So I'm about 6 weeks since surgery, and I'm sick hungry all the time! When will the evil gremlin go away? I thought that getting the surgery would help me with my hunger but so far it hasn't changed. Any words of advice or experience?

My understanding is that it takes a while to work out of your system.

Also, it is not completely gone, just the major producer of that hormone. Your body will stil produce some ghrelin.

And....depending on how the surgeon goes about his process and taking into consideration that we are each different, the outcome for each of us may be a bit different from one another.

My hunger was up and down for about two months. It is always extremely high a few ays before my period. It is higher when I eat way too many simple carbs.

But most of the time now (at 14 weeks) I'm more often not hungry at all or just feel a moderate desire to eat.

I am one week post op and my tummy growls and gurgles all.the.time. I am drinking my water and doing the clear liquid thing but I feel hangry. Hoping it works itself out of my system!

Approximately 85 percent of the ghrelin in your body is produced by the cells in the fundus, the part of the stomach that is removed during surgery. That leaves 15 percent that is produced by your brain and other organs.

For most patients, the net result is not an 85 percent reduction in hunger pains but a qualitative change in the sensation of hunger itself. After surgery, it took about two days for the excess residual ghrelin to dissipate from my body. At that point, the sensation of hunger as I knew it was gone.

Are you sure that the sensation of hunger you are experiencing is not a screen memory?

For example, I am physically full (to capacity) if I eat 2oz of lox or hamburger meat but I still go through this mental exercise of saying to myself: How the hell can you be full given how little you have just eaten? It's not hunger, per se, but more an experience of disbelief.

Related, I occasionally think I might be hungry but, in reality, it's more of a memory of what used to be.

Could this sensation of hunger you are experiencing be more of a mental image than true physical hunger? Just a thought.

I have a different experience... I stopped feeling hungry the day of surgery...when my daughter cooks something I cannot have, I have a desire to taste whatever she makes... but the whole hunger pangs... nope... not there... I realize its head hunger... and my tastebuds talking... I also experience all kinds of gurgles and sounds coming from my stomach... but nothing related to wanting to eat... I simply do not want to eat... I feel like I am eating and drinking something all the time ( so weird for an ex-overeater to say...) The only time I feel like my body is telling me to eat something is when I get this sick feeling in my gut... and if I sip or take a bite, it leaves... is that my new hunger indicator? hmmm

There are some good points made so far about misunderstanding what your body is telling you. You really do have to relearn some things.

Two things that I had to work through were head hunger and then the actual feeling of hunger. I had to define head hunger for me and what the triggers were, then be very aware when that happened. Then those times that I did actually feel hunger, I practiced not feeding it and desensitizing myself to it.

Today I actually gave myself a green light to eat a lot more than I usually do, and even add in a few treats. The last week or two I have just not wanted to eat at all and I felt like my body might need to be shocked.

I am also having this problem since Winter started... I am always extremely cold, and always hungry... I'm not over eating, but eating more than usual... I don't know if that's normal after 6 months post op, but I'm getting really worried cause I'm having a stall, so any mutual experiences ??