Justinh125

Yes and no. For many people, the hunger is still there but gives away faster. For others it does go away. I still get just as hungry and have to respect it for what it is. But if I do eat I get full fast and stay full for longer than ever before.

I suspect that if you had a leak it would hurt all the time. It might just be that your stomach is full and its painful to overeat

I went out to lunch with my coworkers today. First restaurant since surgery. I had a few bites of grilled chicken and lettuce and was full. Boxed the rest up and didn't want another bite! Normally I would have been chowing down on the "bottomless fries" but didn't have a single one today.

I can have string cheese again but one stick makes me full. You'll be able to eat those things again as you heal

Ask for versed when you get there it will calm you down. everything will be fine!!

Congratulations!!!

My doc has a 24-hour "bariatric surgery" 800 number that's for any and all questions. If you have a similar number, call it and ask--I think that's the best thing to do if you're having pain and not sure.

Caffeine also can irritate the stomach and GI tract (mildly.) For some people, it acts as even a mild laxative in the morning--some say it "gets you moving" in more ways than one

My doc told me I can take pills that are about the size of an M&M or smaller. If larger, they told me to split it in half with one of those pill cutters (UNLESS it's a delayed release pill.)

I am type II diabetic. I was amazed to see how quickly my blood glucose evened out, even before I really lost any weight. Now, it's almost always 100 on the dot...I was shocked at how much the surgery helped my diabetes.

It gets better as things heal. You'll start feeling better

Remember, at 9cal/gram of fat you have to burn 9 more calories than you take in to lose 1 gram of fat. in turn this means you have to burn about 4000 more calories than you eat to lose one pound of fat. On the other hand, you can lose up to 10 or more lbs of Water in one day. None of us should be so hard on ourselves. Its a gradual process, but it will work in time

Don't forget, your body can never violate the 1st law of thermodynamics. Ever, for any reason. Just think about it like this: The average adult body needs to burn between 1500-2500 calories/day just to keep you alive (that doesn't include exercise, and yes, you burn plenty of calories while you sleep, because you don't die when you go to bed.) If you consume less calories than that, then your body has to get the energy from somewhere else, or you would die. So the body either has to burn its own muscle or its own fat (or some combination thereof) to keep you alive. As long as you remain in a "negative energy balance" (meaning calories in < calories out,) you will lose weight, even if it's not as fast as you want. They have machines called indirect calorimeters which can actually measure (in real time) if you are building fat, burning fat or at equilibrium by measuring the amount of CO2 vs. O2 in your exhaled breath. http://www.pbrc.edu/research-and-faculty/core-services/?serviceid=82 This is a link to a research center that studies such things.

Have you been using any painkillers? Narcotic painkillers (morphine, hydrocodone, etc) cause at least some histamine release in most people, and that makes many people "itch."

This argument has merit. As someone who knows the people who first researched and discovered the connection between Ghrelin and being fat, I also learned a lot over the years about the GI microbiome. The thing is, there are about 100 trillion bacteria in the gut, but only 10 trillion cells in your entire body. Do we really think that giant colony of bacteria aren't doing anything important? Some research suggests that specific types of Fiber (for example,) might help alter the microbiome of our colon. By doing so, it might help people become more or less thin. I think this will be an exciting area of research moving forward, and I think there will be many interesting discoveries down the road.

I was naked as often as possible and that worked well. I'm normally a lawyer so it was a nice transition from suits and ties!

That's wonderful! Great pics too. You must be feeling good!! Keep up the great work

Maybe try to space your meals so that you eat closer to the evening. I always wonder about when they say "head hunger," as I always thought the feeling of "I'm hungry" came from my brain to start with.

I've been walking 3 miles or so every day and haven't changed my food intake to accommodate it. feeling fine and the pounds are flying off.

As someone who personally knows the scientists that first realized that Ghrelin had anything to do with being fat, I learned a lot about Ghrelin back in 1999 and 2000. (Google "Tschop Ghrelin"...you'll find the Nature paper that first demonstrated it.) At any rate, every pharmaceutical company has synthesized various ghrelin antagonists (they do the chemical opposite of,) but while these chemicals suppress ghrelin, they don't seem to change body composition very much. Instead, the body up-regulates many other hormones to make up the difference. The thing is, it's entirely possible that there are other hormones produced by the stomach that haven't been understood or discovered yet. Prior to about 2000, the stomach wasn't considered an endocrine organ at all. So it's reasonable to think that VSG does more than just dramatically decrease ghrelin production. It certainly does that, but a pill that blocked ghrelin likely wouldn't have the same effect as VSG. If it did, many companies would have such a pill on the market by now. While ghrelin is certainly very important in regulation of hunger and appetite, it's not the "smoking gun" per se. There are other hormones that have already been identified (like leptin, for example) that also regulate hunger, and I wouldn't be even slightly surprised if more are produced by the stomach that otherwise signal to the brain that it's "time to eat!" If you take out (most of) the stomach, those signals are also gone (among other things,) even if scientists haven't yet figured them out.

I'm also about 2 weeks out, and I know what you mean about the walking. I've been walking long walks every morning and I feel better and better every day.

I'm 31, and have been struggling, back and forth, with my weight for my entire life. I've been through phases where I was very healthy, and not at all overweight (even used to be a distance runner,) and then for whatever reason it would come rushing back even more than before....off and on like that for many years. Essentially, I reached a point where I started getting serious health problems like diabetes, obstructive sleep apnea, liver disease, hypertension, etc. So after considerable reserach, I decided to get "sleeved." I did on 8-21-13, and the journey has just begun for me. I'll get to try pureed foods for the first time tomorrow....kind of excited to see how it feels! Great to find this community. Best, Justin H

Nice. Hope you are feeling well. I'm enjoying pureed foods.

Had mine at barix in Michigan with Dr Pop. The nice thing about barix is that its all they do. You get an awesome book with recipes and a bunch of other great info, nutrition counseling, etc. They pretty much let me dictate the speed of the process. They also scheduled my surgery at a specific date that I needed because I had a small window to get it done, and they made it work

Yep, the first few days were the toughest for me, too. It was hard to get comfortable sleeping, hard to get rid of the gas pain, but walking around really does help, and chewable Gas-X helped me too. Keep up the positive attitude and keep moving your body...I firmly believe it's the fastest way to get rid of the pain, plus you'll probably sleep better too.