Question:
always hungry?
I attended my WLS support group last night. There was girl 4 weeks postop who says she is starving all the time. She says she has been like that since day one. She does not get full and she is eating stuff like fudge - was the surgery not performed properly?? How can this be possible? — laurab (posted on October 15, 2003)
October 15, 2003
Everybody's different, but RNY surgery will not work well for anybody who
doesn't change their eating habits, probably drastically from what they
were in the pre-op days. Some RNYers do not dump from sugars and never do.
Many more learn quickly (though four weeks is awfully early out) that they
can eat crummy foods relatively easily, such as crackers, pretzels, chips,
mashed potatos, etc., and they don't succeed in getting the
"full" feeling that denser protein foods will usually create in
the pouch. Grazing all day on foods that don't fill you up will produce
disappointing results. Then there's always the possibility of a surgical
failure, such as a staple line disruption or an enlarged stoma, but those
things are relatively uncommon and can be checked for by the doc.
— Suzy C.
October 15, 2003
It sounds like she is suffering from "head hunger". I didn't
feel full but I didn't feel hungry either. In fact, I don't remember being
hungry til I was about 7 months post-op. I just ate because it was time to
eat. I still have days like that but I also have days when I think I'm
starving. At 22 months post-op and having been at goal for over 8 months,
I try to balance my eating over a week - if I eat too much one day, I make
sure that I odn't continue the next. Usually, if I were to keep an exact
count of calories, my weekly caloric intake would average about 1200
calories a day or less. It is normal not to feel full at first - the pouch
is swollen and the nerve endings aren't healed.
— Patty_Butler
October 15, 2003
everybody is different, and I would think it a little presumptuous
determining that some one has head hunger with out actually inhabiting
their body. It would be "difficult" to say the least. I can only
speak for my self on the hunger issue. I have days when I feel like a
starving wolf. I would eat the neighbor's horse's hind leg given the
opportunity. I have other days I have to schedule my self to eat because
I'm not interested. At 4 weeks I was still on liquids and I was never full,
never "satisfied" and didn't feel satisfied til I got on solid
foods. according to my Dr. 25% never ever dump. I personally wouldn't
recommend eating fudge at 4 weeks or ever. sweets can also increase hunger
for many people. Again, we are all differnt and coming from this woth our
own food issues and emotional issues. the saying that the surgery fixes
your stomach but not your head is all too true.
— **willow**
October 15, 2003
I would first check off a few things..is she drinking with her food-you'll
never get full that way. Is she still on mostly liquids like soups, you
won't get full that way either..is she taking too long to eat-too slow and
the pouch empties out one end while your filling it on the other. Is she
eating enough at each meal? Some surgeons restrict each meal to an ounce
or two and for some, that would not fill you. If none of these things are
happeningtell her to see her surgeon to have her pouch checked for a
mechanical failure.. If she never gets full and is eating solid foods, and
enough food per meal and not washing it down with liquids, then there may
be something wrong. As for eating fudge, well, her choice, but sabotaging
yourself as such a new post-op will surely not get her to goal.
— Cindy R.
October 15, 2003
all types of wls can work, all types of wls can fail it depends on how you
use the tool given to you. anyone whjo goes through wls then fials to gange
their eating habits in my opinion is foolish and unprepared to have wls in
the first place and is taking it away fomr someone who would use the tool
and be thrilled to have the chance.
— janetc00
October 16, 2003
I couldn't help but to post on this one. I think the post before mine is
very short sighted and hurtful. There are times when the surgery just
doesn't work. 1% of WLS patients will die, 1% will have it fail. Those
are facts. We don't blame someone who has died because of the surgery,
should we blame those who the surgery has failed? Mine has failed. I
followed all instructions to the letter. I'm not going to go into them
right now because every surgeon is different, but I followed my surgeons
directions exactly. In nine months, I lost less than 50 pounds. Possibly
an enlarged stoma (which is not the patients fault). I have to go back
into the surgeon in two weeks to talk about my options. Yes, this is a
tool. But, if the tool is broken, it's a useless tool nonetheless. I'm
not even going to comment on eating the fudge issue, but to assume that all
failures are due to patient faults is just plain wrong.
— Angie K.
October 16, 2003
Well, I think we all know someone or a friend of someone for whom the
surgery did not work for whatever reason. IMHO, human behavior and habits
are notoriously hard to change, even with the best of intentions. I think
both previous posters have valid points about perhaps this girl has a
mechanical problem with her surgery or maybe she just isn't making the
right choices. We all know that eating fudge at 4 weeks out is , well,
pretty stupid, but this girl may not have been properly educated on what
types of food she should and shouldn't eat. Maybe she wasn't ready for WLS.
That said, there are people who do stay hungry and who do not dump from
eating sweets. This girl might just be one of them.
— lizinPA
October 16, 2003
I'm 3 months post-op and there are days when I feel really hungry as well.
I don't kow if it's head hunger or *real* hunger, but I'm having to retrain
myself to drink water, or go on a quick stroll, or anything else to get my
mind off it and create a temporary feeling of satisfaction. it usually
passes in 10 or 15 minutes. As for the fudge issue, I personally don't
dump on sugar or carbs, and am sure I could eat fudge if I wanted to.
Changing habits is always difficult and hopefully as time passes she will
adjust to a new way of eating.
Now as for the poster who suggests that a wls patient who fails to change
their eating habits is "taking away" the chance for someone else
to have surgery, that's complete nonsense! I'm getting sick and tired of
this flawed argument. It's not as though there is some kind of a legal cap
on the number of surgeries that can be performed per year, and each person
who has surgery TAKES AWAY someone else's chance to have it. Each surgery
is an independent event. And I'd like to think that those of us who have
battled with the overwhelming nature of emotional eating issues our entire
lives would be a little more understanding about how difficult it is
(especially in the first few months post-op) to adjust to changing
deep-rooted habits. My two cents.
— Tiffany J.
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