Hunger pains question...
If so After the VSG does this feeling go away due to lack of the hormone?
For me, the answer is yes. I don't know how long it will last but I'm over 6 weeks out and I don't think about eating. I don't want to eat and I don't look forward to my meals. I don't have a problem eating my meals, and have not nausea or anything like that, I just have no hunger, no appetite and no cravings. I have noticed over the last couple of days that I've had visions of eating junk food. But those thoughts fade. Even when I smell good food, it smells good, and even smells like it would taste good. But when I think of actually eating it, I think, ugh. Since we have to eat slowly and take small bites, which means it's easier to eat mindfully, the thought of shoveling food is not appealing.
So for me, I'm loving the sleeve because I don't think of food at all.
I have to make myself eat. I am really not hungry most of the time. The only times that I actually feel hungry is when I don't eat my meals throughout the day and then I want to eat at night that is my fault. I get busy doing other things and forget to eat! It usually only takes a few bites of something and then I am satisfied but there is no way I can make up for all the protein I missed during the day. It is important to plan your meals so that you can spread them out and get all of your protein in each day. Make yourself it or your body will fight against you and you also won't have much energy.
I am going to say that it is head hunger. I am a year out and think of food constantly, but have to remind myself to eat and forget to eat. I am still not hungry, but I just believe I love food so much that its an addiction that I have to control and still have trouble with, I dont think its your hunger hormone (grehlen), I think its your head hunger. The feeling probably wont go away because its in your head. (IMO)
I think the answer from most will be yes, but to give you the opposing perspective ... for me, no. While I do not think about food all day long (I used to think about it a lot more), I still feel hunger and I think it came back around one week post-op or so. I do think that food keeps me full a lot longer these days, so it isn't as big of an issue as my completely insatiable hunger was before surgery. I will say that I feel like it's helped me to just learn how to deal with the hunger better. I worried pre-op that if I wasn't hungry for 4-6 months, then suddenly it came back, I would have problems staying on plan, so I feel like I don't have to worry as much about how it's going to be in 6 months or a year. It's always going to take effort and control, but I'm not 6 months out just now figuring out how to deal with it. Everyone says on here some variation on: Surgery will not fix your head. If you have issues with food, you'll have to work on those. The VSG will make it a lot easier (after all, I can't eat the quantities that I used to eat pre-op), but it can't fix everything for ya. I am sure you know that. :)
Regardless of feeling hunger and thinking about food (my snackiness has also not gone away - just had to learn how to deal with it, which is to keep myself busy), I'm so glad that I did this. I've not regretted it for a second. Good luck!
