What tells you when you're hungry?

I have this conversation with my friend all the time.

She says that this surgery did not take away her hunger the way it was supposed to . I ask her how she knows she is hungry and she says she can't stop thinking about food and what she can eat next. 

I know I am hungry because my stomach growls and it feels empty . She says she can't believe I don't think I am hungry unless my stomach is growling. I tell her what she is talking about is head hunger and she tells me no, she is starving.

So I ask my fellow sleevers, what is your determination on whether or not you are hungry?

Good question!  Most people DO NOT know what true hunger is!  I only know from being hospitalized in 2004.  I had a ruptured appendix.   I went in for emerrgency exploratory surgery. (Too big for diagnostic equipment!) I was on I.V fluids only for 3 days!  nothing by mouth! (not even ice chips or water)  After about 24 hrs you feel growling aching in the gut at 48 hrs it is worse, at the 3rd day I really did only think about FOOD!   You get used to ignoring your stomach , but your mind is not easy to SHUT UP!  It sucked, but I DO know the difference NOW.  I thought I did before, but I was wrong!   Now I feel emptyness in my gut, but not "true" hunger. The noises and gurgling are just noises common to VSGer's, It does not mean you are hungy.  The cool thing is A few bites of food, or I sometimes drink water, and the noises stop.  I try to eat evey 2-3 hrs, so I can get my Food in.  If I don't, Then I could easily go for hours without eating, I don't get that same deep hunger, feeling anymore.  Remember some people are different, maybe they do feel hungry?  Ghrelin is not eliminated totally, but reduced. (it is also made in other areas of the body too!)

I sympathize with your friend, since I also have hunger troubles after surgery. 

When I'm hungry my stomach feels empty, and I feel a little lightheaded.

With true hunger, ANYTHING I put in my stomach will make it go away temporarily. So if I eat a cup of broccoli or a few slices of turkey and it goes away, that was real hunger. If I'm dreaming of a cupcake, and I eat the turkey and broccoli and the hunger is still there, that's "head hunger", or cravings.

I think it is very hard to tell the difference between head hunger and true hunger with the sleeve.

I have days where I think I'm hungry all day long, but if I sit and am honest with myself, I feel no physical hunger pangs in my stomach. I just think about food and have a strong urge to eat. And my stomach feels "empty." But that doesn't really mean I'm "hungry" or that I even need to eat at that moment. My mind just thinks I do and those are the days I end up grazing all day long.

Other times, I am actually hungry and DO feel hunger pangs in my sleeve. That is rare, though - maybe 2-3 times a week now. It's usually in the morning a couple/few hours after my protein shake.

My tum never growls unless I am about to have a colon blow episode from random artificial sweetners.  boo.

Half a lifetime ago I was once on a diet (gasp, I know) where you had to wait until your stomach grumbled before you could eat.  After the third day - I figured my growler was broken and I probably better eat.

When I am hungry, I get the empties in my gut, then if I ignore it for too long, I get nauseated, get a twinge of the woozes, and can feel the *****iness scale climbing.   Head hunger for me is the want to put things in my mouth, very often triggered by boredom, stress, being overwhelmed with whatever, or having the blues.

I automate my foods, so I eat the same things in my breathing in and out life, (as opposed to the waahooo social life) but what I know is this - if I have a list of different foods to choose from, then I will think about food a lot - automating my food takes care of that, because I know what's coming up next, I know it will be superdelicious, but I do not ruminate on it. 

I also know that depending on what I ate last - my hunger will come quicker or slower. I also have timeframes for eating - because if I wait too long, there is too much of a tendency to be a whatever grabber, or eat fast to fill me up and then not be satisfied.

Its kind of like chasing pain for me - if you wait until you hurt a lot, then it takes much more pain medication to get you back to baseline, as opposed to having a steady minimal supply in your system, which keeps it from rearing its ugly head. 

i guess for me im a bit like your friend i think about food, if its been three hours i eat, if im busy and i go over to 4-5 hours then i will feel like hunger pains in my stomach, then my mind thinks im starving lol.
trouble is if its not been 3 hours the thoughts of food get stronger and stronger til i do eat.

Post-op I feel zero hunger.  If I go for extended periods without food - like let's say 8-10 hours - I feel a strange emptiness inside and start to feel lightheaded. This only happens on the weekends since during the week I have a lunch break and am on a schedule of sorts.

I guess I need to rely on the logic that my body needs fuel every X amount of hours.  If I don't eat I'll feel lightheaded or whatever and that's not a good feeling.

Right after the surgery, I had no hunger and no cravings at all for about the first year.  That has changed now.  I get hungry every two hours now and my cravings for carbs are back.  I know I am hungry when my stomach feels empty and I get a bit lightheaded.  If I wait too long, I think my sugar drops and I can get dizzy.  If I eat only solid protein, I can go three hours between meals, but no more.  I miss the freedom I had early out from all hunger and cravings. 

I do feel hunger at appropriate times but it is no where near the howling hunger it used to be. Its an empty feeling in tummy accompanied by very slight growling plus a general body feeling of being slightly edgy and uncomfortable which i attribute to blood sugar. I feel very fortunate as I think this is the way its supposed to be and I hope it stays this way and I don't go back to the days of "if I don't eat a lot soon I must kill someone".   Thats hunger these days. And yeah, I do get some head hunger like if I watch some cooking show  so i avoid Cake Boss and stuff or sometimes seeing varieties of things at the grocery store but just stick to my list (well mostly).  D

I like the "if I don't eat I will kill someone".  My hubby used to call me a lion cause if I didn't get "fed" I would ***** him out...especially if he was late coming home from golf on an evening when we'd planned to eat out.  It used to drive him crazy and I'd feel all headachey and just plain angry.  It really sucked.  Now, I'm so much more pleasant to live with : )

Laura