Later today I should be receiving my surgery date. I have been scouring this site acquiring all of the information I can. You all are valuable resources! I have been seeing a lot of people mention "head hunger". I know this might sound like a silly question, but can someone please explain it to me? How can you tell the difference between head hunger and real hunger? Thanks!

Head Hunger is simply your desire for food when you're not really hungry...it tends to happen to us sleevers, because your head is thinking that you have a full-sized stomach, when your stomach is actually 80 percent smaller. This usually happens months after you've started with solid foods, and it's typically the main cause of grazing. The best way to fight this is to keep healthy, small Snacks around, that won't fill the sleeve up too much.

Wish you the very best success!!!

Its the fat person in your head wanting pizza, burgers, nuggets, yommy taboo food. But your stomach is not hungry and won't have no part of it. So you will do alot of food porn. Lol

It's what got most of us here in the first place. You want to eat because it's been awhile since you've eaten, or you are sad, or you are tired, or you are craving something, or someone else is eating it, or any number of things besides the actual physical hunger your body uses to signal it's the right time to eat.

I hear a lot of people mention before surgery they were always starving and that's why they were overweight. I'm not saying they weren't, but I know from my own experience, i didn't go hungry a day in my life. You know why? Cause I gave into head hunger. I ate all the time. I could say I was hungry and that's why I ate and it was because my stomach was too big. That would be a lie. I ate because I enjoyed eating and that's why my stomach was too big. It's not some handicap we all have, having a stomach that's too large, that we have to eat all the time. No, the problem is we eat all the time and it makes our stomach too large. That's head hunger.

Others have explained what head hunger is. The trouble is recognizing it because it feels like real hunger. They say that if you are really hungry eating just about anything will "sound good" but if its head hunger the healthy foods won't be appealing. What I do is set meal and snack times and tell myself that if I heel hungry its all head hunger.

Today is my 9th day and I am really struggling. I tried to have my Protein shake in the morning and I should have divided it in two servings. Instead I drank it and tried to finish it as if I had a normal stomach. In my head I guess, i said to myself, it is liquid....it will empty out soon. Well, those last few sips were the death of me. I felt naseaus and low and behold, I threw up. Several times. So now, my tummy hurts from the force it had to do to throw up. So now I just want liquid, Water, barely anyway. It has been a rough day today.

Not to mention, this pureed stage is gross to me. I don't like seeing or tasting anything pureed. It either looks like barf or cat food to me. My mind is going nuts. I have no idea how in the world I am going to adjust to this new life. Like I said, today is not one of my better days.

Edited January 21, 201511 yr by Pac-woman

I am 8 months out from surgery, and for me, when I eat too many carbs, I get head hunger. For me it's my mind telling me I want to eat this or that (usually carbs, and not protein and fruits & veggies). When I am careful with my carbs, I stay on my plan much easier. Head hunger is very real, and for me, only controlled when I stay away from too many carbs.

Thank you all for your explanations! @@Pac-woman - I'm sorry that you are having such a difficult day. Keep your eye on the light at the end of the tunnel.

When I get head hunger, and just can't escape it's nagging, I eat meat, chicken or pork first to fill me up and retrain my brain to associate meat with head hunger. After eating protein, and I still have that nagging little voice, I will allow myself a small portion (remember I'm physically full from the protein), about 1/2 a coffee cup (a real coffee cup, not a Starbucks Grande!) of whatever I'm craving. I'm normally satisfied after that.