Gastric band help!
Posted , 3 users are following.
Hi all, new to this group so I may waffle on a bit. I'm not sure if anybody can help me or advise me. I had a gastric band 4 years ago. It's a 10 ml band. It seems as soon as I get to 7 ml fill I have to have water taken out as my heartburn gets to bad. I'm in between the devil and the deep blue sea. I'm not loosing now ( on 6ml) and I want to loose another stone and a half but I can't have by band filled anymore because of the heart burn. I'm thinking if I go on medication for the heartburn it could be possible but then I've heard that it can cause band erosion?! Has anybody had this problem? I'm out of package now so if I go for an app to talk about it I'm charged! Thank you in advance. ??
0 likes, 3 replies
susan51515 katy48652
Posted
Hi Katy,
I have had my band in for 10 years now and have been able to manipulate my weight over this time as needed however on reading your post it would seem to me that you need to listen to what your body is telling you and get back to working with the band rather than thinking "I need to loose more weight so the band needs to be tighter". There is a sweet spot for bands and you will also experience times of plataux and then loss again. If you stress over your fill level you are going to make the whole journey a fight and you need to look after your body and work with your band to produce your desired weight, not cause stress and upset to yourself. Stress can be counter productive to weight loss in my experience and an angry band can be a brick wall in itself... if you try to bully it you will loose ! If you are not gaining then my advise would be to stay under the 7 for now and cut yourself a little slack and let it all settle down. I would suggest a good month ....Then gradually start down the weight loss route again but through food intake and food choice rather than pushing yourself beyond the limit of comfortable by "force".You are about to gain a skill in managing a band that may prove invaluable to you in later years because you may find times, as I have, when you have to adjust weight (up as well as down) or band management in order to accomodate other things that your body may go through that can affect your band even when they have nothing to do with it. In any weight loss the last stone is the slowest and hardest so dont beat yourself up. Hope this helps....Good luck
Bandid katy48652
Posted
hi Katy - if 7mls is too much and 6mls is not enough then how about 6.5 mls as that is possibly the ultimate level for you with regards to restriction- a tighter band is not always the way forward but there is a big diff between 6 ml and 7mls when you are nearing that 'sweet spot' - perhaps if you kept a food diary it might help you so you can pinpoint if any bad habits have crept in over the 4 yrs sinc eyou had your band - i would say you are better to be slightly over wgt than to have too tight a band in order to lose wgt -g ood luck
katy48652 Bandid
Posted
Thank you Bandid. I think maybe I've become I bit lazy with my band. Time to give myself a kick up the backside!! Thank you for your words of advice x