Weight Loss Surgery - Hunger after surgery

Hi to Everyone.

THey do not have lapband surgery in my area. They do have a number of surgeons doing gastric bypass. I do ok dieting until I get really hungry and then cant stand it so I eat. Does having surgery eliminate the hunger pangs?

Susanne

I had RNY last May. I have lost 130 pounds and now I joined Weight Watchers to help with the last of it. I feel great. Surgery fixed my stomach, but not my head. I still "feel" hungry. Ieat and then feel sick from over-eating. Even right after surgery, I wanted to eat all the food I saw on commercials even though all I could handle was liquids. It gets better after the first 6 weeks, when you start back on normal foods.

From what I have seen and read, this varies. Some people have very little trouble with hunger, others have a lot. One of those variables you won't know the answer to until you are there.

I spent some time learning to differentiate between "head" hunger and real hunger over the first six months or year. Sometimes I would feel hungry, although I could still feel food in my stomach. I would remind myself that it couldn't be hunger, and would just work through it, and in fact those tummy rumblings would soon go away.

On a different note, I have always had issues with low blood sugar symptoms if I don't eat fairly often. This was true before surgery as well as after. My nutritionist recommends eating small meals more often for anyone who has had the surgery I had, and it works for me. It also made dealing with the "head" hunger easier, and also the frustration (which happened only occasionally) of only being able to eat a few bites. I would remind myself "you can have more in a few hours if you really want it". She would patiently tell me, "you are SUPPOSED to be hungry after three to four hours", over and over again until I got it through my head. I am stubborn sometimes.

The one thing I've found, as I am farther out, is that when you are eating more often, you have more opportunities to fall back into less desirable food habits. It helps to consider them nutrition breaks rather than snacks. Silly word game, but it helps.

Dawna

I would become a beast from hunger pains before the surgery (had rny july 2004) and would have to eat something or I was going to kill someone, LOL. The hunger pains still happen but nowheres near like before. (and now i can drink something and actually be full!) And I agree with Dawna, lots of it is head hunger which you need to learn the difference, and I also got very mad for a while watching other people shovel in the food and I can only eat a few bites, but that too has gotten better. Its a learning process, need to get in touch with yourself again, apparently I was WAY OUT OF TOUCH.....Good luck to you!