Hunger

I am one week (tomorrow) out and in a conversation with my nutritionist today she told me to only eat when I'm hungry.  I am not sure what I'm supposed to feel when I'm hungry?   So, if I don't feel hungry for three days, don't eat?  I definitely don't feel hungry...at least I don't think I do!  Can you share your hungry feelings?

I also don't feel hunger and I'm 6 weeks out.  It becomes more of an awareness of "Oh, I can eat something now" and I always make sure to measure and weigh everything I eat to make sure that I'm not force feeding myself too much food.  At 1 week out I was still in my full liquid phase and focused on getting in my protein shakes and water.

How many ounces were you ingesting at a time, one week out?  Thank you!

The nerves in your stomach were severed, so you can't trust anything it tells you anyway.  This is not a time to "listen to your body."  This is a time to weigh, measure, and eat on schedule.  

I rarely feel hungry these days, but if I don't eat for too long my body/brain definitely tells me that I need to rectify that.  But I'm 6 months out on Saturday.  

Is eating (drinking) 4oz of soup/shake/yogurt too much?  It seems like I have read that it should be more like 2.5 oz.  I'm worrying myself sick over the fear that I'm ingesting too much for one week out.

I take it your surgeon or dietician didn't give you any specific guidance on this issue?

The rules from my surgeon's practice were -- on full liquids, drink as much as you are comfortable with. But for us, full liquids were truly liquids, not stuff like yogurt. His patients are on full liquids for four weeks. So how much yogurt to eat that early was not something that would have been addressed.

When his patients move to purees at four weeks out, we could eat stuff like yogurt. At that point we were instructed to eat no more than 3 tablespoons of pureed food at a meal, and we got three meals per day, no snacks (other than protein shakes).

There is no universal rule in how quickly to progress or how much volume or how many ounces to eat at any given stage/time from surgery. I'm sure you'll get a wide variety of responses here. My personal opinion is that it is better to aim for under eating than allow even a possibility of over eating. I accidentally over ate on the puree stage once (used the wrong measuring spoon) and boy did I regret it! That was sheer misery!

Did you get an information packet from your surgeon?  

At one week out, I was on full liquids. So I just sipped throughout the day every day. 

I am 6 weeks out, am constantly hungry and eating way too much. It is a big problem and I think I have actually gained weight. Color me depressed.

....and how much did that tidbit of advice cost you?  My surgery is 9/16 and if my nut tells me something like that post surgery, I'm going to have a hard time not coming back with a smart-butt comment.  geesh!  Good news is that the advice here is free!

Okay my advice might not have much weight seeing as how I am still waiting to even see the surgeon but in my orientation they kept reiterating over and over for probably 20 minutes How important routine scheduled eating is. They gave us a 20 page nutritional guideline that explained what and how to eat at each stage, suggestion on how to prepare it and sample menus. We were told these things are a must, now I do understand that some doctors/centers are different but I also understand that we are all WLS patients so this is just what I was told from my center. 1. You must eat 3 meals a day plus 2 snacks no skipping meals and you should eat within 2 hours of waking (nutritionist will tell you when and if you should stop eating snacks) 2. Snacks must be less than 100 calories 3. Protein first then vegetables, fruits and if space left grains  4. minimum 60-80gram protein goal daily (Protein shakes a must a the beginning until you can eat your protein) 5. Water 1500-2000ml minimum daily goal 6. Vitamins/Mineral supplements daily 7. Eat 1-2tbsp every 15 minutes, small bites, chew 25-30 times, focus on eating, eat slowly and give yourself 30-60 minutes to eat each meal, your pouch can only hold approx 2oz in the beginning will eventually hold 4-6oz 8. measure, weight and track everything you eat  9. No straws 10. No carbonated beverages 11. No alcohol for 1 year 12. if you experience any pain or discomfort stop and try again later. This is what I remember off the top of my head, I'm sure there was more I'm still reading and learning the materials. I read them over and over nightly. I hope this helps I wasn't trying to lecture or preach sorry if it came across that way, it just didn't seem like you were getting helpful advice from your nutritionist. Good-Luck :-)