I have seen several new sleevers saying how hungry they feel. I thought one of the benefits of the sleeve was that it cut out part of the stomach that helped produce ghrelin(sp?). So, are y'all saying that you are still as hungry as usual but unable to satisfy that hunger?

Hi Carly

There are people that do post that they don't understand why they are still hungry. Luckily i am not one of those people.

We had 85% of our stomach taken out. The ghrelin hormone (produced in stomach) stimulates the brain, increasing your appetite, - during the surgery, the hormore is removed curbing your hunger, so do you don't want to eat as much.

this is start to the answer of your question about ghrehlin - others please help me out with a better explanation.

kathy

Well I think most of it is either head hunger or acid. At the beginning I thought I was hungry too. My doc told me to watch over three days to determine when I get hungry. I realized it was when my mom starts cooking or the family gets together to eat dinner or mostly when I watch TV ads on fast food. Then, I could see that I was not really hungry but just craving food. That too stopped over few weeks. I feel satisfied and dont feel overly hungry between meals.

I DO get hungry, but I also get satisfied after just a couple bites, so I can always satisfy my hunger easily.

I don't have physical hunger since I had surgery.

However, I do occasionally have head hunger or am just thirsty. My doc told me that if I think I am hungry to try Water first, because usually you are thirsty and not hungry. She also told me that if you are actually craving food then it is head hunger as your body does not need a specific food. It is just looking for nurishment.

Hope that helps.

I agree with another writer... I still get hungry but when I eat I am generally pleasantly surprised that it doesn't take very much to fill me up and take away the hunger. I still find I have cravings and that's a bit difficult. I have yet to crave cottage cheese, tuna, egg, ie anything healthy. I crave steak, pizza etc. OH well, the benefits far outweigh the cravings. I find it is a lot of mind work involved. We have to also keep reminding ourselves of our goals. Sometimes some pep talk is needed.

Well I can assure u I am hungry- I am only 6 days out so don't ask me what kind I hunger it is but I'm guessing the addiction kind cause I was contemplating making brownie batter as a full liquid and then I sai no way drank a half a cup of pickle juice and was fine. So I equate it to when I used to use drugs in my early adulthood- it is a sickness in my mind and I never fully understood how my addiction was controlling me until I had the sleeve. I have had many "aha" moments as they say. I don't know what to do about it tho- I pray and try to just keep busy but man am I craving food- I will say today is better than yesterday and my lord is gonna help me thru this. I want to be healthy. I will be healthy. My body is coming along and I will find a way for my brain to make it there also;)

I am almost two months out and am rarely "hungry" in the sense of actual stomach growling and not head hunger. When I am hungry, I eat a Protein shake/snack or a Fiber wafer and I'm satisfied. The head hunger was worst the few weeks after surgery with TV ads and watching my husband cook. Now that is (almost completely) gone. I can sit in my favorite restaurant and watch others eat huge dishes of foods I used to eat and not have a reaction at all. The times I notice that I think I'm hungry are late at night when my anxiety is usually at it's highest. Thankfully, we don't keep snack foods in the house and I'm already in pajama's so I won't go out. Plus, I know I'm not really hungry. It's just old habits still programmed in my brain, but I acknowledge it and move on. I've also found that watching cooking shows helps me a lot. When you see all the stuff, and sometimes crap, that goes into classic dishes and start counting the nutritional content -- you start to feel better that you don't eat that stuff anymore.

Yes, you will get hungry from time to time but you will have a wonderful tool to help remind you of your ultimate goal!

Thanks everyone! It does help. Hunger that is satiated with very little food sounds fine with me. My problem will be trying to get the right foods before the sugar sirens call to me. That has always been my demon. I appreciate all of the answers. :*

Carly, Are you still pre-op? I worried about all of those things pre-op, but I found that I could NOT stand sweet stuff after surgery. I couldn't really handle eating sweets until about 4 months out. Now I can eat them, but too much of them makes me gag. My substitute addiction is baked cheetos, so not much of a good change there. However, I can avoid the cheetos by not having them in the house unless they are figured into my plan.

Most of the time, after I finish my Protein for the day, I'm not really able to put much more in my sleeve anyway. The biggest mental change is that I now think of food as either protein or not protein. BTW, somebody up there mentioned steak as an unhealthy food. Steak isn't unhealthy; it's protein, which is GOOD. A few ounces of steak, stir fried with a few veggies and I'm good for dinner. I try to hit the mark down steaks at the store, then I will cut up and stir fry them with veggies and heat up a little at a time for meals. Yummy. It also meets my personal goal to add more veggies to my eating plan right now. Good veggies, not corn, carrots and green Beans.

There was a "big discussion on" the board yesterday regarding corn, can we eat or not - the general concensis (msp) was yes, its ok to eat- also why do you say no to carrots and green Beans?

thanx lissa

Hey Lissa,

Yes, I am scheduled for surgery in 4 days. I hope I am like you and I won't want sweets like I do now, but I also hope I am able to get some foods down successfully. I guess I have the added issue of being a vegetarian. I am hoping tofu will be agreeable with me. Thanks!

I ignore my mind when I see food or crave certain things I literally wait for my stomach to growl sometimes then I know I'm really hungry I know that sounds bad but that's how I'm learning.

Hi Carly, I'm like Lissa in that I'm not that interested in sweets. Even when I "crave" them, say at TOM, a bit will sufice! Just a side effect from surgery for me. Everyone is different and responds differently. I've learned that we all struggle with different challenges and we all have some particular strength that helps us in this process. It was confusing for me in the begining till I got that everyone has different experiences -- although we seem to belong to one group or another. For me the trick was getting to know my new body and my reactions and work on those. Many I would not have guessed before surgery!!! Like the sugar issue! Best of luck on your upcoming surgery!!!!! Looking forward to your posts!!!!

Just wanted to clarify my post above: when I said we all seem to belong to one group or another, I meant there are groups of us that tend to have similar experience and others something different and others even more different still. That use to confuse me at times because I would wonder why so many experienced something I could not relate to. But I've learned they're all possibilities... oh boy, I hope this isn't more confusing! LOL

Lol MNBsleeve. You are sweet. I knew what you meant. Thank you all for giving me all of this good info. I am just trying to piece it all together to get some sort of imagery. I realize my story will probably not end up looking like the image I am creating, but it does help to have something to go on.