Question:
How do I tell when I am full?

I am four weeks post op. I have jsut started to eat without the food nauseating me. But, I need to know how to tell when I am full. I don't eat more that 1/2 cup at a time, but, I am woried that sometime I may get too full and throw up. How can I tell if I am full? Will the sensation of fullness ever come back?    — Stacie B. (posted on July 28, 2003)


July 28, 2003
make sure you are eating slow. This gives your brain a chance to catch up with your pouch. I can't say that I ever feel full but i get a feeling that tells me if i take one more bite, it will be too much. It took me until about the last month to recognize this feeling. I am nearly six months out now and have not vomitted for quite some time.
   — Delores S.

July 28, 2003
Delores is right. It takes some time for your new stomach and your brain to work together. You will learn what full is (early on for me, it was an awful pain in the middle of my upper chest--very uncomfortable), and the sense of fullness will get more sophistocated over time. Now that the nerves are healing and my stomach and brain are working together again, I notice other signs that I've had enough before it gets to that pain stage. It just takes time to get in synch. Your approach of eating measured foods is a good one. That way, you won't overeat, and by the time you start to test what full is, you'll have a better working system to assess it with. At four months out, I still measure my food so I can judge how much to eat before feeling bad, even though I now have a much better idea of what full is than I had three months ago.
   — Vespa R.

July 28, 2003
Its like a pressure/tightness in the middle of your chest where your pouch is located. Eat slowly in the beginning so you can recognize the feeling because if you eat one bite too much you will either vomit (which did not happen to me) or feel intense pouch pain (which did happen to me several times) which took a good 20 min - 2 hours to go away. I also hiccuped loudly 3 or 4 times after eating which was the signal that I was full! I don't hiccup as often now that I am 17 mo post-op, but during months 2 or 3 until at least a year post-op, it would happen after every meal, kinda a built in "I'm full" alarm.
   — Cindy R.

July 28, 2003
From day 1 my dr said you need to chew slowly enough that your brain catches up with your stomach. I'm 4 mos out and still only eat 1/2 cup or so per meal. But like the others said, you will know if you are over-full. It gets painful, one way or another. Another thing my dr said was that you should be able to look at your portion and tell if it's enough within a short period of time. I use only a saucer or small bowl. If you don't finish what's on there before feeling full, you'll be able to gauge about how much you should be eating. As long as you are chew, chew, chewing you'll be able to tell when you are full.
   — lharbison

July 28, 2003
Eat slooooooow... chew food fine, and ONLY EAT UNTILL SATISFIED, NOT FULL. Did'nt we get overweight when we ate until we were full? ;)
   — Danmark

August 4, 2003
I WOULD STICK TO A HALF CUP OF FOOD, IF YOU FEEL FULL BEFORE YOU FINISH THE 1/2 CUP THEN STOP EATING. I HAD SURGERY IN NOVEMBER, BUT I STILL REMEMBER HOW I FELT THE 1ST COUPLE OF MONTHS AFTER SURGERY, NAUSEA - WHICH IS USUALLY CAUSED BY POST NASAL DRIP (USE CLARITAN -D DISOLVES UNDER THE TONGUE. THEY SELL IT OVER THE COUNTER. I ALSO EXPERIENCED NAUSEA IF I ATE TOO MUCH OR IF I DIDN'T DRINK ENOUGH WATER. I HOPE I HAVE BEEN OF SOME HELP.
   — NANCY W.




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