "manly" characteristics and improved protein synthesis. Many elite athletes uses these supplements to get their body into optimal conditioned form. I have read that DHEA can be a precursor to either testosterone or estrogen metabolites and has a certain probability of metabolizing into either. There are good forms of estrogen and bad forms of estrogen. The good form of estrogen is needed by both men and women to support the shift of body composition to more muscle rather then more fat. Bad estrogen does the opposite which causes the body to store more fat and, in men, leads to other undesirable "womanly" Characteristics. It seems like a gamble as to which metabolite is going to form after the treatment of sex hormones with DHEA. Dim is used to reduce the bad estrogen levels in the body. A lot of weight gain can come from too much bad estrogen in the body. For men, 400-500 mg dim is recommended for increasing fat metabolism and promoting weight loss / lean muscle. Maintenance dose of dim is 100-200 mg. Recommended dose of DHEA is 100 mg. Given my short description on natural hormone therapy above using Dim and DHEA, why would DHEA be recommended at all in combination with dim if there is a chance of the outcome being good estrogen versus bad estrogen metabolites? Why not just use a recommended Dim dose alone to increase the availability of "free" testosterone in the body. Is there a clear advantage of using both Dim and DHEA together? From my initial understanding, the answer is no to the above questions. I would love to hear an opinion from someone else.

Math is good if she slept in bed all day. However, she walks quite a bit and I am sure does some other exercise. That is why her point of easy gain is so confounding. Maybe it is the case of having a low BMR. Are our stomachs never going to process food like bread, nuts and avocados on a daily basis without turning it into weight gain? This is more of a question from the community and not one that applies to myself (my diet does not include toast).

Are your feet swollen tonight after driving/riding 8 hours and this was the first time out of the whole trip? It could have nothing to do with how well you ate but alot more to do with fluids in your feet. I have this...I can in lots more detail. See if the swelling goes down over night as well as the "weight gain".

I did lean meat (chicken or fish) and vegetables, mainly broccoli and brussel sprouts in my case. I would give myself a few mild cheat days, but I stuck to the diet hard on weeks I had to go weigh in with the surgeon or nutritionist. You *do not* want to show weight gain during those twice/month weigh-ins. I lost about 35 pounds without too much difficulty. Now I'm on the pre-op liquid diet. That really sucks.

I've been banded as of 24 days ago. I didn't lose much weight pre-op, but in total lost around 17lbs. I was told my first fill is in 6 weeks which will be may 3rd. I have not been very active but am watching what I'm eating and am feeling frustrated because my weight goes from 234-238lbs which goes back & forth. I'm getting annoyed with my scale and I don't know what the problem is. I have not gotten stuck, but also feel that I have no restriction when I eat. Can someone explain what I'm doing wrong?

I was told that when you have a stall, your body is reabsorbing all the extra veins that formed with the weight gain. It is a period of time for your body to adjust.

Hey forum family.. Has anyone close to you act as though they were not supportive in your weight loss decision? I guess I am having a hard time with it because my best friend and I (or should I rethink her being my best friend!!!) have been friends for 19 years. I have shared with her my thoughts on having surgery and she does not agree. Now I am my own woman, therefore, I would NEVER change my mind about it based on how she feels.it is just shocking to know that I do not have her support. Now my friend is over weight, has always been. My weight gain started within the last 6 yrs. It leads me to believe that she may be somewhat jealous. I dont want to think this way but I really have no other choice. Please share your input and/or thoughts.

It looks like I'm due around the end of December. Yea I was scared to death to call my surgeon because I thought they would lecture me. The nurse was actually really supportive and said the main thing to worry about it Nutrition and dehydration. Wow you have lost 100 lbs in 6 months!!! That's amazing. I am down 48 lbs in 2 months. Are you worried about the weight gain and not being able to get it off? I am!

So glad to hear from you @FedUpwithBeingFat! By now you've had your check up with the doctor and I can't wait to hear how you're doing. I'm hope the appt. will put your mind at east about the lingering anethesia symptoms. Unless you've been there, I'll bet it's hard to describe. I've had a few surgeries but none has lasted as long as yours so I have no frame of reference. I imagine it will take longer to fully rest and recover. Be sure to give yourself the time. I went back to work after 2 weeks and when I got home I didn't do much. I didn't venture into the kitchen to cook for a full month cuz working 8 hours was taxing and I've got a desk job! My hubby was very supportive too so no pressure from him. Your Water weight gain must havebeen a real blow. Several people on these boards (and the author of a book that I ordered from Amazon) complained about the water weight. Your initial discouragent is going to be replaced with excitement - especially about the future - when the "real" weight starts to peel off. After the band failure, it's like a miracle to see the scale going the opposite diretion for a change. We'lll have to trade stories. I must admit, I didn't know about the ban on most medications in pill-form until my pre-op appointment a few days before surgery. It sure shocked me. I hope you find an alternative for the migraine meds. Perhaps a neurologist will have an idea. Thanks for asking about my progress. I finally dropped into the 170s. Barely. No kidding, just squeaked by but that didn't stop me from skipping around the room for a couple of minutes. I haven't seen 170's on the scale since 2010, and even with the band, I never got down to 160's. At least now I believe that it's possible, and I hope you begin to feel that kind of confidence in your future too. I'll be traveling for a week and probably won't be able to post but please keep share your progress. I'm looking forward to more conversations with you.

You're not alone or crazy or whatever. I completely understand the dilemma about not wanting to be social due to weight gain. Congrats on the weight loss by the way. There will be plenty of other games later on. Hopefully by the time the next one comes along you'll be further on your weight loss journey with more confidence, and you will be further post op with less 'restrictions' too. If something comes up sooner I'd suggest to take a protein shake with you and drink it on the drive over to the bar. I've had a bit of wine here and there already. If you go with reds you can sip it very slowly without the taste changing due to temp changes.

What feels to me like the biggest hurdle has been jumped! And it's fine! I came down on the other side on both feet! I had my appt with my PCP today. I need from her a letter of medical necessity. And I wasn't sure how my visit with her would go - whether she would make me defend and justify this, whether she would be adamantly against it, whether she would emphatically support it...I just wasn't sure at all! And she said she would absolutely give me that because while she's only known me for a year, she's seen enough to know that I'm not lieing when I say "I TRY!" And it comes off. And it comes back. She said we would do some testing to prove a comorbidity that she thinks I may have. She said we will jump through those insurance hoops and give them NO REASON to deny this! She also said three or four years ago she would have been hesitant, would have said, 'do it yourself' but she's seen those people she told that lose the weight and then gain it back plus some. It's something about a BMI over 40 that makes your body NOT WANT TO LET GO! And she's seen lap-band® after lap-band® do wonders for people. She said my choice in surgeon is fantastic. Can't beat him in my area and she would have suggested him had I not found him myself. She recommended doing the supervised exercise and diet program with them because she likes their nutritionist and the staff in that office are all fantastic. She gave me copies of everything I need for the consult tomorrow - which should help some of this role along faster. I did some blood work because I had questionable liver function earlier this year and she wants to see if we can prove it's fatty liver. If the blood work warrants it, I already have the order in hand for a abdominal ultrasound. She said even if we can't prove that comorbidity, it's enough that my parents are ALREADY deceased - were deceased by 55 (mother) and 61 (father) - for things that are comorbidities. I already have tons of odds against me, I don't need this weight stacking my odds even further! To me, getting her approval was potentially my biggest stumbling block. Had she said no, I would have gotten myself a new PCP and kept trying. But I like her and I didn't want that hassle which would also potentially become a demotivator. And I KNOW I'm fat enough. She laughed at that. Was impressed at how much research I've done, what I knew, and how I've been taking care of myself in this endeavor. Wasn't asking for the answers, was asking for endorsement - and from what she said, the people willing to do this from start to finish like this, on their own - if you will, are the successful ones. The people on this website, I'd venture! Can't be done on your own - don't get me wrong. But I'm not being spoon fed my information. This wasn't suggested to me, I explored the thought. That's what I'm talking about... Anywho... She said she has seen it before where people are like me, on the fence with the BMI with no comorbidities. And she's seen - and even supported - minor weight gain to get them to the "acceptable level of fatness". I find that sad. But it's the game we have to play, apparently. Comorbidities help, but I've enjoyed my food this weekend to ensure my weight today and tomorrow would not be an issue. And hopefully tomorrow can start the six month supervision. And hopefully I can be looking at the March/April time frame. And if not, I'll take it as it comes. My biggest stumbling block has been passed. I just feel like now I can say "Ok, hope is on the horizon!" YAY!

Vickietoo you can start over in your mind minus the surgery. I believe that with all my heart. This is the fourth time today I shared this article I read. I took a good long read at it this morning and it hit the spot. I was just filled on Friday. I live in Florida and fly to Colorado for my surgery, and now my fills and followups. I have to admit I was just in an odd place mentally and physically. I was SO GLAD I took the step to fly out to Denver. Sometimes doing the followup be it in our own hometowns or out of state or wherever, it looms at us larger if we are having difficulties. Take the step. Make an appointment with your doctor and follow through. I felt so great after leaving my doctor's office...joyous, victorous, and a reward and pride in myself that I care for myself to know that I need more than what I myself can give. So enjoy this read. Know you have many like you and much support here on Lapbandtalk. Think You Need a Fill? THINK AGAIN By Nikki Johnson Do you remember that feeling you had when you first had your band placed? For a while, everything was great. You didn't experience hunger, you felt satisfied with a small portion of good food, you had more energy, and you were thrilled with your initial weight loss progress. If you are like most people, your experience changed over time, Some of those feelings of hunger returned, and you stopped losing weight. You knew you needed something, so you went to your surgeon's office and asked for a "fill" right? If so, you might be surprised to learn that it is your thinking about your band, and not the band itself, that needs adjusting. The LAP-BAND Bad Word Paul O'Brien, MD, FRACS, is a skillful, compassionate surgeon and a foremost expert on the LAP-BAND System. he was involved in its design in the early 1990's and placed the first band in Australia in 1994. Since then, he has treated thousands of patients and is recognized worldwide for his expertise. When his patients utter that worst of four-letter words, "fill," in his office, they are asked to throw a dollar in the Red Cross donation bucket--a reminder that, according to Dr. O'Brien, thinking about a "fill" is just wrong thinking. How can a concept that we hear about so constantly be so very wrong? Dr. O'Brien's answer is simple: "Any adjustment to the band is something that only takes place in the context of clinical consultation--part of a relationship of trust, honesty and communication between patient and surgeon--that is much more key to the success of the patient than the precise number of milliliters of Fluid in the band. This concept of partnership is the central theme of Dr. O'Brien's new book, The Lap-Band Solution--A Partnership of Weight Loss. Patty's Note: Available on Amazon.com ISBN#9780522854121 Like many people, you might assume that weight gain or a sustained plateau means an incorrectly adjusted band; in fact, you may be right. But you may be surprised to learn that weight gain sometimes results from a band that is too tight. This is part of the reason why the "fill" concept is so misleading. If your surgeon determines that you are not losing weight as you should, then discovering why that is happening is crucial. Sometimes adding fluid to the band will only make matters worse. Life in the "GREEN ZONE" Most people who have the LAP-BAND operation will have an amazing feeling of disinterest in food for the first week after surgery, before any adjustments are even made to the fluid in the band. According to Dr. O'Brien, that lack of interest in food is referred to as satiety. A related but different feeling is satiation, or the feeling you get as you are eating, precisely at the point that you don't need any more food to eat but you do not have an uncomfortable feeling of fullness. These two feelings--satiety and satiation--are what the properly adjusted band helps you achieve, allowing you to maintain your new healthier eating habits. Your careful observation and truthful sharing of your feelings and eating behaviors, combined with the expert care and training of your surgeon and his or her staff, can make the very individual determination of whether your band is properly adjusted much more accurate. In order to help create the most effective partnership between themselves and their patients, Dr. O'Brien and his colleagues at the Australian Centre for Obesity Research and Education have developed a concept they refer to as the "Green Zone". When patients are in the green zone, they experience satiety, satiation after properly-sized small meals, and satisfactory weight loss or maintenance. However, there are also yellow and red zones, both of which indicate that the band is not optimally adjusted. If your band is too loose, you will not have the benefits the band's hunger-controlling mechanism. If your band is too tight, you will have trouble eating properly and may actually gain weight because the foods you can eat more comfortable, that tend to be liquid and calorie-rich, like ice cream and chocolate, do not provide the proper nutrition. Learning to recognize when you have the feelings and eating behaviors that signal a problem can help you give your surgeon the information he or she needs to help you keep the band optimally adjusted. Thinking Adjustment Once you have eliminated the concpet of "fills" from you Lap-Band vocabulary, you will be able to let go of much of the conventional thinking connected to it. Perhaps you have heard talk about the "ideal" amount of fluid in the Lap-Band. While it may be helpful to have some idea of how much fluid is in your band, Dr. O'Brien says there is no magic number. No perfect amount of fluid will provide the best results for everyone. He says, rather, that "whatever volume of fluid is needed to achieve the [feeling of non-hunger] is the correct volume." When you notice that you are feeling hungry or are not losing weight, your body is telling you it is time to revisit your partner in weight loss -- your surgeon. your success absolutely depends on this relationship. So rather than thinking "adjustments," adjust your thinking, and, in partnership with your surgeon, find a lifetime of health! For more information about all of the themes discussed in this article, please see Dr. O'Brien's book, The Lap-Band Solution--A Partnership for Weight Loss, which is available fro Amazon.com. We also invite you to visit LAP-BAND® System Forum - Home for more information and supportive resources.