CowgirlJane

So when I did the very best at 5:2 my fast days were more like 20 carbs but that is not easy. If your hunger is managed staying under 60 then I wouldn't kill yourself over trying to get way low. I did lose like 10# in a month using 5:2 (post goal) and the low carb along with the fasting was the magic for me.

I started at 51-52 BMI at 308#, got to goal of 158 in 14 months. Lost some more..maintained under goal for quite some time and am now back at goal working to relose a few pounds. I am 3 years out from sleeve. I think very few become anorexic but I did go through an eating problem time which was emotionally based. I was motivated to stay healthy so I forced myself to eat but it would have been tempting to latch on to getting skinnier as a good thing. Over and under eating are closely related. I don't track calories. It doesn't matter you just have to eat a calorie, carb level that your body needs and it's different person to person.

My fast day yesterday was destroyed due to tummy ache and digestive upset - ate alot of crackers and then screwed up and ate a solitary, have no idea calories, about a million carbs and zero protein for the day. I still weigh less than I did Monday by a smidge so I'll take it.

I too loved the flounce definition. Sounds like the appropriate response to future "flouncers" is something like, "don't get your petticoat caught in the door on the way out. Wait, your not really leaving? Oh.Ok. got it, you are flouncing."

Oh no, not anxiety related to success... just anxiety. It really got bad leading up to the plastic surgery and I thought it was fear. The problem was even after I fully recovered from plastics I sometimes suffered from a wound up anxious feeling. I really think it was just that whole "not used to feeling real feelings all the time" Now, down the road, it is much less of a problem and i feel more inner peace and emotional stability. However, I am still a freaking energizer bunny and have to make sure I structure my life with healthy outlets (physical, intellectual, social etc) or I start to get restless.

It's a realistic fear. I felt very "over food" by the time I had WLS so I welcomed kicking it to the curb as a friend, lover and soother. However, I discovered sometime after getting to goal that I had alot of anxiety that had been previously masked by obesity and overeating. It was a bit of a shocker to figure that out and deal with.

I still felt weird... no appetite,food didn't taste good etc but was eating normal foods before 4 months out

You are all so inspirational! So, the mental part of "how much should I weigh" is interesting. I sort of laid down a line in the sand by intentionally getting down to 150# when i had plastics. I had been told that you really should keep your weight within 10% of your plastic surgery weight which gives me a rough range of "135-165" -- which struck me as a pretty reasonable ballpark for a 5'5" woman who has been morbidly (hate that word) obese or super morbidly obese (hate that word even more) most of my life. I have been obese or overweight my whole life presleeve, with the exception of some fleeting moments of beautiful normal. So, I am freaking golden at 165 but I like 140 better. So, the mindset I have is that I am in great shape, loving my body even though I am pushing 160 right now. Instead of seeing it as a horrible I am focusing on what such a an awesome job I have done of maintaining since I have NEVER maintained weight loss for more than about 2 weeks in the past and using that energy to get myself back in compliance. I try to keep alot of positive energy around this topic. I treat it like...woo hoo... I won a marathon race, lets see if I can just do one more mile. I also visualize alot on the number 140. I truly believe that you should think about and "look at" where you want to be, not what you are trying to avoid. Having said that, I do still look at my before pix because it helps me love myself and be proud of what i have done even whilst I am resisting the urge to kick myself for letting myself get back up to nearly 160. Having said that, yesterday was NOT a fast day, it was a normal day, and I feel like I overdid it. I am getting better, but having quite hit my old groove yet.

My plastics were 15 months ago - so worth it!!! I did NOT experience significant pain. so I have been curious about your screen name. Are you Beth In PA? or Be Thin PA? I have been calling you Beth and it hit me just now that might not be your name...LOL

Well, I had to do hand to hand combat with everyone of those last say 30-40#... so worrying about how to stop weight loss was never a problem for me! I am 3 years from surgery and been maintaining about 2 years. what worries me is that eating so "perfectly" might not be sustainable. I still eat moderate carb, eat Protein first etc but I do eat and drink "fun foods" too. So, I would definately add veggies... way more veggies. I would also consider adding low GI fruit (like berries). Your body will likely slow down losing naturally, but men lose weight faster.... so be prepared to add in nuts etc.

Welcome Amanda. I don't calorie count, but I do pay attention to carbs. I strongly suggest looking at your carb intake also if you want to jump start your losses! some of us are more sensitive to carbs than others, but the fewer I eat, the less hungry I am.... too bad I LIKE em so much!

Terri, you have to make 100 posts before you can post in Vets forum. This is a very individual subject and I would like to share my perspective of someone who lost significant weight and been at goal for nearly 2 years (3 years post op) My lifetime highest recorded weight was 332 - but I think I was in the 350s at some point - my start weight for the sleeve was 308. I am 5'5". when I got under 200# I had all my family telling me I was "skinny" etc. My friends thought i looked wonderful and I felt comfortable. I was physically able to enjoy things in life, but frankly still had a comfortable layer of fat. I would say I looked like a fairly typical middle aged woman. My weight loss had crawled to a near halt and I spent some time thinking about what I really wanted. Conclusion I came to is that i wanted to be trim/fit...or HAWT as is often said here. I made a big push and got to my goal of 158. My shoulders and chest looked bony, but that is because that is what happens after massvie weight loss. I looked less bony at 140 (which I dropped down to later) because weight redistributed. So, people who didn't know me as obese, think I look good/great at my current weight. My sisters still think I am WAY too thin and they thought I weighed more like 125 versus 140-150, until I set them straight. My point is that you will always have people uncomfortable with what you choose.Flip side, I would have been absolutely fine and healthy settling on the 180-190 range. I think losing the last 30-50 pounds is more vanity than health related. I LIKE being in single digit clothing, being able to wear junior sizes readily etc. (When I got to 140 I had trouble finding pants small enough at my discount store Ross cuz I have a skinny butt). Then there is maintenance. I personally think that a healthy goal weight is first priority. After that, it is a trade off between vanity and maintainability. I would LOVE to weigh 125-130 range but that isn't going to happen because it is quite some work for me to stay in the 140s...in fact I bounced up into the 150s over the last few months. So, don't let other people's ideas control your thinking on this. Be healthy, don't get obsessed with the scale or thinness, but do what pleases you and what you can live with over the long haul. BTW, you have had amazing results - I hope you feel so proud of our accomplishments!!!!!!!!

In the veterns forum you will find many of us who deal with this. It is part of the process and they key is to nip it in the bud before regain of X or XX turns into XXX... I am still at goal but I have regained about 15# or so from my lowest and I want to get back there too! I did a restart Monday! Dating is fattening but being married / living with a partner is even more so because men eat! I had a double whammy of dating someone starting this fall and my 2nd son moved back home....So I went from living alone to sharing meals with two young 20s men or else going out with my date. It is my responsibility, not any of theirs but it's hard!

I started at 308 and I had lost 50# before anyone noticed.

At 3 years out, I experience more hunger than i did during the first 1-2 years. What I can promise you is that I am capable of eating and satiating that hunger. I feel like my "sleeve" is now like a thin woman's stomach... it gets hungry but it no longer DRIVES me to eat like an addict. I had problems with my lapband and a very real issue I experienced was lack of satiety (ie still hungry) but experiencing pain when I would eat healthy food like dense Proteins or salads etc. This does not happen with the sleeve. I get hungry, I eat Protein and feel fine (no vomiting etc) and then I am not hungry until next meal rolls around in about 3 hours. There are behavioral techniques that help with this too. I have an occasional slice of pizza (though rarely as there are much finer foods I prefer these days) and I do drink socially. Booze is empty calories and of course can lead to addictions (much riskier post sleeve due to addiction transference) so keep a lid on it for sure. I think about it often and am very deliberate about how often I drink and limit quantity carefully too. I personally would not take up either of these pursuits during weight loss phase to maximize your "honeymoon period" of weight loss, but there are several of us who do social drink in life at goal.

Windycitymom - the best place to dream of plastics is realself.com. Tons of photos, people ask questions and plastic surgeons answer etc. Michiganchic - the only way 5:2 works for me is if my "feast days" are also fairly disciplined; meaning still following the sleever rules. You know I don't count calories, but I can't let myself over indulge on the "5" days if I want to lose. Conversely, 5:2 helps me maintain if I do have a bit extra during the week like going out etc I had my first fast day in ages yesterday. It was really hard but the scale rewarded me with a 2 pound Water weight loss which was encouraging. I am also buckling down today, not fasting, but eating well and drinking lots of water. I exercised on my bike, but wimped out on zumba and went to bed early. I needed the sleep because I slept in too! I have 140 imprinted in my brain as i believe very strongly in visualization. I can see it now - I shall weigh 140 again sometime in 2015!

My boys were late teens/early 20s at time of my sleeve. I informed them of what I was doing, i know they were terrified, but we didn't discuss all that much. Now, 3 years later, I showed them a before picture and they tell me they don't even remember me looking that way and didn't realize how big I was. It was actually very emotional for me to watch their faces as they looked at that picture and tried to make sense of what they were seeing and what to say. shock, disbelief, sorrow and many other emotions crossed their young faces as they looked at me in person - a normal size woman and tried to imagine that I was ever in the 300#++ weight class. The fear and worry are long forgotten and what they see now is a middle aged mom who looks and feels better than they ever remember seeing me! They both tell me that I seem so much younger, happier, funner, less prone to anger or negativivity - just better. My youngest son who is prone to "chunky" has drastically improved his eating and slimmed down over those 3 years too. I am not sure how you should proceed from here with your sons - but truth of the matter is there is no way that an athletic teenage boy can understand what you are facing and before you know it they will be moving on to college or whatever life brings and you will either still be obese... or living the life you want.

So, the best thing I learned at the NUT appointment I went to in December what how the hunger receptors work. They sit at the bottom and top of the new banana shaped stomach. Eating dense protein first will put a "firmer" pressure on those receptors at the bottom. I can't believe the difference it made when I switched to eating my salmon first then the lettuce rather than eating it as a salad with meat sprinkled all about. Anyway, the idea is that you get several ounces of dense protein (I have no idea how this works for vegetarians - but for me it means meat/poultry/fish/seafood) sorta solid in there. You are supposed to stop when no longer hungry, but what I wonder is if you are eating 2-3 bites and it is just enough to temporarily tap those hunger receptors without really creating lasting satiety. I am not exactly following it, but this NUT really pushed 5 mini meals - all of them starting with dense protein, adding a bit of veggies etc. and eating just enough to keep from getting overly hungry before the next meal. She felt I don't eat often enough which is leading to eating too much at one sitting (some people become grazers, but i seem to return to volume eating). She said max I should ever eat is 1.5 cups and of course that depends on what the food is - I can't eat that much dense protein for sure but I think I could eat that much in crackers, cheese and wine....

Do multiple consults.... very educational. I did several in the USA before ultimately going to Dr Sauceda in Mexico. The main thing I learned is that plastics is about tradeoffs and there are many varying opinions on how to tackle the same problem. I think it is very important to look at many many before and after pictures of people who have similar body type (ie massive weight loss). The situation of a standard "mommy makeover" isn't really the same as after massive weight loss. Spend some time reading at realself . com etc. Plastics were first suggested to me about 12 months post op when i wasn't at goal yet. I waited until about 22 months post op before having surgery and I was under my goal weight. I only lost about 5.5# due to plastics (which was very close to estimates given to me during other consults) but i had little excess fat at that point - really, it was skin.

Well, I think you should try one.more.time. to convince yourself. I spent a year of angst, of trying to at least stop gaining, before I committed to the sleeve. I think that bad year helped set me up for success - I was really quite determined by the time of my surgery.

Well, you have done great with the band - much better than I did. I had great success with the sleeve, but I know lower BMI revisions don't tend to lose as well.

Best, your BMI is only 42 - you can get to goal in the first year without eating uber low calorie. My BMI was about 51 and I am maintaining a "normal" BMI now. It took me 14 months to get to goal and I dont even count calories... I do an intuitive eating approach (not for everyone!!). My gut tells me that this is "all or nothing" type thinking from my obese days. You CAN be successful eating in a way that is sustainable over the long haul.

I lost weight on a medically supervised liquid diet once. It worked great until I went insane and then I regained that weight so fast plus some friends... I did not have success! In the first month post op, i probably ate this little, but I am 3 years out and maintaining a 160# weight loss and I never ate that little after the first month. As reflected in most of the comments, what you are discussing is quite "outside the normal"

I am feeling very virtuous... a fast day and I lost 2 pounds of water weight even though I ate some very salty sandwich meat! Just goes to show that for me, eating low carb helps my body release that extra. I am a bit bloated and starting a probiotic too. Denise, it is time for me to move on from Kevin- I actually made the decision in mid December but we had these prepaid New yesrs eve plans and I wanted to give it time to be sure. He was his happy, fun self on New Year's and it almost changed my mind. I wanted him to be "the one" because "on paper" many things are great, but it was actually him talking about his crazy (she really hurt him with her emotional issues) ex on Newyears and how sometimes you love someone that is bad for your life that made me realiaze that he and I are just not falling in love and while it is partly just bad luck, I want more. I fear that I will slip into another relationship (like the 15 year one I ended with my kids step dad) where there was love but not "in love". No more settling, I'd rather be alone. I haven't seen Kevin since jan 1st because he is in terrible pain and depressed about some other life issues....so I am reading that he came to same conclusion in spite of our wonderous time. I intend to have the talk in person, hopefully after work this week. Crud, but it feels like the right decision.

I think Gandhi's quote says it. How can you forgive when you feel so disappointed and hurt - but that's a heavy load to carry and I find I am punishing myself more than all others when I stay there for very long. I get stronger by letting go but need to have the strength to do it. While it doesn't excuse another's poor treatment of me (or you or anyone), I find taking responsibility for my contribution to the"problem" helps me get a bit past it.