To fill or not to fill--that is the question!

LapBandit · June 4, 2006

My doc told me to let him know when I felt ready for a fill. Well, I think I'm ready. It's taking a lot more food to make me feel satisfied and I'm finding that I feel hungry very often. Once I feel satisfied with a meal, I only seem to stay that way for 2 hours then I'm starving again.

This is my question...

Should I "tough" it out with the hunger or will a fill help? I guess what I'm getting at is: Will being tighter help the weight loss go faster, or won't it affect anything except the hunger pains?

Thanks for any advice!

NJChick · June 5, 2006

I am hungry 1 - 2 hours after my meals (and no, I'm not drinking Water w/my meals), so yes, I'm ready for a fill.

Being tighter will help keep you fuller longer and your intake of food smaller... will it help with weight loss... only if you eat properly, meaning don't pick on junk inbetween meals like I do. Keep an eye on your calorie intake too.

You sound like your ready.

Teerock · June 15, 2006

I'm in the exact same situation. I was banded almost a year ago and have lost 100 pounds. It has slowed down dramatically now and I can eat a bit more than I used to. I am just not sure if I want to have a fill. I have heard some bad horror stories and I'm not sure I want to put myself in that position. I am sooo confused! I am seeing my surgery tomorrow and I know he'll try to convince me to get one. I have only lost 25 pounds in the past 6 months so I guarantee he'll throw me on the bed and stick me with that LONG needle---gulp

Jachut · June 15, 2006

The way I look at this is that I would consider how filled you are already - it sounds like this is your first fill. If so I'd go for it, what you describe sounds perfectly normal and reasonable in terms of time for a fill.

Later on down the track I'd tend towards toughing it out a bit. I feel like that now, I'm up to 1.7 ml in my 4ml band and I do have to actually exert some willpower (I'm doing WW now) to keep on track. I can eat relatively normal amounts of food, so much so that most people wouldnt even notice I was dieting, let alone banded. Even so, weight's coming of v-e-r-y slowly. But to keep 1lb a week or so coming away, I have to "diet" now.

yet I"m not willing to go back for more fill because I'm just on the brink of having to cut out certain foods like steak, bread, they can give me trouble, and I dont eat a lot for dinner, I'm quite tight at night. I'm just not willing to get to the point where I cant eat things or where I PB, so I'm toughing it out at the moment.

Its still not anywhere near as hard as dieting in the ordinary sense of the word though. Its more about food choice, and portion size takes care of itself. When i say I can eat normal sized portions, its half of what I used to get through!

LapBandit · June 17, 2006

I did it! I got my first fill today! I'm doing liquids for the rest of the day so I don't know what impact it's had yet but we'll find out this weekend. I had a bad headache this afternoon and took some tylenol and I think it almost got stuck. I could feel it sitting there but it went down. The fill didn't hurt at all...I'm relieved to finally know what that process feels like!