The beef broth and protein shakes are for the pre-op diet and the 1st week post op. Some people continue to drink the protein shakes to get in the recommended daily protein.

I rarely drink the shakes after the 2nd week post-op. I moved onto creamy soups and and a lot of chicken run through my food processor until very very finely chopped.

I believe anyone that has 85% of their stomach removed will lose weight. You can't help but lose, if you are limited to 4oz of food every few hours.

Now the big question is, where is your hunger coming from? Only you can figure that part out. Is it from emotional eating, boredome, stress, or is it because you have hunger pangs caused by the hormone ghrelin?

From my own experience, I knew that my hunger was real (even though I had eaten 2 hours earlier, I'd be hungry again). It wasn't until I talked to my surgeon that he told me that I had an excess of the hormone ghrelin (produced by the stomach). The bigger the stomach, the more of the hormone produced.

The surgery stopped my hunger pangs. I have not had that nagging sense of hunger (other than my stomach growling) since surgery 7 weeks ago. And 4 or 5 oz of food keeps me satisfied, whereas before, I could eat 1 lb of steak and know I'd be raiding the fridge in 2 hours.

And I don't have any cravings anymore for certain flavors. Whereas before, I'd think about something that would taste good and I couldn't get the thought out of my head until I ate it.

Don't get me wrong, you can sabotage yourself after surgery. There are foods, called slider foods, that are calorie dense (ice cream, peanut butter) that pass through the stomach quickly, so it's possible to eat more. And it is possible to just graze all day on snacks that are high in calories.

The sleeve gave me the control over my eating that I needed. I really think of it as an addiction that you can't quit and never touch again.

Other addictions can be quit and never touched again. But what if a heroine addict, smoker or alcoholic knew they had to take some every day or their body would die?

What if they had 75 TV channels that ran commericals for cigarrets every 10 minutes during their favorite programs? Or had reality programs (like the best places to pig out or the food challenges) devoted to the best places to get their fix and showed people taking drugs and loving it? Could they just reduce the amount they took?

Ok, rant over. :-)

I'm sorry i didn't see this post earlier..seriously need a new phone-- lol...anyway- THANK YOU! You are in my head- I swear! It's good to know there is life after beef broth lol. I have the same problem- I'm trying to figure out where my hunger comes from...I think a lot of it is stress and there is a serious lack of self control that has taken over since this whole weight thing has spun so out of control....so I'm happy to hear that this will be a useful TOOL to get my back on track, to get control over my life again. How embarrasing to sit back and say- I have a food addiction- but you are 110% absolutely CORRECT. It's like an alcoholic, but in our world- you'd have to drink a bit of alcohol each day to stay alive..and nobody has ever explained it like that to me before. I seriously couldn't think of a better way to put it. I'm excited for my journey- surgery in 3 days Thank you for the support- I look forward to leaning on you as the rest of this journey unfolds before me!