Hunger Management

Other video courses mentioned in this video:

Hunger and Bariatric Surgery – this course deep dives into hunger management and tapping into the power of your post-op stomach.

Emotional Eating and Bariatric Surgery – taking it beyond physical hunger we’ll cover everything from stress to boredom to fatigue. Why do they all drive us to eat?? What can be done to control temptation in those moments?

 

Transcript:

I have some great news for you! You did not stretch your pouch.

Nope.

It’s next to impossible to stretch the thick layers of muscle that is your stomach. When someone regains weight after surgery, it’s more from eating around the restriction like grazing or higher starch foods…but not because of the stomach itself.

This is good news because it means your surgery still works! Now weight loss is at its most powerful in the first year after surgery and we can’t go back in time…so that much is true. But you DO still have a really helpful tool you can tap into that you didn’t have before you had surgery.

We can use that tool for something incredibly important. Hunger management.

If you can feel in control of your hunger, you will feel in control of your weight. You will also be better equipped to manage the emotional side of hunger if your physical hunger is well managed. I have a full video course on emotional eating which I highly recommend! But even in that course I will emphasize that we need to manage your physical needs to support managing your emotional needs.

Not to bog you down with even more video courses but there is a full video course on hunger after bariatric surgery. So in this lesson I am going to summarize some of the very important uses of your pouch that DOES work to control your hunger but if you feel you need to dig in deeper to managing your hunger – watch that course next.

You can tap into the power of your pouch when you focus on plenty of water in between your meals, but not with your meal and for 45-60 minutes afterwards.

Focus on lean and solid protein at your meals like chicken breast, hamburger patty or pork chops and you’ll feel that restriction again. You do need to focus on small bites, going slowly and stopping at the first sign of fullness to feel comfortable.

Have a set meal pattern of three meals a day and one protein snack if you need it…instead of having small frequent meals during the day that can turn more into grazing pattern and make getting water goals in between meals harder.

Pair your lean protein with veggies for great fiber and texture. Fruit is okay once a day with protein but avoid eating fruit by itself…always with a protein.

Limit foods with high sugar or starch like crackers, chips, popcorn, cookies, and so on. It’s hard the first 5 days of clearing those things out of your body but you feel much better and more controlled in your hunger and cravings after that!

I like to think of hunger management as a mindset shift from “trying to lose weight.”

I have maintained a weight loss of 40 pounds since 2010 and can tell you the most helpful way for me to look at food choices is to think about how it impacts my HUNGER, not my weight. Like we talked about before, the scale is confusing. Hunger control is easier for me to understand the connection between food and my hunger. I see pasta or potatoes and think “I don’t want to be hungry for days!” rather than “I don’t want to gain weight.” And if I DO eat the food I feel prepared to start managing the hunger that will come after rather than feeling shameful about how that food impacted my weight. For me, it’s less emotional.

Now there are days you may be hungrier. Certainly in the first three to five days of getting back to a set meal structure focused on protein and vegetales, you will probably feel hungry and maybe have a light headache or fatigue. Drink plenty of water, eat protein snacks when you need and now that it gets so much better. If you are a menstruating female, it’s not in your head if you are hungrier at times in your cycle. Also, if you are very low on sleep you may have a higher release of endocannabinoids which increase hunger. And if you are stressed you might find yourself craving high fat or high sugar foods because of cortisol. This is all the more reason to focus on managing your hunger with the bariatric basics. It will allow you to better navigate the other body signals. And if you’re hungry, and you know you’ve had enough water, go ahead and eat some protein. Don’t withhold food from yourself when your body is signaling hunger. But while you have that protein snack, think through if there is anything you could change to be control your hunger.

What about you? How is your hunger controlled?

Things to consider:

If you are hungry at night, are you eating too little in the day? Skipping breakfast or eating light at lunch? Are your grazing  through the day of have a set meal time?

If you are hungry all day, are you drinking enough water? Are you consistently having higher starch foods through the day?

What else do you think is contributing to feeling hungry outside of your meal times?