Hi all,

I am three weeks post op and starving all the time. I am wondering if the hunger will go when I have a fill (which is scheduled on the 26th).

Really concerned that I will never lose weight if I always feel hungry. I can literally eat anything and everything just a little slower.

Help

stay busy/find something to do..read/walk/clean/go shopping/have sex, go fishing......but also drink...head hunger plays a huge part...you maybe bored and want to eat or because someone around you is..i have found me drinking something usually solves my (am i hungry or not)...if i am truly hungry i eat......but you are early post op, use your free foods to tide you over but def stay/keep busy.....

and just because one can eat whatever they want in any amount, doesnt mean they should..stay with the portions allotted to you by your doctor for best results until you are healed up inside...hang in there okay..

What you are going through is normal. I got banded on July 30 and was starving all the time after I started healing. I have had three fills so far and am still a little hungry between. I am getting another fill on the 31st of October, I am sure I won't be so hungry anymore. Hang in there! One day at a time!

Thanks so much ladies those responses were a great help.

I was on liquids for six weeks post band. If you are too, try not to "wash" your protein through too fast. What I mean is, treat a liquid protein meal just like a solid meal. No drinking for at least half an hour after it. I found that if I let my protein shake "sit" in me for half an hour or more without drinking after, it held me longer. And be sure you're getting enough protein. It's tempting to live on soups in this phase but protein is what holds hunger at bay. Good luck!

I think some of us have our 'hunger receptors' set on 'extra high range'....and during the early postOp phase was astonished to learn a LOT of my own 'hunger' was actually the fear of becoming hungry, rather than being hungry.

This phase of recovery can include a lot of reading and actual physical activity, during which many learn what was interpreted as 'hunger' was actually something else but summarized by conditioned bodily responses we interpret as 'hunger'.

Much of our time is consumed by our habits of consumption....what will we eat, what should we eat, how will we eat it.....etc

When we take away the 'eating' part there's a huge time gap filled with opportunity for the Belly Dragons to being their subtle campaign to convince us to feed them. Sport eating as a long-established behavior in spite of rational meal consumption, is/was something I for one continue to wrassle on a regular basis.

The turn for me began when I discovered that often just a taste of something on my fingertip would soothe the approaching frenzy of over eating.

It takes thought and repetition to build in the 'regular meals' WITH 'regular snacks' schedule. Eating on demand has to be regulated by something other than the whimsy of 'hunger'.....as that is such an indefinite sensation.

The notion that 'eating' or 'swallowing' rather than 'hunger' is a drive we seek to satisfy is rarely discussed.

I believe for some of us....for ME at least....the temporary illusion ~I~ control ~something~ is obsfucated by eating every time my anxiety/discomfort/drifting attention/loss of focus on other activities/strong emotion/etc fires into action.

Discipline beyond the temporary discomfort helps move me toward my Goal.

Cheers on your journey.

Edited October 14, 201411 yr by Jack

The band is installed (congratulations!) but for the vast majority of people it doesn't dim the appetite until you get fills and edge toward the green zone. You will get there!

Great post, Jack! So true.

CG is spot on. Sometimes my meal satisfies my hunger and sometimes it just doesn't. When the latter happens, I know I have to distract myself and eventually the head hunger goes away..and the satiety often kicks in. Once that happens, it's pretty easy to avoid the urge to eat just for the hell of it.

Sport eating as a long-established behavior in spite of rational meal consumption...

I found this to be very profound! There are many that eat for sport. Not just to fuel their activities in the sports arena which we would like to think are those who are eating clean and healthy but this made me think about all those Hot Dog eating contests and other can you swallow half a cow at the local steak place. The "super size" orders we have for burgers and all other items on the fast food menus.

We have stopped eating for health and for fuel and began eating for "sport". My son worked at a KFC and the sport for them was to get that order out the window in under 10 from start to finish. I used to watch my husband sit at the table and consume food as if it was a race to the finish line. It wasn't even cool enough to taste the flavor of it, the food barely touched the lips and was gone.

We have since being banded changed the way we eat and even the way we look at and think about food. It is no longer a race or a sport to me. It's a source of energy and fuel that I need to live on, and if I slow down and think about what I am eating I can enjoy the aroma the taste and texture of it before I consume it. Give deference to the way it is prepared and those who are doing the preparation.

To your question @@Kerry 5570 hunger is normal, as you begin to get some fills yes the band will help tamp that down for you so that you can determine if it's true hunger for food and the need to fuel your body or if that feeling is driven by something else. Being banded allows us to really examine what that something else is and identify it and our reactions to it. This is the time to work on all these things, when you feel that hunger coming along too soon before your next meal or you feel that hunger still clawing at you to have more or seconds, step away for a second and think about what that hunger is.

If it's true hunger and your body needs some fuel then eat. If it's not..and it's thirst, or boredom or frustration, anger, sadness or anyone of the myriad things it could be then walk away from the food and try doing something fulfilling to off set those things.

Listen to music, read, go for a walk, draw, write, sing, dance...what ever makes you happy. If your still hungry after that, have a bottle of Water, and if that's not doing it for you then your hungry eat something

Jack, love your post. Sport eating, all of it.

OMG all. Thanks you so much for all your responses, I never expected to have such a fantastic response. What a blessing it is to have this site, and all of you wonderful people to help me on my journey.

Once again thanks to all for everything

I know I lost 12 pounds in the first two weeks then since I went onto mushy I haven't lost a thing. Is that normal? I guess it is until your first fill right?