Feed the Need

Still kicking around the idea of getting the sleeve but I am curious as to how long each of you goes without becoming hungry. (My thinking = smaller stomach equals smaller amount of time being "full").

I know that we have to eat like five small meals or so during the day and I know some folk struggle with even being hungry in the first place.

So maybe this is for those who are further out?

When do you feel the need...

The need to feed?! (lol) 

If I really feel hungry, there's always something I can find to "quell the hunger" -- It's really not a struggle.  Most of the times though, if I really take a minute to think about it, it's not real hunger, but "head hunger" and it passes if I just get up and do something.

WLS has changed my life -- I am SO HAPPY I had it.

I'm more than 3 1/2 years out.  I get hungry, but not any more quickly now that I have a smaller stomach.  I spent so much time eating to quell head hunger, before surgery, that I've had to re-learn the physical vs. the emotional signals.  I can deal better with the physical hunger now, and if I really need to, I have a protein rich, low carb snack.  I still do experience head hunger, though.  The surgery helps tremendously to lose the weight, but we also need to work on the head stuff that, for most of us, got us to the point of needing WLS in the first place.  It's an on-going process, with it's ups and downs, but so worth it!

There are people on here that repot only eating 3 meals a day.  How long I can go without feeling "hunger" really depends on what I've had to eat;  more carbs = hungry much faster; mainly protein = I can go hours and hours.  

For many of us, it wasn't the actual stomach being empty that signaled "hungry"; it was the excess ghrelin that our stomach produced.  Now that the hunger hormone is greatly diminished I never feel hunger like I used to.  I can still get hungry, but it's nothing compared to what I used to feel. 

To keep my blood sugars stable I eat 5-6 meals/snacks spread throughout the day.  I rarely get hungry unless I've been eating the wrong stuff (carbs!).  

Not everyone eats five small meals a day after VSG.  

I can honestly say that I have yet to feel physical hunger.  I eat at regularly scheduled times each day.  Being a creature of habit works well for me and keeps me from grazing.  Saying that, I do fight head hunger often out of boredom, stress, anxiety, etc.  Learning how to cope with that is the hardest element of the entire process.

If you eat dense protein, it will remain in your sleeve longer and provide a sense of satiety.  The portion of the stomach they remove produces the hormone ghrelin which is linked to hunger.  Your body produces ghrelin in other areas, but you don't seem to have the same gnawing physical hunger that you do prior to surgery, IMHO.