5 1/2 months post op and I find I can eat quite a bit more than I used to. My nut packet says I should eventually be able to eat up to a cup and a half by a year out so I'm not concerned with that. But I don't get physically sick anymore if I eat too much (or maybe I've just learned when to stop so I DON'T get sick) and I always feel hungry. I was keeping almonds in my desk drawer at work so I'd have something healthy to snack on but I stopped because I didn't want to snack too much. I'm thinking maybe I'll start keeping them again because now I constantly feel hungry and without the healthier alternative I'm worried I'll go for the vending machine. I don't know why I'm always hungry though. I'm not sure if its head hunger or not because I don't think about food and then get hungry, I'll just suddenly realize I have that hungry feeling again. I'm worried I'm not going to be as successful at this as I had hoped.

I always felt hungry too right after surgery. Turns out it was stomach acid that made my pouch feel hungry. The acid caused an ulcer that i'm being treated for now. Try an over the counter acid reducer and see if that helps the hunger pains.

Mu doc said something in one of my post op group meetings that has stuck with me. He said that over time we gravitate towards food we know will go down easy. So we have the illusion of eating more. After three of four bites of pork I am usually done - my pouch does not like pork or dry chicken, but fish on the other hand I do just fine with. So I am able to eat more of the fish than of the pork. Our brains being the wonderful creatures they are will typically steer us in the direction of eating what goes down easy.

As for the hungry feeling I try to eat every couple of hours. I fight head hunger all the time and it is a nasty little devil sometimes.

Mu doc said something in one of my post op group meetings that has stuck with me. He said that over time we gravitate towards food we know will go down easy. So we have the illusion of eating more. After three of four bites of pork I am usually done - my pouch does not like pork or dry chicken' date=' but fish on the other hand I do just fine with. So I am able to eat more of the fish than of the pork. Our brains being the wonderful creatures they are will typically steer us in the direction of eating what goes down easy.

As for the hungry feeling I try to eat every couple of hours. I fight head hunger all the time and it is a nasty little devil sometimes.[/quote']

That's actually a good point, and very true. And I have been trying to eat small amounts every few hours too. Not sure what the nutritionist would say but if it keeps you from gravitating back to the bad stuff then it's worth it.

I have dealt with hunger right from the beginning, and at about 2.5 months out I realized I was needing a little more food with each meal, so I added veggies. I try to keep a variety of veggies on hand at all times and eat those. They fill me up and don't add calories. For example, every morning I have 1/2 cup scrambled eggs- when I needed more food I added a scoop of spinach. It added just enough bulk to fill me without adding more than 20-30 calories.