Don't want to be a Debbie Downer, but....

I think for those of us you have very little eating issues, we have all faced the issues you are experiencing. There are days when I finish my portioned out meal and still feel like I want more. This is where the mental part of this process kicks in. You have to say no more and that is hard to do!

I too have never heard that the surgery fails in principle for 15 %, but I do know how easy it is to manipulate the pouch. Its small enough to only be able to consume so much at one time, but there is nothing stopping us from grazing all day long.

I haven't had surgery yet, but I've been reading for about a year, trying to learn as much as I can.  I've read several posts that said in the beginning you don't feel "full" because your stomach is healing, and during that time you should be weighing and measuring everything so you don't overeat.  I don't know if you did that, but if not, perhaps you should give that a try.  Many people have "head hunger" and eat.

Hope things work out for you.

I'm a lot like you. I never threw up or got things stuck.  I "could" eat vast amounts if I let myself do so.  I was always told to eat until the "absence of hunger" and not to count on the "full feeling".  

The thing is, you're not necessarily a broken pouch. You really have to stop thinking that way as that will only lead to self sabotage.  Follow the rules regardless, measure.  FILL up between with water. 

Make the right choices and you will still lose weight.  I really do think that you have success coming and that it is really too early to discount the power of your pouch. Play your cards the way  that they were to be played.  

I didn't feel full for a very long time. I weighed and measured my foods for almost a year.

I have never heard of this before either. 

I agree with Barb and you need to go back and get a scope. You have to be your own advocate and get what you need done. I fear that you have probably stretched your pouch now, since you have been "testing the waters". 

Suzie -

you are a classic example of us needing behaviour adjustment, not stomach adjustment.

I would really listen to what Dimishing Dawn had to say - she's been a good advisor to many of us.

I have friends who never experienced satiety either. They never threw up, they never felt a strained pouch. And they still lost. Why? Because they folowed the other rules - drinking 2 litres of water daily, counting the fat and sugar intake carefully, and NEVER eye-measuring their portions.

In fact my closest friend lost more than I did, and she never had any of the physical discomfort I did.

This whole thing is just a tool. It's your head that needs to be adjusted - and only you can do that. Not a surgeon. It's not magic, though it may seem like that.

It took you years of bad behaviour to put all the weight on. And it will take years of good behaviour to get it off - and make it STAY OFF.

Remember that the surgery is only a tool. You have to eat right, exercise ect. I am about 2 weeks behind you and I can not even begin to think about eating what you do. 

I eat to survive. I don't test the waters to see how much I can eat. Your newly designed insides are still healing. You will not know if you are hungry ect. The nerves that send that hungry feeling to your brain have been damaged due to the surgery and take time to heal. 

My suggestion is follow the plan, eat correctly, drink water, exercise and take your vitamins. And patients is also involved. I know you have probably heard this before, but this surgery is not a quick fix, it is hard work and unfortunately you are the only one who controls it.

Thanks everyone for your comments. I feared that some may respond as you did - that it is my head hunger, and that I am being negligent. I tracked daily on myfitnesspal, and I have not forsaken the rules, except the last week when I felt so discouraged - I tested the pouch in order to have more information for my surgeon - perhaps that was not a good idea, but it is what it is. I am posting this to give my head a shake and to get support - and know that I will have to be as diligent as before, if not more so.

I felt that I was doing everything right, not pushing the boundaries - but just felt that something was wrong. I know this is a tool, and I know I have to learn to live with the parameters of that tool. I am not giving up. I am not returning to my old ways. Just looking for encouragement, that's all.

I will persevere, and will succeed. Just within a different time frame than most.

Susan

Are you not a revision Suzie?  If so, revisions tend to lose a lot slower so keep that in mind.  Depending what surgery you had before, you may have had nerve damage inside and won't feel anything.  It's common for revisions to feel things differently than virgin stomach do.

That's helpful to know - I had not heard that.  Thanks

Being a revision sure changes the equation.....didn't know that Suzie.....