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I'm with you Lowe, this is my biggest fear, because I have always ate fast. Barely stop to chew. I will have to eat in private for a while, so I don't gross anyone out with my throwing up...uuggh. But this is a tool, You and I will learn to use it properly!

I went 3 and a half weeks with no movement. Yes it is disheartening, but just know it will move. Mine stalled at 229. When it did start moving, it moved pretty fast. Five pounds a week. Just keep on what you are doing. Get your water in. It will move. There's no way for it not to if you are making the right choices.

It's when your diet consist of 90% good fats. Ideally, you should stay within 1,000 calories a day. It's a way to get our bodies into quick ketosis, which is a natural hunger suppressant AND weigh loss method. It's only recommended a few days at a time. I plan on fat-fasting for no more than 3 days.

Ok. I have a the 24 oz cup that I purchased from Starbucks. This morning I fixed me a smoothie(1 containergreek nonfat individual size,4 strawberries,1 scoop protein whey,ice and 2 oz leftover naked protein smoothie). It filled the cup almost to top. I started sipping at 650 and finished it at 950. Did I drink it to fast? I was able to get in 30 grams of protein from the yogurts and whey. I'm not hungry at all. I want to start drinking water but don't know if I should wait an hour before drinking anything else.

Melting. That's what I want to do. Mellllllt away! I know the band certainly won't make that happen but at least I won't be steadily expaaaaaanding instead! Tomorrow is the first day of my two-week pre-op diet and I'm committed to following it. I honestly don't think I've been truly committed to any diet in well over fifteen years. We'll see how well I can hang. I have been intentionally reading all the horror stories I can find about fatty livers, open surgeries, ruptured livers, cancelled surgeries and every other thing that can happen if I don't lose some weight before the big day. I hope fear motivates me since nothing else has. My pre-op diet is two or three unjury shakes with skim milk and a Lean Cuisine every day. Ironically, my "last supper" tonight was one of the Lean Cuisines. Of course, I only ate that because I was still hungry after I ate my roommate's leftover french fries that she had thrown away. Yes, you read that correctly. I got them out of the garbage. That's how pathetic I am. (Before anyone unfortunate enough to actually read this starts vomiting, I'd like to add that they were still relatively fresh and still in the fast food bag on TOP of the garbage.) Good Lord. How do I even think I can justify something like that? :rolleyes2::biggrin: I'm only putting this on my blog for the world to see because I'm hoping and praying that someday I'll be a big success story around this board. Right now I can't think of a soul who is going to read this but I'm optimistic that someday someone will want to see how I did it and where I came from. I guess you can't come from anything much lower than eating trash out of the garbage, can you? I already have two friends and my Mom who want to have a "last meal" with me before the surgery but I'm going to have to say no. I have to keep reminding myself that this pre-op diet is for my SAFETY and this time whatever weight I lose won't come back on in a week's time. Wish me luck. =)

I have never heard of fat fasting but it sounds interesting. I am low carbing and I am in ketosis but I am starving!! Last time I was in ketosis I actually forgot to eat. IDK whats wrong. I had to end up getting another cc in my band yesterday because of hunger pangs... I'm STILL hungry!!! and NOT just head hunger...stomach growling hunger. So frustrating! Sometimes I just wish I had the sleeve!!

Thanks,me to. The calendar isnt that full. I can start my fast on the 3rd of oct and have the 17th for surgery date. Im so ready. It feels like this process has taken along time but really and truthfully, we need those nutrition sessions, the support group meetings, and this time to get our minds together and set for this life change. Even though you'll have the surgery, its still up to us to learn what not to eat.

Ok so curious. It been hot here in the south east for past 2 wks and miserably so. I have not had fill in 2 mos and now lately my band I super tight and I'm nauseous during day. Yes I'm out working in this dreadful heat I'm not drinking any tea, lemonade or coffee cause doc says caffeine can dehydrate you etc. But I vomited 3x yesterday it was 100 degrees and this was after I drank half of mcdonalds wild berry smoothie. I've had these before with no problem. Within minutes of drinking felt like band was squeezing it and I didn't get relief til it came up. Prior to this I had been fine. I normally don't get nauseous, except when I eat too fast. Anyone else notice changes with hot weather?

I am sorry you have to go through this. Look on the positives, you are getting into really good shape for your surgery. Your liver is going to shrink quite a bit if you are sticking to the Protein first diet. BCBS was really easy to work with concerning approval and payments. The good news is they are very vast fast in getting the approvals to your Dr's office once it is submitted. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Patient endurance, you can do it.

I get fustrated with the 6month wait, too, BUT that being said I am very grateful for it as well!! I fully agree with the time to gradually adopt changes. Taking 20+ minutes to eat a meal sounds easy... in a fast-paced life it isn't! Even the time to practice chew, chew, chewing takes some time to truly make something second nature. Honestly, I don't know that I have ever stuck through an honest to goodness diet for 6 months. I either thought "I got this" and didn't or I got frustrated and quit. I am happy to say I am gradually adopting the lifestyle and while I have slips, I am thinking 24-7 about behavior changes now. Just promise yourself to make the most out of the 6 months. It has actually gone by pretty fast!! I love the countdown ticker, too!! I look at it every few days and say "Holy Crap!! It's almost time!!"

I'm so glad to have found this forum! I was banded 5/19/2007. I am going in for my fourth fill tomorrow. (First two fills essentially resulted in no saline in the band. With an initial fill of 2.0cc and a second fill of 4.0cc in a 9.75 Inamed band, I wound up with 0.6cc. My surgeon did a fluro, fill to 2.6cc and checked the following day. No leakage noted. I still feel restriction 7-8 weeks later.) I'm a bit discouraged since I've lost approximately 37 lbs total including the pre-op diet that I followed for 4 weeks prior to surgery. Most of the weight loss was during the pre-op and liquid phases following surgery. Mostly I'm working to maintain the loss and fluctuate around a 4-6 lb range. I have been tracking calories and trying to keep to around 1200 per day with 25% Protein, 25% fat (max), and 50% carbs. I haven't been exercising at all. (Beginning BMI was 52.) I've noticed that even though I am noticing restriction early in the day or at the beginning of a meal, once I am able to get things down I can eat quite a lot. I'm not sure what 'packing the pouch' is, but is that what I'm doing when I eat a sizable amount? It is weird because sometimes I am PBing, though that usually only happens now when I'm not paying attention to how much or how fast I'm eating and don't chew thoroughly. If I do PB, I stop eating and then drink warm liquids a few hours afterwards to sooth my stoma. From reading other posts, it looks like I need to (1) keep on top of fills to achieve good restriction, (2) track my food intake until I hit the 'sweet spot' and feel full, and (3) begin exercising. Does anyone out there have anything else they can suggest or recommend?

My surgery team had me get water in first because dehydration is a real problem. Then once i could get in 64 oz of water i moved to protein. Until i got those 2 things down i couldnt have any food. Your body can go a little while without protein and protein can displace water. So...if u get protein but no water u will get dehydrated very fast. It is hard and its an all day project for a while. Keep sipping all day long. Even if you get up in the night have some water

With a chair I meant. Typing too fast

I eat most fruits. I just don't do it often. Not because I don't like them or can't eat them. I'm not trying to avoid them. I usually reserve them as dessert and I just don't have room for them at that point. I have occasionally had them as a snack: apple slices with peanut butter, half a banana with peanut butter, grapes, fresh pineapple chunks, or a nice melon when in season. Yesterday, hubby took me to a place called Chicken Salad Chicks. I had a scoop of something called Fruity Fran: chicken salad with apples, grapes, and pineapple. I think the pineapple was crushed because I barely noticed it. No problem, but I got pretty full pretty fast. Note to self: next time take a small container to take your extras to go!

I have found I have problems eating when I get stressed out, the band seems to tighten up, your mind is not on eating and we tend to eat to fast, take too large of bites, not chew enough and food gets stuck. If this continues you may need to have some fill removed to loosen your band and allow any irritation and swelling to settle down. I went through this last year, the doctor removed half of my fill level and I felt so much better by that evening.

My surgeon and hid staff beat it into my head before surgery: Vomiting is NOT NORMAL and I need to come in to see him if I am. I'm on Zofran for nausea. I only threw up once, I think from drinking too fast on the 3rd day. You need to be assertive. This is NOT okay. If your surgeon won't help, find one who will. I'm so, so sorry. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using the BariatricPal App

I had the same thing. Got tired of eating alone so went to sit with coworkers with my small bowl of chili. I felt really awkward eating so little so I ate too fast. I'm not going to try that again till I feel more comfortable with my purées. Hang in there. I know it will get easier.

Praying for a Fast recovery!!!???? Sent from my SM-N920V using the BariatricPal App

I put a package of splenda in my isopure and that helped some. Of course, I'm a bit of a splenda junkie, so it may have been that too. The first 3 weeks were REALLY hard for me. I had horrible pain in my left side, and it was days before I could even get up off of the bed on my own. I went back to my surgeon on day 4 to have my drain removed and barely made it from the parking garage to the elevator! My boyfriend thought he was going to have to carry me back out of the building! But, I'm 6 weeks post op now, and amazed!!!! I've lost 55 pounds (18 were pre op) and am down from a size 24/26 to an 18/20. I can't believe it happened so fast. I've not been sick at all, and my left side pain finally went away by the end of my 3rd week. Everyone has said it get's better, and it really does! Wishing you the best of luck!

I didn't really fill restriction until my third fill. I'm sure some people would disagree, but it is better for you to loose slow. It will come off if you are committed to getting fills. I lost 95 pounds in 2 years, but lost maybe 30 up until my third fill. I think our doctors did it "right" in that they didn't fill up the band too much on the onset. Let your body heal and then you can work on loosing weight fast. Don't worry. I'm not sure how to answer your question about the swelling. My stomach was already so big and I was in so much pain that swelling was the least of my concerns. LOL

My husband suffers from them often. I am so sorry I see through him how painful they are. I hope you feel better fast.

I'm going through this right now. I posted on another forum and have copied and edited it a bit below and hope I can help anyone in preventing this. As far as your question, yes you can get the pouch back to normal but you and you only can make that happen. It's difficult, but, it can be done. If the pouch is really stretched badly they will un-fill you and place you on liquids for a period of time. My doctor told me 6 weeks of liquids. Holy smokes!!! Here is my post from another thread: Under floroscopy my doctor told me that my pouch was bigger than it should be. She told me that I would get a warning this time, but if next checkup showed the same, she will un-fill me and I will go on liquids for 6 weeks. For now I have been instructed to measure my portions. I did get a slight fill, so, I'm thinking that I'm not that bad yet. I keep a loose band because my allergies and drainage cause the dreaded lapband cement on the pouch that is only dissolved by drinking lots of hot liquids and is very unpleasant, thus I have to be a bit more careful with my portions. I have decent restriction and my portions have been at least 1 cup of food and sometimes 1.5 cups, however, I got into the habit of not chewing well and eating too fast. I rarely got stuck because of my loose band. In my opinion, not chewing well and eating too fast is what caused the dialation. I was also doing way too much exercise and was feeling more hunger and I would eat way to fast and not chew well with the hunger I felt at times. Someone asked about symptoms. First of all my weight loss stopped for months. My weight would go up and down by 6 lbs. and went on like this for at least 8 months. I tried increasing calories, longer work outs etc. etc. and nothing! My biggest symptom was more hunger in between meals and was getting hungry every 2-3 hours. The most obvious symptom that I should have never ignored was feeling satisfied (full) and would get that uncomfortable feeling of "no more" at meal time then all of sudden I would feel a thump in my pouch, due to food going thru quickly, then I could eat another meal if I chose to and honestly sometimes I would. I thought this was because I needed a fill, however, this was not the case and Doc said that a enlarged pouch of course holds more food and will push everything down quickly. Since being warned I have gone on liquids 2 times consisting of 4 days of Protein drinks and 1 can of Soup a day. In addition, I have modified my drinking and wait 1/2 hour before a meal and 1/2 hour after a meal. I now feel a huge amount of restriction and can only handle the 1/2 cup of food at mealtime. So, yes you can reverse the stretched pouch. I will continue to do the liquid thing at least every other week for a while just to be on the safe side. Since doing this I have lost 10 lbs. Lesson learned? If something doesn't feel right get it checked. I knew something was wrong, but, I was embarrassed to see the doctor because I had not reached goal. I think the biggest disappointment is first myself and second, being banded is high maintenance, but, we are the culprit to our own complications in most cases. I still love my band though! Hope this helps anyone who may be experiencing some of my symptoms and have ignored them. jake

After my last fill (4th) I was just miserable with everything getting stuck. Went in for a slight (.2 cc) unfill and it was night and day different. It was a scary few days for me not being able to keep anything down at all. Even water came back up if I drank too much or a little too fast. Not a comfortable feeling at all and for me not something I could live with.

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you all. I am doing better. You are right about true restiction! I am doing good on mushies. I had an egg this morning. It went down fine, but when I am done, I am done! Wow! I have also had some pain with drinking too fast. I thought I had this band all figured out, but I was wrong. I am pretty tight right now, but that's ok. I will lose weight like this and the band will loosen up in a hurry. Then I will be just fine. Heck, I may even need another fill soon! My goal is to weigh 165 by Christmas. (9 more pounds to go!) That would be 67 pounds lost since being banded on August 13. I can do it. I just need to kick in the exercise! Wish me luck! Gotta love that band!!!

I wouldn't say you were screwed, but slim fast? Have a quality protein drink if you must. Clear liquids are the hardest phase ever. I was on protein shakes, sf pudding and cream of soups at five days. I am two weeks tomorrow and getting to have some puréed. Woot!