Nut addiction and head hunger

I am almost 9 months out, I did very well, stuck to all the rules, lost more than expected until I introduced nuts to my diet. I buy Trader Joe's bag of nuts, 210 calories and sometimes raw cashew and almonds. I do portion it out but I find myself eating several bags or portions at once. When I don't buy it to stay away from it, I find myself leaving work to go buy nuts then eat until I feel sick. I reached out to my nutritionist, she basically said it's head hunger which I already knew and the cravings eventually go away so wait it out. I am still eating well otherwise, 72 ounces of water plus a protein shake, mostly protein diet, small portions. Any advice or experience with this issue will be greatly appreciated.

Nuts have been my nemesis recently so I can relate. I love their salty goodness. Currently I am just focused on showing their impacts to my meal plan and ratios and it's helping.

I try to avoid the salted ones.

It may be helpful to substitute a different snack for nuts. What about jerky? It's also salty, and since it's high in protein, you'll likely feel full on smaller portions.

When you say you're "eating well" and "mostly protein," could you be a bit more specific? What do your calories and macros look like on an average day?

I basically eat the same thing every day, egg muffins for breakfast, lentils and chicken soup and an omelette for dinner. My calories from food stay under 1000 - 1200. But the nuts are definitely increasing my calorie intake.

If you're getting 1,000-1,200 calories from food I'd cut out your protein shake. I'd switch out your lunch meal to something dense protein. Chicken breast or thigh, deli meat, even a small salad with meat on top. I always do leftover meat from dinner for the next day's lunch. Then, instead of the protein shake, which I imagine to be an additional 160-200 calories, you can have something else that will actually fill you up.

Protein shakes after WLS are really there to bump your protein when you can only consume 500-700 calories per day in solid food in the beginning. Once you can eat 1,000 calories, that should be roughly 100g of protein if you're eating mostly meat/eggs/cheese and veggies on the side.

It's likely that you crave nuts because A) you're wanting something snacky and that doesn't immediately fill you up and B) you're hungry and they are full of good fats and generally nutrient dense.

I found when I was fixated on a food (I'm looking at you whipped topping!) I'd have to just force myself not to buy it and white knuckle through a few days and my craving for that food would go away.

I will definitely make those changes. I thought protein shakes were for life ?. Thanks for the advice, I was very worried.

as long as you're able to get all your protein needs met by food, you don't need them. For most people, they really only need them the first few weeks or months after surgery. Some of us still drink them, though - some people can't stomach solid food in the morning, so they drink one for breakfast. A few (like me) malabsorb protein, so we use them to assure we're making our target every day. And there are others who just flat-out like them!

I drank a daily protein shake to boost my total protein numbers for about 6 months post-op. During that time my total calorie intake was about 600-800 calories. Once I bumped above that I got my 60-80g of protein without issue from food. I continued to use the Premier Protein RTD shakes as coffee creamer until a few months ago, just because I liked how they made my coffee taste.

I'm 2-years out and haven't consumed a whole protein shake in ages!

I am only two weeks out, so take this with a grain of salt...

I have been regularly seeing a dietitian for several years now and she does talk about the importance of mixing things up. I wonder if it might be worthwhile to consider some other healthy options for meals. Perhaps you are craving the nuts so much because you have become bored with your meals?

Good luck!