I love hunger!

hunger is good, it means I am alive and healthy. it means it's time to eat and I like to eat!

it means I haven't been over eating. whenever I don't get hungry often enough - it's because I had too much before, probably last night.

I would like to see more pro-hunger attutudes out there - people seem to be afraid of it, or glad it's gone or something. 

it's good! get hungry, eat, feel good! 

I'm torn. I hate feeling hungry - I just don't like the feeling of it. But, I definitely feel more hunger now than I used to, and I know it's my body signaling that it's not getting what it needs: more fuel!

really? that's worriesome, did you feel like that as a pre-op?

I have been trying to eat ONLY when hungry for decades now so I think of it as a good thing. also, I work in nursing homes and losing your hunger (and thirst) is common and NOT a good thing.

food tastes better when you are hungry!  also, when I am hungry, what I want is healthy food. when I am wanting junk food, I am not feeling hunger.

What is worriesome? That I don't like how hunger feels? Yes, I've always felt that way. It makes my stomach feel nauseous.

I don't think hunger is supposed to be comfortable. That's the point of it right? To make the person want to eat so the feeling goes away.

I never looked at it that way!  I'll be interested to know if anyone else feels like that. 

This is interesting. can't say i hate it or love it, but i experience it only on a much lower intensity than i used to. And i do like this fact - that when i need to eat i experience a mild hunger that doesn't send me on a junk food rampage but gently reminds me i need some fuel and isn't so forceful that i can't take the time to find something appropriate instead of just stuffing in as much as possible of the first thing i can find. Its a huge difference. So i guess i like this modified type of hungar. hope it stays this way.  diane

I wonder how unusual I am.

I never had a problem with hunger - for me, it was eating (and eating, and eating) when I wasn't hungry.

does this mean that WLS was not what I needed?  hope not, since it's too late now!

Diane, do you think it's true that

food taste better when you are hungry?

i do think food tastes better when you are hungry. Pre surgery when i would eat for reasons of stress or reasons other than being hungry, it seemed to take more intense or rich  tastes (ie sweets and such) to satisfy the taste thing and even then it was a matter of capacity and feeling stuffed. I did have my limits and would stop as i was never an extreme binger but always ate more than i needed. We all remember those first few months post op when nothing tastes good and its good to be beyond that where a small portion of exquisitly delicious something is a pleasant and satisfying meal.    You say you ate when you were not hungry and I suspect we all did that to some degree though others of us were hungry a lot or what we perceived as hunger which may have had some emotions combined. I don't know - just glad i am getting beyond it.  D

You are unique!  Just like everyone else!  :p

*does this mean that WLS was not what I needed? *

I, personally, think there are as many reasons for needing WLS as ways to keep yourself healthy at goal (whatever that looks like). 

I think we are definitely wired to be MOST in touch with our taste for the first couple of bites, definitely.

Like for me, if I eat a big ol ice cream cone, and its cheesecake flavor, I notice I can taste the flavors during the first few licks, but the rest of the cone, I just enjoy the sweet/creamy/cold ness of it.  I am big on textures and some things are binge making for me just from texture.

Now - about hunger - I do not have an appreciation for it.  I *understand* your point about the oldies and the sickfolks not having it, and so it *is* healthy in that frame of reference, but I, like Mandy, do not like it, but I guess I do not hate it much either.

Its kind of like the urge to defecate, I guess.  I just know its my body telling me that I have a need and the stronger it gets, the more urgent that need is.  I am only really *happy* to defectate if say - I have been constipated and I am not now, or if I have had to for a while and could not find a public restroom OR if I have been doing psych charts on children who, in a control issue sort of thing REFUSE to go for months and so get impacted and have horrible issues with it.

But I guess in that instance, (and I guess in hunger too) I am more thankful that my urges are normal, more than I have emotions towards the urge itself.

Does that make sense, or am I just waxing poetically quixotic here on a snowy sunday morn?

See my problem is that from the moment I woke up from surgery my hunger went bye bye.  Even now 3+ years later I can go almost the whole date without eating.  And I don't get hungry I get ANGRY like everything mentally irritates me and then it dawns on me I haven't eaten for 4+ hours.

So what's a girl to do, lol.