Did VSG help you with cravings?

Hi Everyone,

I did it! I just scheduled my surgery for the beginning of November and am a mixture of excited and nervous. Just wondered how the VSG surgery helps with cravings and being over focussed on food? I am planning to find a mental health professional to help me along my journey but am wondering if the surgery has made a difference for any of you with the desire to overeat and zone out at times with food?

Again, thank you all for being there. I feel so lucky to have found this forum and to have connected with all of you.

Paige

For me the surgery helped with the cravings in the beginning however at two years out they are back. However I do not give in to them most of the time. For me personally I do allow for a small treat here or there but I am not about to have gone through all of this major life change just to give in all the time and throw away all my hard work. I weigh myself daily, I weigh and measure all my food and track every bite that goes in my mouth. Even when I do allow for a small treat it is logged and accounted for. For me keeping myself accountable has been my key to success so far.

As Ree noted, initially I had no cravings, but have noticed now that 12 months has passed, I get a craving occasionally. My saving grace is that I still weigh, measure and log all my food and drink, so if I do cave to a craving (SkinnyPop popcorn - for the crunch and tiny taste of salt), it's logged so I still stay true to my daily goals.

You'll do great!!!

Pat

Congrats on scheduling your surgery!

Hmm, I think you might get a varied response from this, because a lot of our 'cravings' are mental, and that doesn't go away because we have surgery.

I think the VSG helps a lot to deal with physical cravings for the most part, and for me hunger is a different feeling than it was prior to surgery. It's more like an empty feeling, so in that way it helps.

The first month for me was difficult emotionally, you get into hormone dumping, and for me it wasn't about craving a particular food, just wanted to chew lol I couldn't eat anything solid for a month, which I think is fairly normal, but different guidelines for different surgeons.

Generally speaking, yes it will help the physical hunger, but our wonderful brain is still there. Some people deal with their head hunger very well after surgery and some like me had difficulty, but that doesn't mean you can't rise above it, and be successful.

You got this Paige! Good luck with your upcoming surgery!

Nope, VSG did not fix my cravings at all. I still wanted cookies, and I had to be strong enough to say "no" and eat my meat instead. Surgery is for your stomach, not your head.

If anything, I am MORE focused on food now, and was during the intense post-op "honeymoon" stage. I logged everything I ate (and still do), read labels obsessively, and debated if things fit my plan. When I was almost 300lb, I could eat whatever I wanted without thinking about it, but food takes a LOT more conscious thought now.

Hm. I don't think that it did much. Maybe for the first year when focusing on the post-WLS life could take up a lot of my brain power. But then lots of other things started demanding my attention (my dad's cancer spreading to his brain and college among other things) and I was no longer able to be so hyper-focused on post-WLS life.

However, it would be so much worse if I hadn't had VSG and hadn't done all the mental health work that I had done during that first year and still continue to do.

Congratulations!!

I feel like the first six months after surgery were a kind of forced detox. I couldn't eat off plan because it was painful and I didn't feel like it. I dreamed about food and mourned it rather dramatically, but if I had it in my hand to eat it, I wouldn't have. I have (had?) BED, so I have a layer of compulsion towards food. Occasionally I have a sad wish that I could have a binge night. Sometimes I plan it out in my head as though I could do it. Then I catch myself and walk through the whole self assessment of why, what am I feeling, etc? (CBT therapy). It helps, but not in the way a binge used to-LOL!

After the first eight months I found eating wasn't so difficult, and deduced that I can eat a larger variety. So, I think of foods I shouldn't eat much more often. I discovered that I react to sugar and that helps me feel averse to it. Overall, I'm in control now in a way that I wasn't prior to VSG. My normal everyday habits have become so much healthier (and easier) than prior to VSG, and the "cravings" are way less powerful/driving.

Cravings disappeared for the first few months for me. At 8 months, I hear cookies, cake, and ice cream calling for me loudly. I just try not to answer the call...

The surgery in itself didn't help with cravings because mostly that was in my head. So yeah I still craved all the carbs foods that got me on the table. It did help with my physical hunger, which is so much less now as a post op.

Also whenever I eat protein forward, as in dense protein, not shakes, not bars, my hunger is way less, sometimes I don't even notice it, but oh my head wants stuff all the time. Whenever I had a strong carby day, the next day my hunger pangs were a lot stronger.

In the beginning you're kinda focused on food mostly to get all your protein,water & vitamins in on the same day. It took awhile to get that right, but once I had a routine going, it wasn't too hard to keep up. But the head stuff is a major pita.

Good luck on your upcoming surgery.

I agree with others that cravings are mostly in our head. The 6 first 4-6 months of having to eat "clean" did help build new habits and detox me from carbs to some extent. Now I definitely get cravings. The good ones (for fish) or okay ones (for coffee), I allow. The "bad" ones for sweets, cookies, etc, I try to substitute for in one way or another. I do try to keep trigger foods out of the house or hide them when DH wants them around. The good thing for me is that I can't eat too much of the bad stuff because I tend to get queasy. Maybe because I'm not used to that much sugar or maybe because of the sleeve?