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Let's talk hunger: sleeve versus bypass



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OK. I'm about 85% sure I'm choosing the bypass, but I keep hearing that the sleeve removes the part of the stomach that secretes ghrenelin, the hunger hormone, while the bypass leaves the stomach to secrete hormones, enzymes that aid in digestion etc etc.....

On this site, sleevers always chime in about the ghrenelin and how they're never hungry. Tell me the bypass decreases hunger too?

I know everyone is different and most successful folks can distinguish head hunger from real hunger, but walk me through a typical day of hunger sensations of a bypass patient.

Please and thank you.

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The bypass does decrease the hunger as well. I cannot say for sure if it is more or less than a sleeve, but it was definitely more than I had anticipated it would be. I still find myself wanting to snack a lot, but in terms of that knawing feeling of being hungry, it hasn't happened but maybe once in the last year. It has been amazing. The times where I get the hungriest are after really intense workouts. Other than that there is no real hunger so to speak. It has been nice to not be hungry. The cravings eventually work their way back, but that I think is true of the sleeve as well. It is more of a psycological thing as apposed to a hunger thing.

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I had the sleeve on 9/22/14 and am never hungry. I have to remind myself to eat otherwise I could go all day just drinking liquids.

I chose the sleeve because I didn't want a blind stomach, the change in anatomy (besides part of my stomach being removed), and I'm a volume eater.

You can still dump with the sleeve! I haven't had a major episode, but really fatty foods like Peanut Butter and sugary things like jelly bother me.

I spent the first month drinking tea and Water and now I'm drinking Isopure black tea mixed with regular tea. It tastes like crystal light or Lipton packets and I get my Protein.

I still can't eat much, I know they say that both the sleeve and bypass can stretch, but I'm never going to eat more than I should and have given up soda! How I miss it! But I took a tiny sip and let it sit on my tongue and it tastes so sweet and fake! No more diet coke for me!

I also have no comorbidities, which is why some choose bypass over the sleeve.

You can always go from sleeve to bypass if it doesn't work, but after bypass the only thing you can do is revision or band over pouch like Carnie Wilson did.

I also didn't want to ever be scoped by a doctor or paramedic and having my bypass pouch perforated. Most bypass patients wear medical bracelets after surgery.

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I had the sleeve on 9/22/14 and am never hungry. I have to remind myself to eat otherwise I could go all day just drinking liquids.

I chose the sleeve because I didn't want a blind stomach, the change in anatomy (besides part of my stomach being removed), and I'm a volume eater.

You can still dump with the sleeve! I haven't had a major episode, but really fatty foods like Peanut Butter and sugary things like jelly bother me.

I spent the first month drinking tea and Water and now I'm drinking Isopure black tea mixed with regular tea. It tastes like crystal light or Lipton packets and I get my Protein.

I still can't eat much, I know they say that both the sleeve and bypass can stretch, but I'm never going to eat more than I should and have given up soda! How I miss it! But I took a tiny sip and let it sit on my tongue and it tastes so sweet and fake! No more diet coke for me!

I also have no comorbidities, which is why some choose bypass over the sleeve.

You can always go from sleeve to bypass if it doesn't work, but after bypass the only thing you can do is revision or band over pouch like Carnie Wilson did.

I also didn't want to ever be scoped by a doctor or paramedic and having my bypass pouch perforated. Most bypass patients wear medical bracelets after surgery.

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@@Jonathan Blue

This is such good news. I even saw the instructional video from my surgeon last night and it mentioned the ghrelin thing in the VSG portion as a huge selling point but not the bypass portion and I was like I know people with the bypass aren't sitting around hungry with a stomach the size of an egg!!!

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I've had both and yes the VSG does remove hunger. I never felt hunger for the first few years. I did get it back around year 3, but it's gone again since I have revised.

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@

I'm sure your journey is well-documented on BP but why did you end up with the revision? For reflux issues or was the VSG proving to be ineffective at weight loss over time??

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I had gastric bypass and I'm never hungry. I don't think about food at all. I have to look at the clock to check if its time to eat.

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@@ladypoohbear

Thanks for that.

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@@MisforMimi my sleeve worked great, over the years I developed GERD so bad it needed to be revised.

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

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        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

    • CaseyP1011

      Officially here for a long time, not just a good time💪
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