I was reading Oregon Daisy's post about being in maintenance and it got me thinking. I have read here so many times that when you get 12 + months out you can eat a lot more than immediately post-op, but it's still WAYYYYY less than pre-op. If that is the case, then why is there such a struggle with maintenance? Seems like more than one person has said just overeating for a special occasion/holiday will put on a few pounds and then it is harder and harder to lose them. It just seems like with the reduced amount we will be able to eat, even a year out, and even if its something on the No-No list, it shouldn't be so hard to maintain.

Is it that this drastic reduction in calories/fast weight loss has destroyed our metabolism? Or messed with our original "set point" for our weight?

Just curious because you can't help but think that compared to what we used to eat, what we eat now and in maintenance is a fraction of that.

Thanks for any insight on this

I think it's different for everyone. I haven't had any issues with weight re-gain and I certainly don't eat a model diet. I eat sweets, carbs, whatever I want. My weight fluctuates between 3 lbs no matter what I do. I don't get any exercise, so maybe if I did I might need to eat more to stop from losing anymore weight. My body has always picked a weight and stayed there unless something drastic happens to change it (like WLS). I can eat much more now than I did a year ago, but it's not enough to make me start gaining weight again.

Another challenge is that our fat cells never go away - they just shrink. Our bodies are now programed to be able to store much more fat than someone who was not obese. This is why surgeons tell us that the average weight loss for sleeve is 60-70% of the total weight above normal to our highest weight. This is also why surgery was the final resort for most of us. Our bodies are good fat storage facilities. Just cause we're skinny now doesn't mean we can eat like someone who's been skinny their whole lives. That is why we need to maintain a much lower daily calorie threshold than someone who was not obese as well.

We can eat a little more partly because of being completely healed and not swollen at all, and after this much experience at eating the right portions, we've already tested our size intake and we know our limits. In the beginning we're much more cautious about how much to eat, thinking we're going to overdo it, but after a year you've pushed it enough times to know you're capable of one or two more bites sometimes. And gaining back weight is not ever going to be a problem, I can tell. I've eaten some pretty unhealthy stuff before and not gained, so I think it would take a lot of consistent overeating of very high calorie foods to cause much gaining.

Also, keep in mind that as our bodies adjust to weighing less, our caloric needs have changed. I know this isn't the perfect example, but think of the point system for weight watchers diets. As you lose weight, your allowable points decrease. I think that's also true for sleevers. We are told to decrease calories to 600-800 to lose (or whatever your surgeon has instructed for you) but then when we maintain to up it to 1200-1500ish? Your body will probably wonder what the hell is going on and need to adjust itself again. Of course, this is all just my postulation since I'm not in maintenance mode yet, but it makes sense in my head

Most importantly: At almost a year out, I eat whatever I want. I just downed two Ghirardelli squares and could easily eat another few. Diets are a lot more lax at this point for me BUT I'm still losing because I've started exercising so much more than I had been. So if someone is saying it's taking them a lot longer to lose weight from overeating, they're probably not scrutinizing their diet as well as they did a year ago. There are probably a lot more 'hidden' calories in there than you'd think.

If we have Plastics will that take off some of the already fat cells we have? What about lipo? Just curious.