Hello Friends!

After 8 weeks of essentially no weight change (going between the same 3 lbs) I decided to meet back with my nutritionist and have her review my eating log to see where I'm going wrong. I feel very lucky to have such an amazing WLS team. My nutritionist is not only very smart, but so supportive and encouraging.

I submitted my logs and braced for the worst. I thought I was eating like a good bandster. I'm on the right track, but just not there yet. You'd think at 5 months post-op I would have figured this out by now

She had some very helpful tips and while they may not be for everyone, I thought I would share.

The first thing she noticed was my low calorie intake. I was eating between 700-900 calories a day, one day as low as 645. I mean, I'm trying to lose weight, so low calorie right?! Problem is, she said that my body was in the area beyond a plateau because I was putting it into starvation mode. Unless I upped my calories my body would hold tight to every calorie it got. I thought I was doing okay because I'm in the "green zone" and 1 cup of food really does fill me up for 4-5 hours. She had me up my calorie goal to 1000-1100 a day. Eating more to lose weight seems absurd, but I've heard from a lot of people that it's what your body needs sometimes.

My other "oopsie" was my Snacks. I thought that things like rice cakes, craisins, and trail mix were good for me (they say "healthy" on the box, right?). She explained that the function of a snack is not just to have something to munch on, but it really should hold you over a few hours until your next meal. Seems logical. She encouraged me to stay away from the processed snacks and go more "whole" food - - fresh fruit, veggies, string cheese, and if I really wanted that rice cake, put some cheese on it.

She also strongly encouraged I try to get on some sort of consistent routine. My work week is hectic - I start at different times each day - so Breakfast Monday is at 10:00 but Tuesday is at 6:30. dinner is sometimes at 5:30, others not until 8:00. Try to stay on a more "regular" schedule and avoid 6 hour gaps in eating like I have been.

Her other advice was to up my exercise and change it up. Try to get in 60 minutes a day, every day. Okay, 1) that's overwhelming, and 2) I don't know that each day I can find a 60 minute spot to run. She suggested hitting the elliptical for 15 minutes in the morning (I have one at home), then walking on my lunch hour, and maybe running 30 minutes at night but change up my route. Hit the hills one day and treadmill the next.

So from here, I'm going to follow her plan to a T for the next week. If my weight doesn't change, they want to do BMR testing to get a better picture of where my daily caloric goals need to be.

All great suggestions. You're doing great, congrats and update us on how the changes impact you.

Sounds interesting. Routine is something I'm not very good at either and I think that is where some of my problems arise.

Exactly the advice my dietician gave me after i handed in three weeks of journalling - I eat too little, too irregularly and too many nutritionless carbohydrate snack type things.

I was there for reasons other than weight loss but that was her observation. She got me to beef up what I eat, more wholegrains like brown rice, more Protein. And to aim to get my calories over 1500 every day.

Eating enough and eating regularly is surprisingly difficult to keep up. I had to journal to make sure I did it, but I've slacked off because to be honest, I think journalling and counting your food is the singular most destructive and dysfunctional thing you can do on the road to being a normal eater. Yes yes yes, it helps you to keep track of calories and to lose weight. But it really does very little to help you listen to your body, feed it intuitively, eat without being obsessed - just like scale addiction it really just gives you something else to obsess and beat yourself up over.

so......... because i'm being so sensible and NOT journalling, I'm probably back to not eating enough, and I know I'm eating rice cakes and useless stuff like that and I'm definitely eating very irregularly.

But that doesnt mean the advice isnt sound.

As to exercise, after years of running and cardio based stuff, I really have needed to introduce strength training and finding the time without giving up cardio is hard. I've had to do what you mentioned - I run five mornings a week at 6 am and go to the gym three times a week or so in the evening or on the weekend - on the weekend I might do my program and spin class together. I've actually got MORE time, just from sacrificing a bit of lying in bed time (was awake anyway as my hubby has to get up at 5.30), as I'm no longer trying to find an hour to run or do a spin class every single night. I hate morning exercise, but its really great to get it out of the way.