"Head Hunger"

[summerset 4,200]

18 minutes ago, GBLady41 said:

I'm not offended. I'm frustrated at being accused of something that other people are actually doing.

You're frustrated, offended and angry because people don't take what you write as gospel but call you out on your unscientific and unproven statements.

Claiming you're not frustrated, offended and angry? Well, you don't give the impression that you're not.

[GBLady41 387]

9 hours ago, summerset said:

You're frustrated, offended and angry because people don't take what you write as gospel but call you out on your unscientific and unproven statements.

Claiming you're not frustrated, offended and angry? Well, you don't give the impression that you're not.

Actually, you seem to be frustrated, offended and angry for the same reasons you're accusing me of. Interesting...

By the way, most of you are not talking about scientific or proven statements. You're talking about your experiences.

[GBLady41 387]

10 hours ago, SunnyinSC said:

I'm fairly new here, but you did make a lot of definitive statements in your original posting. You claimed it's not about calories, but about energy. That 1000 calories a day aren't needed to survive. And that people don't feel actual hunger when they're eating at a calorie deficit (IE losing weight). You lead with the statement "...when you're losing weight, your body is not hungry."

When you're posting in a thread about how people's actual hunger keeps getting dismissed as head hunger, even though it's perfectly normal to experience actual hunger after surgery; then it seems like you are applying your experience to everyone, even if that was not your intention. That ends up feeding into the very problem the initial rant was about.

My "definitive" statements had everything to do with my experience. Believe me, if I wanted to apply what I have gone through to everyone, I would have.

I was explaining what has happened to me, what I have learned through my own experience about what head hunger is for me. What I have learned that is the difference between when my body is happy receiving Protein and what's going on chemically in my brain when I crave carbs or sweets.

I don't need 1000 calories to thrive. I never have, even before I had weight loss surgery. And I don't get hungry. I never said that no one gets hungry. I said I don't experience actual hunger. I have a schedule that lets me know when to eat. There are weight loss patients who experience this, sometimes for the rest of their lives. I have read way too many posts about people who had surgery over 15 years ago who still don't feel actual hunger. That means that when they had surgery, it affected ghrelin, which is what causes one to receive the signal in their brain that they are hungry (the stomach growling, etc.) If I don't have a schedule, I can go for hours without eating, only experiencing extreme tiredness.

So, for me, I know the difference between real hunger, which I don't have, and head hunger, or emotional eating. When I lost weight after surgery, I was not hungry. My body was fulfilled with what I ate everyday. I got in more than the suggested protein and fluids. Not only that, I was exercising 5 to 6 days a week, weight training and cardio. My body simply burnt off what it no longer needed. I was not dieting. I was eating the most important calories.

Recently, with the pandemic, I allowed bad habits to return to my life. I compromised, and gained weight. Even though it's been more than 4 years since I had surgery, I still don't need anywhere near 1000 calories, proven by eating that amount or more, and gaining weight. So, now I am breaking those bad habits and going back to getting the right calories, not giving in to emotional eating. Going back to eating on a schedule, so that even if I'm not exercising as much as I used to, I will still lose weight, because I have done away with empty calories and only eat until I get the first feeling of fullness. I allowed the pandemic to get the best of me. But my tool still works. And I will use it.

[Circus321 45]

On 02/22/2021 at 23:48, GBLady41 said:

Actually, you seem to be frustrated, offended and angry for the same reasons you're accusing me of. Interesting...

By the way, most of you are not talking about scientific or proven statements. You're talking about your experiences.

Lol I just can’t with you. You’re literally not listening to, considering, or respecting anything anyone else has to say while expecting us to do the same for you and take what you say as fact. That’s “interesting” considering that your “facts” have been proven scientifically and medically wrong. You’re not even on the same page as the people you’re arguing with because you haven’t even tried to understand what they were trying to say. Lol. I’m unfollowing this conversation so don’t bother replying, I won’t see it. But in the future try to remember that as a community where we’re supposed to support one another we have to LISTEN to each other and respect others’ opinions and experiences, even if they contradict ours. You might learn something you didn’t know if you open yourself up to listening to others. Good luck on your journey 👍

[SunnyinSC 17]

On 2/21/2021 at 3:58 AM, GBLady41 said:

*snip*

I'm sorry but when you're losing weight, your body is not hungry. You're losing weight because your body is using the energy and calories you take in and getting rid of what you don't need. Nine times out of ten, you are NOT actually hungry. It's head hunger. Weight loss surgery gives us all a chance to relearn our bodies and the difference between actual hunger and head hunger, between what our bodies need and what our brains crave. The truth is that our head does indeed play tricks on us, if we let it. We don't need 1000 calories to survive. It's not about calories, it's about energy, eating the food that actually fuels us, and knowing the difference.

*snip*

At no point did I attempt to discount your experience. As a reminder, this was your first paragraph. I am sorry, but if that's you talking about your own experience only, then I'll eat my shoe. You start off by saying "when you're losing weight, your body is not hungry", and go on to use "us" and "we" multiple times. There are no I statements there. No "this is my experience" in the entire paragraph. There is not any "most people", "some people", or any language that would indicate you're not referring to a collective group instead of a subset. The fact that you keep insisting you were not generalizing and that you were only referring to your own experiences, is insulting.

I am well aware of the way the brain communicates with the stomach, and the hormones that get released. I also recognize that one of the triggers for hormone release is when your body is in need of energy, IE when it needs food. There are foods that can help you feel full longer, such as Protein, but that doesn't prevent the initial hunger trigger when your body needs energy. Now everyone's bodies are different. I fully believe that maybe some people don't experience actual hunger anymore after surgery. I have not once said otherwise. But those people are not what this thread was ever about (unless they were pushing their experiences onto others).

I also know that, scientifically speaking, the majority of people do need over 1000 calories to survive as a general rule. There are some exceptions, such as people trying to lose weight, but when eating so few calories it's strongly recommended to be medically supervised as it's well known that it can be dangerous to do. If you're an exception and you've discussed that with your doctor, then that's great. However, that is below most people's BMR. Stating that "we don't need 1000 calories to survive" is not only false, but can be very damaging to people who are at or below their goal weight who may not know better if they aren't medically supervised.

No one here has claimed that head hunger doesn't happen. Quite the contrary, many of us have given multiple examples of our head hunger. The rant was about the seeming denial of actual hunger as a thing on these forums. What you have done, and continue to do, is akin to coming into a place where someone is stating they're tired of people not believing they have depression cause they don't experience xyz symptom, and then you stating that people with depression have xyz symptom and then stating you have depression and you experience xyz symptom. It not only is tone deaf, but completely dismisses the original person's experience and feelings.

That being said, I won't engage with you further. You seem more hell bent on how your words are being perceived than actually contributing to the topic at hand. I was only really engaging to point out why your posts are not being well received, but you don't seem to care.

Edited February 23 by SunnyinSC