Banned member

I did not cut carbs. I eat rice, bread, tortillas, etc. Today, for example, I had a half of sandwich for lunch and a fish taco for dinner. I've lost 93 pounds so far!

It was, it was Awesome! I am trying to pretend I feel bad for being so off the rails eating-wise, but I don't feel bad in the slightest. It was a great day...and life is short, so you gotta grab the great days when they come along. I enjoyed it all thoroughly.

Just chew it well.

LOL!! GT, DUDE...callllllllmmmmm doooooowwwwwwnnnn....!! Do you realise that 1600 calories is totally normal?? I eat more than that on a regular basis...on purpose! You'll be just fine, missus.
I would like to add for the record that 1600 cals is 'deficient' enough to be a diet already, for any adult woman with or without an awesome metabolism...

I find it most helpful when others make their food diary visible to your friends. You have to go into settings/diary settings and select friends only under diary setting. The default is private.
If you share your food diary with friends, please add me. Username rlindameyerhoeffer
Thanks!

I eat watermelon almost everyday. It's a great way to stay hydrated in the heat of summer. It's also low in calories and I find myself eating about 100 cals worth of it and that's more than enough.

I have those symptoms when I go too long without eating. I have to eat every 2-3 hours and at one point I did test my blood sugar during those shaky times because I wanted to see if it was really low blood sugar and sure enough it was a 49! Unfortunately my son has hypoglycemia also but thankfully my 2 girls and husband don't. I don't test my blood sugar anymore but I can definitely tell when I need to eat something. I eat a balanced diet with carbs, Protein, and fats. I keep my carbs around 100-150g and that's what my NUT wants me to do. My NUT advises against low carb if you have hypoglycemia.

Thank you

It is not a no no for me. In fact I eat it all the time!

Who said it was a no no. After 6 weeks I was released to eat whatever I could tolerate.

Make sure you get your Protein in and drink the water! Do nit let guilt overwhelm you if you bite a cupcake or eat 5 M&M's ...lol. I had to learn that quickly...
The best advice I can really give is ...
When you look in your mirror and you've lost 50lbs.... 100lbs... 150lbs.... your mind will play tricks on you... I still see that surgery dated body at times when I look in the mirror. .. do not let that get you down!
Also... dont become a slave to your scales... I was my scale b*tch for the longest time.... now I weigh myself 2 times a week....
Good luck on your surgery!

If I'm thirsty and hungry at the same time I will always drink the large glass (16 oz) of Water first. Sometimes I can't drink 30 mins after eating because I still have the food in my stomach and it does feel like it flushes the food out way faster. Definitely drink your water before the meal.

I agree with you Cheri..I do sometimes get depressed when I read posts where people have lost 90 pounds in 2 months..but I am learning it is all perspective. I refuse to characterize myself as a slow loser..I am A LOSER..PERIOD. I am 5 months out and 52 pounds down..whether that makes me a slow loser at an average of 10 pounds a month, I don't really know.
After years of Yo Yo Dieting and the euphoria/depression that comes from losing/gaining weight..I prefer to surround myself with positive reinforcements instead. My weight is just a number, like my driver's license, my social security, my employee ID..it doesn't define me. I use Sticky Notes to give myself an affirmation each day..yes I know it sounds corny but it keeps those mind demons at bay..ya'll should know about those mind demons!
I look to things outside of the scale to keep me moving..like when my trainer ups my workout, or when my niece tells me my belly doesn't jiggle (got to love 4 year olds)..or when a guy on a motorcycle tries to pick me up at a red light! I guess my point is..a number is just a number..if you let it define you, you will be a slave to it. So pick other ways to define you and your new body!

Oregon daisy or anyone- I find that statement hard to believe ( as i am not out far yet 1 year post op). The only reason I can think of your body gaining faster is if the BMR locks in at a low number from low calorie eating. If one is actively engaged in fitness and eating around TDEE amount of calories then they would never have this problem, right? This hypothesis assumes both people are eating relatively the same types of food, but at different quantities. It is all about calories-based metabolism (right?) and not necessarily about type of food ( assuming it is not sweets, Cookies, cakes, pastries and the like). I would think your metabolism would stay the same if you are constantly babying it daily with mindful eating ( nutrition, timing and quantity) and fitness. Or does your body just get so efficient at maintaining status quo that you can never do enough to maintain a constant metabolism as you get further out. To maintain a constant metabolism and outwit the body's efficiency of adaptation would require increasing the point of equilibrium between calories in and calories out by balancing eating and fitness until it is not humanly practical ( or practical for people like us with VSG). Agree or disagree. I am primarily asking for myself, but I am sure everyone wants to know.

I'll be a year out from surgery in Oct and I eat 1200-1500 cals a day, well actually i started keeping track of cals about a week ago and have lost 4 pounds by eating in that calorie range. I will add you when I get a chance or you can add me "vsgjourney". It seems like most of MFP friends are eating less than 800 cals and I have no idea how they can do that because I feel like I'm going to die when I eat so few calories.
ETA: My husband is on vacation for the next week so don't judge me on the vodka drinks lol

You should check your blood sugar when you are feeling shaky- your sugar could be either too low or too high. If you don't have one, you can buy a glucometer at stores like Wal-Mart or Target or at any drug store- they are not that expensive. I get low blood sugar when I don't eat enough Protein during a meal and it has been several hours since I have eaten. When I am feeling shaky, I eat something with a lot of protein like a piece of meat or cheese or an egg, and I feel better in about 10 minutes. But, I have dealt with this my whole life, so I know what works for me. If you are a diabetic and on medication, you might need your medication adjusted, which needs to be done by your doctor. The shaky feeling could also be coming from too much caffeine.

I like Weight Watchers. The meeting that I've attended for years has a leader that I really like, and I've got a lot of friends there. I've done Weight Watchers, many times, with varying degrees of success. My most successful stint, I followed more Clean Eating principles and used a Bodybugg to track calories eaten and burned as well as exercise. I hit a stall and switched to the HCG diet and lost a total of 115 pounds. The problem was, I was only successful as long as I was obsessive. Once I no longer had the motivation and energy to continue obsessing over what I should eat, how much I should eat, and how much longer I had to wait until I could eat during all my waking hours, I began to gain it back. The bottom line is: 95% of all diet attempts fail. (I don't think I got that stat wrong, but feel free to double check me) That is why it is so critical that weight loss surgery is a viable option. Those of us that get this far down the road have usually tried a multitude of diet plans, particularly Weight Watchers since they're the biggest game in town. For someone that has already run the gauntlet of diet plans and attempts at weight loss, I feel that suggesting they go back and give it the old college try only encourages them to prolong their misery and increase their feelings of failure. If someone presented a solution on any topic to me that only had a 5% long term success rate, I would give them the blank stare like they were a complete idiot for even suggesting it to me.

Most of us are veterans at WW and yet most of us had WLS. The recommendation for WW doesn't add up to me. They are a business who have a vested interest in your failure, which means you keep coming back. When people get wise to their schemes, they simply change the diet rules and make everyone buy all new materials. They also recommend the most processed and chemical-laden packages foods on the market.

I keep seeing those same words repeated in different ways, "You're not trying," or "You're deliberately failing," or "You're just not sticking to the right diet."
Do you know what this surgery does? ONE guaranteed thing - that's all: It removes 85% of your stomach. That means that temporarily, you can hardly eat. It means that in the long term, your capacity for dense protein is roughly a cup.
Here is the long list of what this surgery does NOT do, and what it will not help you address:
You will not feel better about yourself due to surgery
You will not stop loving food (not forever, perhaps temporarily)
You will not lose whatever food addiction made you fat
You will not instantaneously love exercise
You will not always make the right food choices
Whoever you are - whoever the real you is, under years of obesity, whatever issues you have - all of that? It's going to be there post op. It's going to be your job to shed as much of that as you can while shedding weight at the same time. And this surgery may not even remove your hunger. So you might have a tiny stomach, but still feel hungry all the time.
It's gotten to the point where these very flippant posts are starting to offend me. If you're less than six months out from surgery, let me tell you that you will eat your words about how easy this all is.
We do not have to support or validate poor choices here and I'm the first to jump in line and tell a person the lay of the land. But at the same time, making sweeping judgments of the success of other individuals is not only unfair, it discourages and disheartens people who need help the most. Because guess what?
This surgery is NOT going to be your magic cure all, and I say that as a woman in maintenance, staying near goal and more than a hundred pounds lighter than I was three years ago. I promise that I know what I'm talking about.
~Cheri

I agree with CLK If it was so easy why didn't we loss the weight on our own. We don't know the whole story with the people who are not losing, this site is suppose to give support so please let us up lift them not bring them down.

My 6 year old eats more than I do...... I do not have anything that is considered off limits or trigger foods except for coffee....
I just don't understand why the weight is not falling off ?!?
I really can't talk about this to everyone... because they feel you got the surgery quit complaining....... it is really hard I have been stalled for about 2 weeks now and I follow all the rules.
I feel there is something that happens when you remove a part of the stomach... the brain has to send some sort of signal to hold on to weight ... It is nearly impossible to exist on the amount of food we eat if we did not have this small stomach.... my 6 year old eats more than I do and he is rail thin.... I just do not understand for the life of me why weight is so slow.