Ok, let's have some drama for the weekend and shake the tree!!!!

Question: Is the only difference between meeting your goal and maintaining it long term versus losing some of the weight and regaining part or all, only about following your diet, weighing/measuring/logging and exercising (i.e. maintaining healthy diet/exercise practices)?

ORRRRRRRRR

Does weight gain at year 2 or 3 "just magically happen" through no fault of your own and despite continuing to eat the SAME exact healthy diet you were eating to lose and initially maintain? I mean, if you're still eating 1000-1200 cals/day and exercising 4-5 days a week, 45 minutes a day--will you regain the 10-20lbs regardless of how pure you are? Or is regain ONLY gonna happen when we revert to old poor food behaviors and overeating/eating crap or eating around our surgeries?

I'm honestly terrified of being in this second group. I want to know what I must be on-guard about after surgery. Like I can't fool myself into believing that after surgery moderation in everything will allow me to lose and maintain my losses. It's just illogical. I never had balance before. I crave bad crap. Often eat emotionally. Etc. If I don't revise ALL of those things, it seems to me, I'm just a few bites away from regaining all the hard won losses? True? Or false?

Will all of you who've maintained their losses please share your secrets for maintaining your weight losses without a regain or only a tiny regain, please????

Edited February 3, 20188 yr by FluffyChix

Awesome and thoughtful answer [mention=194772]jess9395[/mention] ! Thanks so much Jess! Totally get it and agree 100%! [emoji4]
Hey, quick question. Do you remember about how many cals you got on your pre-op diet? The RD wants me around 1000cals. And so far I haven't figured out how to get anywhere near that and am usually 500-600 cals?

I wish I could help, my surgeon didn’t use a pre op diet in general. He might have with some patients, I don’t know, but in general he didn’t. I just had to do the general clear diet you have to do before any anesthesia/surgery.... clears starting the day before at noon, or maybe it was two days before? And no red clears.

I don’t envy you all with the pre op liquid diets!! Hang in there!

Relax a little. Don't set yourself up for failure from the beginning on by trying to be 110% perfect. This need to "be perfect" can be both terrifying and paralyzing.

For some and others do well with rules. It’s best to know yourself and what works for you.

True.
However, it breaks my heart to see that struggling people continue to listen to the "try harder" advice when obviously this didn't work for them because they're too afraid of trying a different road.

Yes, that too. It’s hard because we see both on these boards.

The truth is some people need tough love and to be told “suck it up” or “try harder” I did! The best advice I got was a gal at vitamin shoppe when I complained about the taste of a shake... she said you don’t have to like it, just drink it. You can do anything for two weeks! She was right and that worked for me! And others don’t. So we need all kinds of advice given on these boards.

I guess here’s the thing for me... is what the person is doing working? Will it work long term? Is it sustainable?

Sometimes we can answer from the outside looking in (when someone eats whatever they want it may work during that honeymoon but likely won’t long term) Sometimes we can’t (no one but me knows what is sustainable for me... and maybe I don’t even until I try).

So we give the best advise based on our own knowledge and experience.

And we all need to follow the take what is useful and leave the rest model. Because what’s helpful to you won’t be to me and vice versa.

Super excellent point to ponder!! TY!

Absolutely!!! I am part of a running and weight loss group. What i do there is differentiate between health pounds and vanity pounds. How hard does each person want to work for those vanity pounds? Because as we get older we all have that issue no matter if we stated obese or are just part of modern society with an aging body!

And for some of us we don’t mind the work and for some of us it’s less work that it is for others. There is no one size fits all answer, but in every way you will be better off losing the heath pounds and then the vanity is up to you!

Gosh I love this thread! I thank of each of you for your incredible insight and the time it's taken to participate!! ((hugs)) Hope this continues to evolve. It's got awesome advice in here!

I’m 4 years out. My high weight was 340, and I started the process at 310-320. My lowest weight about 7-8 months out of surgery was 195. I gained 10lbs pretty quickly after that however, I also packed on some muscle. This time last year I was at 212 and yes, some of that was fat. I’m not always rigorous with my diet but I’m very active compared to before. Last summer disaster struck. I had an accident, not seriously injured but injured enough that my activity was limited for a number of months. I knew what would happen but I got depressed and angry at myself and the weight piled on all the way to 230 shortly after my cast was removed. The good thing is, once I got active again it started coming off and I’m down to 218, I’ve been focusing on my diet more carefully recently and cutting out sugar, not that I ate tons before, but I’m just being more careful. I’m hopeful, I’m a big girl. I don’t even expect to be super skinny but I’m going to continue to be healthy and I’m going to at least get back to where I was a year ago.