Hi there... I had my lapband removed and the gastric sleeve done in one surgery 7 days ago and am struggling with the all liquid diet. It is difficult to tell when I am full, but I stop after 2 to 4oz regardless for fear of stretching out my pouch. I am beginning to feel really hungry and want to eat something with nutritional value! I am going to call my doc and nutritionist tomorrow to ask about the possibility of moving up to pureed sooner... maybe trying ground turkey put in a food processor with a little broth. Did anyone else get this hungry and crave real food after 7 days out?! Would love to hear about other's progression.

Edited March 31, 201511 yr by carolinacrumb88

@@carolinacrumb88

I guess everything posted on here is subject to interpretation. That's why it's best to take it "with a grain of salt", as they say!

As for the meat craving, or whatever it is, try to remember the "head-hunger" thing, because that appears to be your issue right now. When you eat, remember to eat very slowly, chewing millions of times (even if you feel you don't need to chew it), then swallow. This is going to take practice, but then FEEL where the food hits your sleeve, after each bite. When you feel full, you are TOO full. So the next meal, try and remember how many bites you took last time and reduce it by one or two. If you feel full, food is likely in your esophagus, and you don't want that. Nasty. You want to feel SATED and NOT full. There is a difference. Sated is a "sweet spot", that will make you feel content, and not uncomfortable. It takes PRACTICE!!!!! And lots of it! Different food densities will give you different sensations, so don't think "ten bites of meat" will be the same as "ten bites of salad"..... Ah, learning to eat all over again! But once you get it, you should be fine! Good luck to you!

@@carolinacrumb88, I get it.

Here's my answer to the hunger question...I was allowed food immediately after surgery. My surgeon was very progressive when it came to introducing foods immediately. In fact, when I came home and started seeing a local bariatric surgeon for aftercare, I actually had to backtrack and go on fluids.

In the first couple of weeks after surgery, I started to feel what I thought was hunger - it wasn't hunger, it was acid. Many sleevers will be put on a PPI (proton pump inhibitor) post-op. Once you start to figure things out, you will know when you're supposed to feel hungry. I ate on the clock early on - I ate every 2-3 hours as my doctor suggested.

I hope this helps!

That has really helped me a lot as I am having exactly same issue! I have even put a couple of kg back on, but yet not going over 800cals a day! I am starving and just want food all the time but I think it's head hunger! But cud it be I have acid instead

@@McButterpants and @@CanyonBaby Thank you for your responses... very helpful! I actually didn't end up with the pump catheter thing (which I was grateful for because I would have had to pull out myself after going home!) but yes, everything is so new right now and so different from how I felt when I had lapband. Hunger and feeling full are soooo different and strange. I am now starting to get this little "burp" that seems to be a good indicator that I should stop and then I feel good and not overfull. I know each day will get easier but my stomach seems so confused right now (as expected when 85 percent of it is suddenly gone!)

Haha- when I saw your question I knew right away there'd be some backlash over it.

I ate some small bites of most anything I wanted after a week. You can bet your a** that some of our members here jumped all over me. So let me clarify: I do not recommend eating anything you want anytime you want. I'm just sayin what I did.

I ate bites of pizza, meat, chicken, etc. 2 or 2 small bites was plenty. After 2 or 3 weeks I ate whatever I wanted. 3 days out I sucked some cheesecake off the end of a spoon and let me tell you it was delicious. It never bothered me nor did I suffer any ill effects.

Just answering the question. That's it. It's been 2 years. I haven't stretched my sleeve, I didn't get a leak or stricture, and I have done pretty well.

@@sharonintx haha thank you very much for your very honest reply I definitely ate a bite of my fiance's chicken yesterday (like the smallest morsel that could be called a bite and chewed it to a pulp) and dissolved a ritz cracker in my mouth and ate that. We are human and imperfect and it makes me feel alot better to know that others have done things like this too and survived (and done well!). I am going to try to stick to my doc's recommendations as best as possible, but once again, we are human!

Today is my 7 day and I was hungry my daughter was eating pizza so I took some chicken soup just the broth my mom gave me and it was amazing didn't feel hungry after that!! Good luck

It is amazing to me that I can now (I'm 4 months out on the 4th) look at food (in a grocery store, restaurant, my husband's plate...) and NOT have it trigger me!!! I actually walked through the bakery of my local grocery and it DID NOT call my name! Today at the restaurant nothing appealed to me, and there were tons of things on the menu I would normally love to have. I ended up with a basic breakfast...one I could divide up for the next 3 meals (after I ate the egg on it!). Boring, huh? But I think it is GREAT as this was the result I wanted from my surgery...no cravings, no desire for things I shouldn't have, a life NOT revolving around food. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy my meals, but it doesn't CONTROL me anymore. HURRAY!!!

Ok. I'll admit it....all I crave is Chai-Spice iced tea! Try it with the unflavored protein powder.....awesome!

Yea mine was definitely acid that was making me feel hungry but I felt like I HAD to eat something other then liquids. I mean TWO weeks of liquids and then I just had two weeks of liquids for a pre op I was going insane. I ended up eating those to go Campbell soups cause they had lil tiny bits of chicken in the noodle soup. It made me mentally fell better but I still stuck to my eating phase 90% of the time! I'm sure it will work for you. Its not forever! Good luck!

@@carolinacrumb88 - why did you make a separate post about essentially the same thing?

@@BLERDgirl It was an accident... my internet was down earlier and said that it didn't actually post so I retried here and then my old post turned up. Shrugs.

Is this the thread where someone wants to do something they know they shouldn't do but are hoping to get justification from others to do it? And when they don't get the justification, they bristle and accuse people of being judgmental?

I thought so.

The way I see it, there are cheats that are bad for you in the sense that they can make you feel uncomfortable or nauseous.

Then there are cheats that are bad for you because they will slow your weight loss.

Then there are cheats that are bad for you because they could actually damage your new tummy while it is recovering.

To my mind, the one you need to worry most about is the third one. The first one you will learn yourself by trial and error - you will learn how to eat in a way that doesn't make you feel ill or uncomfortable. And it is different for everyone as to what makes them ill or uncomfortable.

The second one is a personal choice. Some people get WLS to change their lives 100%, and I fully respect that. These are people who make the decision that they don't want burgers or fried chicken or sweets in their life and they commit to that, and they usually do very well. But not everyone has WLS for that 100% change.

As an example, while I would love to get down to 150 lbs - if I end up at 200 lbs, I'm ok with that. I had WLS not because I want to be a perfect weight, but because I need, for my health, to be significantly lighter than I am. I want to eat less, and I want to eat better - I need to have a better relationship with unhealthy food. For me, that's not a total denial, but adopting the same moderate approach that everyone else can manage without surgery.

So if you want to cheat and the consequence is that it will slow your weight loss, that is a personal decision. You are an adult, and like most people who are overweight, you are probably acutely aware of what is healthy and unhealthy - you are able to make that decision for yourself.

It is the third cheat you need to be careful with - because becoming seriously ill due to a leak is not a choice you want to be making.

One of the issues I sometimes have on this site is that the three cheats get conflated - you ask a question about something wondering if it is dangerous to eat X or Y, and you'll get lots of advice about why eating X or Y will slow your weight loss. But you probably already know that.

I think we should all be clearer whether we think something should be avoided because it's dangerous, or because it's just a bad food decision.

i knwo your pain and mine was not head hunger, it was real deal stomach grinding hunger. I also thought it was heart burn and it was not cause i niped that in the bud with prilosec. It was hunger and stomach spasams. I stuck with the diet even though it was hard as hell. it will be over with soon. Just hang in there. You will be fine.

I was allowed full liquids as soon as I came home on the third day. At one week I was allowed to go on to purees. Baby food was disgusting, so I just put regular food in the blender and ate that. For chicken or veggies I added chicken broth (the homemade bone broth cooked with carrots, celery, onion, and garlic) that has actual nutrients.

At week two I started soft foods, but for meat I pretty much stayed with chicken because it was moist. Fish was too flakey and beef too course.

At 4 1/2 weeks I started whole cooked foods as tolerated. The first thing I went for, on the way home from the doctor's office was Wendy's chili. It was just a couple of bites, but at the time, it was the best food ever!

It is so easy to get impatient with the program our doctors have set in place. If you need a reminder of what just happened to your stomach, watch a Youtube video on your kind of operation. It will put your condition in perspective. There is a lot of healing that has to happen, and your stomach is counting on you to resist caving in to head hunger.

It still helps me to weigh and measure what I know I can handle, and then never eat the last bite.