HI all,

I got sleeved last Wednesday 1/24. I have been very blessed that my recovery has been great! Even thought I am slow I am getting my protein and water in. However yesterday I noticed that my stomach is growling...likes I am hungry? It does not go away even after I drink water or have protein. This is odd, I am trying to not give in because I cannot imagine that I am hungry when my stomach was cut into 1/4 of its size. I am getting my walks in already, and being able to move pretty well.

Is this possible? It feels as though I did not even has surgery!

Your stomach is still healing (6-8 weeks PO), and it still hasn't adjusted to your smaller stomach size. It will get better over time.

3 minutes ago, BigZ said:

Your stomach is still healing (6-8 weeks PO), and it still hasn't adjusted to your smaller stomach size. It will get better over time.

so its normal? Is the key to just continue on the plan and eventually it goes away?

Yes, I felt that way until I was onto the puree stage and could suffice the hunger/growling with a little bit of food with consistency. I am assuming you are still on liquid only at this point? You are used to eating food, and your stomach is looking for it, liquids pass through pretty quick, it is essentially a funnel, it comes in and out pretty quick (~5 minutes). Once you get puree foods they last a bit longer in the stomach so the growling etc will go away.

Just now, BigZ said:

Yes, I felt that way until I was onto the puree stage and could suffice the hunger/growling with a little bit of food with consistency. I am assuming you are still on liquid only at this point? You are used to eating food, and your stomach is looking for it, liquids pass through pretty quick, it is essentially a funnel, it comes in and out pretty quick (~5 minutes). Once you get puree foods they last a bit longer in the stomach so the growling etc will go away.

AHHHH!!! okay! I needed the science behind it lol! Yes I am on modified liquids so I can have strained cream soups, yogurts ect....Sweet! thank you, I thought I was going bananas

OMG, I posted the same thing last night! I also had my sleeve done on 1/24 and I am shocked to find that I am actually having hunger pangs and growling. I'm at the same stage...full liquid, but I can have cream soups, sugar free pudding, yogurt, protein shakes, etc. I have to thin the yogurt with some skim milk to tolerate it and even then it's not great. Today I am going to add some Isopure flavorless protein powder to pudding. I think if I can get more protein in, I might feel less hungry. I'm drinking Protein 2 0 water and protein shakes in addition to plain water. I'm sorry you're feeling hungry but I'm relieved to find that it's somewhat normal. Good luck!

5 minutes ago, Nan CC said:

OMG, I posted the same thing last night! I also had my sleeve done on 1/24 and I am shocked to find that I am actually having hunger pangs and growling. I'm at the same stage...full liquid, but I can have cream Soups, sugar free pudding, yogurt, Protein Shakes, etc. I have to thin the yogurt with some skim milk to tolerate it and even then it's not great. Today I am going to add some Isopure flavorless Protein Powder to pudding. I think if I can get more Protein in, I might feel less hungry. I'm drinking Protein 2 0 Water and protein shakes in addition to plain water. I'm sorry you're feeling hungry but I'm relieved to find that it's somewhat normal. Good luck!

Thank you for commenting! I thought I was doing something wrong or stretched out my stomach already! lol! guess its part of the process! Water has always been a struggle for me even pre-op so I am trying to just focus on water and protein and make sure I hit those goals. We got this!!

It might not be hunger, it's rare to actually feel that so soon. It's more likely digestive noises. They are loud and often early on. They do calm down over time, but even now at nearly 9 months out I do get noisy still on occasion. Especially with fluid or after eating watermelon.

I woke up hungry in post op recovery... It really annoyed me. LOL Some of us never lose our hunger with surgery.

The stomach growling is normal and it isn't always a sign you are hungry. These are just digestive sounds and since your digestive system is spending more time empty, the sounds are louder and more frequent. Swelling can impact this too. For the first two weeks whenever I drank I felt like it was going down a drain, I could feel the displacement of air and even heard gurgling! It was soooo strange! As has been said above, once you are in the soft food stage and food is staying in your stomach longer, these sounds might ease up.

Also, contrary to popular belief, it is VERY hard to stretch out your stomach with the sleeve surgery!! This is because our sleeve is made out of stomach tissue that is less stretchy than the rest of the stomach. It takes months, sometimes years, for it to relax enough that you can eat your normal bariatric portions. And some people always have high restriction... But even when you can eat bigger portions, it is still rare to stretch out your sleeve. Most stories you hear of it are from people whose first sleeve surgery wasn't done properly. Or else they were overeating by a significant amount at every meal over a loooong period of time! My surgeon told me this is actually quite rare, because the less stretchy stomach material means you are much more likely to just vomit if you try to overeat than to actually be successful enough with it you stretch out your sleeve. I found that very reassuring!!

In most cases, your stomach growling is just your digestive system doing its job of digesting food and nothing to do with hunger (despite what we were always told). Your tummy is a muscle that contracts & expands as it digests what you are eating & moves that food through your digestive system. All that squishing & squelching is noisy. At the moment, it’s probably spasming to some degree too as a result of the surgery & the shock to your system. (All those cut nerves, cut tummy.)

I’m 4.75yrs out & mine still rumbles & growls like my own personal poltergeist. It will grumble, rumble, whine & groan while I’m eating & even just drinking water for up to an hour or two after so certainly nothing to do with hunger. (It’s doing it now LOL!)

My nieces & nephew think it’s hilarious. Sometimes they put their heads on my lap just to see if they can hear my tummy. Can be embarrassing at times though.

Edited January 31, 20242 yr by Arabesque

Typically the growling noise is just fluids moving through the small intestine, and not an actual hunger cue, just as@Arabesque said. You will still feel hungry early on post-op because your body is used to a lot more calories than you're able to give it for now, but that encourages more fat burning. Your body will adjust to its new normal in several weeks though. It will calm down some, but it may be more noisy going forward because you have that direct funnel to the small intestine where fluids like to make noise.

My stomach also growls SO Loud , it's embarrassing ! It doesn't register in my head that I'm hungry . I do think it's just digestive noises.

On 1/30/2024 at 4:16 PM, ChunkCat said:

Also, contrary to popular belief, it is VERY hard to stretch out your stomach with the sleeve surgery!! This is because our sleeve is made out of stomach tissue that is less stretchy than the rest of the stomach. It takes months, sometimes years, for it to relax enough that you can eat your normal bariatric portions. And some people always have high restriction... But even when you can eat bigger portions, it is still rare to stretch out your sleeve. Most stories you hear of it are from people whose first sleeve surgery wasn't done properly. Or else they were overeating by a significant amount at every meal over a loooong period of time! My surgeon told me this is actually quite rare, because the less stretchy stomach material means you are much more likely to just vomit if you try to overeat than to actually be successful enough with it you stretch out your sleeve. I found that very reassuring!!

Very reassuring!! I haven’t been giving into the growls just did I thought after this surgery I would never want food again ??

23 hours ago, Arabesque said:

In most cases, your stomach growling is just your digestive system doing its job of digesting food and nothing to do with hunger (despite what we were always told). Your tummy is a muscle that contracts & expands as it digests what you are eating & moves that food through your digestive system. All that squishing & squelching is noisy. At the moment, it’s probably spasming to some degree too as a result of the surgery & the shock to your system. (All those cut nerves, cut tummy.)

I’m 4.75yrs out & mine still rumbles & growls like my own personal poltergeist. It will grumble, rumble, whine & groan while I’m eating & even just drinking Water for up to an hour or two after so certainly nothing to do with hunger. (It’s doing it now LOL!)

My nieces & nephew think it’s hilarious. Sometimes they put their heads on my lap just to see if they can hear my tummy. Can be embarrassing at times though.

Thank you! I feel reassured after posting!