Now that VST has been around awhile, there are a lot of us at goal who are learning to maintain.

I would like to discuss maintenance. Is it easy for you? It is not easy for me.

I fight it every day. I can eat so much more than I could when I first had surgery. I don't feel really full all the time the way I did a year ago.

I used to be able to eat a meal and feel so full for hours that I had no desire to eat again until it was meal time again.

I would say that Head hunger is more than 75% of hunger for me. I can eat a meal and thoughts of junk food enter my mind an hour later.

I am so thankful that I do have this tool to help me maintain, but it will always be a battle for me to not eat chips, candy and all the rest of the stuff that could easily pack on 20 lbs in a short time if I gave into my head hunger.

How are the rest of you at goal doing? Is eating healthy such a habit now that you have no desire to snack?

Um, hold on Feed, your response is so perplexing... a reset is returning to post-op style eating, but your sentences confused me, talking about eating 2200 calories and gaining 10 pounds ... um, that's the opposite of a reset? Are you saying that returning to post-op eating made you gain 10 pounds? And who eats 2200 calories immediately post-op? So confused. I'm doing 700 cals, 35g or less carbs and so far it seems to be working.

Um, hold on Feed, your response is so perplexing... a reset is returning to post-op style eating, but your sentences confused me, talking about eating 2200 calories and gaining 10 pounds ... um, that's the opposite of a reset? Are you saying that returning to post-op eating made you gain 10 pounds? And who eats 2200 calories immediately post-op? So confused. I'm doing 700 cals, 35g or less carbs and so far it seems to be working.

A reset is eating your full TDEE calories(full energy expended including breathing, sitting around, sleeping and exercising) There is a spread sheet on google I will find for you.... You do this for I think it is 6 weeks...maybe more... until you stop gaining weight and level out. Then you make a 20% cut in calories... maybe less depending on how much you need to lose... and you lose (this is the promise anyway...)VERY slowly. They also want you to cut your cardio exercise a lot, and rely mostly on a weight routine a few days a week. I upped my weights, (from nothing to something...) added calories up to around 1550+ exercise calories(so around 1800 more or less depending) and I did not gain weight. I really needed to go up to 2200 cals to be doing a reset, but I thought it was pretty interesting that I did not gain, even though at 1200 I could gain. I'm sorry Im confusing, I am going my memory here, and may screw up the dates or numbers, but go by my best recollection. Let me find you the pages in myfitnesspal that explains this approach better than I can....Anyway, I think I need to do a reset this summer... I am losing weight now...but so SO slow... which is ok as long as it keeps heading in the right direction...but I do not want to eat less than I do now... I don't see how you can do it girl! 700 is crazy low eating...We have reached in and changed the rules with this surgery, you could not eat 2200 immediately post opp if you tried....So lt looks to me like we have lost weight, and forced our bodies to go into "starvation mode" where we can survive on 700 cals a day... does this look right to you? I cant get enough nutrition to grow my hair on that much food! An anorexic would be sent to the hospital for eating that much! Anyway, I may be full of cr*p... but that is the way I am looking at it now...

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/3817-eat-more-to-weigh-less

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/813720-spreadsheet-bmr-tdee-deficit-macro-calcs-hrm-zones

calculator- https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Amt7QBR9-c6MdGVTbGswLUUzUHNVVUlNSW9wZWloeUE

Um, hold on Feed, your response is so perplexing... a reset is returning to post-op style eating, but your sentences confused me, talking about eating 2200 calories and gaining 10 pounds ... um, that's the opposite of a reset? Are you saying that returning to post-op eating made you gain 10 pounds? And who eats 2200 calories immediately post-op? So confused. I'm doing 700 cals, 35g or less carbs and so far it seems to be working.

reset is not returning to postop style eating... it is many more calories than post op and much more protean... the weight gain is temporary, and sets up your body to lose weight... see the eat-more-lose-weight link above...it gets you out of starvation mode...that Looooong stall where you eat a tiny bit, cardio yourself like crazy and cant lose....

Globe, also check this out... it makes sense... I am hoping the weight reset plan countersthese findings! 8 pages, read them all....

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-fat-trap.html?pagewanted=1&_r=5&adxnnlx=1325167965-awQ/TLyuKlv21t2HqMl8kg&

Okay Feed, now I'm tracking! My idea of a reset was to return to post-op style living, severe calorie restriction coupled with mild but consistent exercise. I have been reading up on your version of a reset during this entire week of my version, and it does make sense. Although, it kinda also seems like a lemon lot car salesman tactic too - eat more, gain more, and then you will lose, but slowly! That being said, once I jump start my system back into weight loss, I will be evening out the calories and exercise. But after almost a year of eating whatever the hell I wanted and not exercising, I definitely need some strict "tough love" Right now after 6 days I have lost 5 pounds.

Congratulations! My dad just started that "fast metabolism" diet... the idea of going on a diet has been a turnoff for me for years... but he is loving it and lost 6 pounds in 7 days... can eat a bunch of food... but many restrictions too. Sounds mostly healthy...

Every time I have a doctor visit I tell him we need to redo my sleeve. I am 8months out, down 45Lbs, I am happy, however, i have taken up jogging and I'm thinking the weight should be just dropping off...NOT! I can intake too much, especially at work...when I'm home I do not graze, at work it is a struggle

How many pounds do you have to lose? The weight loss does slow down the further out you are. I would just stick with his plan, and see how it goes. After 12 months, come check out the Vets forum, we are a bunch of folks who have had the sleeve longer than 12 months, some up to 4 years. Some of us have not lost all our weight yet, but are working on some solid changes that are getting some of us some movement on the scale after months and years of gaining, and stalls...

If you're struggling to get to goal and have been sleeved more than a year, the new

5:2 way of eating seems to be working for a bunch of us.

We are trying to get back to goal after regaining, or some want to keep losing because they haven't made it to their goal, after being sleeved over a year.

It's made a huge difference to me, but I've only been doing it a week. I really feel that it's going to work. It has gotten rid of my night time snacking, and grazing through out the day. I think I can maintain eating this way indefinitely.

I even watched my bf eat a bowl of ice cream without asking for a bite.

Thanks for the info really helped me!

Update: The last time I posted on this thread was Dec. 2010, almost three years ago. I had reached MY goal a few weeks earlier, I'd reached my doctor's goal a month earlier. Wow, time flies when you're having fun.

I've been maintaining for going on three years, no problems, no issues. Nothing. It's all pretty easy for me, so far. I have what I call my "dashboard" and it keeps me on top of everything. I do not ever want to be complacent. I never thought I'd have surgery and make no changes, so I've made changes that I can live with forever.Everything I do is as natural to me as breathing. Old age, a twisted ankle nor boredom will prevent me from doing what I'm going to list below!!

1) I weigh every morning

2) I weight and/or measure my food

3 I log all my food on my fitness pal

and last but not least, I attend a support group with real live people!

I maintain on 1300 calories per day. It's a fine line between maintenance, gaining and losing. My 'comfort zone' is 142 - 145.5. If I weigh 146 at my morning weigh in, I cut back calories by 100 - 150 and within a few days, I'm back down to the lower end of where I like to be.

I still have good restriction and i still try and under eat my sleeve. If I get to "full" it's too late, I'm miserable.

No buyer's remorse, EVER!!!! Love my sleeve!

That is really good news.

I am almost back to my goal. The 5:2 plan works really well for me and I think it's a great maintenance plan. I have 3 more lbs to lose and I will have lost all of my regain.

What is the 5:2 plan? I am 18 months out and not only stopped losing weight without reaching goal, now I am having a hard time maintaining.

What is the 5:2 plan? I am 18 months out and not only stopped losing weight without reaching goal, now I am having a hard time maintaining.

Tia, that was my story too. Here is link to the BBC investigative piece that started the 5:2:

http://leangainsguide.com/diet/igf-1-and-fasting/

Its about 50 something minutes long, and I found all of it interesting. The first parts show his investigation into longevity practices, and the last part shows what he came up with as a compromise... the 5:2. The page has a couple of junk popups, but its the only place I can find the video right now. It was shown on PBS not too long ago.... there is a book too, but the vid is good.

Watch it, and if its something you think you might want to try, I can tell you the couple of things a few of us here have done to modify the plan for sleevers. (mainly eat less on feast days)

Thank you so much, I will definetly watch the video, hopefully its the change I need.