Hunger-Games

Hi there, I’m glad to see some posts on this hunger issue a few years after the first one. I’d like to add a few things here after years with the sleeve. If you google “hunger after the sleeve”, you’ll more than likely end up on sites talking about “mental hunger” and trying to distinguish the difference. I’m here to tell some of you that there is something else going on with a few of us sleevers that is not being researched from what I can see. Before I had the sleeve, I had mild acid reflux and was on acid reducers. After the sleeve, I thought I could come off the acid meds but I was SO hungry after the surgery that about a week post-op, I was back on them. This did help me to stop feeling hungry ALL the time. However, it didn't take away the starving feeling throughout the day. In the first post-op year, I thought nothing of the times when I’d have to get to a convenience store, supermarket... any place close that served food at times when suddenly I had hit “starvation mode”. All that time I told myself it was because I had a small stomach and I just needed to eat more often. I guess I can be slow on the uptake because it took me 4 years to figure out that I had serious issues with hunger. One day, I had eaten a pretty good breakfast, was starving by 10:30 AM so had my lunch at work, and by 1:00 I was starving again. I was ticked off because I didn’t want to leave work to get food and it suddenly hit me…after a few years post-op with the sleeve, I was able to eat a lot more food in one sitting. So, from what I had eaten that day, why was I as hungry as I was less than 3 hours after my decent-sized lunch? I am now 7 and a half years post-sleeve and realize that my weight gain and eating habits are dictated by my hunger issues. No matter what I eat (dense protein, healthy fats, light carbs, etc.), I will be starving about 3 hours later. If I don’t plan right, I have to get up out of bed to eat and it’s really frustrating. I go out to eat with friends and then a few hours later, I have to tell them I need to eat more. I am on acid reducers because I do have acid reflux and more of it since the sleeve. I am 100% convinced that the hunger is an overabundance of acid build-up in my stomach. There have even been times when I have been starving and can hear the gurgling sounds in my stomach. Coincidentally enough, a year back, I had a conversation with a colleague who had just had the gastric bypass surgery. Without sharing much about my own surgery, she told me that one of the reasons she had had the bypass was because she had had the sleeve before that and was “hangry” every two hours. I didn’t know what “hangry” meant and she explained it is when you are so hungry, you get angry. I was stunned as she described my situation perfectly…except for me it’s every 3 hours. Post-bypass, this colleague no longer feels “hangry”. She knows when she needs to eat but that gnawing feeling in her stomach is gone. I have been in touch with a few bariatric surgeons because of my acid reflux and all of them have suggested I have the RNY bypass. I will have it in the near future and am hoping that the surgery will help my hunger issues go away. After 7.5 years post-op, my sleeve is still intact and I don’t eat an enormous amount of food at one sitting. Of course the first two years post-op are considered the "Honeymood Phase" and so I do eat more than I did back then, but still, it's not crazy amounts. I’m very happy with that but what I learned is that when you end up having to eat every 3 hours, you can really take in a lot of calories during the day. My weight issues were always due to bingeing at night, but never grazing during the day. Now, I find it really frustrating having to eat during the day when I really don’t want to…because I’m starving. (And a light snack when starving doesn’t do much for me at all. I’ve played around with calories and if I don’t take in about 300+ cals at these times, I’m starving even earlier than 3 hours.) So, I’m writing this because when I asked the last bariatric specialist I went to see about whether he knew of any research done on hunger issues post-sleeve, he said no. (I’m not talking about research regarding reduction of hunger…I’m talking about those of us who end up with MORE hunger.) This post is not meant for those of us who have had bariatric surgery and aren’t sure if they are really hungry when they eat. That sounds more like head hunger to me. This posting is for those few of us with the sleeve who know we’re starving all the time. I hope I remember this site after I get the RNY. If I do, I promise I’ll leave another post to tell you if the RNY actually did relieve my hunger issues. Stay tuned!