Hungry a week post op!!

im 8 weeks post op and still get hunger pains in between meals. At week 3 i thought i was destined to fail as my hunger pains were quite strong. I was on pureed food by day 4 and soft foods by week 2.5. Now i pretty much eat normal healthy food and i still get the hunger pains, so it doesnt necessarily go away when you get back on normal food. Ive learnt to eat a couple of prunes in between meals to get me through, so maybe find something small that works for you (drinking simply didnt for me). I still crave junk food, i just avoid it. I dont think any operation could take away my love of a good hamburger lol. Havent yet had one, but god its been hard not to!

Hi Sassyred,

I still get hunger pains and hungry. I'm nearly 18 months out and have lost 60 kilos.

It's funny before the sleeve I used to get surprised by slim friends being so obsessed with having to eat something NOW! I always was so full I never got the real drive behind physical hunger. Now I understand it, but now a few bits of cheese and crackers takes the desperation away..

Also I was one when in the early stages after the op used to have to eat every couple of hours and even wake in the night to eat something! I think it's explained nicley in the empty stomach syndrome- there's a link somewhere on here, I don't know where. I remember thinking it was bizzare that I had to eat to get thinner! Naturally we are talking mainly small snacks of protein.

Don't worry and remember your body and systems have a lot of recovery and adjustment to go through. Give it time.

Hi Ladies hang in there it does get better. When you feel those "hunger pains" have a drink as I found it was mostly due to me being thirsty. Once you're back onto "normal" food all the cravings for the other foods like pizza etc soon disappear : )



Good luck

Sunnie x

I'm 4 weeks out and I'm still hungry!! I keep telling myself it's ok because at least it doesn't take much to fill me up, but I do get hungry again only an hour or two later.. I'm trying to just eat low calorie stuff but I still have cravings too... I didn't think it would be like this. I just want pizza and pasta and cheese... like I always have.

Im a week out too....and yep, I think Im getting hunger pains! I'm on a reflux med, so reasonably sure its not that. Yesterday, I was out for most of themorning, and even though I was constantly sipping on water, by the time I got home, I felt hunger pains, at least I thinik thats what they were! I definately had the sense of 'I really need to eat something now....!' so had a yoghurt drink, and they went away. Dont be concerned, Im not worried, I mean just think of how tiny our bellies are now, and how easy it will be to satisfy them :)

And as Isis said, give it a few weeks, and that hunger hormone should be totally gone :)

Hi Sassyred

Yeah, Isis is right. Also, some sleevers do not lose their hunger - no idea why. But the big difference is that it's much more easily satisfied. That's the stomach hunger - head hunger, of course, is another matter.

You're not alone, either, in thinking that you might fail at this. There are not very many of us, I'd imagine, who did not have similar feelings. Take heart - look around and you'll see that most people do succeed, and even the ones who feel as though they haven't done well have lost at least a good portion of their excess.

Only a week out, you have some great things to look forward to. It will get easier...

It gets better! I remember getting a bit hungry on purees, but that was fixed once I hit real food. I do get hunger pains now, which some others don't, but they are pretty minor. The other thing that I have heard is that there might be residual ghrelin (hunger hormone) in your system from pre-op and that it can take 6 weeks for it to dissipate but that hunger pains go away then. I think I read a thread on it here a year ago or so... might be worth a search.



Good luck! Have faith in yourself, it's such early days and in a month's time things will be so different :)

I'm a week post op and have got another week of liquids to go before progressing on to the puree stage. I'm scared because the last two nights I've been a bit hungry, although during the day I'm not. Not hungry like pre-sleeve, but having read alot of diaries I don't recall reading of anyone else that was hungry so soon and I'm scared that having gone through all this and paid big $$$ it won't work for me. I have only been sipping (but managing 1.5 - 2 litres a day) so I guess I haven't really tested my stomach yet but I'm afraid I'll fail at this too. I've uppped my optifast shakes to 3 a day instead of 2 (oh how I hate them now) hoping that might help. My liquids consist of benefibre, drinking yoghurt, diet cordial, V8, soup, milo and water. I'd be so grateful to hear of other sleevers experiences with post-op hunger. Thank you!!!