Signals of feeling full after bariatric surgery

Tricky question

This is a very intriguing question. Why is that? Because everybody is different and gives a little different signals. What feeling full after bariatric surgery is for one, can be very different for another. At the beginning of your bariatric journey, it is your job to learn yours.

Information overload

The first weeks can be especially hard because it is all too much for you. Everything is new and you have no idea what it all means. You feel as if they gave you a new baby and you are trying to figure out why it is crying. You have no idea.

Are you thirsty? Are you hungry? I mean is it real hunger or is it your head playing games with you? Are you overeaten? Has it gone down well? Or is it a complaint? It is all too much. Sensory overload.

Reaching your goals

You know you should be drinking this much. But it doesn’t want to go down. Your liquid goal seems like drinking the whole Olympic pool. And then there is the protein goal, which resembles more like eating a whole elephant. Does it sound familiar?

Your tummy makes so much noise that you are not sure if it is normal, something is going on, or something is right away badly wrong. My one used to make such a horrible noise that I was waking up my partner at night. Funny, eh?

It is all new

But it is all completely normal. Your stomach is cut, 80% of it is gone and it is healing. It has some stitches on it, they made it a tube, so whatever you send down, it causes a major surprise, complaint and you feel like after Thanksgiving dinner at your grandmas´, albeit you sent down two teaspoons of plain yogurt and sipped a little of protein shake an hour later.

 

It is hard

You are scared that you are not meeting your goals, that you will get dehydrated, that you will get sick because you are not getting in your protein. From my experience, if you can’t do both, prioritize drinking, especially when it is hot outside. It would surprise you how fast you can dehydrate and collapse. Obviously, don’t give up on protein, you don’t want to lose your muscle mass.

Set reminders

In the beginning, really do your best, try, don’t give up easily, and sip, sip sip, and sip. Every five minutes, if it is too much, every ten. I was so crazy that I used to have an alarm set on my phone. Because without it, I forgot. And then I was very thirsty and I couldn’t drink fast enough to improve it.

And it was the same with the protein. I was not hungry at all, so I was not eating the whole day. And then it was 5 in the afternoon and to my horror, I was only sipping liquids all day, which is great, but I haven’t eaten anything at all. That was not good.

Food aversion

The problem is that a lot of people the first weeks after the surgery have quite a strong aversion to food. We don’t want to eat. Everything smells extremely strong, this has a strange texture, this is sweet too much, this doesn’t want to go down, there are so many problems with food that it is a relief when you don’t have to eat.

But it is not like this at all. You need food and you must eat. But sometimes it is forcing yourself. You sit with the plate, you stare at the food and you wish it somehow disappeared. But you will have to eat it.

So you start pushing it in and it is again a pretty nasty experience because you have eaten three teaspoons and you are heavily overeaten. You are scared that you might hurt yourself, so you chew everything overly well. I remember I was trying to chew even yogurt 😀that was the level of my food fear.

Intolerances

Little did I know that the nasty feeling followed by horrible diarrhea with stomach cramps and feeling like dying was actually a food intolerance to lactose that I developed after the surgery. And in the later stages, it was the same with meat. It didn’t want to go down, my stomach was complaining all the time, and I spent months rushing to the bathroom like crazy. I wish I had known this.

https://bariradka.com/2024/07/27/food-intolerance-after-bariatric-surgery/

 

How does it feel?

So how did I know I was full? I realized this when I was able to eat a little more. It was maybe with soft foods. First: eat very slowly. Give your body time to deal with what you are sending in. At the earliest stages, every spoonful makes a huge difference. When you start feeling full, something like your stomach is starting to stretch, it is a little unpleasant, stop right away.

Dont think that one more spoon will be ok. It will not. It is the difference between feeling a little overeaten and kneeling in your toilet with your head inside foaming like crazy and hoping you won’t throw it all out at once. It never happened to me, but I was very dangerously close quite some times. You don’t want this.

Learn your signals

Later, when I was eating solid foods already, the signal of being full changed. My nose started to run and I started to sneeze. But not one or two times. Easily minutes in a row. I felt like a sick donkey. Again. If you can, stop a little early so that you save this for yourself. Especially when you are eating out and you start sneezing like this. My surgery was in ending the covid pandemic, so you can imagine how people were looking at me. It was not nice 😀

Real hunger or head hunger?

Later it was very important to learn when I am feeling real hunger and when it is only a head hunger. Is it my stomach that wants food or do I  want to eat just because there are people around me eating or I see some food? Crucial difference. This is something you will have to learn. It is part of dealing with our food addiction. What is more, it can be simply a craving. Usually for one specific thing. Something like chips or pizza. Funny, it is never protein shakes, right? 😂

It is very hard to deal with this. All the flavors, textures, smells… everything is completely new to you after the surgery. What you used to like, turned out to be the thing that you can’t stand. Or you start craving things you never even considered that could become an integral part of your diet. You feel like a toddler who is experimenting with new food. At least this was my experience.

Everything is new

At this point, be open to options. If you like something visually in the store and it is something you have never tried, buy a little and try to prepare some meal with it. You might be surprised. Things like: I have never eaten carrots, don’t stand here. How do you know if they are not now your favorite food? Just go and try it. You might be surprised.

Your body, your rules

The last thing I would say here is that it is always advisable to listen to your body. It knows what is good and what not. If you feel funny, don’t eat it. It is not worth it. It might be ultra-healthy and everybody might be eating it, but if your stomach doesn’t want it, it is like that. It is not for you.

As months pass, you will start learning the signs. What is ok, what is absolutely not, things you like, things you can’t stand. It can be overwhelming. And in the beginning, it really is. There is so much going on that you have no idea where to start from.

Don’t worry, it is not only you. Everybody went through this. Somebody has it better, somebody suffers a lot. But it is ok, it is a part of the journey and it will settle down with time. It will become all better. Even if you are struggling, even if you are super emotional and you doubt your decision to have the surgery, it is normal. You will see that in a few weeks, you will start to see the results and it will literally kick your a.s and will push you to keep going.

It is all so much worth it. Even if the beginning can be a little bumpy.