Weight gain at 3 Years Post Op - WHAT TO DO?

[Kathy812 794]

I'm almost two years out & have never reached goal. I've weighed the same for the last 7 months, give or take a few ounces.

I have started to accept that this may be it, but very happy with how I look in clothes.

Reading this post has ignited the fear of regain. I have an appt. with my surgeon in a few months & I'm going to request to have my metabolism re-tested. curious to see if it's changed from pre-op.

Wishing all of us who are struggling victory. Let's never give up!

[erp 2,016]

Let me start off that I have not been a model sleever for the past 3 years but in 2014 I reached my goal weight of 130 in less than an year. I was able to maintain it with eating clean/ low carbish diet for awhile until my weight settled around 135-138, and I was ok with that. Over the last 6-9 months I have gained 10-15 pounds and am not happy about it. I started to get more strict on my food with no increase of activity for the first 6 months. Never did exercise much from the beginning just here and there and I could drop 5-7 lbs quickly before. What changed? Now Im super serious about losing this weight. For the past 4 weeks I have worked out for 30-45 minutes 3-5 times per week. My food has been on point with one allowed cheat meal per week, which would consist of grilled chicken, green Beans and mashed potatoes for example. I have not lost one freaking pound! This is extremely frustrating!!! I cannot figure out what Im doing wrong?? BTW i start off my reset with a 3 day liquid diet. Could my metabolism be broken? Has my weight just settled here now? The things that I have always done just don't seem to work anymore. Even with increased exercise.I still eat very little and on a saucer or salad plate. Is anyone else going thru again similar? I really don't want to spend the money on a personal trainer and nutritionist but it's looking like i may.... TIA

Exercise mainly helps me maintain my weight versus lose. In fact when I'm dieting, I generally cut back on exercise initially as I want to do just enough to maintain my muscle mass versus going catabolic and losing muscle. Op you mentioned you are consistently eating low carb but that you eat around 70 grams of Protein, that's approximately 300 cals. At 1200 cals- something is amiss. Are you eating more carbs? What are your macros? If you are low carb--Have you tested your urine for ketones?

When I am in maintenance, my Protein is over 100 grams a days, I try to keep carbs around 100-120 and my fats are somewhere around 30 and I workout 4-5 days a week. When dieting, as I am currently (HS reunion is next month!), I cut carbs to around 50, up fats to around 50 and maintain or up my protein some. I cut my workouts down to 2-3 days a week. In the end, I eat less because the extra fat keeps me full longer. I also add a low dose EC stack (Google Lyle McDonald) to keep my metabolism going and I make sure my fluids and Vitamins are on point. I also test my urine to validate that I am burning fat or not and adjust my macros accordingly. Going with a modified Keto diet is my choice on this time as I am trying to lean out but I believe other approaches (e.g. intermittent fasting) can be effective as well so do what you prefer.

Regarding a "broken" metabolism all I will say is that yes there is metabolic adaptation and that once a diet is over expect to spend that equal amount of time reversing out of it. My current diet will run 8 weeks, I will spend 8 weeks afterward adjusting my macros back toward pre-diet ratios. I recommend reading more about metabolism at Eat To Perform or by listening to their podcast.

[BestDayEver 418]

I asked my bariatric surgeon at the one year check up how long the metabolic effect of the surgery lasts and he said it's strongest in the first six months and then starts to progressively lessen over the two years post surgery. He said, and I quote "I have three words of advice regarding maintenance: exercise, exercise, exercise."

I'm only 13 months out so I can only hope and pray I will maintain the loss. I've seen other veterans do it, so I hope I will be one of them too. Best wishes to you as you fight on!

[*Lexie* 1,486]

I feel like I am constantly working to maintain my weight loss. I am an avid runner but even that doesn't prevent me from gaining if I get off track. I stick to a Keto diet most of the time as that seems to be the most effective way at maintaining.

To the original poster - A few years pre-op, I went through this weird stage where I could not lose weight no matter what I did. I tracked every bite and I exercised but my weight loss was very slow to non-existent. I went to the doctor and had tests ran, I could just feel that something wasn't right. Things that worked previously just didn't work for me. All the tests came back fine and though I didn't want anything to be wrong with me, I was so disappointed that I couldn't figure out what was wrong. Needless to say, I got frustrated and gave up and gained quite a bit of weight. Probably a year later, I could tell that things were back to normal and I was able to lose weight again. I never did figure out what was wrong but I can say that I worked harder those 6 months to lose 5 pounds than I did to lose 100+ pounds after surgery. You may not figure out what's wrong but I hope like in my case, your body gets back to normal.