Does it seem like you're hungry more often than non-ops?

In doing this poverty eating challenge I'm reminded of something I've always known but that I can sometimes forget.

I was sitting here wondering to myself why the heck my body is going so bonkers over this thing. After all, I have done just 2-3 meals a day plenty of times. Even pre-op. What was going on?

Some of you may think that you get hungry more often than a non-op. And you may just. But there are reasons!

1. If you are eating less processed food, the food you are eating is easier to digest overall (our challenges notwithstanding) and easier for your body to metabolize. 

2. If you're USING your calories, your body is going to want more! Add that to #1. So you're giving your body easier calories to work with AND you're using those calories. So naturally you would get hungry a little sooner than if you weren't.

3. You probably aren't eating that many calories per meal. I guarantee if you were to eat a REALLY small, but calorically dense meal (maybe a fatty but small hamburger with cheese) you'd be full a LONG time. But as it stands many of us don't eat that many calories at a sitting. So add THAT to the fact that those calories are probably more easily used AND the fact that you are, in fact, using them and...

Well you get the point, right? Be encouraged!

 Very good point! 

Yes! and I used to have to explain to DH that though I was eating more often, I wasn't eating nearly the quantity.

Now when I dish up his food, I shudder at the thought that I used to eat that much at a sitting. My poor body.

Well, no, but then I'm early enough out that I'm still not hungry. I do have to be careful to avoid habit eating and old patterns but I've yet to be hungry post-op. I've been somewhat scared about what might happen when the hunger returns, so I appreciate this post. Hopefully I can keep it in mind when I need it!

Sometimes it seems like I eat non-stop. Even tho I know i'm not really. Just several small meals. I don't eat a typical breakfast lunch and dinner. I throw in two more meals, tho they are small.

I'm three years out in a few weeks. I am maintaining, but lately have been eating more carbs than I want to. Carbs are cheap and money has been super tight. I'm still a work in progress.

I don't worry too much about eating more times thru the day, since I eat so much less, but my adult son who lives with me is turning into the food police and we are working that issue out....lol. I've started criticizing his food choices...lol. He's starting to get it now tho..lol.

I do feel like I am eating all the time, though not really. But compared to my family, I am.
We'll sit down for a meal, my husband will have a huge meal, so of course he's not hungry for hours. I am hungry in 2 hours, and he's like "We just ate!!"

I eat ALL the time!!! Well, every few hours or so. I find that I get shaky and light-headed if I don't eat in 2-3 hr intervals. Nothing big. Just something to get rid of the  feeling. Be it tuna, a half a protein bar, jerky, etc, I always have something in my purse. My boyfriend laughs every time we go out for dinner because, about an hour and a half later, I am telling him I'm starving again.

 

Part of the reason that we are more hungry now, as well, is that, for most of us, we have upped our metabolisms. We process our food quicker in many ways, and that is another culprit of why we eat more often.

My hubby says I had this surgery so I could eat all the time.  I have one more meal than he does, 4:30ish, plus protein coffee before breakfast, a protein drink sometime during the day and a shake before bed.  I do eat or drink all the time.  Works for me.

I've come to realize that hunger is a creature with many faces, many aspects, and may reactions. One of your favorite posts is the "hunger is not an emergency" ... I remember another post (don't know if you started it or someone else) asking people to characterize their "hunger" and some labeled it as a PAIN.

I think those two posts (plus a few others) made me realize how unique hunger is for different people.

If hunger caused me PAIN, I'd have a whole different outlook than I have now (when I don't experience hunger except as "something empty" when I've gone more than 18 hours without eating and those hours didn't include sleeping. For me hunger doesn't exist.

I like what you said here about unprocessed foods. Aside from my quiche, most of my foods that I eat aren't very far from the tree (or cow, or vegetable patch) and so it makes sense that the body processes them different. And exercise. If (when) I indulge in that, I'll see how that works for me. My meals do seem pretty hefty though. Most are 200 - 400 calories (most are from 250 to 300 though)

This Friday I begin my Water Aerobics. We'll see if an hour of exercise alters my perception of hunger! 5 weeks of dedicated 5-days-per-week exercise. My goal = get a little thinner so my 10's fit. I could care less if I gain 20 if my 10s still fit.