Do I eat when it's time regardless if I'm full?

I encountered a dilemma today and wondered what the pro's thought. I had eaten my lunch about 12:30 and it was about 2:30 - 2:45...time for my snack, but I was still full. I was faced with the decision of do I eat because it's time for a snack and I need to get more protein in, or do I not eat because I'm full and not hungry? It seems kind of contradictory to eat when I'm full which is a signal I'm supposed to pay attention to and not eat.

So what should I do next time?

 I was told to eat on the clock. You're not going to have the normal hunger signals because nerves were severed during surgery. You'll eventually feel hunger again. 

EDIT: I eat every 3-4 hours--usually. When I wait longer than 5 hours, my pouch seems to get irritated, which really makes me not want to eat. 

that early out i ate on the clock. even now i don't really get full or hungry and try to focus more on the clock most of the time.

 At 5 years out, I still eat by the clock.  

You say "because I'm full and not hungry".  There is a difference between being full and in not being hungry, but many of us who have been obese for a long time are not very attuned to hunger, fullness, head hunger, and satiety especially after surgery which severs nerves and disrupts the normal signals to the brain.  Even a dense protein meal is through your pouch in much less than two hours, so if you are feeling "full" it is a sensation coming from food in the intestine, not food in your pouch.  The same thing happens with protein shakes... They go through the pouch within minutes but can lead to people having a sense of satiety for several hours in some cases.

IMO, until you can reliably distinguish between those signals and have your new eating portions and patterns really solidified, if you are measuring your portions, you should eat even if you are not "hungry" to be sure you get enough nutrition.  Not eating enough can permanently lower your metabolism (which happens to many after WLS anyway because of the severe caloric restriction during the first few months) and make maintaining your weight harder long term.

Lora

 Hi Lora
I read your post and it made me start thinking-I am only 4 weeks out - so my focus right now is getting my water, protein and vitamins in...I am probably taking in about 500-600 calories a day, and roughly 60 grams of protein between food and 1 protein shake.   The question I had, and I know I will need to ask my doc and nut, but when do you think we need to up our calories as we can tolerate to help avoid permamently lowering our metabolic rate?   

I honestly don't know, and I am mot sure that anyone really does since metabolisms are very individualized things and how your body reacts to the post-op caloric drop may depend a lot on how messed up your metabolism was to begin with (if it was).  There may be nothing we can do to avoid it given how little we can physically eat (and it doesn't happen to everyone).  

For most of us, if we are making healthy food choices, our caloric intake naturally goes up gradually as we are able to eat larger portions (and we don't want to overeat or make unhealthy choices just to try to avoid potential metabolic changes, of course).  If you are getting in your minimum protein almost every day and are making good food choices (thereby giving your body the best foods to utilize), I wouldn't worry about it... if you are doing those things, you are doing the best you can expect to do, and my personal opinion based on seeing patterns regarding those who have regained weight after the first couple of years and those who have not, is that establishing healthy eating habits is FAR more important to maintaining your weight loss than any metabolic changes.


Lora

I don't think you need to eat after 2 hours.  But probably after 3 or 3 1/2 if you haven't eaten since.

I try to eat whether or not I'm feeling hungry. When I didn't do it, I got the foamies...blah!

I eat every 4 hours. My bit said every 4-6 hours, but I do best every 4. After 5 or 6 hours I lose that "hunger" and I don't want to eat and it makes it harder to eat.