Does the surgery really take your hunger away?

[RussianBlue_x2]

Yet another question from me So for the people that have had surgery has it made your hunger go away completely or just decreased or stayed the same?

I still get hungry every day, sometimes a stomach-growling "I have to eat right now or I'm going to pass out" hungry. However, I eat some small thing or healthy snack and I'm fine. I have been exercising a lot, and I imagine my body is trying to tell me to eat more. The good thing is that this hunger is manageable with a small snack or small meal. I'm working very hard on training myself not to want to pile a huge plate full just because I feel really hungry; the temptation is there in the back of my mind, but I know better. The rational side of my brain knows that this is an old, BAD habit that I need to fight off all the time, until I develop new, healthier habits.

[b.good]

Does feeling full feel the same after the sleeve as before the sleeve? (Sorry if that doesn't make sense)

[cowgirljane]

I feel hunger, but it is different. It isn't constant, it happens after not eating for several hours and alot of time it is stopped by drinking fluids. It is satiated by eating fairly small amounts. I don't feel that "shaky" I am gonna die if I don't eat feeling at all. Pre surgery, I felt hungry almost all the time, abnormally frequent. I was generally hungry again within 1-2 hours of a meal.

I think that over the long haul, we need to retrain ourselves to not look for a "full" feeling but rather to be satisfied with a "not hungry" or satiated feeling.

[Gwyn]

Yet another question from me So for the people that have had surgery has it made your hunger go away completely or just decreased or stayed the same?

Thanks again

I'm not sure that it's removed all of my hunger, but has had a HUGE impact on my appetite. I get hungry at meal times just like "normal" people, but I really don't have the desire to constantly eat. Occasionally I will get an old craving, and it's usually from being used to eating during a particular activity more than from wanting any actual food. The different really is amazing.

[Karon4004]

Does feeling full feel the same after the sleeve as before the sleeve? (Sorry if that doesn't make sense)

No. It's a different feeling. For me it is anyway. When I'm full now it feels as tho the food is high up in the stomach, almost in my throat. It's a horrible feeling and can be quite painful. Luckily its only happened twice and both times I had to vomit up that bit that wouldn't go down. You soon learn how much you can eat. I seem to be able to eat about 4 oz and its time to stop

[wizman]

I was hungry all the time after the surgery until I had a doctor point out I was still taking insulin- that was driving the hunger and keeping me fat, I hadn't lost weight in 60 days. Changed up my meds, no insulin, and I started dropping a pound a day again, and never hungry. I think the real test is when you get involved in a project so intensely that you look up at the clock at 5 pm and think, "Hmm, I forgot to eat lunch~"...

[UK Tim]

Supporters of the sleeve argue that it's huge benefit is that it reduces the stomach by some eighty per cent, therefore severely limiting the production of the hunger hormone, ghrelin.With a band, you don't lose the hunger. So that you stay hungry, unable to eat enough to stop the hunger. Sounds the like the plot from a Stephen King book, personally....

But as the colleagues above have indicated, it may be different for you, for we are all different in our own unique way...

[blsmom]

In one simple word....NO. I was told that lie before I got my gastric sleeve. They remove the part of the stomach that produces the hunger hormone. Really? Couldn't tell by me. I was never so hungry in all my life. My stomach felt as though it would eat itself.

If anyone insults me again and tells me that it's not hunger and I'm just feeling the need to eat, I'll tell u bologna! I am 52 yrs. old and I know the difference between real hunger and just wanting to eat.

Additionally, the weight did not fall off of me as they said it would either. Just being truthful. The surgeon had not one iota of information of help to offer me when I had this problem. They scoped me and said everything looked perfectly wonderful. No ulcer, no problem.

If you are one of the lucky ones that does not feel hunger....God bless you. I did and still do when it's time to eat. At first when i was eating such small amounts that was almost constantly that I was in "hunger pain."

when I started really losing weight was when my primary care doctor put me on metformin to help my body use it's insulin better. Even though my fasting blood sugar is always normal.

So that is the truth that others may not admit. I have lost approximately 20 pounds prior to surg. and 50 pounds after. The first two months after surgery when I was sooo hungry I lost almost nothing. I would go to the surgeon and the scale would not have budged. Was very depressing and frustrating.

Good luck with your experience. We are all different.

[AmyR]

I still get hungry when I don't eat, but my portions have decreased considerably!! I don't have cravings at all which is HUGE for me. Most of the time I do have to remind myself I need to eat.

[jno86]

ohhhhhhhhhh my hunger feels the same as before surgery. but it takes 2 secs to get full LOL thats the easiest way to explain it!

[cowgirljane]

I think many if not most of the people who responded state they do still feel hunger, it is reduced and it is satiated with a lot less food. At least so far, for me, that is a true statement.

I have had a few times when I had a strong desire to eat. I would have told someone "I am hungry" but it really felt more like a drive to eat. There is alot of conditioning that goes into a lifetime of eating habits, and I don't mean just for obese people Even normal weight people have an innate drive to eat and that is slow to re-program.

I guess the key differences are that I no longer have that 24/7 drive to eat, I am satiated with smaller amounts of food, but I do still experience hunger.

The downside, in my book anyway, is that you still have to work at it, you still have to follow some sort of discipline (ie eating small meals/snacks and not grazing, protein first, etc etc) so frankly it is like being on a diet. It is an easier to follow diet though because I don't need as much food to feel comfortable. I knew this going in, the weight loss for most of us doesn't come magically free, and yet, at times I really wish it wasn't true and I wish I could just eat whatever and still lose great. Sadly, that is not the case.

I had the lapband for 10 years and so far, it is a very different experience, but I am pretty new to being sleeved.

[Grace]

Does feeling full feel the same after the sleeve as before the sleeve? (Sorry if that doesn't make sense)

Yes, but, only if you think of it as feeling full like Thanksgiving but on 4 oz of food. I had a big stomach prior to surgery. A McD value meal with xlarge everything could easily be followed up 15 min later by 1/2 a Saralee cheesecake. Seriously. Now? A cup of chobani or 4 oz of Wendy's chili eaten too quickly (less than 20 min) has me gasping for air I feel so full. Today I thought I'd try some smartpop with my grandson. I literally had a dozen pieces and I felt lousy.
And.. No, because I don't really ever recall feeling full before my surgery. On Thanksgiving I might have filled my stomach up, in a literal sense but I never actually had that feeling in my brain that said - "I'm full, time to stop". Now, I most definitely do.

This isn't a miracle. It's just a tool and that tool has most likely saved my life. If I still feel hungry, If I still have to count ever carb gram and journal my food for the rest of my life - sitting with my laptop in a nursing home... then it is worth it to me. If having the sleeve means I have a better chance to continue with healthier eating, even if I don't get any lower than my goal of 185 (which must really make some people wonder).. then I will undoubtedly have added a few years to my life. In those years I might meet my great-great grandchild. I might find the best girlfriend who has eluded me all my life. I might act, sing, write. I might just sit and contemplate my naval... but I'll be here, and I won't be in constant pain, or if I am, it won't be because I am carrying around 150 lbs on my body I do not need.

off my soapbox, and off to bed... early to bed early to rise around here. Up at 4 am... have a fine night my friends!

[TucsonAmy]

I'm over 6 months out and I still don't ever get those " Damn I'm starving" moments its great!!!! I have to fight head hunger and probably always will, after all that is how I got to where I was to begin with. But just like an alcoholic as long as I admit to having a problem with it i hope I can control it. Hi I'm buddy and I'm a snackaholic....

Buddy, you look awesome!!!

[grammargirl0309]

In one simple word....NO. I was told that lie before I got my gastric sleeve. They remove the part of the stomach that produces the hunger hormone. Really? Couldn't tell by me. I was never so hungry in all my life. My stomach felt as though it would eat itself.

If anyone insults me again and tells me that it's not hunger and I'm just feeling the need to eat, I'll tell u bologna! I am 52 yrs. old and I know the difference between real hunger and just wanting to eat.

Additionally, the weight did not fall off of me as they said it would either. Just being truthful. The surgeon had not one iota of information of help to offer me when I had this problem. They scoped me and said everything looked perfectly wonderful. No ulcer, no problem.

If you are one of the lucky ones that does not feel hunger....God bless you. I did and still do when it's time to eat. At first when i was eating such small amounts that was almost constantly that I was in "hunger pain."

when I started really losing weight was when my primary care doctor put me on metformin to help my body use it's insulin better. Even though my fasting blood sugar is always normal.

So that is the truth that others may not admit. I have lost approximately 20 pounds prior to surg. and 50 pounds after. The first two months after surgery when I was sooo hungry I lost almost nothing. I would go to the surgeon and the scale would not have budged. Was very depressing and frustrating.

Good luck with your experience. We are all different.

Maybe you were so hungry because your insulin production/blood sugar was out of whack? That does not sound typical to me.

[GENNY]

yes its an amazing difference!