How long does food usually stay in the pouch?

I am 7 weeks post op and it seems that food passes very quickly out of my pouch and I get hungry again very soon after eating. I know that yogurt and such will pass through quickly but even when I eat lets say turkey chili that I make myself, It has no beans just ground turkey breast, It does have liquid in it I add a couple cans of diced tomatoes and chili seasoning and put it in the crock pot. I am for the most part still in the soft phase.I see my nut next week but would like to hear from people here

Thanks ~ jaime

Is it possible that you are mistaking hunger for stomach gurgles. I am almost eight months out and I just started feeling hunger again about a month ago... at least I think that it is hunger. It feels different than all of the gurgling.

I can only answer for myself but unless it is an incredibly dense meal or I didn't quite chew something enough and it is having a bit of trouble moving through my pouch is empty within 30 minutes.

I don't feel hungry after 30 minutes, however. You shouldn't be feeling hunger just because the pouch is empty. At this early stage many don't feel hunger at all. At 3 years out I still don't often get hungry like I did pre-op. It's more of an empty feeling. Hard to describe, actually.

Are you certain you are not experiencing "head hunger"?

My doctor said about 3 ours. Liquids a bit sooner. At 7 weeks out you probably won't feel hunger yet - if you ever do. I'm 13 yrs out and I still don't feel hunger. You're having head hunger, where you think

you're hungry but it's in your head. I still get it - I have to ask myself why I think I need food - usually it's boredom. I get shaky if I don't eat every 3 or 4 hours - that's real hunger based on a physical need. when I'm sitting at the computer and just "want " something - that's not hunger. When you get farther out and are on denser protein for meals you won't need to eat more than every 3 to 4 hours. It will stay in your

pouch that long.

Jen RNY 2001

If the food is staying in your pouch and not being digested in your intestines for 3 hours why are you getting shaky again before your food even had a chance to be absorbed.  Not to disagree with what is going on but your math doesn't add up.  Your pouch empties depending upon the density of the food and after it does you are getting a rush of insulin and then your body is saying you need to eat again right away (the 3-4 hour shakiness).  If you don't eat anything at all all day long do you get shaky?  What is your blood sugar during this shaky period?  And what are you eating that is making you shaky every 3-4 hours.  I get it, you eat the way that you feel works for you and thats fine, but I lived with a very brittle diabetic mother who would crash from eating two pieces of toast and not understand what had happened since she ate no sugar.  Granted that was years ago before we realized how to control diabetes, but I would hate to think you are living on the merry-go-round of insulin surges and crashes and have to eat to accommodate it.

I'm not sure what your doctor based that information on, but food does not stay in the pouch for 3 hours.  Even a dense meal (assuming a normal volume of food, of course) still only takes about half an hour to physically exit the pouch.  

If it didn't, when you took a large drink 30 minutes after the meal, the liquid would back up into your esophagus.  MANY people can attest to that happening when they don't wait the 30 minutes, and may people can also attest to being able to feel either very hot or cold liquids travel out of the pouch into the intestine 30 minutes after a meal.

(and, as Heidi said, if much of the food was still doing nothing but sitting in your pouch two or more hours after eating, you wouldn't be getting any benefit from it in terms of your blood sugar UNTIL it finally got into your intestine,.. So you would feel shaky AFTER you ate not when you needed to eat again)

Lora

A meal of "average" density and volume takes about 30 minutes to exit the pouch.  That is the reason for waiting 30 minutes after a meal to drink.  Some meals can take a bit longer, of course, especially if you ate more than usual or if it is very dense food (which is why a few surgeons say no drinking for an hour).

It takes much longer to actually digest, but not to exit the pouch an enter the intestine.

Lora