question

i'm a little over 3 weeks out and for the past 2 days i feel as if i'm starving. this is the first time i have felt this way. i still can barely eat but boy when i get hungry i know it. is this normal? someone told me it might be that my pouch is growing a bit.

Hi Tara, I was told that you need to drink more water when you feel that way and I found that it really helped with the hunger OR if you haven't felt this way since surgery could it be alittle PMS hunger?? Good Luck to you !! karen banded 3/8/04 241/217/175 to start !!

Hey Tara, This is the time to start thinking hard about what kind of hunger you're really feeling. Is it true stomach growling type hunger? Is it your body giving you a craving for something you're lacking? Or is it head hunger, which gives you almost all the same symptoms as actual hunger? The trick I used in the beginning, whenever I felt "hungry", was to tell myself it was impossible to be hungry - I just had my stomach cut up, there's no way it could feel hunger, it's still repairing itself. I told myself that over and over and OVER again. It's been 11 months and I still don't feel actual hunger pangs or experience stomach growling (which I understand usually comes back at around 6 months out). I know I need to eat because I feel very empty, but I think by telling myself that so much, it took my focus off food and gave me the chance to realize most of what I was feeling was head hunger. Now when I eat, I pretty much know whether I'm truly hungry, or if I'm just giving in to head hunger. (Still working on saying no to that part!) Hope that helps you, Denise

If you are eating puree or semi solid foods it is quite possible to be hungry....they leave the pouch quickly and may not trigger the nerves that give you the full feeling. As soon as you get to more solid types of food and dense protein the hunger will subside. Also make sure you follow the 30/30 rule....no liquids 30 minutes before eating or for 30 minutes after, you do not want to wash the food out of the pouch. I was hungry all the time until I went on solid foods...