Hi, I have some questions

I've been on this board before, but thought I could diet the weight off and did not pursue surgery.  I was wrong about the dieting.  So I am back and researching the lap band and I have questions.

I've seen where people have made references to PB and sliming-what are these?  I think there was another, but I can't remember now...

I also read a post about knowing when to stop eating and several said you should not get filled to the point of it hurtin when you are full.  I think they said to stop eating after eating a cup of food-but I am wondering, how do you just stop eating, if there is nothing there stopping you?  I mean, it is sounding like you have to use 'self-control' to stop eating?  I am probably not saying that right.  But I don't have much self-control as it is right now, so how am I going to find it after surgery? 

Any advice about the surgery or researching it would be appreciated.

Hello -

PB -- Productive Burp -- it is when you burp and food comes back up into your mouth.  It is a reguritation - not really vomitting, because the food did not make it all the way to the stomach and mix with stomach acid.

Sliming ---- when I have overeaten, my body will produce excess saliva to try to digest, but the food has the pouch blocked, and the excess saliva cannot go down, so I have to spit it out.
This can last for an hour

Neither of these things happen often for me - but that is because I take small, careful bites.
If we eat too quickly, or too much, or bites too big, we risk stretching our pouch, dialating our esophogus, and causing band 'slippages'.

Most of us are instructed to eat between 1/2 and 1 cup of food a few times a day.  My doctor's plan did not suggest volume that way, he just said to eat 3 - 4 ounces of lean/solid protein (cut into pea-sized bites), about 1/2 cup of veggie, and a few spoonfuls of healthy grain.

Really, if I cut 3 - 4 ounces of lean protein into pea-sized bites, it is about 30 - 40 bites -- and I get bored with eating before I run out of food.

The band does NOT stop me from eating, I have to stop myself.  I exercise self control by weighing/measuring my food.

I have always told myself that I needed to wait 20 minutes, and if I was still hungry, I could have more.  I never needed to get more.

The band works (with the right foods) to dim the appetite -- so, I get a feeling of satisfaction (lack of hunger) without being "full" ----

That is the big difference between 'dieting' and the 'band' --- with dieting, a small amount of food left me feeling hungry in 20 or 30 minutes --- with the band, if I stop eating, and wait 20 - 30 minutes then I am not hungry (yes, I could eat again, but I don't have to).

Hi Faith,

I stop at a cup of food and there are times I have ate a cup and half of food .  Mostly if its a salad I do eat a little bit more .  Salads dont stick with me at all but I love them especially in the summertime and it helps to keep me regular in the bathroom dept :o)


I guess for me when I got the surgery done I was at the point in my life mentally I was ready to lose this weight no matter what I had to do to get it off me in the healthy way.

I dont know what it feels like to have fills in my band, my band has been empty since my surgery but I just have it so much in my head now that a cup of food is all I need.  I dont look at it at a cup of food though that sounds so small lol.

I just eat three healthy meals in the proper portions . 4 oz of protein , some veggies and a starch .  I eat that slowly about 20 min or so like everybody should be doing even without the band and I'm  happy with that amount.

You will never get the full or stuffed feeling anymore or at least you shouldn't . I just get the I'm satisfied feeling .

I can go as long as three hrs and sometimes which is a bad habit of mine I do skip meals because I get so involved in doing something I just dont take the time to eat which is not good.  I have caught myself gulping my food down at the next meal.  That is a habit I do need to work on .

But you do need to understand the band is just a tool .  You still have to get up exercise, you still have to watch what you eat, you still have to have self control and will power.  The band dont make you do all them things it has to be you

You can also eat around the band, but you can do that with any WLS you have.  The band dont stop me from eating cookies, ice cream, chips things like that will go right through your band, you and you alone have to have the control and the desire to say no I cant eat them foods or if you  do it like me , eat them foods in moderation and how often you eat them foods.

I can sit here and eat all the junk food in the world and not lose a single pound or worse yet gain weight .  

The band is teaching me how to eat proper portions, when to eat certain foods, and how much to eat of them certain foods.  God forbid if something ever happens to my band I would take these lessons I have learned and continue on with my journey.  This will be my one and only weight loss surgery .  It's this or nothing .

Thanks so much for your thoughtful posts.  I get that I need to exercise and eat right and that the band is a tool.  But what I am trying to wrap my brain around, is how is the band a better tool than a diet?  Right now I am having so much trouble dieting.  Sometimes it's hard to stick to, and even when I do manage to stick to it, I do not lose much weight at all, if any.  At my weight, the losses should be a lot more steady than they are.  So how does the band differ from a diet?  It must be superior in some way, right?  That probably sounds like a dumb question, but I am trying to really understand this.  I will be a self-pay and it will be a hardship on me, so I really want to know what I am getting myself into, and it is going to have to be my last resort.  There will be no more money for another kind of surgery.  Also, what happens to the 'desire' to eat?  How does it change?

The way the band works differently from a traditional diet is this.

With a diet, you eat and the food goes into the bottom of your stomach and it takes a large quantity of food for your brain to sense that you have eaten.

With the band, the food goes into to pouch, and a little bit of food is enough to put pressure on the nerve endings (that reside in the top of your stomach) and signal your brain that you have eaten.   So, basically, if you eat solid food -- food that can sit there for a few minutes --- your brain thinks that it has eaten more than it has.

Lots of times, I don't have the 'satisfied' signal by the time I stop eating -- BUT, if I wait a few minutes, then the feeling of not-hungry kicks in.  That is why I weigh/measure my food and stop.

There are foods that we call 'sliders' foods that are not solid enough (they sort of melt in your mouth and slide down through the band easily) -- that we can easily overeat.

3 - 4 ounces of chicken/beef/pork is under 200 calories, and that will keep me 'full or satisfied' for 4 - 5 hours.
Sweets or chips, I could probably eat 2,000 calories worth and not blink ----- so, I have to control the QUALITY of what I eat, and let the band control the QUANTITY if I pick the right foods.

Hope that helps explain it a bit.

I too, couldn't wrap my head around stopping after a cup of food.  I was so out of control, I could polish an entire bag of chips on the way home from work and THEN have a big dinner.  My car always had empty wrappers and bags from stopping off to get something to eat.

I think, for me, the whole process you go through leading up to the surgery was what helped me with my food addiction.  When I was told there was a 6 month doctor supervised "diet", I thought to myself, "This is a waste of time.  If I could stay on a program and lose weight, I wouldn't need the surgery."  Well, it turned out I did stay on the program and lost 20lbs before I even had the surgery.

I had a real eye opening epiphany during the weeks of being on liquids.  I came to realize how much I thought about food (which was constantly).  I would be eating lunch while thinking about what I was going to eat for dinner.  The liquid phase was hard the first few days, but it gradually got easier.  My mind started changing.  I came to realize that I don't NEED to eat constantly.

Once I had the surgery and eventually started eating solid foods again, my band was at work.  Yes, I go to the gym 6 days a week, and I follow the rules my surgeon laid out for me.  Even 4 months later, I make my plate for dinner and think, "That doesn't look like much."  But as I take my pea-sized bites, eating my protein first, I listen to my body, and come to realize that not only is it enough on my plate, I won't be able to eat it all!!

Yes, the band is a tool.  Yes, you have to do your part.  But the band does let you know when you should stop eating - at least mine does. Some people experience a "soft stop" which is your band telling you you've had enough.  For me, I get the hiccups.   

Basically, going through the process you will learn a lot about yourself. Your mind is the most challenging part of it.   I would read as much as you can.  On the right side of this site, click on "Living with the LAP-BAND System" and just start soaking in as much information as you can. Plus, we're all here for you.

Good luck!
~ Barbara

I'm not going to add anything about the Lap Band here, because everyone else has so throughly answered your questions. 

What I wanted to add was...saying you were going to try to lose it on your own.  I think a lot of us try that.  If you look at my profile you will see when I signed up for OH and when I actually had the surgery years had gone by.  Why???  Because like you I thought I would do this on my own and I failed horribly.  In fact I gained another 30 lbs in that time.  You are not alone.  The diet industry makes billions off of their promises to make us thin.  what they don't tell us is that by the time you are morbidly obese (in some cases...like me...super morbidly obese) it is next to impossible to lose it on your own.  My doctor quoted me a statistic once...he said only 2% of the morbidly obese actually diet their way back to a normal weight on their own.  And of that 2% only a fraction of those actually keep off the weight they lost 5 years out.  This is why we need help. 

Good luck with your journey!!!

I completely agree! Check my member since date! I was just notified today of my paperwork being submitted for approval this week.  I think most of us think we can do it on our own just for the sake of not having surgery.  Move at your own pace! Whether it takes you 7 years or 5 years, just make sure you are ready because that's when you can put forth your best efforts and hopefully get great results! Good Luck!

That's one reason the band did not work for me, because I was told I would feel full with smaller portions. Well I never did have a feeling of fullness or not wanting to eat anymore. There are many of us who never get to a good restriction level and have very little success. I firmly believe the band should be limited to those who are volume eaters and have less than 100 lbs to lose. It seems to work best for those people. I regret ever getting the band and wish I'd gotten the sleeve.