I am hoping to rekindle my inspiration that I had right after surgery. I have fought my weight forever. Most success I had was with Medifast. I made it down to 225. A loss of 70 pounds. I got to the point where I couldn’t stand to eat another packet of food, so I proceeded to gain it all back and then some. I decided to go with the surgery option. I went in knowing it wasn’t the cure all, I would need to work it. Starting weight was 321, but had to see a nutritionist and lost about 15 pounds before my July 2015 surgery. I lost about 50 pounds post surgery. I found out that highly processed carbs still go down quite nicely. So I went back to my emotional eating when stressed. I have at least maintained around 278 for the last 6 months. I am the caregiver for my morbidly obese mother. She lives on her own, but I am her transportation and errand runner. I so don’t want to turn into her. I love her, but she is eating herself into a wheelchair. With the new year, I am hoping to get back to basics. Is it still possible to lose weight this far out from surgery? I know that I still have restriction with the sleeve, but have been bingeing on carbs.

1 hour ago, cchrispen said:

Is it still possible to lose weight this far out from surgery?

It isn't impossible.

Go back to the basics and first principles your learned (and, hopefully, practised) for some time after your surgery.

Retrain yourself with protein and well-spaced water breaks.

Take out your old post-surgery nutrition advice sheets and go through it all again. Try living between 750 and 1000 calories after the first month of rebuilding your routine.

Take up some exercise to busy yourself when you're not at your mother's beck and call.

Good luck.

It's always possible to lose weight, no matter how far out you are. The whole point of VSG is to provide a way to limit your stomach capacity. But as you learned very quickly it only works if you put good food into it. Your restriction will work with protein and veggies. You already know the secret to losing weight. You HAVE to cut out the carbs or your surgery will be a waste. Go back to basics ....high protein and plenty of water.

Sadly, you are one of the examples of the Bariatric industry focusing too much on surgery and not enough on the psychological aspect of weight loss. In the end, obesity is the product of addiction, not stomach capacity. Surgery took less than an hour, but it takes a lifetime of mental health support to achieve and maintain weight loss. Your story is unfortunately all too common.

For me, committing to changing my behaviors and developing new emotion coping stategies is the key to my success. I read dozens of self help and addiction books, joined an online addiction recovery program and saw a therapist for a year. Every day is still a struggle, but at 4 years out, 104% EWL and still within 10 pounds of my lowest weight, it has been worth it.

I suggest reaching out to whatever mental health support programs you may have available. I will try and compile a list of the best resources I found.

"The emotional first aid kit" by Cynthia Alexander
"Eat it up" by Connie Stapleton
"Get out of your head and into your life" by Steven Hayes
"Life Without Ed" by Jenni Schaefer
"Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Dummies" and
"Feeling Good : The New Mood Therapy" by David Burns

also check out www.smartrecovery.org

you can definitely still lose weight - the tool still works. It'll be harder this time because you'll be fighting hunger (the first few months post-surgery when most of us don't feel hunger made things fairly easy!!), but you'll still have the restriction, which should help a lot. You really need to ditch the carbs, though - or cut way back. Go back to way you were eating in the first few months after surgery - protein first, veggies if you have room, and if you still have room after all that, then a piece of fruit or small amount of "good" carbs (grains, beans, etc)).

Some people have found that cutting *way* back on carbs for a few days (like below 30 grams or so a day) will cut their carb cravings. I've never tried that as I'm not particularly carb sensitive, but some people swear by it.