How to recognize hunger and fullness & what about pain?

[Anna Nim 196]

I was sleeved on 12/14.

I have had head hunger, dreams even. Not sure HOW to recognize real hunger. I do not want be eating because I am 'supposed' to-a lot of that got me into this mess in the first place, and feels like has been a bit. What does it FEEL like? (I already have food on the brain ALL the time..which sorta sucks, as I was hoping to have less of that, but it does seem less strong.)

Also, HOW do you know if you are full? I personally feel I can take in too much. Never have had issues with Fluid intake last two weeks. I had a 1/2 cup of Fage Yogrut yesterday with some Protein Powder in it. It hurt going down, so maybe I should have stopped at the first or second spoon.

But, I thought I was hungry.

What does full or full-ish feel like early on?

I want to be successful.

[Aggiemae 739]

This is what I do:

Hunger- start an activity and reassess in 15 minutes. I find that I have a hrd time distinguishing between idle time and hunger.

Fullness- this is tricky. I find that measuring my food and not having more than 4 oz on my plate (3:1 / protein:carbs) helps.

At first it was just 2ozs. I use a tiny spoon and fork and eat very slowly. Chew everything, keep food in my mouth. Learning to SAVOR. It takes me 15-20 minutes to finish my small meals. If eat slowly enough I will feel satisfied before I empty my plate.

Pain: pain (and nausea and burping and sweating) means I over ate. It only took once for me to know that I never want to fell that awful again, and it was just one or two bites more that I should have had.

You might want to thin Greek yogurt for a while. It's really big sticky lump of food.

[White Sale 339]

What does full or full-ish feel like early on?

I'm only a week post op, but I'll try to describe my new feeling of fullness. I've found that it feels much like that pressure one feels before a burp.

OR

Have you ever swallowed a large amount of an icy cold drink at once and felt that stabbing pain travel with it down your esophagus? Just a blip of a similar pain tells me it's time to stop.

I think the most important thing, for me, has been to be aware of how much I've already had and to go slow, slooow, sloooow. I'm accustomed to horking my food down like a hound dog, so this is an exercise in patience.

You'll get it Anna Nim, just listen to your body and keep checking in.

[Ssze1109 163]

I start to feel gurgling that I describe as a pot starting to boil and then get the hiccups or start coughing.

The words "head hunger" are always on my mind. So I stop and wonder if this is just my head hunger cravings or real hunger.

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[heidikat72 935]

Your nerves were cut during surgery so don't rely on any "fullness" cues to tell you to stop eating for a while - at least a month. Stick to the measurements from your practice's guidelines as far as how much to eat at a time - don't go over. However, if you start to feel things "stack up" into your esophagus, stop and wait for the next meal. Also, I'll often even now get a single hiccup or my nose will start running - weird but that is now my cue to stop eating because another bite and i'll end up miserable. For now, as long as you are meeting Fluid and Protein goals and taking your Vitamins, you'll be fine nutritionally.

also, initially - i just always assumed it was head hunger and when it came over me (it was intense day 7-20) I started an activity. Preferably for me an activity with my hands - hard to eat and knit or color at the same time! I just needed something to distract and reset my brain. For a lot of us, eating is a boredom activity so we have to learn to combat the boredom in another way.

Hang in there! There's a lot of new feelings to sort out during this phase but you'll figure it out!

[theantichick 2,204]

I completely lost my hunger drive for a month or so after surgery, so I literally had to set a timer on my phone to remind me to eat every 3 hours or so (as ordered). I would set out my ounce or two of whatever I was supposed to eat, and get as much of it down as I could. As time went on and I could get all of my measured portion down, I'd just stop with the measured portion.

Fullness, as others have described, is feeling like things are starting to "stack up" at the base of my esophagus. I have to eat very slowly and pause between bites, because it's literally one bite past that initial "stacking up" feeling that pushes me into discomfort bordering on pain. A hiccup or productive burp tells me I'm past full without realizing it and no matter how good the food is, I stop.

One of the greatest blessings of this surgery has been to allow me to completely separate the "head hunger" voices from the physical hunger. I will get the grinding stomach hunger if I go too long without eating something, and it's absolutely physical. Or I'll start feeling like my battery is running down as my blood sugar drops too low. If I get cravings from physical hunger, it's usually for a category of food... I crave Protein or fruit or dairy or even bread, and if I think about it it's been a few hours since I've eaten anything. If I'm having head hunger, I find myself thinking about an individual food... Oooh, a chocolate pudding would be nice, or I want a bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream. The head hunger is easy for me to divert at this point, I get a glass of Water or a Protein shake and find something to do and forget about it. Physical hunger is a cue my body needs something, and I am learning to pay attention to it.

I'm sure it's not the same for everyone, but that's been my experience.

[Sai 785]

This is what I do:

Hunger- start an activity and reassess in 15 minutes. I find that I have a hrd time distinguishing between idle time and hunger.

Fullness- this is tricky. I find that measuring my food and not having more than 4 oz on my plate (3:1 / protein:carbs) helps.

At first it was just 2ozs. I use a tiny spoon and fork and eat very slowly. Chew everything, keep food in my mouth. Learning to SAVOR. It takes me 15-20 minutes to finish my small meals. If eat slowly enough I will feel satisfied before I empty my plate.

Pain: pain (and nausea and burping and sweating) means I over ate. It only took once for me to know that I never want to fell that awful again, and it was just one or two bites more that I should have had.

You might want to thin Greek yogurt for a while. It's really big sticky lump of food.

It only took me once too. One bite too many is one too many of that experience. I will never do that again hehe. I'm almost 4 months out, and it was THE most miserable experience to me.

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