Food choices
Unfortunately, the band doesn’t choose what you put in your mouth. You do. If the majority of the time you choose to eat healthy protein type foods for your 3 meals, such as fish, chicken, meat, and vegetables, you will lose weight. If your band is adjusted properly, small amounts of these types of food will satisfy your hunger. If instead you frequently eat soft slippery carbohydrate type foods, (mashed potatoes, pasta, bread, ice cream and desserts), you won’t lose weight because these types of food slide through the band easily and don’t fill you up as well.
If you’re eating correctly and still not losing weight, call the office to set an appointment to discuss an adjustment. Remember, tightening the band doesn’t make you lose weight. Eating fewer calories is what makes you lose weight. The band just helps you to do this by setting limits on your portion size.
Eating Time
Remember to eat slowly enough so that you can recognize the point where your stomach pouch tells your brain to stop eating. This is the point BEFORE it gets uncomfortable or you throw up. If you eat too fast and you don’t pay attention to look for this point, you will be frequently getting heartburn and throwing up. Patients who use their band correctly rarely throw up or get chest discomfort after eating. They have learned to stop eating before they get uncomfortable. Usually at this point, patients aren’t hungry anymore anyway. The band “helps” you recognize this signal so you can control your portion size.
Lastly, losing weight is a difficult task. The gastric band is not an “easy way out” for losing weight. But if used properly, it can be “a way out.”
–Dr. Darren Soong
Tags: Bariatric Surgeons, Gastric Band, Las Vegas Weight Loss Doctors, Weight Loss Surgeons, Weight Loss Surgery
