Welcome to the new BariatricPal Maintenance Forums!

[Alex Brecher 10,512]

Congratulations on hitting your goal weight…what is your next step? As you know, losing weight is a battle, and it’s one that you’ve won if you’ve hit your goal weight. That’s a huge accomplishment…but the fight doesn’t stop there. Let your guard down, and pounds come back on. That’s what this forum is for: to help you succeed in this next stage of your weight loss surgery journey.

These forums are for you if:

• You are at goal weight and are working on keeping the pounds off.
• You are getting close to goal weight and you want advice and tips from others on how to make the transition to maintenance as successfully as possible.
• You are considering weight loss surgery and want to know what your life will be like when you hit goal weight one or two or three years after surgery.

Talk about recipes, eating new foods, working out for health and maintenance, and other healthy long-term behaviors as a successful WLS patient. You can also come here for support if you find the pounds starting to creep back on, or if you get a little discouraged with the idea of following this lifestyle for “forever.” There are others in your boat!

[gowalking 10,790]

Excellent!!

So many folks are focused on the losing part and for those of us lucky enough to have made it to maintenance, this is the real test. There's no positive reinforcement by watching the numbers on the scale go down. The clothing sizes aren't going down, and it just means we need to find other ways of staying positive while we deal with our issues on a daily basis. I'm glad you set this up Alex. I know I'll be in this forum plenty.

[AussieSam 234]

I hope one day I will get there.

[Rogofulm 2,440]

Thanks so much for setting this up Alex! For those of us trying to figure out how to hold on to our weight loss, this will be a valuable resource!!!

[BryBro63 410]

I like this forum as well!!! I had mentioned this in quite a few other forums and threads, but this is definitely me!! Felt kinda lost once I reached goal, and now I want to assure that I don't go into 'failure mode', and start gaining back!!! So far so good, but want to assure I can continue the success!!! I'm sure I'll also be visiting back quite often, and I already have questions and concerns that I'd like to discuss!!!

[VSGAnn2014 12,992]

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Alex.

Thank you.

[jess9395 5,449]

Yay! Glad to have this here!

[BryBro63 410]

Can I be the first to throw a question or two out there?

I was sleeved on 1/27/2014, and I reached my goal on 8/20/2014. Since then I've lost a few more pounds, and then I as well as my PCP and my surgeon thought I was a bit too thin. Afterwards, I wanted to gain back some of the muscle mass lost, and I'm currently taking in about 1500 calories a day. I've gained back about 10 pounds, and I'm HOPING that what I've gained is more muscle than fat...when I get on the scale and see the numbers go up instead of down, my initial reaction is to panic!!! Old habits die hard!!! But trying to keep in mind that my clothes are still fitting great!! By chance am I the only one going through this?? I still have a little bit of a belly, but the surgeon says that's not going to go away without cosmetic surgery, so I can live with it!!

Thoughts??? Comments???

Thanks in advance, guys!!!

[VSGAnn2014 12,992]

^^^^ Sounds great to me.

If your clothes are fitting great with a 10-pound gain, that's got to be muscle you've gained. Congratulations!

And yes, entering maintenance is also weird to me. But in 6 months we'll all be old pros at this too, eh?

[Bluesea71 698]

Happy this is here!

[Julie norton 2,850]

Thank you Alex for us vets still working our individual programs the best we can!

I mentioned before that it is a bit scary to read of band removal and instant gains... All While watching food intake and exercising...

Not over indulging on that thought, but I do believe it is real... Any studies known about this?

Thank you in advance.

[ladypoohbear 123]

Thank you alex. I did it... 141 lb loss since june 2013. This is so awesome. I love clothes...i still enjoy my ice cream instead of having like 2 bowls full...i have 1/4 cup ice cream and no 2nds. A few bites..im full. Love it..