I am scared...need to know more about portion size

[shabee99 0]

Hello,

I am due to be banded on Friday...yup the day after tomorrow, and I am scared to death! I am the mother of 4 and am 250lbs. I made the decision to be banded for health reasons...see I have lost 5 family members to diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. One was my sister at age 36 from child onset diabetes which caused her to have 9 heart attacks before she died.

According to my pre op doctor visits I am healthy and I would like to stay that way. However I don't know if I have it in me to follow the rules of the band. I have barley stayed on the liquid diet. I consider myself one of those people who loves to eat food. Don't really like sweets. Love Meat! I can do without carbs if i can replace it with wheat products sometimes. I often skip Breakfast and lunch but have hardy dinners late...which is my biggest problem.

I am scared that I will suffer from vomiting and depression from being banded after reading some of the postings on this site....I am scared that I will cause the band to slip and wind back in the hospital to fix the damage. I am afraid now that I am not ready. I have seen variations in success stories (weight in lbs) and want my goal to see 100 lbs of weight lost in one year. That is they type of success I am looking to accomplish for my life long banishment of food from my life. Can anyone tell me more about portion size? What do you eat...I was told that I would need to eat about 4 ounces of meat and about 2-4 ounces of veggies....is that more than what is exceptable to eat? If the band will only allow me to eat 2 ounces of food I know that I will be unhappy...even with weight loss because I really don't mind the way that I look...I am a beautiful large woman and I am ok with that. But I am not ok with having diabetes and other weight related health concens...Please can anyone inform me more about your portion size used to achieve my success goal within a year...Hope someone responds to this soon as I don't have much more time to ponder....and thanks ahead of time for anyone's insight.

Sha:scared2:

[Jachut 487]

Wow, with a family history like that, I'd say banding is a really good investment in your health and quality of life.

It IS hard. You dont get banded and then automatically lose weight for very long as you'll quickly work out a way to get calories in if you really want to. Look, you have to WANT to change. You have to be willing to do what you would always have had to do to lose weight, only the band will help you to be a lot less hungry. But its a tough journey, and losing 100lb in a year doesnt always happen, it took me 2 years to lose that much. Any weight loss at all, even 10% of your body weight can do marvellous things for your health, so I'd suggest to not be so fixated on a goal like that, Exercise helps enormously too.

What do I eat in a day and what are my portion sizes?. I dont measure to be honest, early in the day I can eat probably a cup worth of food, late in the day its 1/2 cup as I tend to be tighter at night. I eat all foods, I dont avoid carbs, but I dont eat a lot of white sugary carbs. I try to avoid too many processed foods, preferring fresh, I have the occasional glass of wine, a treat every now and then and I run for up to an hour most days of the week.

To lose 100lb in a year if that's what you really want to accomplish, then I'd imagine you need to be stricter with the measuring and weighing than what I am, keep to the portion sizes suggested to your by your doctor, adjust your band so that those portion sizes satisfy you and make sure you do regular exercise in some form or another.

If you MUST reach that goal and you really do not think you can live with the restrictions the band places on you and the amount of work you have to do for a band to be effective, then there's other weight loss surgeries to consider, I know nothing really about them so perhaps others can chime in there.

I can tell you that it doesnt stop when you've lost the weight, I have not changed my routine or exercise now that I'm maintaining rather than losing. I'll have to do this for the rest of my life.

You've only got a little time, I see. Dont go ahead if you're not ready, you need to think about it. However, whilst its VERY scary to contemplate it really feels perfectly normal when you get there. But you must be ready to follow the rules.

Good luck!

Edited June 26, 2008 by Jachut

[salsa1877 10]

Hello,

I am due to be banded on Friday...yup the day after tomorrow, and I am scared to death! I am the mother of 4 and am 250lbs. I made the decision to be banded for health reasons...see I have lost 5 family members to diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. One was my sister at age 36 from child onset diabetes which caused her to have 9 heart attacks before she died.

According to my pre op doctor visits I am healthy and I would like to stay that way. However I don't know if I have it in me to follow the rules of the band. I have barley stayed on the liquid diet. I consider myself one of those people who loves to eat food. Don't really like sweets. Love Meat! I can do without carbs if i can replace it with wheat products sometimes. I often skip Breakfast and lunch but have hardy dinners late...which is my biggest problem.

I am scared that I will suffer from vomiting and depression from being banded after reading some of the postings on this site....I am scared that I will cause the band to slip and wind back in the hospital to fix the damage. I am afraid now that I am not ready. I have seen variations in success stories (weight in lbs) and want my goal to see 100 lbs of weight lost in one year. That is they type of success I am looking to accomplish for my life long banishment of food from my life. Can anyone tell me more about portion size? What do you eat...I was told that I would need to eat about 4 ounces of meat and about 2-4 ounces of veggies....is that more than what is exceptable to eat? If the band will only allow me to eat 2 ounces of food I know that I will be unhappy...even with weight loss because I really don't mind the way that I look...I am a beautiful large woman and I am ok with that. But I am not ok with having diabetes and other weight related health concens...Please can anyone inform me more about your portion size used to achieve my success goal within a year...Hope someone responds to this soon as I don't have much more time to ponder....and thanks ahead of time for anyone's insight.

Sha:scared2:

I would never have made it if I could only eat 2 oz of food. Once I got past the mushy food stage (weeks 3&4 for me) I ate 1 cup of food. I couldn't eat any more. If I ate much more than that I would start having terrible pains in my chest....believe me.. that makes the most seasoned eater stop eating!

I ate about 1000 calories a day and did fairly low carb. I used a lot of ground chicken instead of hamburger. I would substitute Beans for Pasta and rice. I have found that even completely unfilled I can't do rice. I also became lactose intolerant so I have had to become creative with some of my foods.

Believe me...I loved to eat too. I think most of us did. Not being a sweets eater is a good thing. Unfortunately most sweets go down very easy. meats and hearty grains will stay in your pouch longer and make you feel fuller longer.

You have to believe in yourself though. My mom died at 53 from heart disease complicated by diabetes. I was 250 pounds when I had my surgery and I did lose 100 pounds in less than a year. It took a lot of dedication, hard work and rule following. It also took a lot of belief in myself and the realization that life after weight loss would be better than before. I didn't have any health problems prior to surgery either...and fortunately because of my lifestyle changes...I don't have any now!

Good luck...you can do this.

[neverB4 2]

I was 255 at time of consultation at 5'6". I thought of banding for yr prior so by the time I decided to do it, I was well informed on how serious I needed to be. My nutritionist has me following the gastric-by-pass diet so that has helped me to lose 47lbs altogether so far. I'm 7wks post and am at 1/2 cup per meal, very satisfied with that again because I knew what goals I owuld have to make for myself. I get my first fill this Tuesday (8wks post) and my goal is not to go over 1cup until my bandiversary. I know there may be times I'll want a little extra food, until I reach that "sweet spot", but I have faith in God. He's got me this far and will carry me thru. I could not have done this at all without Him.

No doubt you're doing what's best for you with family med history. You CAN do this because you realize the seriousness if you don't. Keep your head up and don't dwell on all the "what if's" and "can I's"...focus on how better you will be feeling each day as you lose, regardless of the time it takes you!

[barbara9460 1]

I read your post and have to tell you the truth... it can be very, very hard in the beginning. I have great difficulty sometimes - mostly at night as I'm a night eater. You will need to stick to your docs rules. If you haven't really stayed on your pre-op diet, did you know that they could open you up for surgery and then close you right back up again? The purpose of the pre-op diet is to shrink your fatty liver and other organs to give the doc room to work. More people than you realize have not followed the pre-op and then woke up in recovery without a band.

Bottom line - if you love food more than you love yourself you won't be doing yourself any favors with this. You MUST do as instructed from your docs and nutritionist. If you don't you could cause slippage (especially if you eat solids soon after surgery) or you could stretch your new stomach pouch. And believe me when I say that you will know if you eat too much or too fast or without chewing well enough. It hurts like nothing I've ever felt... thought I was having a heart attack! And it lasts until the food passes - that could take a couple of hours.

Look, it's a learning process, but all of us go through it. If you can follow the rules you'll do fine. But if you already KNOW that you CAN'T change your eating habits, DON'T do this - it could really be bad for your health to do this and then hurt yourself by not following the rules. Everybody is different, but the only person who can decide for sure is YOU. If you're not 100% sure, then postpone the surgery and get in to see someone - maybe the psychologist or the surgeons nurse or someone who has had the same concerns that you have.

Your life is too valuable to chance this without being certain that you can change your habits.

I wish you the very best luck possible.

Barbara

[Jean McMillan 2,973]

As the saying goes, you can't have your cake and eat it too. In other words, you can't keep your old overeating habits and lose weight too. You must change your eating behavior in order to succeed with the band. If you're not ready to do that, then you're not ready for WLS.

I love to eat and was a volume eater before surgery. For the first 6-7 months after I was banded, I was able to eat 1 cup of food at a time and lost a lot of weight. Now I can only eat 1/2 cup at a time. I find that I actually enjoy my food more now because I really pay attention to it rather than just shoveling it in. The Chinese have a saying: Eat a lot, taste little. Eat little, taste a lot. That has been true for me.

Daily vomiting should not be a way of life with the band. If it is, you're not following the band eating rules or your band is too tight.

Depression can be a problem when you stop using food for comfort, stress relief, entertainment, etc. Counseling can help.

Jean