Does the VSG work for grazers?

I used to eat all the time and big portions. I would eat when I was bored but rather than eat a few chips I'd eat a ton.

I do eat 6ish times now but I can't get enough protein in without snacks. but what I eat is SO small and I get less than 800 calories in and I am losing so it's ok. I do only eat protein snacks right now. I try to eat some veggies with a meal. Sometimes I can get more in that others.

I also was one that hasn't been hungry since surgery. IT's a great feeling to not live to eat but rather eat to live.

I wouldn't call myself a grazer pre op...More a eatin' all the time, kinda person.  I think of grazing as eating small amounts frequently...I was a volume eater, but wanted to eat all the time...I was always hungry. A lot of it was head hunger, but non-the less, all I did was eat.
Post op, my hunger never went away.  I still do get hungry...but nothing like pre op.  Now I do eat small frequent meals, so I feel more like a grazer now.  My tastes have changed a lot.  I used to want sugar all the time.  I don't anymore.  My favorite food used to be Nanamio bars...now I can't even eat one...they are just too sweet.  I do still enjoy chocolate.  But I am satisfied with a couple peices of dark chocolate...I don't need to eat 3-4 chocolate bars in one sitting.  And I don't need it all the time...Occassionally works!!!!  So, I really just feel like I eat like a normal person now.  I eat mostly healthy meals...I just don't eat a ton of food, and my tastes for healthier options has greatly improved.

Hijack:

   Your new avatar is SMOKIN' HOT... aniduff

I have never understood why they say "no grazing". We have to live a life of grazing after this surgery. We must eat every few hours or we will never get in all the protein they expect us to get in. I am and always have been a grazer. I graze differently now then I ever did before though. I always, go for healthy food rather than what I want. What I want now seems to be what I need. Something with protein in it. If you eat your three meals alone you'll never get in all the protein that you need in a day. You physically cannot do it unless you never eat anything but protein.

So, yes, I am a grazer, and I have lost 133 lbs and met goal doing it. I am successfully so far, staying even keel and keeping it off grazing. I eat three meals, and 2 to 3 snacks a day. By snacks I mean 12 almonds, an ounce of meat or cheese, a 1/2 cup cottage cheese, a few tablespoons of refried beans. something with good protein. That has worked for me. At my meal if I get in my protein, and still have room, I eat anything I want then. A few bites of salad, vegetable, fruit, or brown rice, or whole grain pasta, that sort of thing.

Now, you can graze on chips, or snacky types of bad foods like chips and eat larger amounts of them because you can get in a lot of something that chews down to much like that. But, that's also your end of teh deal to uphold. Whether to make the commitment to eat right or not.



Sue

I am a grazer. I lost 97 lbs with this surgery but I do struggle now.
The truth about getting your head right hits home. I have emotional ties to eating and the time comes when you can eat a lot more. This happens to all of us. If you have unresolved food issues the battle is fierce, believe me.
I have a therapist and recently started to attend OA. These things are definately helping but the old tapes and emotional reactions are hard to break.
I had so many bad things happen in a row( not the least of which I am living in my garage since my home was destroyed by Hurricane Ike) that I feel my struggle is much harder than most but still very real with a restrictive only procedure.
My 14 lbs gain is 100% my own fault. I have sabatoged myself and even quit working out but I truley believe that because of this surgery I have a 100% possability of regaining my control and losing this weight ( i am back on it as of this week and lost 2 lbs so far).
It is so much easier to go back to the basics and stick with the plan with this itty bitty stomach. I look at myself  now and see that I am sooooo much better, healthier, thinner, happier and content than I was before VSG. I would never change the fact that I had this surgery. I just recommend therapy go along with the process. Lose the demons so they can't come back and make things hard again.
Never, never, never give up. When you do you lose. We are not losers (we are BIG WEIGHT LOOOOSERS)
Carla

I was a big time grazer prior to surgery but afterward had to change that due to the fact that I had to get in my liquids and you cannot get in the amount of liquid you need and still graze.  There have been times when I have reverted to a little grazing at night but try to stop myself.  Right now I eat three small meals and a snack or two at most and that is pretty typical of Americans so I wouldn't consider that grazing.  My sizes are still so more, even at almost eight months out.  It is really remarkable.  

I ate all the time pre-op but I never considered myself a grazer. I was eating because as soon as there was room in my tummy, I would feel intensely hungry.

Now I don't have that ghrelin-fueled hunger so I eat every 3-4 hours. This works out to 3 meals and 1, sometimes 2 snacks a day. It's just so different than it was pre-op.

There are studies that show that grazing is associated with poor weight loss with WLS. What the scientific definition of grazing is, I do not know, though. But I keep this in mind when I start to eat more frequently.

I do believe our eating post-op needs to be purposeful and planned. If we eat mindlessly, it's quite easy to eat much more than you think or need. After all, our stomachs can hold more food within 20-45 min. of eating. So, yes, we can only eat a few bites at a time, but if you eat until you are full every 30 min, that's a lot of bites.

Anyway, here's a study about this though it was done on band patients, not VSG:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18239603?ordinalpos=4&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum