Accidents Happen: A Guide to Children's Emergencies

Many people have had results with bariatric surgery to help reduce the size of their stomachs and, therefore, the amount of food they can consume. It's often a worry, though, that one might have this surgery and still feel just as hungry or compulsive as they ever did. If you're concerned about this possibility, here's the reality of the situation.

Capacity

When weight loss surgery is performed, whether it's to put a band around the stomach or to reduce its size by removing a portion of it, the capacity of the stomach is vastly changed. Even in comparison to a normal, healthy stomach, the size becomes much smaller. However, most people who are compulsive overeaters have stretched their stomachs to an extent, so the change is even more noticeable.

When your stomach is physically full, you can't help but feel satisfied. It may seem like that wasn't the case when you were eating a lot previously, but if your stomach was stretched, the capacity may have increased so much that becoming physically full was difficult. After surgery, it will be much easier to achieve.

Insulin Spikes

Another reason why you won't feel hungry after this procedure is that you're less likely to experience the up and down spiking and dipping of your blood sugar.

When you eat too much—especially if you eat a lot of sugar or carbs in a single sitting—your body has to compensate for its increasing blood sugar by releasing insulin. Unfortunately, this typically sends the blood sugar plummeting again, which makes you feel hungry. This is the body's way of trying to boost the blood sugar levels again to a more normal place. However, if you can't eat as much as you once did, you're less likely to throw your blood sugar out of balance and more likely to feel satisfied for a long time after your meals.

Negative Reinforcement

Finally, the capacity of the stomach will provide a bit of negative reinforcement if you push yourself too far. While most people can live quite comfortably after this surgery, you'll quickly learn if you try to eat more than you should that it's a bad idea.

There's nothing fundamentally different about eating too much with a smaller, modified stomach or a larger, stretched one except for capacity. If you eat too much, you'll feel overly full, uncomfortable, and perhaps even nauseated. This negative reinforcement will help you to break the habit of trying to eat too much in one sitting.

Weight loss surgery can provide you with a major leg up in reducing your weight and improving how you look and feel. You don't need to worry about feeling hungry and being unable to do anything about it after this procedure. Talk to a doctor and get answers to all of your questions.