Not what I expected

Hi, I'm a week post op after having the gastric sleeve. A friend of mine is a month post op and still has trouble eating.  I am very grateful that I am not experiencing bad side effects such as vomiting and dirrahea, however I thought I would feel much different than I do. For one, I'm always hungry and I'm still on my liquid diet, I can't eat a lot at one time but I'm having no difficulty eating. I guess I thought this surgery would take away my hunger and I would lose a pound a day.  Should I be discouraged this early on in the game? I almost feel as though my surgeon didn't take any of my stomach out. 

It sounds like what you are feeling is 'head hunger'. I'm goingthrough it too. I jus****ched an interesting video on that.

Head Hunger After Weight Loss Surgery - Dr. Matth…: https://youtu.be/7llL1lE6Mz8

Don;t be discouraged so early out. Keep in mind, losing a # a day equates to 365#'s in a year. Not sure how much you have to loose- but even if you had that much to loose, doing so wouldn't be incredibly healthy. My understanding of VSG is the hunger producing hormones are reduced, but I'm wondering if what you're experiencing is head hunger. Try drinking water then you think you are hungry. My doc did say the body eventually find a way to "recreate" the hunger what the surgery takes away, but that would be after a year or so. Celebrate not having complications and sickness and use the time to develop good meal planning & eating habits. 

After the first week or two, you will NOT lose a pound a day. More like a pound or two a WEEK if you work at it, which is still more than most of us could lose before surgery! The sooner you can get realistic with your expectations, the better, otherwise you're in for quite a wake up call.

VSG does not completely eliminate hunger for everyone. Stomach acid can mimic hunger, so most folks end up on a PPI to help with that. But it's still on us to eat smaller portions less frequency.

During surgery, the nerves in your stomach are cut and you don't feel the sense of restriction that you will once everything is all healed up. You don't want to try and eat more than you ought to, lest you injure your staple line, but you WILL feel differently.

Take an acid blocker or PPI.  My center has everyone on pepcid ac for the first few months after surgery.  Your stomach is still producing the same amount of acid it was before.  It takes a little while for production to get in step with the new, smaller stomach.

And yes, you may have some head hunger.  Keep drinking and white knuckle your way through it.  You're not going to feel full restriction until you're on solids.  Be happy that you're avoiding dehydration!

And no, you won't lose like a rocket.  You'll lose in fits and starts.  You'll stall.  You might plateau.  Just keep on the plan and practice patience.