yoshimon

@MargoCL
I have, from the beginning, weighed myself every morning I'm home. BUT, the ups and downs, stalls etc. don't make me crazy. I totally accept it's part of the process, and look at the big picture (i.e. 90 lbs lost in 7 months)
Why I do IF
Mostly because it fits in pretty easily with my natural eating habits. I am naturally not hungry in the morning. It isn't usually very hard for me to push my first meal to later in the day.
It helps me hydrate. If I'm not eating it's easier for me to focus on my fluids. Plus drinking can help stave off some hunger.
One thing I have found to be absolutely true for me ... the more I eat, the more hungry I get. So the more I do IF, the easier it gets. It's nice to truly not be hungry until 2pm. That is half the day gone and I have made no bad choices, win! I find it works for both physical hunger and head hunger, IF diminishes both.
So I generally would have a moderate fasting time because I'm not an earlier eater. But attempting IF gives me a reason to skip that late night snack.
I like that I can do it any day I wish. Some days I can't because of hunger or schedule. That's fine, I didn't fall off the wagon, screw anything up, etc.. I just didn't do IF that day, period.
I'm not good with restrictive diets. I'm never going to be able to give up carbs. I eat out frequently. I still crave crap food. So IF gives me something I can do that helps with cravings and hunger, but still doesn't make me a failure if I order chicken fried steak.
I don't know if IF by itself has all of he benefits it claims to have. Like all fad diets, some science turns into a lot of hype. But my biggest challenges post WLS are making poor choices and dealing with hunger (physical and head). So IF helps me with one of those, the hunger, which therefore has me eating less food which therefore is less chance for poor decisions.

I have this one, love it, plus I got it with Air Miles points so love it even more:
https://www.oxo.com/categories/cooking-and-baking/fruits-vegetables/fruit-and-veggie-tools/tabletop-spiralizer.html

Sunday morning breakfast. I call this, "Ode to GreenTealael."
(Of course there were no afters, we don't need to stinking afters!)

In May I will have been a member of OA for a year. I find the fellowship and comraderie a great source of support for me. There are people in my meetings that have had WLS. There are others who are working the steps. We don't read from the Bible. We use the AA Big Book. It isn't religious but spiritual and you can believe what you like as far as a higher power guiding and helping you. I have a sponsor who I call everyday and we go over the program and address any food concerns that I might have. I also call or text other members if I need additional support and they call or text me for my support. Together with my therapist, bariatric group sessions and therapist group sessions OA is an internal part of my recovery from my Compulsive Overeating. I had my WLS in August of 2017 by April of 2018 I had reached my goal weight. This April marked one year that I sustained that goal weight. I'm now working on year two of sustaining that goal weight. OA, for me is an important part of that strategy. It isn't for everyone. I attend three meetings a week. Sometimes we have as little as four people show up and there are times when 25 people show up. As long as there are two of us we can conduct a meeting.
Like I tell my friends who have had WLS, if you are looking for a quick fix this is not it. It is a program that you have to work at to gain the benefits. I lived a long time with my compulsive overeating and I didn't know I had such a condition. Now that I know what I'm up against, I'm using as many tools to combat it. OA is one of them. I hope this helps. If you have any questions you can PM me.

I don’t know what it is but I feel completely dissatisfied after eating. My stomach restriction is telling me to stop eating but I don’t feel physically or mentally content. I’m one month out from sleeve surgery and I’m just struggling with this. I don’t know if it’s mostly a mental thing and I’m just no longer hitting those pleasure centers in my brain? It just feels like there’s a finish line and I want to get there but I never get there and eating is just not satisfying both physically and mentally. I could make a dirty analogy here about the finish line - I think you get my drift.
Any thoughts? Thank you

I'm usually around 800-1000 per day. I'm 4 1/2 months post op, and I'm down 79 pounds since the surgery.

May need to speak with someone skilled in Bariatrics. You may be suffering from a post- surgical depression , they do happen more than what you would think.

I had my surgery 3/26. Everyone is different, as I found out. While some have no hunger and no cravings, others still do. I happen to be the unfortunate one that woke up hungry still crave food. However, when you are recovering from surgery, perhaps watching more TV than usual including all the food commercials, it's kinda hard. At least for me. The full liquid is probably the hardest part, and I have confidence that as I get to the next stage, it will get easier.
I might still get hungry, but I also get full with very little. After a few months, if I have a tremendous craving for something, I will be able to eat it, but only a very small amount. Portion control is a huge help.
Bottom line, imo, is that no. The surgery may not rid you of obsessive thoughts, but again it could! If not, what it will do is give you time and tools and a head start to tame those thoughts. After all, you may want a big fat cheesburger, but your stomach will make you pay dearly if you have it! So it's not so much 'you shouldn't', but more 'you physically can't'.

Usually it is the first month that is the biggest, even with the third week stall, as there is a big slug of water weight that gets lost at the outset. If someone loses a lot on a pre-op diet, they may have already lost that water weight so that their first month post op may be lower than someone who didn't diet ahead of time. In either case, we usually have a slowly declining loss rate as we proceed as it simply takes fewer calories to move us around at 300 lb than we were at 400 lb. and fewer still at 200 lb vs. 300 lb. Just a general trend, as some months may be higher or lower than adjacent months, and we stair step our way down - we may go through several days or even weeks with little or no loss (or even a bit of gain - that water weight thing again) and then, boom - a big loss that gets us back on trend again.
Within that, and beyond the semi-normal third week stall, stalls may happen at any time - or not at all.

13 months post op and celebrated my 165-lb weight loss at our program’s annual red carpet event...had so much fun seeing everyone’s success!
My before picture terrifies me, my surgeon didn’t even remember me being that big!

Making soon
https://healthorganicportal.com/a-cardiologist-shares-the-recipe-for-the-only-bread-which-you-can-eat-as-much-as-you-like/