I have a friend who has been thin her whole life. She is feeling really fat right now weighing 150 at 5'7" - 20-25# higher then her normal.

So what shocked me in discussing this with her is that while she has never been obese, when she went through that weight gain, it was a very similiar story to what my everyday life was like pre-sleeve.

1. Start eating junky food

2. Get even hungrier then normal

3. Try like heck to "diet"; always failing and being drawn back to the junky/too much food

4. Feel bad at the failures so repeat cycle endlessly

In her case, she gained "only" 20-25 pounds but she told me that over the 6-8 months it was happening she was just out of control. Once she stopped eating low nutrition/empty carb calories, her hunger came back down and she is slowly taking the pounds off.

In those of us who became morbidly obese, the swing is bigger, much bigger, and I didn't have the big enough losses to ever get down to a healthy weight so I had that metabolic drive to keep overeating.

I guess it was refreshing to find someone that really understands this. All the willpower in the world doesn't work if your body is literally screaming for a certain kind of food and driving you to eat. I think that the reason many WLS patients regain is not because their stomach is too big, but rather they slip back into the behavior that "triggers" a re-occurance of the disease or condition called obesity. Then, once the cycle begins it is like you can't get off the merry - go - round.

I am not to maintenance yet, but I have seen this even as my weight loss journey is down to the final amount. I started feeling more hunger... felt a little panicked like "okay, this is it - no more weight loss". i took steps such as resetting back to sleever basics and then amping up exercise intensity and I have lost 10 pounds in November - back on track! I am now back t having to remember to eat as I am just not getting hungry whereas a few months ago I felt like someone who had a big return of hunger.

Anyway, I continue to learn from this journey and hoping to pick up bits of understanding to help me stay successful over the long haul - truly my biggest fear is regain after all of this!

My surgeon has us attend an 8 week Life Skills course where we discuss the behavioural patterns and emotional patterns that cause us to overeat or snack on things we shouldn't. It has been really helpful. I'm so grateful I have a surgeon who treats the "whole" issue, not just an incision and removal process.