Appetite suppression - when did it kick in ??

First topic message reminder :

Hi I'm worried cause I'm over 3 weeks post-op and still want to eat just like before. Was wondering how long after the op. the appetite suppression kicked in ??
Thanks.
Catherine

Oh right - in that case, I definitely agree with you. A healthy hunger and appetite and easily appeased is wonderful, isn't it?
Chris

oh no i knew hayley's was different to normal - what i meant was more a general comment that there seems to be some kind of ideal that we'll never be hungry again after this surgery. and for quite a while after the surgery, i didn't get hungry. then, i'd start to get hungry, but had no appetite. now i have both hunger and appetite and think that's great! there's nothing like being hungry and having an appetite and having a small, healthy meal that you really enjoy, and then being perfectly sastisifed. i just don't want people to think you're never going to be hungry again - and indeed why would you want that in the first place?

Oh, Hayley, it tricked me because it wasn't a different colour or underlined or anything! Thanks lovely!
Jacquilove, if you go and read that section, you'll find that it wasn't a normal hunger, but a huge hunger that never went away that poor Hayley was dealing with. The hunger you're talking about is normal - what we'd all like to be, with our eating - but hers wasn't.
Chris

is there really a problem with getting hungry? it's just the body's way of telling us it needs some energy, in the same way that pain tells us there is something hurting us/ something wrong. i'm ten weeks post-op, and i get hungry which i use as a reminder to eat breakfast/ lunch/ dinner/ have a snack. then after a very small portion of food i am satisfied. i find i'm hungry more frequently that i used to be which makes sense - it doesn't take long for the body to digest the food and get empty again. so i'm doing the three meals and two snacks a day thing - but overall the amount of food is minimal. and i'm losing weight rapidly. do we really need to be scared of hunger?

Going back to appetite suppression- while I would love to eat a sandwich I am definitely not hungry. I am only ten days out though and I live in fear of the hunger returning. Will let you know how it progresses.

Mareeki - if you click on the link that Hayley is talking about you will find the notation from me that I couldn't even make one day on Slim Fast so that is a good sign for everyone else.

In fact it is taking me about a day to get down one Greek yogurt, a few ice pops and 2 tablespoons of hummus.

Click on "Here" from "Here is the link..."

:)

Um, Hayley, where is the link?

Hi Mareeki,

Here is the link to the conversation I was having about the hunger issue. While its been a huge struggle for me, the situation is easing. Follow the link and I am sure you will feel much better about your concerns. I know I am.

Hayley

Hi there Hayley and Kittycat

How you're going with the hunger and the weight loss. Are you still feeling hungry or is it better. I'm really scared that this may happen to me I have my first appointment on Friday and can't wait.

LOL, my hair is fine, but I have loads of it, and I am very lucky. But if I didnt have such loads of hair, it would show very very easily that I am losing it. Anyways, I did a little review on Nioxin in another thread, I realise that its my fault we went off topic here, please anyone, tell me off if I go off topic, I admit I am a really bad one for it.
I won't be upset, more glad!!
I love this farty guy!

Hayley

Well that's interesting, girls. Sorry you're having a problem with your hair - I could stand to lose about half of mine, because it's so thick! Shall I pull it out and send it over for you? LOL
Chris

My hair is falling out in the bucket loads, you can even tell that its getting thin on top.
This cannot have anything to do with the amount of/or lack of protein in my diet as I was so thorough with my protein intake, infact, I have never eaten so much protein.
My doctor says that when you lose so much weight in a short amount of time, the body shuts off certain direction of nutrients so that it can protect main areas of the body. So hair and nails are the first to luck out.
Thats just me though.

Hayley

someone in my support group lost so much hair she now wheres a (hideous) wig.......she reckons she eats lots of protein too so rather unfair.

Okay, Apple, that's a little clearer. Thanks. I have no idea what they do with bypass patients in the US, so there you go.
Chris

I agree with you there Chris. My surgeon always stresses getting enough protein as well.

Protein doesn't put on fat and I've also heard that you can lose hair through not having enough protein.

When you lose weight not only do you lose fat but you can also lose muscle. Muscle is your best friend as it is one of the biggest factors which determines how many calories you burn in a day. The more muscle you have the more calories you burn and the better your wieght loss. There are 2 things you can do to preserve your muscle mass, excercise and consuming adequate amounts of protein, which is why such an emphasis is placed on protein intake at all points in our post surgery life.

steph

chris I think you are misunderstanding what I am saying. It is a preference for any healthy diet to make protien your priority in food choice. It is just not something that needs to be put to the extremes that it is done in the USA with bi-pass patients and all the protien suplements and speciliest food that they consume in order to get the amounts of protien into stomachs even smaller than our new ones.

I was saying that for a matter of a few weeks forcing yourself to try and eat anything you found uncomfortable or unpleasant was just not worth it when you would be eating normally in a few weeks time and to try more normal type hits of protien sources like the good old fashioned baked bean with cheese. BUT no matter what do not go against your surgeons directions. With a bi-pass patient i was different they where stuck with those protien problems for life and MUST learn to suck up those protien shakes and other yucky suplements where a normal sleever should be able to get all their protien from a good healthy diet once they had healed.
I hope that cleared it up a bit :)

applesauce

Well, sorry, apple, but I have to disagree.
My doc, who is an Aussie who is very experienced with sleeves, insists on lots of protein - something to do with losing muscle instead of fat if you don't have enough protein in your diet.
Also, I've heard that if you don't get enough protein in your diet, you can lose your hair.
Shanna, ice blocks do count towards your fluid intake. No problem, if you stick to the low sugar ones - just like diet cordial.
Also, 50g of protein from meat or similar is not 50g of protein powder - I checked this with my dietician. I'll have to dig out my notes to be sure, but I think it was something like 15g of protein powder a day gets you all the protein you need. Because meat has other things as well as protein.
There's a post-op thread with recipes somewhere that will be helpful to you right now.
Best of luck.
Chris

getting your protien in is a bit of a white elephant when it comes to sleeves. It is a myth that comes from the US the land of bi-pass where it is so very very important to get get that protien in because of the bi-pass part of the surgery. With a sleeve it is only a matter of weeks before you will be eating a pretty much normal diet again. the chances of any deficences occuring are pretty much zero in that time frame. the only reason to try and get more protien in is if you are experencing hunger. Other than that just really try and get down what works easily and comfortably for you. Here in Australia there are certainly not dozens of protien drinks and foods because there is just no push towards these things. Here we have to deal with dieticians infected with over exposure to band here, in the USA you have to deal with them over exposed to bi-pass.

Here easy food to get down to start with are things like wized up baked beans with a bit of cheese over some mashed potato.

I am certianly not telling you to go against your medical advise I am just saying that it is probably rather heavely influenced and that a normal eating pattern of eating all be it small portions is just around the corner :)

applesauce

I've been told between 700-800 calories a day, but it probably depends on your weight/how much you have ot lose, I kow most loss is in the first 6 months when we need to really take advantage of having the sleeve to help us.

I already bought the protein powder and I may try it in applesauce. As for the protein drinks it is almost 200 calories for just 10 grams of protein so to get up to 50 grams it would be about a thousand calories... way more than I want to consume on a regular basis. I am getting nudgy- not hungry exactly but wanting something in my tummy too often on just liquids so I think I am going to try something a little bit more solid tomorrow- not sure what yet...even two tablespoons might be enough. More importantly- how many calories are we supposed to consume- does anybody know

Hi Shanna have you tried protein bullets? We can't get them here in oz but I am pretty sure you can in the states? Also a protien supplement like a powder you can make up with skim milk will help with your protein intake. I have one a day at least. I asked my dietician why I wasn't losing weight very fast (five days after surgery) and she said you can get a protein imbalance that causes your muscles to retain fluid. She suggested the protein supplement.

Do you have baked beans? You can add yummy cheese and ham and blend them up in a blender and thay are nice to eat, make it runny with tomato soup and water and that hopefully will slide down easily and add protein to your day.

Eggnog?

Cinni
xx

Hi Shanna, I was on protein drinks for the first 2 weeks after coming out then pureed food for 1 1/2 weeks so I think thats helped not have any pain/blockages/nauea/vomitting etc...after eating, my nutrionist wanted to give my new stomach lots of time to heal. Do you think you've launched into eating food too soon ? Maybe you need some more time ?? The nuts. seem to give us sleevers quite different menus post-op don't they ? The other nut. in Auckland who works with the other sleeve surgeon is bery relaxed about what people are eating post-op whereas my one is REALLY strict comparitively. If you can't go back to protein drinks I would keep trying new foods til I found ones I tolerated. Catherine.

Hey Chrisbychic- You always seem to get right to the heart of the matter-
A week out and it seems as if I am starting the learning curve about the post op part from ground zero. The first couple of days after I got hom I was eating yogurt and ricotta cheese- thought that this would be good since there are 15 grams of protein and no fat in either of them and that I had the initial step licked. But got sick of it right away and got gas type pains no matter how slowly I ate or drank. Tried a bunch of other stuff and so far only Weight Watchers 100 calorie fudge bars seems to be sliding down without chest pain- I eat about 2/3 of a pop at a time. I am eating about a tablespoon of applesauce to get my crushed pills down, but liquid in any quantity causes more gas pains- can only have a sip so I have been having sugar free ice pops which also seems to work well. Other than that I got these itsy bitsy laughing cow light squares - I think 5 of them are 35 calories and I eat one or two as a snack a couple of times a day. Which all leads up to very little protein. Which is why I could use some feedback- what do you and Applesauce and everyone else think. Is it safe to stick with this for a while?

Also - if you can't eat and drink at the same time does ice pops and fudge bars count as eating or drinking. This is a lot more complicated than I expected. Not bad. Not complaining. Just a little soft in the head so even small problems are more than I can square out. Could be the percoset, therefore hellp appreciated.

Hi Catherine
Yes, it's very important not to mix up 'wanting to eat', or "head hunger" with real hunger, or "stomach hunger". Let me tell you my understanding, as from reading your posts, I'm not sure that yours is the same.
"Head hunger" is the wanting of food, and "stomach hunger" is the body telling you that you need food.
Physically, the sleeve will not help the first one at all, but it will help the second one enormously.
The grehlin hormone is the one that told you that your body needs to eat, not that you wanted food.
If you still want to eat, but your new tiny tummy is not telling you that you need to eat, then your issue is "head hunger".
I think it's difficult, too, in the first few months. You are so used to wanting food that it's hard to listen to your stomach when it says that you don't need it.
And also, you are concentrating on eating the right things - going from clear fluids to nourishing fluids to purees to soft foods etc. That means that you're still focussing on food, when what you really want to do is forget about it. I think that's one of the hardest things - I told my husband at one time that I thought I wouldn't have to think about food any more, but it seemed like it was on my mind even more than before the op.
You're right - you can only eat small portions, and if you concentrate on having a proper diet then you know you'll be okay with your weight.
And in the meantime, if you try to take your focus off the food and on to something else, it might help some. There are several suggestions for this on another thread that you posted on to, so I won't elaborate any further on this.
I hope that things improve for you soon. I still find it difficult sometimes (10 weeks post op now), but I think that it's a lot easier than it was 6 weeks ago, so I feel sure that it will become easier for you too.
Best wishes
Chris

Thats interesting about why some people aren't successful isnt it. I'm not physically hungry so that has gone away, I thought the grhelin hormone would take away the desire to eat so maybe I was confused. I stll want to eat the yummier stuff and I thought that for at least the first 6 months I just wouldnt care too much about eating and food. I still find I am thinking alot about food and what I am going to eat next just like before so still feel like i am dieting and watching everything i eat. So I guess the fact that i'm not hungry is one really helpful thing that will help me stick to the post-op diet. And also the fact i can only eat small portions at a time and cant go out for a meal.
Catherine

In my case, initially after post-op, I was definitely not hungry. Could be that since I was on liquids/mushies that it would be easy. Also, my guess is that I had it in my head for several months before that this would be a "rebirth" and that I would really try to get this right this time (Lord knows that I was somewhat successful in my previous attempts to lose weight, but I still always felt hungry and when I plateaued, lost the desire, then put it all back on, etc.), so I believe that while some of it is physical (the surgery and Ghrelin loss as part of the removal), a lot was in my head also. That said, now that I am 6 weeks post-op and am now back on solid food, I'm finding the transition a little more difficult that I've had for the first few weeks. I'm finding that I look at buffet or something on the menu that looks delicious, my head is thinking, "I really want that" and have ordered something I knew I wouldn't physically be able to eat. When the meal comes, I take two or three bites, then regret that I ordered it. I end up taking the left-overs home (in which many cases goes bad and ends up in the trash). I still need to get the "eyes are bigger than my stomach" (pun now definitely intended), and know that there is a new mindset that has to kick in.

Guess the desire will not truly go away unless we focus on the reason why we've had the procedure done.

I attended my first post-op support group meeting last Thursday and the topic was "Why Some People Don't Lose Long-Term Weight". The top-five reasons (in percectage order, though I cannot remember what the percentages were):
1. Person didn't follow the post-op plan. Ate too much and stretched the sleeve.
2. Person didn't follow the post-op plan. Ate the wrong things (not enough protein, too many carbs/fat).
3. Person didn't follow the post-op plan. Did not get enough exercise.
4. Adopted a different self-destructive activity (drinking, drugs, etc.)
5. Complications after surgery.

So, the "want to eat" doesn't go away easily. As was said, it's very likely that it's "head hunger" and not really physical hunger. I find that getting out and walking, or more recently a reacquired activity, bike riding, takes my mind off wanting to eat. When I'm in front of the TV or reading, I still want that finger food action, so I'm trying to be more physically active, instead.

Hope this helps.