My Story...

[blu2020 79]

Thank you for this post

[livingstone 137]

Another slight update - today I reached a loss of 100lbs!

17lbs to my initial target.

38lbs to my eventual target.

[livingstone 137]

So, I'm back. Things are going less well now.

So the run up to Christmas was a total write-off in terms of weight loss. Back in October, I hit 192lbs (loss of 100lbs). Since then I've fallen as low as 177lbs but Christmas brought me back to 182lbs.

After Christmas I managed to get back down to about 177lbs - but not with any consistency, I kept hovering between 177 and 180. Then I had a bit of a health scare (totally unrelated to the sleeve, and all fine now) which meant I'm now back at 182lbs.

This is much harder now - it takes more to fill me up, and I get hungry faster. I also have a real problem resisting all of the slider foods that I can still eat LOTS of.

So I came back on here to read up on other people's stories of sliding back into old habits and how to get back. I haven't done too much damage - although losing only 10lbs in six months (after losing 100lbs in the first six months!) feels like a real wasted opportunity. But I can get back on track, figure out how to eat in a way that makes best use of my sleeve and get back to exercise (I've been very sluggish over winter).

Any ideas very welcome!

[Oasis 8]

Hi Livingstone

That was brilliant to read your journey ! It makes it much clearer to me the things to expect ! I kept waiting for those words anxiously " you were happy you had been sleeved" he he

[livingstone 137]

So I'm back.

So for the past year or so I've been hovering between 177 and 182 lbs. This is still above my goal but to be honest, if a magic genie appeared and offered to allow me to stay at this weight for the rest of my life, i;d be fine with that. I've never cared about being the thinnest I could be - my big fear is just that I will slide back to where I used to be (292lbs at my biggest).

After my last post (when I was back at 182lbs) I was still hovering a bit below that. The lowest I got was 177 again. Then I went home to visit family. Nightmare. Not the trip - just the lack of routine, lack of things to fill my day, lack of a partner keeping me (somewhat) honest - so I ate loads and I ate badly. Big problem - but a really good reminder of the sort of behaviour that got me to 292lbs.

When I got back I was up to 187lbs. Action needed.

But I think I've found a way of eating that works for me - so I'm calling this my reset diet. After one week, I'm back down to 182lbs, and aiming to keep going to get down to the 160s.

The trick for me: accepting a boring diet for most of the week. This is OK for me - I'm not an adventurous eater and, frankly, I can handle the fact that my food isn't very exciting (obviously this would be a problem for other people).

What have I done?

Simple: I'm aiming for 800 very Protein rich calories four days a week, and 1600 calories twice a week, and one cheat day per week which allows me to eat up to my full daily calorie allowance (about 2400).

The 800 calorie days are easy to plan, and not too hard to stick to. They go like this:

Breakfast - strawberry and banana smoothie (220 calories, 26g protein)

(200ml unsweetened almond milk, 1 medium banana, a handful of frozen strawberries, 25g of diet Protein powder)

lunch - pre-packaged deli meat (c150 calories, 30g protein)

(This is the boring bit - I pick up a packet of lunch or sandwich meat from a supermarket and just eat the pack - usually about 120grams. Sometimes this is just sandwich meat like sliced ham or beef which is a bit boring. Sometimes, it's marinated chicken - e.g. today I had sliced chicken with a mexican marinade. The key for me here is simplicity - the portion size is right, the calories low, the protein high - those of you in the UK, Marks and Spencer sell a range of deli meats designed for picnics or sandwiches which have some nice flavours to make it interesting).

dinner -repeat either the protein smoothie or pre-packed meat (c150-220 calories, 26g to 30g protein)

Again, this is a bit repetitive and boring. But again, it's simple. And right now, I need simple. I need something that gives me the nutrition I need without me having to do too much thinking about it.

Snacks - I allow myself a banana during the day if I'm peckish, and two low-fat, high protein strawberry yoghurts in the evening.

I'm limiting my diet coke intake (I used to drink it through the day - now I'm trying to go most days without it and only occassionally have a can). Broadly speaking this diet works for me. The smoothie and meat combo keeps me full (I was worried that the fullness effect of the sleeve was wearing off...I was just eating the wrong food). I don't incorporate carbs into my diet (though I allow myself to have them occasionally.

I still slip up. I just had a mini-brownie at work. But the 800 calorie diet seems to work because there is so little wriggle room. It's easy to think 'OK, I can eat three means today, and three Snacks of about 80 calories each' - nothing more. When I was aiming for 1500 calories a day, I found it too easy to think 'Oh well, I'll just have these crisps and have 200 fewer calories later this evening and I'll be fine'.

This has given me hope. I thought perhaps I'd stretched my sleeve and that I was always going to feel hungry an hour after eating. But actually, when I'm eating protein rich foods that keep me feeling full for longer, the sleeve still works. 120g of cold chicken would never have satisfied me before the sleeve. Now it's a full lunch, and one which keeps me satisfied through the day. So the sleeve still works - I just need to use it better, and I simply haven't been doing that for the last year. Luckily, instead of piling on too much weight, I just hovered - but I need to lose more and I hope that this approach will get me there.

[livingstone 137]

The other thing to add is that I've become really aware of how messed up my hunger function is.

I realised this as I had just had lunch - but the feelings I have when I'm satisfied (not uncomfortably full) are the same sort of feelings I have when I'm hungry. So I have to remind myself when I feel 'hungry' that 'no - this isn't what hungry feels like, this is what satisfied feels like'.

That whole retraining of my mind is something I've not yet done (and I was sleeved nearly 18 months ago). So it's a work in progress.

[OperaMom 15]

@livingstone it's been another year since you posted. Just wondering how things are going for you?

[livingstone 137]

Hi folks. So it's been more than four years since I posted on this thread. Thought it was worth updating my story.

So last time I posted, I was struggling with some modest (c5 lbs) regain after reaching 177lbs - which was a weight I was happy with but it will still about 12 lbs above my goal weight.

Over the next four years, I gained more - getting up to 200lbs last January. Then the pandemic hit. I was working from home all day, getting no real exercise (bar a few half hearted runs in the park) and eating a lot out of boredom - with the result that I gained another 20lbs by this January.

Of course there's lots of regret about allowing myself to regain 43lbs, especially as I never even got to my goal weight in the first place. But regrets don't change anything. I'm back on it now, aiming to lose c2lbs a week. I'm limiting my calories to 1750 a day, and aiming to burn between 2750 and 3000. Most days I come in under my 1750, but I allow myself one day a week where I can 'use up' any leftover calories to bring my daily calories up to a max of 2500.

A few basic rules: (a) nothing is off the table - that sort of diet doesn't work for me, and I know I will fall off that particular wagon quickly; (b) back to no drinking half hour either side of a meal; (c) if I want a snack, I have to drink 500ml Water first, to see if that changes whether I want it or not; (d) I measure and track everything I eat with MyFitnessPal - and my calories are built around my meals, which I pre-log so I know what I have to play around with for Snacks etc; (e) no fizzy drinks during the week, only water or sugar-free cordial.

There are a few tactics I've used to avoid boredom snacking. As noted above, I drink before snacking and always when I feel 'hunger' try to get in tune with whether my body is actually hungry. Where I control my virtual meetings at work (from home) I try to schedule them at peak snacking-risk times (usually the two hours before lunch, and the two hours before I finish up for the day) to make sure I have something to do that means I can't snack. I have also been doing some longish walks to avoid snacking (usually taking the dog and no money so I'm not tempted into a shop...)

There was a point - maybe two years ago when I tried a pouch reset diet. I lasted about 2 days. This time around I tried Keto for two days. I've realised that the only thing that works for me is bog standard Calories In < Calories Out. Everything else will fail for me.

So now I'm two and a half weeks in. I'm down from 220 to 211 and pretty happy with the results. Starting to see some very slight changes in my belly and my shoulders. Weirdly, even though the initial lockdown caused me to gain, this lockdown is helping me to lose: being at home all day gives me total freedom to make good choices, to measure everything I eat and track it.

If I can get down to roughly 175lbs I'll be happy. But would ideally get down to about 165lbs.

[blackcatsandbaddecisions 851]

I really enjoyed reading through your journey. The pandemic threw off a lot of people with their weight loss- I think a lot of us got to our high weights because we are stress/boredom eaters, and the pandemic has been a great mix of incredible stress mixed with boredom.

I kind of laughed reading your initial comment hoping that the surgery would change the type of food you liked, because I had the exact same hope. Alas, it’s still the same me and I still like the same trash food I did before. Kudos to the people who leave surgery with their love of unhealthy food gone, I’m pretty sure they’d have had to remove part of my brain as well as my stomach to have me no longer want chips and candy.