Just starting

So after many years of thinking about surgery I have finally made the decision to go forward with it. The only thing I am struggling with right now is food. My brain and stomach are always telling me I'm hungry! I've recently started a high protein diet and do well for breakfast and lunch but right around 3 the hungry horrors set in! I can usually avoid eating until I get home but once I start making dinner it's like I can't get enough! I drink a ton of water throughout the day and try to avoid food with no value to them. I'm at a loss though of how to control my nighttime hunger. I'll never lose the weight I need to for surgery if I can't get this under control. Help please!

My surgeon wanted me to lose 30 pounds before the surgery. I never lost more than 20 pounds my whole life! I managed to lose 10. He still did the surgery.

I think the idea behind the pre-op weight loss is that you then have less to lose during the "golden" six months to a year after the surgery, when your hunger is depressed and your sleeve has the best restriction. My surgeon explained it this way: The surgery is like pushing a health reset button. You can lose your excess weight with the help of the sleeve, so that by the time your body compensates for the loss of hunger hormones, you'll be at a healthy weight and have good eating and exercise habits already in place.

Check with your surgeon or nutritionist about the struggles you're having. If you have a "required" weight loss number, ask how flexible they are about that. I sometimes have to struggle as it is with the sleeve. I truly can't imagine any more trying to lose weight without it.

psychoticparrot

I am in the early phases of this process and I have to say, it is a bit confusing about the 'weight loss' prior to surgery. People who have been obese for many many years would have certainly lost the weight and loved not having to depend on a surgical procedure to give them the stamina to lose. I just don't understand that whole mindset of the surgeons to say, 'lose the weight' and then we can do surgery.

Update 5/6/2015: Everyone who is blogging here on this topic is such inspirations. I attended my nutrition class yesterday and I am ready to bit the proverbial bullet to gain that success! I will be emptying out my cupboards this weekend and putting back only the things they said I could have. That is my way of controlling myself and although I might have an extra protein shake, or extra serving of palm size meat, it will not be like grabbing a box of noodles to cook from the cupboard.

I can do this!!!!

I worked for several Bariatric surgeons for many years.  Losing weight helps surgery be a little bit easier for some and for others it's a way to show how committed you are to the surgery.  If you can't commit for 6 months to stay on track with a "given plan" some surgeons feel you won't be successful post op.  Whether I agree with them or not, I believe we have to do what they require.  It's their OR and they run the show.  I was one who could always lose the weight.  I lost over 200 lbs twice before having WLS, but both times, I regained the 200 plus more back.  Others have never dieted successfully once. Some surgeons wonder if it's because they didn't try hard enough.  Some surgeons will put people are Optifast for 6 months -  that's a hell of a 6 months in my opinion.  My friend was forced to do that diet.  And I felt really sad for him.  Liquid diet for 6 months is torture.

Boy, oh boy, do I know your story! I live it - even now! I do great until about 3:00 pm and then it hits. So I have a couple of strategies in place to make it through. I have added a meal that I eat between 3 and 4. It is protein based and has enough calories to keep me satisfied until dinner (which now is about 8 because of this added meal).

I'm not sure how many calories you're allotting yourself per day, but for the pre op diet this is what I did:

Breakfast - just coffee (because I was not a morning eater)

Mid morning - 10:00 am  - protein shake (I used pure protein brand available at trader joe's).

Lunch - 4-5 oz protein as much veggie as I could eat, 1 piece of fruit and a starch

Afternoon snack - either a 0% Plain Greek Yogurt sweetened with splenda or a salad with meat and a piece of whole fruit.

Dinner - repeat of lunch

That worked out to be roughly 1200 calories. I also drank a ton of water and had two strong cups of coffee per day. I was able to lose 17 pounds in two months on that and get scheduled for surgery. This plan might not work for you, but it worked for me and it kept that afternoon drive to graze to a minimum.

Research shows that when we under nourish our bodies during the day the drive to eat at night becomes all that much stronger. There is some sense in making sure your body is getting adequate nutrition during the day. For me, too, the after work eating was a way to wind down, deal with sudden boredom, and it was a self medicating stress reliever. I'd recommend you think about what beyond physical hunger is prompting you to eat. If you can pin that down, you might find your afternoon, early evening cravings lessen dramatically.

Wishing you the best!

Congratulations on your decision to go ahead with weight loss surgery.  I hope it brings you wonderful success, as it has for me.

I had trouble with hunger in the evenings - heavens,  I still do!  I shifted my meals so I ate breakfast and lunch later in the day so my dinner was closer to 7pm.  I wouldn't get hungry again until 9pm and I headed for bed at 10pm so the munchy time was short.

I wonder if you couldn't add a high protein snack at 3pm to your plan.  Perhaps a serving of plain greek yogurt with artificial sweeteners, or low cal cheese might help you make it to dinner in more comfort.

Keep the faith.  The pre-op diet is challenging, but you will be so happy that you lost weight before the surgery because it makes the surgery safer, and you'll feel better being on your way to a healthy weight.

best wishes,

Carol

Just keep at it, cutting back on the sugars and carbs is hard.  Keep the protien intake up and carbs low and you will slowly get a handle on it .  I had same problem and I would have a protien bar or cheese stick about 2 or 230 and i stayed away from the house with some activity before dinner to keep my mind busy .

Welcome!  

You might try shifting your meals later so that you're eating closer to when you tend to be hungry?  

I had a very bad March due to travel and my dad's cancer - I ended up snacking quite a bit.  The one thing that ended up really helping me was making the agreement with myself that I could snack, but that I was only allowed to snack on cheese and nuts.  This bargain made snacks a lot less appealing, so I ended up snacking less, but when I did snack, I was snacking healthier.  Win/win!  

I time my meals so that I eat at 3pm. 

My day goes like this:

8am - shake

12 noon - lunch

3pm - second meal

6-7pm - dinner

One thing that really helps is to include some fat in your diet. Fat will really help control your satiety. Fat is your friend.

As for losing weight pre-op, I lost about 60lbs in the year between my surgical consult and surgery. I think it definitely helped me get into the mindset for success. My surgeon's practice didn't require that I lose any weight, just that I not gain.