Greetings

[hendeda1]

I'm nearly sold on the procedure and will be seeing my surgeon next week to arrange the operation. Just 1 question, post op does the hunger desire subside in line with your new stomach size ? I'm 287 ibs and looking for a reduction of 100lbs.

[RehabNurse]

Welcome.

Hunger is greatly diminished in most, but not all, sleeved patients due to a substantial decrease in secretion of the hunger hormone ghrelin and changes in other gut hormones that affect satiety.

Personally, it was as if the surgery flipped a temporary switch in me. My hunger was insatiable until I awakened from the surgery...from that point forward, I was no longer hungry and profoundly uninterested in food.

However, my hunger and appetite did return sometime between the 8th and 9th month post-op. Still, the hunger I have today at 2+ years out is not nearly as intense as the type I experienced prior to the sleeve.

Good luck to you.

[hendeda1]

Thanks for the reply. I guess it will differ person to person, fingers crossed, hopefully everything will be fine. I'm a pretty chilled out person most of the time anyway.

[GigiUSA]

Welcome to the site! You are in the right place for amazing support and a wealth of information and experience from countless others traveling along the same journey. Everyone here is fantastic!! As you move forward, be sure to post your experiences so you can help others too. Most importantly ~ here's wishing you MUCH SUCCESS (hugs)

[NYCGIRL000]

I don't know about anyone else but before surgery I had an insatiable appetite! Could eat all day and never feel full. After surgery (5 weeks ago) while I was still on liquids I felt very hungry. Now that I went to solids, two little bites fills me up for hours and hours. I can't eat more then two bites of anything, I rarely feel hunger now thank God lol

[Ann2]

From someone 3 years out, hunger will return. Real hunger. So will head hunger (for most). Learning how to feed that hunger with food and eating habits that satisfy and satiate is required.

But three years out, I really can't say whether my hunger is lower than it used to be or if I have just built so many good, healthy habits in three years that I'm able to negotiate hunger and respond to it more responsibly than I used to.

But I do inow that post-op I've just been paying a helluva lot better attention to hunger and food than I ever did pre-op. And I know that's helped.

[Christie13]

I am only hungry when I actually need to eat. I am so thankful I had this surgery.

[hendeda1]

Hi All
Started my pre-op diet yesterday. 2 weeks to surgery. Me thinks I will be soon sick of jelly and milk !!

[sraebaer]

Early on you are not hungry at all. It's amazing! Makes losing weight a breeze.

Problem is, sadly, the hunger returns. Can't remember when, but now at 4 years out I get hungry like anyone else. But the thing is that now at 4 years out I've learned how to eat, I have changed my lifestyle, so I can deal with the hunger. This new eating lifestyle has become a habit, just like exercising.

Best of luck to you1

[Gvn71]

Hunger for me was gone for about 4 months post op. Then it returned but not nearly as intense or strong as before. Head hunger is an entirely different story. The day I got home from the hospital post surgery my first stop was at the fridge which I opened as if looking for something..... My wife said, "what are you doing?" and I realized at that moment how ingrained food was in my life. Head hunger is something I still deal with (Everyday!!) and have to remind myself not to eat when I don't need to. It is definitely a challenge some days.

I can actually say I do not miss eating all the crap I used to eat. And it was crap. I've definitely replaced what I used to snack on with healthy options in much smaller portions.

Everybody is obviously different and will have different experiences, but for now hunger is not the factor it used to be.

[Linda51]

My hunger issues pre-op had more to do with emotions and boredom than with actual physical hunger. Obviously the surgeon didn't remove that part of my brain. (If only that were possible!) As long as I'm busy, hunger is not an issue. In fact, when my husband knows that I'm going to be busy most of the day, he calls me to remind me to eat because I will go all day, until I physically crash, without eating. This is not a healthy situation and I know it. I'm becoming much more regimented with my schedule, even on weekends, so that eating at a certain time every day, each meal, will become an automatic habit. I do experience real, physical hunger, but often not until it's been way too long since the last meal. The flip side of this is the evening time when I'm home alone and bored. That's when I have to exercise all my self control not to fall back into bad habits. I allow myself one evening, healthy snack. If I'm still hungry after that (probably not real hunger), I find something to drink to distract my hunger urge. Being a night owl does not help--it just gives me more time to fill.