Bandster Hell: 3-8wks postop. Hungry with No Restriction.

[ThinWithin 0]

i pureed chicken and then made guacamole and mixed it all thinned it w/chicken stock and viola instant mexican-esque fix!

pizza wise i pureed cottage cheese, a tablespoon of pizza sauce, some pizza herbs, mozzerella cheese and chopped garlic. little chicken stock to thin it and baked it in a ramakin. YUM!

they are some of my faves too!

[PharmaGirl 0]

Maybe a dumb question but - Does anyone know how to distinguish head hunger from real hunger? I can tell that it is head hunger when I know I'm full but I still feel like eating. But how do I tell when I am not full?

[JayTee562 1]

I'm a bit disappointed today I had to stop at the surgeon's office today to get one of my incisions looked at it's a different office than I've been to before and I hadn't lost any weight since I saw him a week ago Tuesday:blink:. I did go above 1000 calories yesterday but that's the first time I've even gotten over 1000 usualy I'm between 700 and 9XX. Anyway he didn't say anything and I know it's a time of helaing...blah...blah just disapointed.

Pharmgirl I'm still trying to figure that out myself and also if I'm not hungry but didn't get my Protein do I still drink a Protein shake? All stuff we are learning together I guess.

I'm so ready to not be hungry like the week after surgery.....lol not really but......

[moonbeam 1]

pharmagirl, I can totally relate and it's not a dumb question at all. I know personally I wasn't hungry often before the lap band journey (due to eating all the time I'm guessing...) so when hunger hit.. I didn't know if I was sick or what! Turns out I was hungry. It's hard to distinguish between head hunger and "real" hunger. Personally the physical hunger is way easier for me to deal with than the head hunger.

[sdeale0928 0]

Thanks Lingling! I am having a horrible time not drinking with meals. I am not sure how to over come that mental block that I need at least a few sips of Water during the meal. I am also surprised, even though I know I was only supposed to worry about healing, how different the amont of food I can eat. I don't miss the pain of post op but I miss the ability to be full on 3 sip f Soup and jello! I have to wait six weeks for a fill, I cheated a little by making the appt two days earlier then 6 weeks. However, May 20th seems like a lifetime. I add 30 minutes of excrise this week and woke up last night straving! Makes me really sad for starving children in the world how feel that nightly. Ok I have ramble enough, thanks again for the post and link, it was good to hear and not feel alone.

[PharmaGirl 0]

Hi guys,

Saw my surgeon yesterday and he said I was ready to make the transition to soft foods. YEAY!! He was adamant as I found I could tolerate the less slippery foods, I should cut back on the slippery stuff until I'm just eating proper food - no more shakes, juices, etc - no liquid calories. Today, I made prawns (shrimp) with zucchini in an italian sauce base and it all went down ok (I chewed and chewed - I felt like Lucy in that episode of I Love Lucy where Lucy and Ethel go on the diet where they are told to chew everything 50 times before they swallow!). I asked him about head hunger and he said I'd learn with time. I also asked how I should deal with feeling full (because my pouch is full) but having my big stomach rumbling 'cause it isn't full. He said this would pass too and said that just 'cause the stomach is rumbling does not mean you should stick food in it. He suggested that eventually there should be some sort of synchronicity between my pouch feeling full and ME feeling full. I don't know if others feel this distinction between my pouch being full and ME being full (maybe the latter is just head hunger) but I was very glad to hear that I would soon enough feel full when my pouch was full (like something gets reset about when you feel full).

Also, yesterday, Lisa saw the nutritionist (and I went along for the ride) and she said some stuff that really helped us so I thought I would share.

Lisa has been saying she wants a fill asap as she feels she is eating way more than she thought she should and she is not dropping weight like she was on the pre-op diet. Lisa keeps saying she has no restriction but in actual fact she is eating a lot less at meal times than we did before.

The nutritionist asked what she meant by not losing enough weight and Lisa said well the scales haven't changed for the last 4 days! When asked how much weight she has lost since surgery 3 weeks ago, she answered about 8-10lb. The nutritionist told us to put the scales out of reach and to only weigh ourselves once every week or, even better, once every two weeks. She also said it was unreasonable to be expecting to never be hungry or to be eating extremely small amounts of food.

The nutritionist said that the sort of weight loss experienced on the pre-op diet was not what she should be aiming for with the lap band as it was not good for her in the long term and was stressful on the body and didn't give the body enough time to make adjustments. If she kept up that weight loss she was told she could expect to lose hair, and that she was likely to see more "sagginess" around her body than she would if she lost weight more slowly. She told Lisa that she should revise her expectations about what constitutes a reasonable and healthy weight loss. She recommended that weight loss be no more than 1-2lb per week (0.5-1kg).

We were amazed (maybe that should be delighted!!) at how much food she recommended we should consume in a day. It added up to around 1200-1400 cals/day. What she recommended was pretty much in line with the typical Weight Watchers program but snacking between meals is not encouraged. Also, she emphasised the need to drink before meals and then not drink after meals for 1-2 hours (for 2 reasons - potential of overstretching the pouch and potential for washing things through the band faster than is desirable). I liken the way I see we should be eating now as "eat like a french woman - a little bit of everything good and high quality".

She pretty much reinforced what this dude says HERE. Essentially, the message is you may stop losing weight if you restrict your caloric intake too far. So that you don't have to follow the link, she essentially told us that when caloric intake drops down to around 1100-1200 calories per day, human metabolism will slow down.

When humans had to scavenge for food that was not always readily available, bodies became very efficient at storing energy in the form of fat to tide them through times when they might not be able to eat much for a few days. When food became scarce, metabolism would slow down in order to conserve energy, at least until food became plentiful again. Typically bodies go into this energy-conserving mode when caloric intake is dropped to around 1100-1200 calories per day.

Since a Lap-Band can take a person down to around this amount, bodies may want to go into "starvation" mode. Our job is to keep this from happening by doing two things:

• Making sure you are eating enough (1200 cals/day for the 5'7 - 5'8 average woman - cals/day varies depending on how tall you are, how active you are and is more for males) and getting the best nutrition you can. This means eating real food, avoiding empty calories, preparing fresh meals so that your body gets all of the micronutrients and building blocks it needs to perform its normal daily chemical reactions and functions.
  
• Exercising. This keeps your metabolism going.
  

In terms of when is the right time to get filled, she said if you are eating so that you are satisfied most of the time (ideally getting hungry just before meal times) and you are still losing 1-2lb per week - you DO NOT need a fill yet. If you're eating but do not feel satisfied most of the time, are finding you need to snack to get you through between meals, and your weight loss drops to less than 1lb per week, then it is time to schedule a fill.

Hope others find this is interesting as we did.

Cheers!

Edited April 30, 2009 by PharmaGirl

[Band_Groupie 3]

WOW! Awesome post!!! ...and right in line with what I've been planning to do...so yea!

I still don't get the people on LBT who are eating very low (like 800) cals. a day and wonder why they plateau, or even worse, the ones who years out from the band are still drinking Protein shakes...NO liquid calories after the post-op diet...one of the top Bandster Rules!

Thanks again, I learned a lot!

[myturn2bhappy 0]

Thanks Pharmagirl! That was very interesting.

BTW, after all of our Mexican food talk yesterday I had some black Beans and salsa. It was really good and hit the spot. I chewed, chewed, chewed probably overkill on the chewing :thumbup: But I felt better safe then sorry. I bought them from a "healthy" mexican fast food place, probably not as healthy as making them at home. But since I had about 1/4 cup I'm not freaking out about the calories.

Edited April 30, 2009 by myturn2bhappy

[myturn2bhappy 0]

i pureed chicken and then made guacamole and mixed it all thinned it w/chicken stock and viola instant mexican-esque fix!

pizza wise i pureed cottage cheese, a tablespoon of pizza sauce, some pizza herbs, mozzerella cheese and chopped garlic. little chicken stock to thin it and baked it in a ramakin. YUM!

they are some of my faves too!

Thin- I'm not a cottage cheese fan. So I'm wondering if you think it has a strong cottage cheesey flavor after baking?

[shellynnrn 0]

Great post PharmaGirl! I'm only almost a week out but it's good to be prepared. Whoa....Mexican food....that little discussion had my mouth watering.

I'm on clears/full liquid for two weeks. Then pureed/mushies for 2 more weeks. My daughter asked me when I could eat again. I said... JUNE

LOL

I'll be following you all in bandster hell....we'll all help each other thru it

[Band_Groupie 3]

I'm officially in Bandster Hell..less than 1.5 weeks out. Broke my clears/skim milk diet with 2 Protein Shakes yesterday. Company is here (it's early and no one is awake) and I've been cooking/serving up all kinds of good foods (while trying to keep it a secret that I'm not eating-so far, so good). The smells/sights of all the foods is driving me crazy!

[JayTee562 1]

I've added a little more to my diet this weekend. I put a roast in the crock pot Friday, makes the meat very tender it pulls apart very easily, added some potatoes and carrots and at the end added some green Beans I had. The liquid I used a can of French Onion Soup, a can of diced tomatoes with chilies and a can of beef broth. It was so good and tender!

Company arroved from Ohio late Friday so Saturday was make Breakfast for the house I did bacon, sausage and eggs I had 1 scrabled egg for myself and one sausage and chewed well. lunch was on the road we stopped at Wendy's and I had a small Chili and part of a baked potatoe. Activities for the day was touring two bourbon companies and had a few sips of bourbon. dinner was at a bbq place I got a brisket sandwich not bun and sweet potatoes ate about half.

Got on the scale this morning and had some weight loss I'm so gald it's starting again. Thought I did OK yesterday and I think some real food helped get things burning a bit. I don't want to over test my band and will be a bit more guarded what I'm eating for a while but glad the weight is starting to go away again.

I got long winded and sorry if I rambled.

Edited May 4, 2009 by JayTee562

[bella5425 0]

I'm really bummed and hope someone can just send some encouragement out...I was banded on April 22nd and the first 5 days I lost 15 pounds. I was able to get on the mushies on the 29th and have been eating tuna, tilapia filet, cottage cheese, lite pears and green peas for days now and I have gained 2.5 pounds back. I am unable to exercise at all right now...due to a serious fall (waiting to get fitted for a brace this week and can get in a pool in 2 weeks) and my stupid fat girl head has me obsessing over what I am putting in my mouth. I feel horrible guilt when I eat even tuna with a little lite mayo. I am very linear so everything is either black or white. Pre surgery, food was great...now I feel like all food is the enemy. <sigh>...I am just so bummed tonite. Thanks for reading and sorry for the long post.

Katie

[lingling 0]

Saw my doc today - for a fill, don't think it was enough - still hungry. He said call tomorrow if still hungry. He says you should not be hungry at all when you are in the green zone and he also said "the band does not fail, patients fail to turn up" which is interesting. I cannot WAIT to stop being hungry I inhaled my dinner tonight SO BAD.

He also looked at my weight and said "oh, so you're hungry" was pretty interesting

[Band_Groupie 3]

I'm really bummed and hope someone can just send some encouragement out...I was banded on April 22nd and the first 5 days I lost 15 pounds. I was able to get on the mushies on the 29th and have been eating tuna, tilapia filet, cottage cheese, lite pears and green peas for days now and I have gained 2.5 pounds back. I am unable to exercise at all right now...due to a serious fall (waiting to get fitted for a brace this week and can get in a pool in 2 weeks) and my stupid fat girl head has me obsessing over what I am putting in my mouth. I feel horrible guilt when I eat even tuna with a little lite mayo. I am very linear so everything is either black or white. Pre surgery, food was great...now I feel like all food is the enemy. <sigh>...I am just so bummed tonite. Thanks for reading and sorry for the long post.

Katie

Katie, Are you sure you're getting in enough calories and Protein? Do what your doc recommends, but I'm supposed to have no less than 1000 cals. and 64gr. off Protein minimum or you'll go into 'starvation mode' and stop losing weight. Also remember that many gain a little when they first go back to food, it's very normal.

Saw my doc today - for a fill, don't think it was enough - still hungry. He said call tomorrow if still hungry. He says you should not be hungry at all when you are in the green zone and he also said "the band does not fail, patients fail to turn up" which is interesting. I cannot WAIT to stop being hungry I inhaled my dinner tonight SO BAD.

He also looked at my weight and said "oh, so you're hungry" was pretty interesting

Wow! My doc won't give us another fill for awhile after as they say a fill can take a week-10 days to 'kick in'. I've never figured out why this is, but I've seen many on this site talk about it. Let us know what happens!