The Maintenance Thread

[FluffyChix 17,409]

@ms.sss I won't requote your post, but wanted to say I do the same thing. Even though my window goes all the way up to 135lbs, I start feeling antsy at 132lbs and start down regulating eating accordingly, slipping back into WLM (mode or mentality). And start putting my time between meals and between first meal of the day.

And when I'm down to the 130lbs mark, I start dreaming of what would happen if I do get to slip into BDG goal. I would immediatly start defending the 125-130lbs as my new goal. LOL. And of course, I'd want to defend closer to 125 than 130 cuz I would be so afraid of slipping above 130lbs again.

I know once down at the 125lb level, I'd start thinking of adding a 5lb bounce below it so I could defend 120-125lbs.

I don't truly believe (very doubtful) that I will ever slip under the 130lb mark. It just feels so inconceivable that I could really reach BDG weight after so long. I'm also just gonna treat it as a happy accident so I don't stress out if it doesn't happen.

But I fully get where you are coming from and I don't know if this is normal behavior or not. I just choose to embrace it as "normal for me" behavior. LOL. There's very little chance I will ever become anorexic as I adore eating too much. LOL. And I do feel pretty good in my clothes in all situations--not so true about nekkidity of course...but see through body suits might just save my nekkidy sanity. TY @MIZ60!!

[AZhiker 2,251]

I totally get where you are coming from. 149 was my unbelievable goal weight and 145-149 was an ideal great range. Now my "ideal" range has dropped to 140-149. I hover around 142 and get a little nervous at 144. I also start cutting some carbs and doing a couple days of IF to get back down a bit. Now I am wondering what 135-140 would be like. However, I really don't want to buy new clothes. If I did need to get smaller sizes, I guess I would save my present clothes as possible "bounce back" clothes. Like FluffyChix, I like food too much to ever become anorexic, but it is an interesting place to be, psychologically.

[sillykitty 10,704]

@ms.sss

I get it as well.

As I've stated before, I feel I am slightly too thin at my current weight. I was happier with my naked body 10-15 lbs ago. But still, I can't help but feel a little thrill when the scale drops. I always weigh my self naked, before eating or drinking anything for the day, and after using the toilet, so I can get my absolute lowest weight. I have no idea why it even matters to me. Conversely though, I'm not bothered when my weight goes up, as long as it doesn't go above my "line in the sand", 130, and stay there.

But even that top weight I allow myself is below my original goal of 140. So I am defending a lower weight than I had originally thought I would. But that goal was just arbitrary. I was my high-ish weight in my 20's and the top of healthy BMI. I didn't think I could or would go lower than that. But right now my body seems to want to stay in the 127-130 window. So it doesn't make sense to me to fight it and try to gain.

The big question for me is after plastics ... what do I do with my weight. Part of my reasoning to defend this lower weight is to be lean for plastics and get better results. But after, I would theoretically like to fill out a little, particularly my butt, thighs and arms. (Although my ps is adamantly against this) Do I try to gain? Even for me, I can't wrap my head around eating to try to gain. Do I just let a bounce happen? Do I learn to love this thinner version of me?

As a side note, my face actually looks dramatically different and better at this lower weight, then it did a year ago & +20 lbs ago. So if I do bounce, will it go back into my face? Are my facial changes in the last year more about my fat redistributing, or did I actually lose some of my weight in my face?

[sillykitty 10,704]

Question that isn't going to go over well....

When does defending a lower weight, and chasing the thrill of weight loss cross over to disordered eating?

Symptoms of Disordered Eating

Signs and symptoms of disordered eating may include, but are not limited to:

• Frequent dieting, anxiety associated with specific foods or meal skipping
• Chronic weight fluctuations
• Rigid rituals and routines surrounding food and exercise
• Feelings of guilt and shame associated with eating
• Preoccupation with food, weight and body image that negatively impacts quality of life
• A feeling of loss of control around food, including compulsive eating habits
• Using exercise, food restriction, fasting or purging to "make up for bad foods" consumed

https://www.eatright.org/health/diseases-and-conditions/eating-disorders/what-is-disordered-eating

[Frustr8 7,886]

When you become obsessed with it, your remainder of health starts to fail, you pass out with minor exertion, you're dizzy the rest of the time so you start moving more slowly with deliberation instead of moving as freely as your smaller body size warrants. You start to see your ribs and collerbones , maybe even hip bones start to protrude, your color looks pasty or gray. And yet you feel in your 💗 of 💗 a few more pounds off and you d feel and look💃🏃 SO MUCH BETTER. And your Body Disphoria owns YOU instead of YOU owning and controlling it.
THAT I believe answers a Lot of Your Question- okay?

[FluffyChix 17,409]

@sillykitty That's a good question and fair.

I know for a fact that my choices are not bad. But adding extras like I did this weekend, caused me to gain 2 lbs within my window. Am I stressed about it? Nope. But I conversely don't want to have to worry about more lbs. So instead I go back to eating my normal weekly fair. Dr. Fung says this is actually a good thing to do--in IF.

If I keep eating, there is no doubt (been there done that), that I will continue gaining. It's not unfounded fear. It's fact. Unfortunately, I don't have the metabolic flexibility you and @ms.sss enjoy. So it is a series of eating more on the weekends, then going back into my strict WLM foods. But you've seen my menus. I pack a crapton of delicious and to me, satisfying food into my daily menus.

Is this disordered eating? Dunno. I call it maintenance.

[2Bsmaller18 435]

This might be a dumb question.
I’m wondering when we have the honeymoon why does it end? Is it because we are at a stable weight near our body’s ideal for awhile or is it because our body becomes more efficient at absorbing calories (for bypass). Is it because we can eat more or we start to feel hunger or a combination of things? Could it also be just the nature of getting older and our metabolism naturally slowing a bit?

[catwoman7 10,845]

9 minutes ago, 2Bsmaller18 said:

This might be a dumb question.
I’m wondering when we have the honeymoon why does it end? Is it because we are at a stable weight near our body’s ideal for awhile or is it because our body becomes more efficient at absorbing calories (for bypass). Is it because we can eat more or we start to feel hunger or a combination of things? Could it also be just the nature of getting older and our metabolism naturally slowing a bit?

I think it's a combination of malabsorption ending (bypass), being closer to a normal weight (when weight loss becomes a lot harder because there are only so many calories you can cut), and diet fatigue.

[ms.sss 14,634]

5 hours ago, sillykitty said:

Question that isn't going to go over well....

When does defending a lower weight, and chasing the thrill of weight loss cross over to disordered eating?

Symptoms of Disordered Eating

Signs and symptoms of disordered eating may include, but are not limited to:

• Frequent dieting, anxiety associated with specific foods or meal skipping
• Chronic weight fluctuations
• Rigid rituals and routines surrounding food and exercise
• Feelings of guilt and shame associated with eating
• Preoccupation with food, weight and body image that negatively impacts quality of life
• A feeling of loss of control around food, including compulsive eating habits
• Using exercise, food restriction, fasting or purging to "make up for bad foods" consumed

https://www.eatright.org/health/diseases-and-conditions/eating-disorders/what-is-disordered-eating

I can recognize some of my own behaviors on this list:

• Rigid rituals and routines surrounding food and exercise
  • I weigh/measure/log every thing I eat.
  • I weigh myself every morning at the same time, naked, before i eat or drink anything (like others )
  • I take my measurements every Wednesday.
  • I strive to run 5k as the first thing I do every morning.
• Using exercise, food restriction, fasting or purging to "make up for bad foods" consumed
  • If I have few high cal days in a row, or if I notice my weight creeping up to my upper limit, then I do buckle down to get lower...but not with fasting nor purging.
• Preoccupation with food, weight and body image that negatively impacts quality of life
  • While I do think alot about food, weight and body image, I don't think it negatively impacts my quality of life*

* So my last comment above I think, for me at least, is the measure I would use to determine if I've crossed the line to "Disordered Eating". So long as my behaviours do not negatively impact my health/relationships/self-confidence/financial status or somehow cause or contribute to continued anxiety/stress, then I consider them to be good habits that I execute to maintain my current (and desired) state of being.

❤️

[VIKING 0424 1,105]

15 minutes ago, ms.sss said:

I can recognize some of my own behaviors on this list:

• Rigid rituals and routines surrounding food and exercise
  • I weigh/measure/log every thing I eat.
  • I weigh myself every morning at the same time, naked, before i eat or drink anything (like others )
  • I take my measurements every Wednesday.
  • I strive to run 5k as the first thing I do every morning.
• Using exercise, food restriction, fasting or purging to "make up for bad foods" consumed
  • If I have few high cal days in a row, or if I notice my weight creeping up to my upper limit, then I do buckle down to get lower...but not with fasting nor purging.
• Preoccupation with food, weight and body image that negatively impacts quality of life
  • While I do think alot about food, weight and body image, I don't think it negatively impacts my quality of life*

* So my last comment above I think, for me at least, is the measure I would use to determine if I've crossed the line to "Disordered Eating". So long as my behaviours do not negatively impact my health/relationships/self-confidence/financial status or somehow cause or contribute to continued anxiety/stress, then I consider them to be good habits that I execute to maintain my current (and desired) state of being.

❤️

I WISH I HAD YOUR DEVOTION I TRY JUST NOT AS GOOD AT THAT AS YOU ARE

[Sheribear68 3,200]

On 11/12/2019 at 07:37, sillykitty said:

Question that isn't going to go over well....

When does defending a lower weight, and chasing the thrill of weight loss cross over to disordered eating?

Symptoms of Disordered Eating

Signs and symptoms of disordered eating may include, but are not limited to:

• 
  Frequent dieting, anxiety associated with specific foods or meal skipping
  


• 
  Chronic weight fluctuations
  


• 
  Rigid rituals and routines surrounding food and exercise
  


• 
  Feelings of guilt and shame associated with eating
  


• 
  Preoccupation with food, weight and body image that negatively impacts quality of life
  


• 
  A feeling of loss of control around food, including compulsive eating habits
  


• 
  Using exercise, food restriction, fasting or purging to "make up for bad foods" consumed
  

https://www.eatright.org/health/diseases-and-conditions/eating-disorders/what-is-disordered-eating

Good questions to raise, and these exact issues are what I’m looking for as I continue to progress and I hope if any of them rear their ugly head, I will both recognize and have the tools to deal with them.

That being said though, many WLS patients already had so many of these issues, which is why so many of us got to be MO in the first place.
Honestly, IF kinda falls into a “disordered eating pattern” if not done correctly so it’s a real tough issue to recognize and then make an action plan for. So where is the boundary and where is the beginning of the slippery slope?

I’m thinking there isn’t one pat answer and that each of us need to continually keep ourselves and out outlook in check to periodically make sure we are where each of us as individuals needs to be.

Over the last few weeks I’ve started to listen more to my body and look at the data to see what it’s trying to tell me. For now (and this could change next week or not until a couple of months from now) I’m transitioning into pre-maintenance.
What helps me define that is if I were in traffic and saw a stoplight turn yellow, but I’m still a few hundred feet from the light.
I know I’m going to have to stop, but I can’t exactly stop dead in the middle of the road so instead I’m going to take my foot off of the accelerator, and prepare myself to hit the brakes....when the timing is right.
So that’s what I’m doing for now.
My foot is off of the accelerator, but I’m still a couple hundred yards away so I’ve still got a little bit to go and in the meantime, I’ve got to keep it all under control and not drive off into a ditch.

[ms.sss 14,634]

27 minutes ago, VIKING 0424 said:

I WISH I HAD YOUR DEVOTION I TRY JUST NOT AS GOOD AT THAT AS YOU ARE

Thanks, during maintenance, I think so long as we do the best that we can, that we can sustain, then we are all doing great.

I'm only a year out, but I'm hoping these habits of mine stick around for the long run....and I figure the more consistently I do it, there is a better chance of that

Edited November 12, 2019 by ms.sss

[Sheribear68 3,200]

On 11/12/2019 at 12:30, 2Bsmaller18 said:

This might be a dumb question.

I’m wondering when we have the honeymoon why does it end? Is it because we are at a stable weight near our body’s ideal for awhile or is it because our body becomes more efficient at absorbing calories (for bypass). Is it because we can eat more or we start to feel hunger or a combination of things? Could it also be just the nature of getting older and our metabolism naturally slowing a bit?

Okay so this is the way it was explained to me by my bariatric clinic:

Insulin-resistance plays a HUGE part in how our metabolisms work and the longer we have disordered diets (binge/purge, or binge/crash diet, or calorie restrict/binge exercise) we mess with all of our hormones and homeostasis signals get their wires crossed and our set points keep going up,up,up, and up.

WLS disrupts all of the “bad” data and our bodies “forget” the previous set point. We go into free-fall and actually start mobilizing stored fat for energy instead of our bodies storing MORE fat in response to calorie deprivation.

The exact mechanism of action is unknown, but VGS and Bypass have the same effect.

Sadly the phenomenon seems to stop somewhere around the 12-18 month PO mark, and then our bodies yet again start recording data and “punishing” us for bad decisions.
Metabolic free-fall ends and we better be able to make good choices or else we start the vicious cycle all over again.

[AZhiker 2,251]

6 hours ago, 2Bsmaller18 said:

This might be a dumb question.
I’m wondering when we have the honeymoon why does it end? Is it because we are at a stable weight near our body’s ideal for awhile or is it because our body becomes more efficient at absorbing calories (for bypass). Is it because we can eat more or we start to feel hunger or a combination of things? Could it also be just the nature of getting older and our metabolism naturally slowing a bit?

My doc said that eventually the rest of the small intestine gets used to the idea of a new job - absorbing nutrients.

[Recidivist 1,141]

12 hours ago, ms.sss said:

I can recognize some of my own behaviors on this list:

• Rigid rituals and routines surrounding food and exercise
  • I weigh/measure/log every thing I eat.
  • I weigh myself every morning at the same time, naked, before i eat or drink anything (like others )
  • I take my measurements every Wednesday.
  • I strive to run 5k as the first thing I do every morning.
• Using exercise, food restriction, fasting or purging to "make up for bad foods" consumed
  • If I have few high cal days in a row, or if I notice my weight creeping up to my upper limit, then I do buckle down to get lower...but not with fasting nor purging.
• Preoccupation with food, weight and body image that negatively impacts quality of life
  • While I do think alot about food, weight and body image, I don't think it negatively impacts my quality of life*

* So my last comment above I think, for me at least, is the measure I would use to determine if I've crossed the line to "Disordered Eating". So long as my behaviours do not negatively impact my health/relationships/self-confidence/financial status or somehow cause or contribute to continued anxiety/stress, then I consider them to be good habits that I execute to maintain my current (and desired) state of being.

❤️

I think everything you have listed above sounds like healthy choices based on the fact that you were seriously overweight at one time. In my opinion, it would be different if you were engaging in those behaviors without ever having had a weight issue. Also, you have crossed out the most destructive behaviors associated with eating disorders: binging, purging and allowing your preoccupation with food negatively impact our lives.

As Viking noted, your discipline is admirable!