I gained most of my weight back ! I am starting the 5 day pouch test and trying to get back to losing and getting to where I wanted to be 3 years ago! Anyone else have a similar case ??? I'd like to know if you have ever recovered from the feeling like a failure and if you have ever made goal?

5 weeks out here...what led to you gaining it back?

Oh, nooooooooooo!

Well, then....what's done is done. Time to start over. Just as a refresher, here are the basic concepts again:

While you are hanging out here for support, you can initiate the following steps that most of our plans have us do for our pre-op preparations.

Drink no calories.

Drink Water until your eyeballs float - 64 - 80+ ounces per day.

Don't eat anything made in a factory. You can do this by shopping the perimeter of the supermarket and avoid the aisle unless you need a spice or paper towels...that kind of stuff.

Eat at least 60 ounces of Protein per day, and at any meal, eat your protein first - then veg - then fruit.

Dessert should be something like an apple, not apple pie with two scoops of ice cream.

Avoid sugar, grease, and salt as much as possible. Eating clean will help you discover the real taste of natural food. If it weren't for sugar, grease and salt, McDonald's would have no business. When I gave up candy bars and started eating dark chocolate, I realized that it wasn't the chocolate I missed - it was the sugar.

Try to wean yourself off of soda and diet soda. Most bariatric plans discourage soda pop and anything with bubbles post-op.

Reduce starchy carbs like bread, flour, sugar, rice, noodle, biscuits, white potatoes, macaroni, spaghetti etc.


So what is left to eat? meat, eggs, cheese, Beans, Peanut Butter, yogurt, cottage cheese, nuts, and fresh fruits and non-starchy veggies. You can adjust your current recipes to reduce carbs. The World According to Eggface is a good place to start. Check out the forum here for recipes, also Sparkpeople.com and Myfitnesspal.com.

Many of us use Myfitnesspal.com for logging our food every day. It is really an eye-opener if you are honest with yourself about what you eat.

Weigh and measure your food to accurately acknowledge your actual portion size. There is a scientific principle that says, "You cannot control that which you do not measure."

Exercise where you can. Move your body every day. Don't become part of the sofa.

Hugs for a new start. Now, off you go!

I wish you the absolute best of luck getting back on track. I'm sure you know all the "rules", so if you stick to the plan, you should be able to get things back under control.

Obviously, some folks are going to have some questions about how/when you gained the weight back. Me included. I completely understand if you don't want to answer all of these. I just really feel like it might benefit some of us to know where things went wrong so we can try to avoid similar situations for ourselves. Feel free to completely ignore these questions. You need to focus on yourself and getting back on track, so if considering these sends you in the wrong direction, you should definitely just steer clear.

1. How much weight did you initially lose post-op?
2. Over what period of time?
3. While you were losing weight, do you feel you stuck to the plan fairly well?
4. Was there an event that sent you off your plan or did it happen gradually?
5. When did you start going off track?
6. How long did it take you to regain the weight once you went off track?
7. What sorts of bad eating habits crept back in that allowed you to regain the weight?

I'm only a few weeks out. That must be really frustrating! I'm sorry to hear you've gained it back.

What would you say led to you gaining it back? If you could go back, what would you change? I'd love to hear your answers.

1. How much weight did you initially lose post-op?I lost 72lbs
2. Over what period of time? in a year and a half
3. While you were losing weight, do you feel you stuck to the plan fairly well? Yes, I stuck to the plan for the most part except a bit in the summer when we were on holidays because i drank.
4. Was there an event that sent you off your plan or did it happen gradually? I believe it happened gradually. slider foods are easier to eat than a dense Protein.
5. When did you start going off track?Periodically . I would be completely strict then fall off the wagon.
6. How long did it take you to regain the weight once you went off track? the first 40lbs happened within a 6-8 months period
7. What sorts of bad eating habits crept back in that allowed you to regain the weight? I think just falling off track. I dont eat bread very often I dont eat rice Pasta makes me sick so does bread. rice feels like it gets stuck. my big thing is potato chips but i dont eat that very often either. If I dont buy it I dont eat it. I track my calories using my fitness pal and they are always in between 7 00- 1200 calories. I have GERD and now have to take prevacid for the rest of my life and I intermittently get low blood sugar. Surgery was still the best thing I ever did. I do still have restriction. I cant eat a lot but I think the main thing is that even though i can only eat a little at one time its not eating every 1- 2 hours. Need to eat 3 x a day. but again if my blood sugar dips I need to eat. I am not a big pop or diet pop lover. So this has never been an issue. I am not a sweets person but I love salty fatty foods. The more research I do I feel i might need a gastric bypass to get me going again. But i want to focus on back to basics. Head hunger Kills a person and the vicious cycle of feeling like a failure contributes to bad choices for me. So I am still looking for anyone who has been in the same boat. feel free to ask me anything.

@@frumpy69 Thanks for answering all of my questions. I know it might be hard for you to go back and do this sort of self-examination. Hopefully you won't beat yourself up too much, since like someone above said, what's done is done and you can only move forward from here.

You mentioned that you only eat 700-1200 calories a day. Is that what you are eating now that you are trying to get back on track? I find it hard to believe you regained weight eating that little. How are you doing on Protein now? How WERE yo doing on protein as you regained weight?

Have you been doing any sort of regular exercise.

I know there are others on these forums who have been through what you are going through, so hopefully some of them will see this and post with some advice.

Frumpy don't participate in the blame and shame - yeah you made some food choices that didn't help matters, but the amount of effort we have to put into keeping the weight off is absolutely shocking and not something people are willing to really admit/talk about. At my lowest weight I had lost 135 lbs since surgery (it took almost 4 years). I still wasn't at goal but I was close. That was one year ago. In eleven months I gained back 43 lbs. Also, that grand total of 135 pounds lost since surgery represents a loss of about 34 pounds a year, or about 3 pounds a month. That is actually worse than had I just gone on a VLC diet. And as it turns out, I will be on a severe diet the rest of my life - we all will, if we want to be starkly honest with ourselves. This last regain was my second regain since surgery. My surgery was July of 2010 I was 294 lbs,17 months later I was at my lowest post-op weight of 172 lbs. My first regain was Summer 2012 and within 6 months I had gained 30 lbs. I plateaued around 200 for the next 6 months and then got on a serious recommittment kick and dropped 40 lbs in 4 months. I held onto my new lowest weight since surgery (159 lbs) for 5 months, until May of 2014, before I started to gain again. From May 2014 to May 2015 I gained the aforementioned 43 lbs. May 28th 2015 I weighed in at 223 lbs and on the 29th I recommitted again to faithful post-op style eating, all the strict guidance we are initially given and that we follow to. the.letter. In the past 20 days I have lost only 5 1/4 lbs. To say this is frustrating cannot even begin to express it. And before anyone starts suggesting reasons for this slowness, yes I have had all my thyroids checked, yes I have done everything to the letter of the law, yes I have done all one is meant to do.

The truth is that our bodies get f***ed up, metabolically, which they already had problems with to begin with which is what was part of what made us obese in the first place. For the rest of our lives we do not get the luxury of eating a reasonable sensible diet and exercising reasonably to keep a healthy body and weight. It requires an unreasonable amount of diligence and a level of concern over calories/exercise/and the components of food that is usually reserved for those with severe eating disorders.

If you want to keep that honeymoon weight (if you were actually lucky enough to achieve goal during honeymoon phase, which I was not) then resign yourself to eating between 600 and 800 calories with less than 40g carbs, for the rest of your effing life. *

*take this rant with a grain of salt as I am obviously terribly upset and frustrated and sad right now.

@@MissMac im sure u meant eat 60 GRAMS of protein and NOT 60 OUNCES. Gotta love auto spell corrector ????

@@frumpy69 you did it once and you can do it again. Just the fact that u r here is an amazing step and just as everyone has stated,

go back to basics. Check in with us here and know you are among friends ????

Thanks !! Ya i have done my research I spend hours reading so I am doing the 5 day pouch test as we speak

@@frumpy69

You can do it! Good luck! We are all rooting for you!!!

Frumpy don't participate in the blame and shame - yeah you made some food choices that didn't help matters, but the amount of effort we have to put into keeping the weight off is absolutely shocking and not something people are willing to really admit/talk about. At my lowest weight I had lost 135 lbs since surgery (it took almost 4 years). I still wasn't at goal but I was close. That was one year ago. In eleven months I gained back 43 lbs. Also, that grand total of 135 pounds lost since surgery represents a loss of about 34 pounds a year, or about 3 pounds a month. That is actually worse than had I just gone on a VLC diet. And as it turns out, I will be on a severe diet the rest of my life - we all will, if we want to be starkly honest with ourselves. This last regain was my second regain since surgery. My surgery was July of 2010 I was 294 lbs,17 months later I was at my lowest post-op weight of 172 lbs. My first regain was Summer 2012 and within 6 months I had gained 30 lbs. I plateaued around 200 for the next 6 months and then got on a serious recommittment kick and dropped 40 lbs in 4 months. I held onto my new lowest weight since surgery (159 lbs) for 5 months, until May of 2014, before I started to gain again. From May 2014 to May 2015 I gained the aforementioned 43 lbs. May 28th 2015 I weighed in at 223 lbs and on the 29th I recommitted again to faithful post-op style eating, all the strict guidance we are initially given and that we follow to. the.letter. In the past 20 days I have lost only 5 1/4 lbs. To say this is frustrating cannot even begin to express it. And before anyone starts suggesting reasons for this slowness, yes I have had all my thyroids checked, yes I have done everything to the letter of the law, yes I have done all one is meant to do.

The truth is that our bodies get f***ed up, metabolically, which they already had problems with to begin with which is what was part of what made us obese in the first place. For the rest of our lives we do not get the luxury of eating a reasonable sensible diet and exercising reasonably to keep a healthy body and weight. It requires an unreasonable amount of diligence and a level of concern over calories/exercise/and the components of food that is usually reserved for those with severe eating disorders.

If you want to keep that honeymoon weight (if you were actually lucky enough to achieve goal during honeymoon phase, which I was not) then resign yourself to eating between 600 and 800 calories with less than 40g carbs, for the rest of your effing life. *

*take this rant with a grain of salt as I am obviously terribly upset and frustrated and sad right now.

Thanks for sharing Globe! It helps to get all sides of the story.

@@frumpy69 You can do this. It's hard, but you know what to do. I'm sorry you gained, that's so discouraging! :/

@@globetrotter Good to see you back on the boards, though I'm sorry you are having a hard time. I whole-heartedly agree with your post. I don't think it's true for everyone, but it is certainly true for me. I have to be hypervigilant or I will gain. I have found that I can maintain my weight at 165 on an average of 1400 calories a day. I usually eat more on weekends, and dial it way back through the week, like about 1100. It's a battle all day, every day.

@@frumpy69 You can do this. It's hard, but you know what to do. I'm sorry you gained, that's so discouraging! :/

@@globetrotter Good to see you back on the boards, though I'm sorry you are having a hard time. I whole-heartedly agree with your post. I don't think it's true for everyone, but it is certainly true for me. I have to be hypervigilant or I will gain. I have found that I can maintain my weight at 165 on an average of 1400 calories a day. I usually eat more on weekends, and dial it way back through the week, like about 1100. It's a battle all day, every day.

I Agree as well my sister who went with me can eat whatever she wants ! But I have always been that person that can't I'm just hoping i can get where I'm happy with myself

I Agree as well my sister who went with me can eat whatever she wants ! But I have always been that person that can't I'm just hoping i can get where I'm happy with myself

I think you just hit the nail on the head - that's really one of our major measures of success. It took me a while to realize and/or decide that being happy with ourselves is a key factor. I used to be really hung up on getting to a goal I picked based on BMI. In a perfect world, I would be there. But I'm living in my unique body and place, and it's all far from perfect. Once I came to terms with good enough is actually really great, I was able to be happy with my accomplishment and move on with my life.