This Patient Found the Surgery Easier Than the Post-Gastric Bypass Diet

The following article was written by a reader who wanted to share his experiences in getting her health insurance policy to cover weight loss surgery. For privacy reasons, his name is not included.

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"Man, the first few weeks were hell..."

The surgery went off without a hitch and recovery was quicker than the docs had expected, but getting used to the lifestyle change was hard. There's a difference between sitting in a doctors office and having him patiently explain what the consequences of gastric bypass surgery are and actually living them.

As I was leaving the hospital the doc told me I was set to eat whatever I want. The evil grin should have told me that "whatever I want" wasnt quite going to jive with what I actually could fit down.

My first meal outside the hospital was pizza. My wife and I went to our favorite joint and ordered our usual medium deluxe to split. Usually Id eat a bit less than half, my wife would take a quarter, and the rest wed take home for the dog.

It's good that we were getting food because I was RAVENOUS. The pizza arrived at our table and it smelled divine. I grabbed a slice and took a big bite, savoring the mix of onions and peppers and sausage and mushrooms as I chewed and swallowed. I took a second bite, then a third and a fourth, and finally finished off the slim wedge of pizza.

I reached for a second piece, took a bite, and chewed, but I couldnt bring myself to swallow. I was full. Not just ordinary full either, but Thanksgiving-dinner-with-all-the-fixings full. And yet my brain was screaming for more food, like it and my stomach had had a fight and werent talking to each other anymore. My wife laughed as I spit the mouthful of chewed pizza into a napkin and told her I was full. Then smiled and said leftovers werent always a bad thing.

I became a bit obsessed at first with the food I was eating, what and when and how much. I felt like I had to have a way to comfort myself that I was actually eating, because my brain was incessantly insisting I was starving to death.

Three days in I got cranky at everyone and my wife suggested I start a journal with the foods and times and how much. I bought a scale so I could weigh my food before and after I ate so I could keep track of the calories.

The first week I kept the journal, I found I was eating an average of 700 calories a day, peaking at around 1200 calories. Thats not much when you weigh almost 500 lbs. The second week I felt more relaxed with the process and found I was eating between 1200 to 1500 calories a day.

Since I had the surgery a few months ago, Ive settled into a routine. I no longer feel the need to track every bit of food, and the weight has started to come off in great whacking chunks (down almost 60 lbs so far). I've figured out how much my stomach will hold (food thats about half the size of my fist fills me up completely) and wont take more than I can eat, though I still feel like I'm eating all the time. The hunger is still there, but I've learned to deal with the sensation, even accept that I won't be able to sate it completely.

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To read personal stories submitted by gastric bypass patients, visit After Gastric Bypass - Personal Experiences.