I dont follow the rules many VSGers do... I drink water like crazy, I eat high proteins but I also eat high calories, high carbs, and high fats...I try to limit sugar, salt...

I have been triathlon training for months.... have done a few 5K, 10K and duathlons in the midst ( thus the need for high carbs)..

I HAD been losing steadily, definitely satisfactorily on my part ( at almost 10 months out, I am 5 pounds away from "normal" BMI) ... maybe if I stuck to 600-800 cals with little or no exercise, I would have lost more in pounds but honestly I look and feel great and am in better physical shape than I have been in over 20 years

I have been in a weight loss stall for nearly a month... would lose & regain the same 2 pounds for nearly a month.... Last weekend, for 3 days, I partied like a rock star... drank heavily....ate pure CRAP... did not do any weight training, though I still got in a fair amount of cardio....

today I am down 6 pounds....

This thing just doesnt make sense to me some days....

I read about this all the damned time and it kinda makes me wanna eat cake or something. Sigh

Alcohol is a diuretic. That may explain it.

Lynda

I joke that its like witchcraft because it just doesnt make sense. When I hit a stall, I will up my calories and eat something that is higher in fat like an avocado or more nuts than normal and bam, stall broken. I do appreciate knowing that it works most of the time but still aim to maintain my healthier eating and physical lifestyle but sometimes you just need that scale to move.

That's because it doesn't make sense. I mean, if weight loss were so cut and dried and we wouldn't be WLS patients missing most of an organ. We'd diet, we'd lose, we'd maintain for life and we'd be perfectly happy in every way.

Mixing it up is key, I think. Eating a very rigid diet on a very rigid schedule and always gravitating to the same foods is great when we're first learning how to do this. But your body can get used to anything and you better believe our supremely awesome famine-survival metabolisms will find a way around losing weight on 500 calories a day the same way they did it on 1,200 calories or 1,800 calories!

In maintenance I did about 90% awesome eating and about 10% whatever the heck I wanted. Actually...to be fully honest? It was probably more like 70% awesome and 30% what I wanted...but the 70% were perfect choices and the 30% wasn't the same junk I indulged in prior to surgery. It was just a more rounded overall approach to food that incorporated mostly lean Protein, veggies and good carbs...but a few treats a week like a rich dessert or some homemade bread just because.

I never had an issue maintaining. The same goes for loss with me. When I get crazy strict (I tend to start every loss phase as all-or-nothing until sanity reigns me in again) I do not lose. I see an immediate result, but then I hit stalls and lose in fits and starts, gaining and losing the same two pounds over and over again before an eventual drop. Then I start the whole process over again with the next few pounds!

Good luck. You may see a bounce on the scale but if you don't, it stands to reason that you just need to shake things up every now and again.

And congrats on becoming an athlete. I'm one of those people that always fantasizes about having an athletic body or loving exercise...until it comes time to actually exercise. I truly thought surgery would trip my "exercise is my new addiction" switch, but clearly my surgeon neglected to install that switch and so...here I am...huffing and puffing from push ups and jumping jacks in my basement.

~Cheri

Sometimes it feels like there is no rhyme or reason to why we gain or lose weight. I finally kicked my stall the other day when I weight myself after a day of eating fast food not once but twice. I do not recomend that, nor am I bragging about it, but due to life circumstances that's just what took place with me yesterday. Doesn't matter. I woke up this morning three pounds less than I had been.