Honeymoon's Over...Help?

[RichardVST 20]

Had surgery 1 1/2 years ago, lost 155 lbs, and at 6' 220lbs am pleased with my new body... probably still about 20lbs overweight and despite working out 5x/week still have a lot of loose skin.

It was pretty easy losing the weight, but it was torture the whole time. Post surgery eating was a horrible experience - nothing tasted good, I never felt satisfied and I always felt sick after eating and extremely hungry all the time. It was brutal.

The good news, though - was that the weight just seemed to melt off. The bad news was that to survive, I would cheat with candy, cake, Cookies etc on the side because they didn't make me feel sick and they felt satisfying, and it didn't seemed to slow my weight loss. Now, the sick feelings after eating seems to be easing. I still have to eat slowly or I will feel terrible, and I still have to have small portions, but my weight loss has completely stopped and I have actually gained 7 lbs from my low. No matter how careful I am with my calories, at levels where before I would steadily lose weight, now causes me to stay flat at best or even gain. Yuk.

This is kind of depressing. BTW I have cut out all alcohol now for 2 years, which is very boring and I eat very little, exercise a lot - and am now gaining - yuk, yuk.

I feel like I am back where I started, ever day I wake up and say to myself I am going to try to eat even less and exercise more so that I can lose more weight, ie DIET. This doesn't feel sustainable and doesn't feel good.

Any words of encouragement/advice or similar experience?

Thanks

[beautysleeve559 69]

Don't give you up!!.you have made a major transformation. And the best is yet to come. Do you log what you eat. Are you eating enough Protein? I'm having my surgery at the end of September so I haven't experienced anything yet but my surgeon told me that after a year or two you will notice the weight loss will slow down or even stop. He says that it is normal to gain a small amount back but if you feel like you are gaining too much of it back u might want to make a log of what you're eating and see how u can make changes. But good luck to you and keep up the good work.

[RichardVST 20]

Thanks beautysleeve - good luck with your surgery. Logging is smart.

[macman 603]

Hi Richard. Congratulations on your success! Terrific achievement!

So your comments raise some of the questions that I am pondering for my self. I am 6'3 and weigh 223 pounds. I have lost about 140 pounds and I am 8 months out from surgery. I have started to think about where my weight should be and what will be the settling point. I asked numerous support folks: when will I know know how much weight loss is enough? The consistent answer I receive is that your body will tell you when it has lost enough weight and settles into a comfortable range.

You said you have some opportunities with proper eating, you also work out regularly. The routine of regular exercise could be making up for the eating opportunities. Something else to consider: are you reaching the time when you should be thinking about maintenance? The bottom line is that I think you have to be comfortable with where you are and what you have achieved. If you are, then maintenance might be the solution. If not, look closely at where you can realistically make some changes to get where you want to be

Continue the success!

[RichardVST 20]

Thanks Macman.

It just seems strange that my straying didnt seem to effect my ability to lose, but now it and my same eating is causing me to gain.

I havent really changed anything, and am not aware of what I would change to go into maintenance mode. If anything, it would seem that any change in mode would result in weight gain.

I am comfortable where I am, but I dont want to be so obsessed with my eating every minute of the day - that is the DIET model, which I hate and was the whole reason I got the surgery in the first place.

Congrats to you. At your height, I would think you must feel pretty good where you are...?

[macman 603]

Thanks Richard. You know I've had some good success so far. I have stuck to my program religiously, except for some occasional alcohol (guilty pleasure). Weight loss has been steady, but slowed as of the last few weeks. I think I have more weight to lose but not sure. It sure would be nice if we knew where the weight loss would end.

I do track everything, but that works well for me. I dont think that maintenance eating will be very different than how I eat today. I have really tried to look at this as a lifestyle change that I needed to make and I am completely comfortable with avoiding some foods that are not good for me.

[sdvorak88 10]

Im only 4.5w out but i agree that you should go back to logging EVERYTHING you put in your mouth. Especially the slider food. Do that for a month and I'll bet you will see where you need to adjust a little. And you are NOT back where you started. ..your 150+lbs from that place. This is a lifetime of change and adjustments but worth the effort in health! ! Good luck

[livvsmum 2,369]

Congratulations on your success so far! That is awesome! I am 2 weeks away from being 1 year post-op. I would say that around 9 months post op I went through a little of what you are. I had pretty much reached my goal weight and began to let things slip.....snacking more, adding more empty carbs, etc. For me I had to continuing logging things religiously in myfitnesspal.com, but I had to become a "re-born" sleever. By that I mean, I went back to basics. I did a 3-day reset, going back to the pre-op liquid diet for 3 days. Then from there I stuck to my numbers as much as humanly possible (70g Protein, 35g carbs, 100 oz water). When I do this, I lose..... even if it's just .2 of a pound, I lose. It's not fun, but the longer you go without the sugar and empty carbs, the less you crave it and better you feel. Also, are you exercising? I run, and that has completely changed me as a person. Also, it gives me a goal to focus on that is not scale-related. And in all honesty, it is probably what kept me from gaining any weight back during that period of a few weeks when I was really slipping. Good luck! You can do this!

[RichardVST 20]

Congrats to you Livvsmum. That reset sounds like a really good idea! I think I'll give that a try. Thanks for the help.