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Ahhh…goal weight! It’s something you’ve wanted for years. You went through the pre-op diet, weight loss surgery, and the recovery period. You’ve worked harder than most people can imagine in order to get to goal weight. Now, all you have to do it keep the weight off.
Well, you know that’s easier said than done, but this two-part series offers a little help. Part 1 talked about what you can do if you hate counting calories, and how to develop a diet pattern that can work for you for life. Part 2 will cover making up for lower calorie burn and staying motivated even when the scale is not going down. Here goes!


I Don’t Burn as Many Calories.
The more you lose, the less you can eat if you want to keep losing or keep the weight off. There are a couple of reasons for this unfortunate fact. First, your metabolism slows as you lose weight as a response to the dieting. Your body compensates for your low-calorie consumption by conserving energy – which translates to burning fewer calories.
A bigger factor is your lower body weight. The less you weigh, the less you burn at rest and while exercising. Take a 30-year-old 250-lb woman with a height of 5’4”, for example. She burns about 1900 calories per day at rest. She burns about another 450 calories for every hour she walks. So, she can lose about a pound a week if she eats about 1,800 calories per day.
Take this same woman at 140 pounds. She might need only 1,500 calories per day at rest, and burn 250 calories while walking for an hour. If she walks for an hour a day, she might even gain weight eating 1,800 calories per day.
So what can you do to combat this? Being aware is a big step. Know that you may not need as many calories as you used to need. You can cut out calories the way you have been: by taking smaller portions, and by choosing healthy foods and lower-calorie versions of normally high-calorie foods: think of a plate of zucchini noodles (“zoodles”) instead of a plate of pasta, for example.
You can also be more active to burn more calories. While an hour’s walk may have been a good workout for you while you were at your high weight, you might be in better shape now, and able to work a little harder. You might be able to throw in a little jogging, or try aerobics or kickboxing or Zumba, to burn more calories in that same hour. Build a little muscle with some strength training, and your calorie burn will be boosted round the clock.
I’m Not Motivated.
Lack of motivation is one of the biggest barriers to keeping the weight off. Preventing regain takes a lot of work, so you need to be motivated. But how can you stay motivated when one of the strongest motivators – the dropping number on the scale – isn’t there anymore?
The first thing you can do is change your attitude. From the time you had WLS to the time you hit goal weight, your job was to lose weight. You had a victory every time your weight dropped, and that was exciting.
Now, your job is to maintain your weight. You have a victory every time you step on the scale and your weight is the same. That is exciting, too – hopefully, exciting enough to keep you motivated to do the right thing as you make your eating and exercise choices throughout the day.
Most of the motivators that you used when losing weight are probably still there. You may just have to search a little harder to remember them. You want to be healthy. You want to be proud of yourself. You want to be around to support your family and to watch them grow. You want to be healthy. You want to shop in regular stores. Remind yourself of your reasons for wanting WLS, and remind yourself how hard you worked to get here. It’s something not everyone can do, but you did it!
I Got off Track.
So does everyone. Let it get you down, and you can regain a lot of weight very fast. Take care of it and use it as a learning experience, and it can only make you stronger. Figure out what got you off track, and do your best to fix the habit. Maybe it’s drinking your calories, choosing slider foods, munching throughout the day, or using food instead of the gym as your emotional outlet. Whatever it is, fix it, forgive yourself, and keep going! If you’re really not sure what went wrong, go back to the basics of your post-op solid foods diet.
Figuring out your strategies can help you keep the weight off for good. Preventing regain is a lifelong endeavor. You may need to work on it daily, but the payoff can be worthwhile. You worked awfully hard to get WLS and lose the weight – don’t you want to keep it off?

Weight loss surgery is supposed to be the final answer to obesity. Ideally, you use your sleeve, band or pouch as a tool to help you lose weight, and that tool continues to keep you in check as you maintain goal weight.
But that’s not always the case. Many Weight Loss Surgery patients find that losing weight is easier than maintaining weight loss. You may already have some hint of that if you were a long-time yo-yo dieter before surgery.


So why is it so hard to keep the weight off, and what can you do about it? It can be harder to keep the weight off than lose it in the first place because:
You might gradually be less strict with your food choices as the occasional treat becomes more frequent and bigger.
Your restriction may not feel as, well, restrictive as it did right after surgery.
Your metabolism is slower and you don’t need as many calories as you did before.
You don’t have the motivation that comes from seeing the scale go down as a reward for your good eating habits.

But a little challenge doesn’t have to get you down! After all, you’re a WLS patient, and you’re in it for the long haul! Here are some things to think about as you are losing weight, approaching goal weight, or even working on maintaining your goal weight. This is just Part 1 of the two-part series, so stay tuned for Part 2!
I Hate Counting Calories!
Yes, logging your food can be tedious. Some people even find that counting calories makes them anxious or causes them to fixate on food. Maybe immediately post-op you could skip the calorie counting and still lose weight because you had so much restriction. Maybe, in the beginning, you forced yourself to log foods for a few weeks or months.
What if, when you’re at or near goal weight, you can’t face the thought of counting calories? You still have a few options that can work.
Go back to the meal plan you got from your surgeon or nutritionist and stick to it. If it says ½ cup of oatmeal, it doesn’t matter whether you know how many calories that half-cup contains. You can be certain that if you follow the plan, your total daily calories will add up to the amount in the plan.
Log once a week. This can help you stay on track as you make sure your portion sizes are still working out for you and you are choosing the low-calorie, high-protein foods you think you are.
Focus on another nutrient, such as protein. If you hit your target grams of protein, stick to small portions, and make sure all of your protein and other foods are the nutritious ones you’re supposed to be eating – think lean proteins, vegetables, and healthy fats, for starters – you have a good start towards eating the way you should.

Carbs Are the Devil!
Maybe it’s carbs, maybe it’s sugar, maybe it’s pizza, or tacos, or ice cream that you avoid in your weight loss efforts. Whatever it is, there’s a good chance you’re trying to avoid it as you lose weight. Weight loss surgery patients can be tempted to go low-carb, paleo, or sugar-free. That’s fine, as long as you can keep it up long-term.
If you can’t, you’re setting yourself up for a rough time. What happens when you hit goal weight and you flip a mental switch in your head? What if you go from low-carb to letting cookies, bread, and pasta back into your diet? What if you go off paleo and find all sorts of processed foods that are delicious and convenient? What happens next time you come face to face with an order of chicken wings and dipping sauce for the table?
You may be better off planning for a diet that will work long term. While you are still losing weight or while you are early in the maintenance phase, take inventory of your feelings. Be honest about what you can and cannot live without, and develop a plan to address it. Then practice!
These are some possible ways to approach your food fears.
Think “healthy, portion-controlled carb” instead of “low-carb.” Aim to get in healthy carbs such as oatmeal, lentils, fruit, sweet potatoes, and yogurt rather than avoiding all carbs.
Consider the good and bad of the paleo diet. While the guidelines to avoid processed foods and refined sugars can’t hurt, it really necessary to avoid nutrient powerhouses such as beans (think: protein, fiber, and potassium)? And is it really possible to avoid all processed foods for the rest of your life? What happens if you run short on time? A good strategy may be to get in the habit of reading labels so you develop your ability to choose healthy (or at least, “healthier”) packaged meal helpers.
Make up your mind about trigger foods. Are you the type who can be satisfied with one potato chip when you get a craving? Or are you best off avoiding the chips altogether? Is there a similar substitute, such as kale chips, that can work for you? If you’re not sure, experiment so you know how best to handle cravings.

Maintenance has its share of challenges, but you can overcome them to be able to experience all the joys of hitting that goal weight you dreamed about for so long. Just like you did when you were getting ready for weight loss surgery and losing weight, you can take a carefully planned approach to maintenance that considers your own preferences. Stay tuned to Part 2 of the two-part series!

I love this idea of the before and after pics! I just had my surgery 3 days ago but look forward to being able to post here eventually.
Good work everyone!

Looking at my journey over the past decade-plus, I can see the fallout from my terrible mentality of weight loss at any cost. But, really, at what cost? At the cost of my sanity? At the cost of my self-esteem? At the cost of my health?

People say you have nothing if you don’t have your health, and as I get older, that truth can no longer be ignored.


When I had my roux-n-y gastric bypass surgery in 2005, my goal was to lose weight. Specifically, I wanted to lose 225 pounds.

At just over five feet tall and 343 pounds, I was super morbidly obese. Those are the facts, but what is also true is that my weight has been the bane of my existence for my entire life. Or, at least, since I was about three years old, when I first realized that my weight fell on the less socially “acceptable” end of the spectrum.

So, yes, weight loss was the goal I set for myself, but what I see now is that all I really wanted was to slip into the spectrum of acceptability enjoyed by women who wear single digit jeans. It was about fitting in. It was about not standing out. It was about being “normal.”

At no point was it ever really about being healthy.

In the two years after my surgery, I dedicated my days to working out and eating as little as possible. Ultimately, I lost 201 pounds. It wasn’t the hoped for 225, but I was a size eight - victory, right?

Not exactly. Even at a size eight, I struggled with body acceptance. I still felt like a fish out of water and worse, I couldn’t seem to sync up with the woman in the mirror. I had a new body, but I didn’t feel like “me” anymore.

And worse still, I didn’t feel healthy. Sure, I’d lost 200 pounds. By all the usual measures (and certainly by societal expectations), I was “cured,” but I felt sick. My energy was low, my sleep was all over the place, and I was incredibly frustrated by a diet that seemed barely sustainable for any length of time.

That diet piece was my fault, of course. So determined to lose the weight, I worked hard to hit my daily protein goal, even if that meant I consumed hard boiled eggs three times a day and literally nothing else. For much of the past 11 years since my surgery, I’ve been riding a roller coaster. I’ve lost and gained weight over and over, the pendulum swinging back and forth and my emotions following. I have suffered serious vitamin deficiencies and still struggle to disconnect guilt from the simple act of eating. In this state of mind, it’s been easy for me to sacrifice overall well being for short-term gain, or in my case, loss.

Despite the fact that I didn’t really feel that great, it still took a while to realize why. When weight loss was the goal, I needed only to focus on the aspects of my new life that supported it: protein, calorie counting, and obsessive exercise.

Health has been the missing piece all along.

Focusing on my health has required a total turnabout. It means that I’ve had to reevaluate my goals. I’d lived so much of my life with oversimplified ideals: thin equals good, fat equals bad. The reality is more complex, as it so often is.

Looking at my journey over the past decade-plus, I can see the fallout from my terrible mentality of weight loss at any cost. But, at what cost really? At the cost of my sanity? At the cost of my self-esteem? At the cost of my health?

People say you have nothing if you don’t have your health, and as I get older, that truth can no longer be ignored.

Today, I am 89 pounds heavier than my lowest post-op weight. Typing those words makes the old me cringe… I feel waves of embarrassment, shame, anger, frustration, and the ever useless guilt.

The new part of me, the one I am working to healthfully feed mind, body, and soul, feels hope. I feel hope because I remember the young woman that weighed 138 pounds, and I know that I was less healthy standing on that scale back then than I am today in my double digit jeans. This new woman I see in the mirror still wants to lose weight, but as a byproduct of a healthy life.

Health has become my personal mission. I wasted a lot of time hating myself to obesity and then hating myself thin. My plan now is to love myself healthy. To do all that I do in the pursuit of weight loss and health with kindness to the woman in the mirror, no matter how she looks.

If any of what I’ve written resonates, I hope you too can break free. My wish for you is that as you walk your own path, you keep your eyes trained on your health goals and not simply on the scale.