Most people think that eating until they are full and eating until they are no longer hungry are the same thing. In fact they are quite different.

Sounds mad doesn’t it but to help me explain the point, imagine you are really hungry and start eating. Most of us eat until we are completely full, but if we had eaten more slowly and perhaps eaten smaller ‘mouthfuls’ ( I like to talk about morsels rather than mouthfuls), there is an earlier moment where we are no longer hungry, and that is the point when we should stop eating.

The truth is that we eat so quickly that we blast straight past the ‘no longer hungry’ moment and keep eating until we are full.
When you have had a gastric band it helps you to eat smaller portions and to slow down your eating so it is easier to recognise this moment. Nonetheless you still need to be mindful of it and recognise it when you get there. This can take practice. If we think about our eating habits, they are learned behaviours that become ingrained over many years. Therefore, we need to consciously repeat the new behaviours we want to develop so that they replace the old learned behaviours.

So, to get the most from your band, it’s important to eat food of the right texture, eat slowly and in small mouthfuls, and be alert to recognise the point at which you are no longer hungry.