Veterans,

I would sincerely like to offer my gratitude to you for the value that you bring to the community. I love that you have chosen to stick around, because you definitely didn't have to. I have only been a member for a few short months, but I have already seen tons of people drop off. It takes a lot to hang around and answer questions, especially after many of you have reached your goals already.

I can't stress how nice it is to hear from someone that has been through the things that you are going through. It also gives us a glimpse into WHAT COULD BE! When I joined this site, I had a lot of mixed thoughts about long term success. I had seen a few on YouTube that were still going strong years out, but most had videos about regain and needing new surgeries. Coming to this site, and reading responses from veterans like yourselves helped me to cement my position, so I will say THANK YOU!

So, what do you do to maintain now that you have lost most or all of your excess weight? Any tricks to longevity? Anything that you would have done differently? How has your lives changed for the better?

CHIME IN!

(Oh yeah, I posted this in the General Weight Loss forum where everyone could see it. The Veteran's forum doesn't seem as active, so I wanted to put it here.)

I first joined this community to get support. Now, three years past surgery, I'm here to offer support to both the PRE & POST surgery forums. We see a lot of the same questions being asked: "HELP!" or "Is this normal?!" or "How do I do this?!" I just hope the people getting support stick around long enough to become veterans & offer support too!

I don't consider myself a true veteran since I'm only 2.5 years out, but I'll respond since this website considers those with more than 1 year of bariatric surgery experience 'vets.'

I maintain with the following phrases repeating themselves in the crevices of my brain: "Obesity isn't curable, ever. Obesity is incurable. Obesity can't be cured."

Let me explain...while obesity can be placed into remission by achieving a normal weight, the formerly fat person's internal biochemistry will always favor fat storage.

There's a reason so many bariatric surgery patients regain some or all of their lost weight: we can't ever eat like our naturally thin counterparts who can eat junk and stay at low body weights.

The formerly fat person's body is in the weight-reduced state. A naturally thin woman who has been 130 lbs her entire adult life maintains far easier than a 130-lb woman who once weighed 300 lbs.

The weight-reduced, formerly fat 130-lb woman's metabolic rate is slower than that of the naturally thin woman, burning on average 300 to 500 less calories daily even though both ladies have the same heights, weights, and body fat percentages. This is why formerly fat people are primed to regain.

In essence, I'll always need to be vigilant. I exercise. I have no forbidden foods. I try to avoid the slippery slope of eating junk and crap because staying on track is easier than getting back on track.

Good luck to everyone who fights the battle of the bulge. The battle is lifelong.

not really a true vet either at a little over two years out, but I now watch my calories like a hawk. And I weigh and measure most things - and log *everything*.

I agree. I think that I will be weighing my foods for a long time to come. I don't have a handle on portion sizes yet, and even so, some foods are very dense and heavy. My stomach tends to tell me when I've had enough though, so that's a good thing.