Lap-Band "Common Problem Foods" Survey

Hey, all! I was going to post a poll here to see how many people in the real world actually have problems with the foods listed as "Common Problem Foods" in the official Lap Band Literature, but the poll on this site doesn't have enough options to do a really good survey... So I spent a few minutes setting up one of my own on Survey Monkey!

The survey I created asks you to rate 16 foods listed as "Common Problem Foods" in the Lap Band brochure, based on how much trouble you have with them (if any). Even if you can eat all the foods listed here, please take the survey because your data is very valuable too!

The survey should only take about 5 minutes to complete, and would be very helpful to those of us considering the surgery to know what real life bandsters can and can't eat! It also asks if problems with certain foods came up after band fills.

It's completely anonymous, doesn't collect any personal information, no advertising, etc. I've worked with Survey Monkey for some time now and have found them to be a good company.

I will post all the results here once I get a fair amount of responses. Please note that you won't be able to see the results by visting the link, so only visit if you plan on taking the survey!

Thanks!

Click Here to Take the Lap-Band "Common Problem Foods" Survey!

The foods included in the survey are:

Beef
Chicken
Shrimp
Bread
Pasta
Rice
Peanut Butter
Dried Fruit
Corn
Asparagus
Celery
Nuts
Coconut
Popcorn
Greasy or fried food
Seeds and/or skins of fruits and vegetables

You can create the poll right here on LBT, I've adjusted the poll settings.

I filled out your survey as for asparagus ans celery just havent tried it yet but love both

I can eat most of those foods, some I just don't like or haven't tried (like corn or coconut). For Bread, I eat it rarely and if I do it's whole wheat and usually toasted. Dried fruit has too many calories. Pasta and rice will go down, but I don't eat them often, too many carbs.

As for skins of fruit, I have eaten apples,plums, strawberries, blackberries and raspberries.

I have had several fills. I didn't do the survery because I am not at a good level of restriction yet, so I don't know how I'll be affected by these foods until I reach a better level of restriction.

But after several fills, most of the foods are agreeable with my band.

For me it would totally depend on the day I took the survey as it could change dramatically from day to day. For example, sometimes I can eat chicken, sometimes I can't. I might be able to eat dried fruit, just so long as it isn't papaya. I found a carrot and ginger soup that I can't get enough of. I might wake up tomorrow and not be able to stand the sight of it. Things like that.

It could depend on the time of month. My period will often make me more tight than it does for the other 3 weeks of the month.

So far for me on this journey the only thing that's been consistent is change. There's something different every day. I don't always like the change but it's certainly stopped me from getting bored with a menu plan.

Hey, all!

I tried doing a poll here on he boards, but still didn't see enough options to gather the type of data that I feel would be most helpful, so I'm stickin' to Survey Monkey!

Here are some early findings...

On the whole, most people were able to eat all the foods listed at least some of the time. 25% of people who responded said that they could "never" eat popcorn because it always gave them problems; that was the most prevalent food in the "I can never eat this food" category. However, the majority of the people responding about popcorn could eat it without any problems (33%).

The two foods that people "Frequently" have problems with are Chicken And Bread, with about 41% of respondents saying that they usually can't eat them.

About 30-40% of people responding have problems with Pasta and Rice "every so often," but can usually eat the food (depends on the day).

30-40% of people have had problems eating beef and peanut butter once or twice, but don't have problems on a regular basis.

At this point, the category that has the most respondents is "I can always eat this food with no problems," which is encouraging. In this list are: shrimp, corn, asparagus, celery, nuts, popcorn and seeds and/or skins of fruits and vegetables.

As for whether or not fills affect peoples ability to eat certain foods, people reported that, after having fills and achieving proper restriction, the following foods haven't been affected: Beef, chicken, shrimp, Peanut Butter, Corn, Nuts, and Popcorn.

The majority of people who have achieved proper restriction after their last fill encountered problems with bread, pasta, and rice after that fill.

Popcorn is the only food that a majority of people had problems with after the first fill.

While there are a few people here and there who report problems with certain foods since surgery, this is not the majority.


Hope this information is helpful! Keep those responses coming!!! :-)

Thanks. I'll be watching this thread. As mentioned in my previous post I don;t have good restriction but I left out info about popcorn. I can eat half of a microwave bag with no trouble at all.

So far, I've only been stuck on something a couple times and that was mostly in the first couple weeks after surgery and once just after a fill when I took a bite of chicken too quickly.

I want to see the results! Are you going to post them?

Hey there! I'll probably post the exact results when I have 25 or more people respond. For now, there's a little summary above to tide ya over!

I'm "tight as a drum" in the morning and "loose as a goose" at night so it was hard to answer. I kinda went by how I am at noon.

Thanks to all who responded! I hope this info will be helpful! And, keep those responses coming, I'll post a new set of results every 25 responses I get.

Again, the data is fairly encouraging, depending on how you look at it.

Most people don't have problems with most foods on the list.

The two foods that "Frequently" give people problems are Chicken and Bread.

On the other hand, if you look at the average response (with 5 being lots of problems and 1 being no problems), Bread, Beef and Chicken top the list.

People also submitted "Other:"

For greasy foods, I don't think it was the grease/fried that bothered me, but the chicken nuggets at mcdonalds KILL me. Might be from chicken.

eggs

apples - can't swallow

Steak is an issue

donuts---raised glazed donuts

And, drumroll please, here's the data!

OK here is one for you. I cannot eat most foods no matter what I eat I cannot get it to go down. I develope a real thick like mucus that has to be spit out and when I spit it out well then up comes the food all nice and regurgitated. I have a 10 cc band with 4 ccs filled, my last fill was this past Tuesday. Sometimes I feels very tight to where I cannot eat all day. I am able to take in the protein and other suppliments but food well it is no longer my best friend. I drink hot liquids to help loosen the band some. After my fills I always stick to the liquid diet as I have been told to do so for the first 3 days. Maybe this is the sweet spot we have been told about but hey we still need to eat. I am down from a size 24 to almost a 12 by next week I will be in a regular size 12 right now it is a 12-14 size in misses and I went from 279 to 198.5 since September 2007

Sharon2U, sounds like you're too tight and need a small unfill. It is not normal to not be able to eat.

The band is not meant to allow you to only have liquids.

You should talk to your Dr.