Irritability typical?

I'm 5.5 weeks out from VSG and getting a big spike in irritability over the last week. Is this to be expected, and for how long?

I was prepared for increased despair from less serotonin, but temper had never been a problem so it took me by surprise. I have a call in to the shrink - she was also prepped for needing meds tweaked, but we both thought depression/anxiety would be the problem.

There's lots of confounding factors it *could* be (maybe work stress is actually worse, etc.) but I'm skeptical. I'm going to finagle some extra sleep because I'm sure low sleep at least isn't helping.

Hunger is back (albeit intermittently) so maybe it's low-grade hanger - I'm getting 700-900 calories a day vs. 1000 on the two-week liver cleanse and 2000 in the pre-op 9 months or so. I also had Topamax for hunger suppression pre-op, it worked great, lost about 50 lb. Before that diet I was hungry all the time but wasn't irritable.

You're probably experiencing the notorious "hormone dump." Estrogen is stored in fat cells, so when you lose a lot of weight very quickly, those hormones go flooding out into your system. Many of us dealt with something like serious PMS, including irritability and mood swings, with all that estrogen and this sounds like what you might be dealing with.

WHAT THE HELL IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!

I mean, uh, thanks, I'd forgotten about that.

It's not uncommon. Hormone dumping i s a thing. Carb withdrawal is another. And for years we had all medicated ourselves with food, and all of a sudden we don't have thhat anymore.

Hang in there. It gets better.

Serotonin is also responsible how we react to others, how good we are as a team player. When that gets low - we probably are less tolerant to others BS.

As for hunger - examine your diet, too many carbs, or even too many proteins at a single meal can lead to blood sugar fluctuations. For me this far out, balancing proteins with fat like an avocado, and skipping carbs or having a very small portion of that limits hunger.

Have in mind that some proteins are much stronger insulin stimulator, i.e whey isolate, or whey in general, and just having water based or skim milk based protein shake may cause high insulin spike.

Google "food insuIin index". It was an eye opener for me when I started getting lower blood sugar, reactive Hypoglycemia like effects after drinking pure whey isolate protein shakes. Adding just little bit if fat to mine and slowing down how fast I drank that improved my BS response to that.

Greek yogurt, specially the 0% fat has just carbs and pure proteins. For me, that caused insuIin surge and hunger shortly after.

There are a few ideas what can be done if you start getting hungry so soon after surgery.

Thanks for the tip, this might be in play, my diet does consist largely of Greek yogurt at the moment. Once I'm through the progression this might change, I already have some meat instead (tuna packs etc.)

Don't give up Greek yogurt; rather, try full fat dairy instead of non-fat dairy.

I second the carbs answer. I get super cranky if I don't get enough carbs each day. Also if I get low level dehydrated.

crysharris: Sounds like you're still addicted to simple carbs and haven't de-toxed from them yet.

My added sugar is in the form of 1tsp sugar in my daily tea. Otherwise, all my carbs come from fruits, vegetables, dairy, and whole grains(oats, faro, quinoa, barley, etc) or beans. I eat no bread, pasta, or rice. I should have been more clear. If my total carbs falls below 60ish grams, regardless of the source, I get cranky and sometimes feel shaky and weak. So, I try to stay around 75g/day.