Hello! I'm a 29 year old woman who just had surgery on the 14th of this month, and it went well.

However, I'm absolutely starving, to the point where all I can think of is food! It's driving me crazy. No matter what I'm doing, no matter how I try to distract myself, I can't stop thinking about food, and my stomach is growling constantly.

I've been having issues with protein, since I can't seem to stomach the sweet powders, but I did get some in today with some broth. I just don't know how I'm going to make it until next Wednesday, when I'll hopefully be approved for soft foods.

Did anyone else experience this? How did you manage?

While most of us lose our hunger & desire to eat after surgery, there are odd cases when people don’t. What you could be experiencing is head hunger especially if food was a comfort to you. You’ve had a pretty major surgery, are stressed, likely emotional, & your hormones may be a bit off so wanting to comfort yourself is a pretty common reaction. And because you can’t have food you want it more.

In most cases a grumbling tummy does not mean you’re hungry unlike we were always told. The rumbles are usually just your digestive system working. Are you on a PPI to reduce your stomach acid? You’re still making what you used to need which is too much for your much smaller tummy & lower food intake. Excess tummy acid can make you think you’re hungry too.

Oh, yes I found the shakes awful too. I diluted one in the morning, sipped it for hours & then relied on soups (bone broths are great but can be salty but cream soups & consommés are fine too) for other meals. You could make your own shake using a unflavoured protein powder & milk, blend a high protein up yoghurt with milk to make a yoghurt drink, etc. you don’t have to have just those pre made shakes.

All the best.

Im 9 days post op and cannot stomach the flavored/sweet proteins. I bought whey proteins without any fillers or taste, just pure whey, and it mixes very well in water and does not have a taste!! Might be worth looking into it.

I'm sorry you are struggling with hunger, this must be pretty hard

I never lost my hunger when I had my sleeve. It really sucked. Ironically, when I had the revision to the bypass, I lost hunger. I'm now 1 week shy of being 3 months post op from the revision and I still don't have much in the way of hunger. Try having the unflavored protein shakes, since the flavored is too sweet. Have mostly broths and anything else you can that has protein in it. Right now, that's the most important thing. Definitely get your fluids and protein in.

On 9/20/2023 at 12:58 PM, SpacePossumSupreme said:

I absolutely understand! I went through a LOT of hunger, yes, my stomach growled a lot too, empty or full of broth, different sounds and sensations but I could definitely tell when I was hungry.

I heard years ago after (waste of money ) lap band surgery an expression of "head hunger" and it was when you WANT food, or see/smell food and your body isn't ACTUALLY hungry but your mind is screaming that it is time to eat and you want to eat.

I think I actually experienced it post conversion from Lapband to Gastric Bypass in August. My body would not feel hungry after eating or within a 2-3 hour window but I could smell food and I would immediately think I was hungry.

My surgeon had me do 3 WEEKS of clear liquids! It felt like actual torture bc the broth did NOT fill me up for more than what seemed like an hour or so and then I was hungry again! miserable time.

I was only allowed clear broth, Jell-o or juice or the Ensure Clear Protein drinks (yuck, sicky sweet) and halfway through the 3rd week I added in cream soups to my broth to give me some relief as I was waking up in the night with hunger pains and a growling stomach. I didn't see which surgery you had listed and I'm not sure if it matters as far as post op diet in the beginning, I've seen some were on liquids for 2-4 weeks pre-op and 2-4 weeks post op and some with variations in between. As hard as my 3 weeks were I can't imagine any longer. I hear there is a clear protein you can add to drinks or broth? maybe that can help some. The cream soup was a godsend for me. I'm still happy I got the surgery even though I had a major stall from a thyroid catastrophe and now that I'm back on a higher dose of thyroid meds starting to lose again (still only down 35 lbs) I would do it again bc the biggest improvement for me so far is that my blood sugar levels are the lowest they've been in at least a decade and I'm off many medications. Over the course of a year it will save us literally THOUSANDS of dollars on medication alone (not to mention food savings)and improve my health in so many big ways.

Good luck.

Hello! I'm a 29 year old woman who just had surgery on the 14th of this month, and it went well.

However, I'm absolutely starving, to the point where all I can think of is food! It's driving me crazy. No matter what I'm doing, no matter how I try to distract myself, I can't stop thinking about food, and my stomach is growling constantly.

I've been having issues with Protein, since I can't seem to stomach the sweet powders, but I did get some in today with some broth. I just don't know how I'm going to make it until next Wednesday, when I'll hopefully be approved for soft foods.

Did anyone else experience this? How did you manage?