Question:
How do you handle it when your appetite is coming back?

It seems that not only is my appetite coming back at 5 mos. but also I can eat more now too. Example: I ate a piece of meat on a hamb. bun with cheese for dinner. I also ate a few slices of cucumber. I stopped but I could have ate more. Is this normal at 5 mos. out. It is getting harder.    — Kim N. (posted on June 30, 2003)

June 30, 2003
It was around 6 months post op when my hunger came back. It is scarey, but eat your protein first. That way when you eat more, your still getting mostly protein. It is normal to eat more at around 5-6 months post op so don't be worried about that.
   — Danmark

June 30, 2003
It is normal to be able to eat more and feel hunger at your stage post-op and it's also normal to panic about it! :) Now more than ever, it's important to drink your water to keep feeling full throughout the day and avoid grazing. I am 8.5 months post and can eat 2 3oz cheeseburgers (no bun or anything else with them).
   — Yolanda J.

June 30, 2003
I am about to hit my 1 year post op, and this is something that I have struggled with on and off for the last 6 months. Funny thing is, the solution was before me the entire time :) Read pouch rules for dummies. I am finding as I get further out from surgery, I definitely have to "use the tool". It doesn't just do everything automatically anymore. I have found that if I consume a fair bit of water just prior to my eating, it stretches the pouch out a bit, and I get full on much smaller portions of food. I know it sounds obvious, but I wasn't doing this for the longest time, and it really does work. Since I drink Propel fitness waters most of the time, I crack open a fresh one, and down about half of it while my Lean Cuisine is nuking in the microwave. By the time dinner is ready, I feel quite full on a small Lean Cuisine. I am finding that doing this during the day when I just want something to munch ( read: graze ) on, really helps. All the folks on here tell the truth. Water is your friend.
   — Greg P.

July 1, 2003
Another way to handle the hunger is to eat. Try eating several small meals a day. Not necessarily until you feel full or stuffed, but satisfied. The key for me is not getting hungry or letting it get to the point where I get so hungry that I make bad choices. So, keeps lots of good snacks/mini meals around and eat whenever your hungry. Also, how long does it take you to eat a meal, such as an entire cheeseburger with bun? I have found that if I eat at a normal pace (can't do this as an early post-op), I get full faster, perhaps eating the entire meal in 10 minutes or less. If I take my time and spend 20 minutes or longer eating I can certainly eat alot more. Don't be afraid to eat more. Early post-op we are not hungry and so its tough to eat enough to fill that tiny pouch, but the further out we get, the more the hunger returns, and the more we eat so that the pouch stretches to where it naturally should end up. We cannot continue to eat just 2 0z of food, and lose massive amounts of weight for long, or we would end up anorexic. So, our pouches stretch to accomodate larger amounts of food, which provide us with more calories and nutrition, and slows the weight loss so that we achieve healthy goal weights.
   — Cindy R.