Hunger: AM I ALONE?

The Doctor, Nurse and Nutritionist all say the same thing: It's 'Head Hunger'! I

'm here to say: NO THE H3LL IT'S NOT!!!

I get hungry every hour. Sure, I can't eat a lot (which is great), but my stomach hurts from hunger pains, so much so that I have to at least have a grape on hand. I tried drinking instead, but no, my stomach says, "Feed me, now!"

I was told that during this surgery, the doc removes the part of your stomach that contains the hunger hormone....He is an excellent Doctor, but I think either my hunger hormone was somewhere else or he forgot to grab it on the way out!

Has anyone else experienced this?!!?

P.S. Need some friends, please add me?

You are not alone...lol!!! See my recent post whining about how much I wanted some fricking scrambled eggs even though I'm not even 10 days post-op.

Blessings!

Brie

I know you feel my pain Brie! I think our hunger hormones were left behind, but I won't give permission for him to go back in and get it. What kind of things are you eating now? Maybe I can offer some variety?

How far out are you from surgery?  I will say this - the first couple of weeks when I was post op were really hard.  I really felt hungry but it is/was mostly a mental thing I swear.  For me, it was mostly because I COULDN'T eat solid foods/foods I wanted that made it hard.  Living with other people makes it hard too.  My husband would still have to eat like a normal human being so when he was cooking/eating it was especially hard for me.  I had to physically remove myself from the room because I swear the gnawing feeling in my stomach was real.  Additionally, watching TV sucked too.  Most commercials are food related and the cooking channels?? Forget it!

Once I was able to be on semi-solid foods (purees mostly) it got a lot better.  The sensation of chewing helped even though my food was pureed.  I'd say I started feeling slightly normal again about 3-4 months out.  The more foods I got to add back into my diet, the better it became and my hunger would subside.

If you are farther out than that, then all I can really say is maybe you have a bigger sleeve than most of us and that is frustrating.  I'm sorry and I wish you all the best!

Yeah, my sleeve may be chunkier than most because I get hunger for sure. I also get head hunger too, but that is easier to ignore because I'm 4 weeks out today. I can't wait until I can say I'm 4 months out lol 

Are you taking an acid reducer like Prilosec, Nexium or even Pepcid?  Because what you're describing sounds like acid.  If not, ask your doc to give you a recommendation for which one to try.  If you are, then you might want to up the dosage or try a different one.

I agree you might need an acid reducer or if you already take one, you might need a stronger one.  it really helped me in the first few months.

Oh, yeah...  I was told more than once I wouldn't feel hungry for possibly years, and I'd need to remember to eat because i wouldn't think about it.

WRONG!

That might have been true for the first couple of weeks, but I definitely get hungry. Not every hour as you said, but come lunch and dinner time, I'm ready to eat. Doesn't take much to satisfy, but the need to eat is definitely there. I have always been one to not be really hungry in the morning and used to not eat until afternoon -- something my PCP often lectured me on -- so sometimes I have to make myself eat breakfast. Later, though, I'm ready so I pack breakfast, lunch, and a mid-afternoon snack for work.

So you are not alone.

Hi, I'm going to put in my two cents for what it's worth. Take it or leave it.

I think you have a multi layered thing going on here.

First, and very importantly, ghrelin (the "hunger hormone") just doesn't vanish the day of surgery. It takes a while sometimes a good several weeks for the full effects of ghrelin to subside.

Second, you have a very small stomach now, but your acid pumps, so to speak, have not been turned off and have to adjust to the new volume and capacity of your stomach. When too much acid is produced you stomach may growl and have real physical symptoms that are identical to hunger for many people. This happened to me, but a little farther out from surgery. I would suggest trying a pepcid or zantac, if you are not on anything for acid. Of course, call your surgeon's office to verify that this is okay for you. (My surgeon had me on pepcid for the first few months just as a preventative.)

And third, mental issues can come into play. For me, "head hunger" (emotional hunger, cravings, whatever you want to call them) can honestly mimic real, physical hunger. Head hunger can be very intense and very real. There are specific ways to deal with these issues, too. Cognitive Behavior Modification is a great tool for this. You might want to get the Beck Diet Solution Workbook. It's a great resource.

 I honestly would start with number 2 and see if taking an H2 blocker (Pepcid or Zantac) or even a PPI (Prilosec OTC or Protonix) helps with your issues.

Good luck and don't despair. Don't give up. Make them listen to you and get them to at least try a few things before dismissing your symptoms as head hunger.

I also was told to take Pepcid after surgery.  There was a point at about 3 months out that I had stopped taking it and I kept feeling hungry.  I wasn't sure if it was time to up my food or if it was acid because I had read that acid in your stomach mimics hunger pains.  It scared me to death to up my calories.  I started taking pepcid again and the feeling went away.  That told me it was all in my head and that I needed to go back onto pepcid again for a while.