Is it fair to say that once you reach your goal/ideal weight that you can start eating normal portions of food? Obviously this will require a defill, but in order to prevent too much weight loss, wouldn't you have to eat enough calories to sustain your weight? Just curious...

No, that's not really accurate.

I mean, I eat fairly "normal" portions of food for a very small woman, a ladylike eater, or someone who just was watching their weight. Yet I'm 5ft 10 and 150lb, I should be able to eat a fair amount of food and maintain my weight.

I cant, its as simple as that. I cannot eat what I "should" be able to eat - particularly given that I run daily and do bootcamp. Probably because we starve our bodies to get this weight off. We subsist on pretty low calorie diets of below 1500 a day and for most people more like 1000 to 1200. Once you have done this to your body, there really is no coming back from it, normal eating is out of the question. Metabolism slows, our bodies learn to deal with the low calories and if you put a more normal 2000 or more into your body, you will probably gain weight.

I can maintain on 1800 to 2000 a day which is a very normal amount but as I mentioned, I'm rather tall and I'm extremely active - I'd burn about 500 to 700 calories a day in exercise. This means I"m eating about 600 to 800 loess than the charts say I should be able to.

And lets not forget, what most of us thought of as normal was well and truly overeating, despite the fact that many other people eat that much and dont get fat.

I never had an unfill when I reached goal, weight loss just petered out, and eventually stopped. I kept up the exercise and over time my band has loosened up a bit and I can eat more than I did but I've found my maintenance level without actually unfilling.

I sort of figured that would be the answer. oh, well.

Normal portions of food, no. Band size portions of food. I haven't gotten an unfill either. It seems like my daily calorie count needs to be around 1500 calories a day to maintain so I aim for that.

You could cut down 1 day of exercise, lessen the intensity or treat yourself occasionally. The key is finding a proper maintenance level and being mindful of what you are eating.

I decided to stop losing and I had a .2 cc unfill. Then I lost 2 more pounds so I have upped my calories, I included a cup of 2% milk each day, and changed my portion size from 1/4 cup of complex carb to 1/2 cup and increased my meat portion from 2 oz to 4 oz and I have stayed at the same weight for 2 weeks. I also have a glass of wine on Friday and a serving of ice cream or something similar on Sunday.