The Gastric Band is soft ring that is placed around the top of the stomach and there is a tube attached to it that leads to a port site stitched to the muscle in your abdomen. This port is used to adjust the band when needed. A saline solution via a special needle is injected into the port by a qualified Health Professional – this inflates or deflates the band until you get the optimal fluid level in there for you – an optimally adjusted band means you can only manage small portions and should not feel hungry in–between meals.
It can take around 4-6 band adjustments over several months until the band is working properly but everybody is different. Try not to become frustrated though if you do need a few adjustments until you start to notice a difference in terms of hunger and portion sizes.
Once you are back on normal food and your band is optimally adjusted you should be aiming to eat textured foods – that means dry, solid, chewy or crunchy, basically not soft or liquid foods. As you eat these types of foods the oesophagus must squeeze them through the Band and as it does it stimulates nerve endings on the stomach wall which send a message to your brain to say that you are full. So, a soft diet will not work well with the Band.
How you eat is also key to the success of the Band – basically in a nutshell you need to have small mouthfuls, chew thoroughly and eat slowly. (Read more in our members area about the ‘20+ rule’)
