4 weeks on - I can eat anything

[Awkward customer 5]

Hi, I lost a few pounds while I was on a liquid diet, but now I am on real food I find I can eat absolutely anything. I have tried - just once, just to see - to eat fish and chips (a great British favourite) - and yes I can eat a whole portion of fish and chips no problem. I can eat cheese, chicken, anything - the only things I haven't tried are bread and rice. In fact, I can eat as much as I did before I was banded.

The only problem is if I don't chew well, then the food may get stuck. I only had one real stuck episode - but then I started chewing better. So eating fish and chips, I just made sure to chew it well - but I was able to eat it all, and at a normal speed too.

Does this mean I need a fill? Should the band give restriction over and beyond trying not to eat too quickly and having the food get stuck? Or does "restriction" mean "not being able to eat too fast as the food may get stuck"?

If the band just means I have to chew my food more thoroughly, but I can still eat just as much, then it will not help me much. I am relying on willpower now, not very successfully.

I have a large 14cc band - and the doctor put 5cc in during the operation - but I have heard it is hard to get restriction in the large bands, and I don't know if I should be experiencing a greater effect with 5cc in a 14cc band?

Family members are phoning every day and asking me how much I weigh - and the way I feel I am on the verge of breaking off relations with them for good over it - as I am sick of all the constant discussion of weight. Of course, it would be a shame to lose all contact with my family over this - but I have for a while now no longer felt the same relationship with my family since they kept going on about obesity - even if the band works in the end, I might end up with no family as a result.

So while they are excited about the band and phoning every day, as if a thrilling experience has happened to me, I am left wondering whether this, my last "throw of the dice" to try to avoid my fate of growing old as an obese person, is going to work or not. It is hard for me to keep so positive about it. I have booked an appointment on March 20 to have an X ray on my band and a fill if the doctor recommends it...

[philippians413 0]

You're going to be fine. You definitely need a fill. And I think with the large bands you need lots more fills.

I could eat absolutely anything - If I ate large bites of bread, I'd get stuck, but small bites were fine. I ate 4 pieces of french toast in a sitting, and was feeling pretty bummed out.

I got my first fill last week. 6cc in an 11 cc band. I definitely wouldn't say that I'm at my "sweet spot" but I can tell a difference. I can feel my band telling me that if I don't stop soon I'm going to be regretting it. And it's not a matter of eating too fast. It's that the pouch is full, and if I keep forcing food in, I'm going to be stuck. I'm in the early stages of figuring this out - full feels different than it did before.

And I understand what you mean about your family. I feel like I'm being scrutinized by those that know about the surgery. Friends ask me how much I've lost since the last time they asked me, and I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't lost any more. Who wants to be a failure at this?? Everyone knows it's our last resort. I had gained 3 pounds since my surgery and my fill. But in the last half week, I've lost 7 pounds. I think some of it is just Water that for some reason I was holding, but I know I'm finally eating much less.

It will come. This isn't like the bypass where it rolls off us right away, and I think we feel the pressure for that to happen because that's what people expect. But it will come. See when you can get a fill. It will take time, but you'll get to where you can't eat all you want.

I hope you are encouraged a little.

[adagray 1]

You will need at least a few fills before you get to the proper restriction level. I think I read that 5-8 fills is typical. With the larger band, they will give you bigger fills and 5cc is a good start. But, w/any of the bands, I think its a good idea to assume that it could take up to 6 months to get to your 'sweet spot' or perfect restriction. As you get closer and closer to that spot, you will be able to eat less and less w/each meal and it will keep you satiated longer and longer between meals. My doctor does not give me a limit of calories per day or quantity of food I can have in a meal, but just that I should not eat for longer than 20 minutes. I think that's a good rule, easy to follow and won't leave you starving during the adjustment period.

I wouldn't write off your family, but take some time to explain to them how the band works and set their expectations that this works differently than a normal 'diet' or other WLS like gastric bypass. The big difference w/the band is that it has to be adjusted before it can work optimally and weightloss can be slower (or even non-existant) at the beginning.

When I explain it to friends/family, I explain that it is wide open when they put it in initially (basically, not doing anything) and that it gets a little tighter w/each fill. Most people just don't understand the whole adjustability aspect of the band until you explain it. Its so different from other diets/WLS where you lose the most at the very beginning and then less and less as the diet goes on. With the band, you may lose the least at first and then more and more as you adjusted tighter and tighter until you finally get to the right fill level. Then, you have good steady weightloss.

Of course, through all of this, you have to do your part to work w/the band. I understand eating the whole plate of fish & chips just to see where you are w/restriction, but this should not be a habit. Ultimately, there are many many ways to eat around the band even when you get to proper restriction. So, if you are always testing the band to see if it can be sabotaged, you will confirm that.

[vlp1968 83]

I too was very hungry once the swelling of surgery was gone. It was all I could do to stick to the liquid then soft foods. I was afraid the band was never going to work. However after 3 fills I felt lots of restriction. Restriction is when you feel full after eating your aloted amount (whatever your dr/nutritionist advise). Full does feel different. For me it starts with a slight pain in my chest and feeling like I need to burp. If I eat beyond that point I vomit.

For now, I would concentrate on eating the right foods (lots of protien, lowfat, lowcarb), chew chew chew and seperating your drinking and eating. If you eat larger quantities of the right foods until you have restriction that's ok (at least in my opinion).

[Awkward customer 5]

Thank you all of your for your replies and encouragement. Can I ask - is feeling full the same as feeling stuck? Or is there a slight difference?

[adagray 1]

Thank you all of your for your replies and encouragement. Can I ask - is feeling full the same as feeling stuck? Or is there a slight difference?

Stuck is very different from full/satisfied. Being stuck is painful. I only get stuck rarely.

Most of the time, I just eat smaller portions and feel full or satisfied. Really, our goal is to stop at feeling satisfied, but its a gray area... satisfied, comfortably full, full, overfull. I probably stop at comfortably full most of the time now.

Also, satisfied/full is a slightly different feeling now than it used to be. The feeling is higher in the stomach. The only thing I can compare it to pre-band is when I was in my 3rd trimester pregnant and my daughter was pressing so hard on my stomach that I couldn't eat much. I remember thinking if only there was a way to get full that easy all the time then I wouldn't be obese. And, turns out there is... the band! LOL

[JoiaRox 430]

Try "8 weeks on - I can eat anything," because that's what I dealt with. I headed to my doctor's office for my 3rd fill at about 8 weeks post-op, frustrated because I could still eat a 6" Subway sandwich without problems. I told my case worker and doctor that I could, and sometimes did, eat ANYTHING. bread, eggs, melted cheese, Pasta...you name it. All the things everyone here talks about getting stuck with, I could still inhale it. True, I was fuller longer (at that point I had 5cc in a 14cc band), but it bothered me that I could still eat normal portion sizes of any food under the sun and have no problems. I *did* get stuck once, for about 30 seconds, and had the sharp chest pain...but it subsided quickly.

With that information, my doctor filled me up to 7cc on that 3rd fill...WHAT A DIFFERENCE! I immediately battled with several foods over the next couple days, having intense stuck episodes (sliming, gagging, vomiting) because my brain hadn't been used to what a SMALL bite and CHEWING really was. Trial and error, though, I've learned over the last week (3rd fill was last Saturday), and after the initial swelling of the fill went down, I'm finding I probably need one more fill to take me to that sweet spot...last Sunday I could barely handle HALF a 6" Subway sandwich (had to try it again to see if I could handle it), and even that took me nearly 15 minutes to get down. But, I was able to eat steak last night...about 6oz...for dinner. I think the initial swelling from the fill went down and I'm very close to that infamous "sweet spot."

What I've learned about stuck v. full...

FULL - You feel full, just like you did before the LapBand. Not like when you were "overfull" from eating far too much in one sitting (double quarter pounder with cheese, supersize fry, 2 apple pies, etc.)...but just full like you know you've had enough to eat. It's not uncomfortable, and if you eat your meals slowly (as we're instructed to do), you'll notice that you get to that "full" state in about 15 minutes of eating. Once the food is cold? Stop eating...you're probably full.

STUCK - HELL ON WHEELS! Imagine this...you're a high school teacher and have a 40 minute lunch before your last class of the day (sophomores - Biology), and you're planning to give a lecture for the period which requires you walking around the room and talking about biogeochemical cycles. You didn't bring a lunch, because your restriction from the fill you had two days prior has been pretty awesome...but you find that you're a little hungry. So, you grab the only thing in your classroom to eat - a snack sized bag of Doritos leftover from a BBQ you hosted recently. You eat them, being sure to chew and take small bites...but then you get lost in entering daily attendance and checking e-mail and subconsciously shove a whole chip in your mouth and chewing it up a little before swallowing. Then? The hell comes. You feel like the bony edges of the chip are poking out of your esophagus, causing SHARP pains in your sternum area. You head outside the back door of your classroom to dry/slime vomit three times...eyes watering, you walk around the "back yard," massaging your chest and trying to alleviate the pain. You're 29 years old - this can't be a heart attack. You look at the clock...only a few minutes left before the sophomores come scrambling into the classroom. You tear up, cry, agonize over the pain you're in...the sophomores come in, you can barely speak as the pain continues to subside over the next half an hour. You're done dry/slime vomiting, but the pain is still in control.

THAT is the difference :thumbup: