Biddy zz 🏳️🌈

This is GREAT news! Sip sip sip, walk, walk, walk. Best advice ever. The protein will come, but I remember the days when it was tough getting it in. My morning coffee/whey slushie is so central to my day now! I am 18 months out and this IS the best decision I have ever made, bar none. I am well below my goal, I run and cycle and go to the gym (and I LIKE it!). If you work this, the rewards are huge. Welcome to the losers bench!

Anyway, last night was the first. And man, I was STARVING head-hungry at about 8.45. But I rode it through! And for me this is a definite calorie reduction. Often late evening I have a bowl of muesli and yoghurt with fruit. Or peanut butter and jalapeños (or pb/cinnamon/mashed banana, or pj/jelly) on seed bread toast. But no more..... woke 5.30am, got up, did my usual work emails, reading (I know! It is Sunday!) and then my ‘forever breakfast’ of a coffee/whey powde slushie. Bang on 12 hours of no eating. I think this will appeal, once my heard learns not to yell for food in the evening!

I love that graph too - that is the last 12 months. This is the one since surgery (well, a bit pre surgery. Of course I lost weight in the lead up, the small spike is surgery weight gain, and then it is all good! I was plateauing nicely between 70 and 75kg (156lbs) last August, thought I would stop there and was pretty happy with that - I had maintained 80kg nicely when my gastric band worked, so anything lower than that was a blast. But I got gallstones and was pretty sick, so got down to 62gk or so (135lbs). And I am staying there! This is my spiritual home! It isn’t without work. I run 3x a week, gym other days, cycle to and from work some days, cycle in the weekend... I am reborn. This is the full graph since I started recording when the pre-surgery diet began:

So, my other half has had great success with 16/8 IF - doesn’t eat after 7pm, and no breakfast until 11am. She’s now down 7kg or so to about 58kg, less than she’s been for 20 years. One clothes size, and pretty content. Would like longer legs but even IF can’t really help with that! I am starting the ‘no calories after 7pm’ idea too, IF but only 12/12 for me, to give my body a chance to be insulin-free for just a few hours each day. No real reason but 8 months of happy maintenance and there is a tiny creep up in the weight graph. Only a pound or so, but... NO REGAIN is my life aim now! I have a range 61-63kg, but prefer to be 61.5 to 62 - and have crept up to averaging 62-62.5. That stops now! Biggest sacrifice - no cups of instant coffee after 7pm! Pomegranate tea it is...

A bit graphic but when you say phlegm - do you mean slime stuff from your stomach, or from your lungs? Even 16 months out, if I forget to chew something it sticks a bit in my slender tunny, and then I get “the slimes” where your body makes slimy mucus to help the food passage - but it sometimes is too much and makes the problem worse, so it sort of pops out my mouth. Like vomit, doesn’t taste like vomit though. if it is phlegm from your lungs, appearing when you cough, I think this would signal a different issue to your doctor...

I certainly am committed to the idea that I will never ever have a year - or even a month - of dieting ahead of me. Good research shows that weighing yourself every day, and writing it down is a strong predictor of weight loss maintenance. I record my weight every day (unless I am away in a hotel with no scale) and I use Myfitnesspal so I get a graph - and I can put photos alongside dates so I have a great tracking system. This way maintenance is easy. If I am over 136lbs in the morning, I have a careful eating day. If I am under, I can be a bit more relaxed. Easy!

It has been great watching your journey. You look amazing, and your mental strength has inspired me over and over...

100lbs - still a great result of course!

You will!! What op did you have? We are all so different. I was eating fish before I left hospital - but even now, it is goes down more easily raw than cooked. Great you are pain free - welcome to “the losers’ bench” - now the fun begins, and learning new ways of eating is fun, it is the thing that actually makes the weight drop off, but it is also the frustrating bit!!

My team are really strict. 3 meals a day forever. I started adding a snack to arrest my weight loss when I also started runn8 g and cycling. But I can see I already have an ‘urge’ to eat after dinner now, where I didn’t before. So - until you are at goal I think three meals a day is right, all with 20-25g protein. And I reckon ideally you maintain this as your new eating lifestyle. By the way. My surgeon track his patients. 90% having less than or around 1000 calories a day two years post surgery. And very little regain even longer term.

After I got out of hospital from my surgery, just before Christmas last year, had 10 days in a hotel, because my surgery was in a different city. They had cable (I don’t). I discovered “The Food Network”. I watched endless cake decorating, dives and diners, Halloween baking, my kitchen rules - all on an endless fascinating loop for 10 days. As I sipped my protein soup and my mushed fish, and drank interminable glasses of water. Food Porn. Grieving for loss of a life-long companion and comforter. Retreat to a familiar mindset. BUt, it passes!! NOW - my internet browser first picks are health and exercise, my Facebook ads are heart rate gizmos, and my Twitter feed gives me local charity marathons!

Hi there - don’t worry too much. Your body adapts really quickly and your energy bounces back - with gusto, in my case! Keep eating to plan, getting in your protein, good range of leafy veggies so your nutritional needs are taken care of. For what it is worth my surgeon tracks his 1700 patients. 1-2 years on over 90% are on less than or about 1000 calories a day and energy levels are hardly ever an issue. Personally - I cant believe how much more energy I have now. Not lugging that extra unneeded 100lbs around probably helps!!

And I was eating solid food (pulled cut-up pork, well chewed fish) before I left hospital! So no, you won’t die and these are really healthy choices, great things to be craving!

I am 13 months out and firmly in maintenance mode. Life is a little bit about food still, but mostly relearning how I balance exercise and calorie expenditure, food and calorie intake, any weight/size. To be honest life is more about exercise now - how I make more time for it because I am loving cycling AND running AND weight train8ng, so how do I organise my week to fit it all in! I LOVE this new life!

I started my couch25k on the treadmill, then at week 4 I had a month in Europe so ran outside - so cool, along Amsterdam canals, around the walls of Avignon, the Eiffel Tower, Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia etc etc. Stunning! Then back to the treadmill. Now I do a 5k Parkrun most weekends, and use a treadmill for my other two runs each week. The treadmill is physically a little easier - I guess the machine carries each stride back, so no muscles needed for propelling you forward. But mentally it is harder - I get really bored and want to quit before the 5k is up. I have started listening to podcasts which helps...

A couple of extra points. I thought I had reflux (was just indigestion) and my surgeon showed me a picture of my newly arranged organs. He said a small amount of stomach acid is made in the new pouch, but really small. This is hydrochloride acid, plus sodium chloride and potassium chloride. But acid is still made in the old detached stomach too. Bile comes in below the bile - this neutralises the acid and is primarily for fat digestion. One of the best side effects of RNY - it really improves things if you vomit. Very little stomach acid, no bile, so the food tastes almost unchanged from when you swallowed it. I HATE vomiting, perhaps almost a bit phobic, so the RNY has been a wonderful cure - I got food poisoning from watermelon and found that when it doesn’t taste like vomit, it doesn’t seem to bother me at all!

It is called a “Fobi Pouch”. A US surgeon pioneered it. Some folks hate the idea of a foreign body in there - I previously had a gastric band for 10 years so it didn’t bother me. And - exceedingly low regain rates for fobi folk.

My surgeon in New Zealand has no real rules, other than “eat healthily! And never ever again snack. Three meals a day, that is it.” But is definitely in the ‘low calories forever’ category. He doesn’t place a calorie restriction exactly, but @FluffyChixis right in that he monitors his 1700 patients - 1-2 years out, almost all of us are still under 1000 calories a day. His view is, that is healthy and wise. Myself, I struggle to consistently get over 1000 calories - and only by adding a snack. I am ok with that - I am running, cycling, and weight training, so burning 2-500 extra calories most days. Many days I have half a muffin in the morning, and it feels like a massive treat. And am sitting around 135 lbs, 15lbs below my goal weight, and am starting to look pretty muscly (beneath the loose skin, that is! I’ll never be a bodybuilder!!) But also, I have a physical restriction band on my pouch. It will never stretch because it has a wee silicone ring around it, losely sewn in place with a stitch each side - so I can not manage anything more than a cup - it physically hurts if I forget and eat more bulk. Surprises me how hard this is to learn. I have always been a fast eater, and if I wolf my food down it will hurt for an hour! I have to work bloody hard to eat slowly, so that the internal feedback reminds me to stop. Easiest is if I manage this when putting portions on my plate, but in a restaurant it can be troublesome!

Hi @mebal Just introducing protein shakes won’t help unless it is part of a wider plan - but if you mean “will it work if I adopt this plan: going back to watching my eating carefully, sticking to 120p calories, using protein shakes to ensure I get 80g protein, ditching my ‘junky’ food and having treats sensibly, and picking up my exercise” then YES! You will often see advice for retainers here about going back to basics. But 10lb gain isn’t too bad - seems to me not at the ‘start back at your original plan at day 1’ regain. But it is time to arrest the slide, put that same effort that worked so well in 2016 - it worked then and it will work again! Good on you for coming here, posting, looking for advice. You got this!!

Hiya Another thing you might find interesting. My surgeon tracks his 1700 gastric patients, pretty closely. After 1 year the vast majority (over 60%) are still under 1000 calories a day. I was a bit worried the weight loss wouldn’t stop! But about 9 months it just evened out. I have stuck to my ‘three meals a day’ and added one - with nuts, often - fruit if I want sweet. My daily calories is now 100-1200 on a big day. I am running 5k (3 miles) 3x a week, weight training 4x a week - mostly because I literally weight-lossed my arse off!! and I am trying to get some butt muscles! I think our bodies know how to get themselves into maintenance- my surgeon said so, and it sure happened with me.

The standard advice for the first few gas days? Walk, walk, walk and sip, sip, sip. Nasty but it passes. Welcone to the losers’ bench!

UHi there - good questions! I started with a goal of dropping from 235lbs to about 175lbs - I previously had a working gastric band and had happily maintained 175lbs so it seemed like a good goal. That took exactly 4 months - so I lost 60lbs in 4 months. So I reset my goal to 156lbs - the BMI ‘Not Obese’ weight. That seemed like a fond dream, but one I wouldn’t make. I hit that goal about 2 months later. So, 80lbs in 6 months. I have left that as my goal, but around this same time I decided to take up running - not huge distances, I did the Couch2 5k (3 miles) challenge. I also got gallstones, had my gallbladder out. Anyway I have since lost another 20lbs, which took 3 months. So - 9 months to lose 100lbs I have now been stable at 134-136 for a bit over 3 months. It does take discipline to a) be happy to stop losing (after 9 months of the addictive high losing nearly every day gives you!) and b) to get my protein in every day, and c) to avoid rubbishy ‘old me’ sweets, chips. I have a very small treat most days but cravings for carbs start up really easily and it takes another week or two of being out of sorts and irritable to wrestle them away again. My surgeon’s ONLY rule for eating post surgery - three meals a day, no snacks. More info than you asked for but I hope it helps!

Welcome to the ‘losers bench’,

Hi there Your details alongside your post say surgery was 2 May - you had more? Can you update your profile - might help people to give informed responses! I am one year post surgery. I am in the bathroom 2 or 3 times after my first meal of the day (coffee protein slushie!) and then my bm are over for the day. But it took maybe 6 months to get that regular. I unpredictably mixed up diarrhoea and constipation for the first few! But it seems my body fought to find a new routine...

And. It may not happen. I got gallstones when I was about 160lbs, sick as a dog. Lost 16lbs. Only put on 2 briefly, and that went real quick. Then I got food poisoning when I was at 136lbs. Got down to 129. Had to work to get it back. So - stick to your plan and it might, just might, stay mostly off. Cos dehydration, sure, but I bet your eating was affected too, right? 🤞🏼