Is there really a sweet spot?

[Mickey527 0]

I had my band done on Sept. 18. I had a 2 cc fill 2 weeks ago and another 2 cc fill last Thurs.

I still can eat like I used to, I don't feel any restrictions at all. I want chocolate cake, ice cream and all the other junk food that I used to eat, but I won't buy it and won't allow it in the house. I haven't eaten at a restaraunt since the band because I don't want the temtation of the good but very fattening foods and Desserts. This is not what I expected with the band, I thought I would not have these urges and hunger anymore.

I am losing weight but only because I am watching everything I eat. I do the liquids for two days after the fill and then 2 days of soft, then back to eating what I have made my new normal.

I haven't been snacking, although I really want to. I did try a frito to see fi I could eat it and it went down without a problem. The other day I had some of my son's friends over to help me do some re-construction and I bought them all Subway. I was able to eat 1/2 a sub without any difficulty. I stopped at 1/2 because I knew I had to but I think I could have eaten it all if I tried.

I really wish I had just gone to see the nutritionist and not had the band done. I am doing this weight loss without the help of the band. I had thought it would make me not feel hunger but I am hungry all the time. I just have been fighting and luckily my willpower has been stronger than in the past.

The only thing this band has done has given me the will to fight my hunger, not the means to fight my hunger. Every day I think about how I should just have it removed and use willpower to lose the rest.

Does anyone else feel this way or are you all lucky enough to not have the huger I feel?

[ericanda1973 1]

i got my band on August 7 of 2009, i just got my third fill so i am at 6cc in a 10cc band, and OMG i have Major restriction now. My Dr. says it takes 3-4 fills or even more for some to get to the sweet spot, I am not sure if i am at that spot or not. How many CC band do you have ? Maybe you need to tell your dr. to fill it up more.I would not get it taken out just yet.Now if you were like 9 months to a year out but your still new to this. Looks like you have 4 cc, I could eat what i wanted too when i was at 4.5 cc, You may also have a bigger band too.

[Erin Marie 0]

I was banded in mid May and after about three weeks the restriction that came from the surgery alone faded. Because my doctor was very light with fills, only about a cc each visit, I didn't reach a similar restriction until the end of October. I was in your shoes, and only losing weight through sheer will to not gain while banded.

Since then, it's been (dare I say it?) cake to control my hunger. It took a lot of fills and five months to engage this tool, but it was so worth it. I can look at myself in the mirror without feeling disgusted or unlovable now.

Real quick, I want to clarify something you said... "I am losing weight but only because I am watching everything I eat." Even with the band at a place that recreates that original restriction...watching what you eat is unfortunately still very much necessary. I fill up quick, but I could easily choose to fill up on cake instead of chicken. With or without the band, with or without restriction, to lose weight I have to watch every bite I put into my mouth.

Voice these feelings of frustration to your surgeon. Honest to goodness, they want you to succeed. If a fill will help you struggle less, you can bet they will try to accommodate you. Goodluck, fellow Bandster! HANG IN THERE.

[kiz 1]

I had to have several fills to hit my "sweet spot". I felt greater restriction after each fill, but it generally petered out, but as I got closer to my last fill, I felt more and more restriction. I have approx 11 cc int a 9 cc band, so as you can tell, it took awhile for me to get to this point. My last fill was .5 cc over 3 months ago, and I still have as good as restriction as I did right after that fill. It takes time, and I think part of the reason some of us take longer than others is our anatomy, at least that's what a friend of mine's doctor told her. Also, if you have less fat to lose around your stomach, you don't get the early restriction some others have.

I eat three 1/2 cup solid meals/day plus a healthy snack. I rarely feel hunger between meals, and often when I do, I'm just thirsty, and a glass of Water cuts the hunger feeling. Just be sure to get your fills as often as your doctor allows.

My doctor kept assuring me he would get me to a point that I had great, long-lasting restriction. It took awhile, but I'm there.

[Jachut 487]

There's two things - so so many people say that they could have done this without the band becuase they dont feel any restriction. Dont underestimate it. You may not "feel" restriction but it is there even if not optimal. Take it all out and see what happens! Even a tiny unfill can result in weight gain for some people.

The other is no, i dont believe there's such a thing as an absolute sweet spot in that there's optimal fill for the band to work. Without exception, and after four years on this forum, when people talk about the 'sweet spot' they really mean a level of restriction in which the band does more work than they do amd weight loss becomes much easier. I also agree that a sweet spot is a restriction level that really sticks with you, it doesnt wane quickly.

However, sweet spots are different for everyone. Becuase I was a lower BMI and still entirely mobile and pretty fit for a fat person, I was able to commence running very early in my journey so I was always able to lose on pretty high calories (1500+). I found restriction waned less and less quickly after the fill the more fills I had, but i certainly had optimal restriction from EVERY fill right from the very first, I would lose steadily. I just needed more as I lost. I certainly didnt have to wait until restriction kicked in six months later. So for me, there never was a 'sweet spot' but there certainly was a restriction level which I never needed to go past and which didnt need topping up.

So to rephrase, the sweet spot does exist but it absolutely isnt necessary to find it for your band to work. No matter where you are restriction wise, the band wont make good food choices for you and it wont exercise for you. And if you dont do those things you can be at your sweet spot but never get to goal.

The band, is quite simply, pretty hard work but its hard work you can do. Not fruitless hard work like losing weight pre band.

Edited November 15, 2009 by Jachut

[greytz 4]

My definition of sweet spot is not that the band does the work for me. It is that it makes it easier to stop eating and I get full faster. I still have to make good choices and know when to stop eating. I feel that I am at what I call my sweet spot because I cannot eat very much. I am plateaued right now actually but it usually doesn't last long.

[riley4183 0]

Forgive my long post. Disclaimer: the following is what I have found works for me, and for most of my band groupies. Your experience may vary! :-)

I did not believe in a sweet spot either - until I got there at 5 cc's (4 fills). It is very common to not feel restriction - although you do have some, as Jachut points out - until after 3 or 4 fills. We are all different.

But for me, "the sweet spot" is not at all what I expected. I expected to actually be content to eat 1/4 cups portions, to laugh and say "no thanks, I'm just stuffed!" at offers of cakes and chocolates, while the sun shone, upbeat music played, and birds sang in the background. In my dreams, it was going to be so easy! But in reality - not so much!!

The good part - at my sweet spot, I actually feel less "restriction," i.e. I do not get "stuck" anymore because the band is now tight enough for the food to sit above it rather than to get lodged partway through. I get full very quickly if I eat the right foods, and stay that way for hours - as long as I don't get "bored," I honestly don't even think about food until about 4 hours after a meal. As long as a quit eating IMMEDIATELY when my pouch becomes full - including, somethimes, not swallowing the bite that's in my mouth -I have no issues with PBing or anything. So I feel it less, but I also think about food less, and I am rarely physically hungry. Even though I am very close to goal now, I still manage to lose without going hungry. That's the good part.

The "bad" part for me - and I stress, this is for me - is that my new "full" does not satisfy me emotionally. I realize - after getting a lot of help for my head hunger issues - that I have always sought that lower-belly "full" as comfort, and I don't get that any more. I got depressed when this happened! I still crave that "full" - a feeling that many obese folks have, and normally-weighted people do not. I can "cheat" by eating foods in the wrong order - for example, salad with dressing first - it goes through the band - and then fill my upper pouch with Protein, but that is defeating the whole purpose of the band. So my issues are caused not by my band, but by my head. It's something I'll work on for a long long time! I totally agree with Erin Marie's answer - it's hard work, and it's forever.

For me the sweet spot ebbs and wanes, albeit slowly - like Jachut said, it changes as I lose. I have a great surgeon who keeps me at the right place with lots of little fills, but it's a balancing act. I have never been "too full" and never needed an unfill, and I never want to be there. I also burn about 800 calories a day in exercise, so while I'm eating more than many of my banded friends, I'm still burning off more than I take in so I'm still losing.

Reliance on the band to make you lose weight is of course not an option, but you should not feel like nothing has changed, either. The band is only one part of one "leg" of this program. The legs are nutrition, exercise, and support. You can't achieve the balance that you need to be successful if you don't have all 3 legs. The band aids you in the nutrition area because it decreases how much volume you take in - but you are still responsible for getting the right nutrition within that volume, so the band is only a part of it. The exercise leg includes cardio and strength, and is necessary for the mental part of this journey as well. And the support part is necessary because this can be very frustrating, very hard, and we can want to give up! We need accountability, support, a push, a kick, and a shoulder to cry on. We need to Celebrate one another's successes. I am a support group junkie - I belong to 4 of them(!) - and it's the third key to my success. I encourage you to keep coming on here, and to seek out face-to-face support in your area - it can make all the difference.

I love my band and truly feel that it is the best thing that I have ever done for myself. It is exactly what I needed to help me do the rest of the things that I needed to do to lose. And the band won't let me gain the weight back, as long as I keep up with the accountability and support - and that's the easy part. Best of luck!

[Jachut 487]

Yes, that's exactly what I mean Riley, people hope that all those feelings will go away with the right restriction and there IS no restriction that will banish them.

Greytz, I dont really mean that people want to do "no work" and I'm not saying that in a judgemental or moralistic sense at all, but I do think that people are given the impression that a magic level of restriction exists where suddenly it all becomes much easier and you dont have those cravings an inappropriate urges to eat anymore.

Sorry to say, they just dont disappear magically. No matter what level of restriction you have, you have to battle those things.