Question:
how to stop eating when full?

i guess you would say that i am an emotional eater! most times i feel full but my brain wants more. how do you do it after the surgery? i know that you feel full faster, but emotionaly how does it work? i know that i would have to change every way that i eat, and what i eat.    — Rebecca73 (posted on September 30, 2004)

September 30, 2004
You have to work on the reasons you eat. Gastric Bypass does not cure the desire to eat, if you are an emotinal eater. I REALLY struggled with this. I was actually kinda pissed that they didn't elaborate on this before my surgery. My Doc recommended that I see a counselor for eating disorders. I wanted to eat so bad, not that I was hungry...I just wanted to eat. I would get upset that everyone else could just go to get whatever they wanted and I had to just sit and be bored. Right after surgery was an emotional time for me. I really struggled, because I wanted to eat. My husband told me that nothing tastes as good as being skinnier will. I kept telling myself that, and it helped. Also what helped me was getting on this web site and looking at before and after pics.It relly helped with my bordom and my thought patterns. I advise you to find something before surgery that you really enjoy to help you through this time. If you need more help email me at [email protected] Best wishes, Rhonda
   — Rhonda S.

September 30, 2004
How wise of you to think of this pre-op! This did not hit me until AFTER I had surgery and I still struggle with it. Surgery does help control the volume that I eat, but I still have to stuggle with desires to eat and I suppose could just eat all day long. I try and really focus on the reasons why I want to eat at a given time and if it's not about "true" hunger, I try and do something else, like walk, get out of the house, go read, do anything but eat. I'm starting to read some books on the topic to help. Right now I just started "exodus from obesity" and it seems to be getting at some of these issues. For me the emotional hunger continues to be a stuggle, but I can say that now I'm more equipped to deal with it. Surgery has opened my eyes a lot to my past eating problems and that alone has helped me deal with the challenges. Also, now that I'm almost down to a normal BMI, I do feel and look so much better and that really helps motivate me to stay on track. I'm also trying to totally refocus my attitude towards food and stop "thinking" like an obese person. I try not to "run" to food as the answer to everything and also try and not do things like safe takeout leftovers and eat them/graze on them anyway. If I am full, I throw out the rest of what I'm eating (GASP, that has been so hard for me to do as I was raised with a HUGE stigma about wasting food). These are all small steps, but they make a huge difference. I figure, if I cut out all of these extra calories a day that I used to eat/graze w/o thinking, that alone is probably the difference between being normal weight and being MO. Working out instead of eating when I'm mad/sad/whatever is also a huge change in mindset that has helped me tremendously. I really feel like I've been on a mentally exhausing journey. My profile goes on and on about it, and is boring, but if you are interested, I think I've made a lot of good discoveries. Also, feel free to email me and I'll try and help with specifics.
   — w8free

October 3, 2004
I am not an emotional eater, I care much more about volume. So, this may not be true for you but now post-op when I am full I have no problem stopping 99% of the time. The main reason is because the food usually no longer tastes good to me. Also, if I do eat a bite too much I usually immediately start to feel a little nautious (sp). I am only 11 weeks out, but I am down 70 1/2 lbs. I hope this helps. Faith
   — Faith B.