The story of failing and getting back on track

[temkins 71]

I feel like I need to share my experience with others, as I wish someone would have shared the same with me years ago.

My weight loss started over 20 years ago, never stopped since, culminating with a gastric sleeve in 2017 (SW 360, CW 250, GW<200). After the WLS I've lost about 70 lbs and hit the plateau which lasted a few months. I tried breaking it with intensive gym, calories counting, but no real impact. As a result, I've lost motivation, and over the next 2 years gained about 30 lb back (late night Snacks, sugary treats), which was a huge frustration. Having a sleeve - the best WL tool one may ever have - I felt like being a "regain" statistics, not an individual with life and willpower. I still had my "pouch" restriction, but after 30-40 minutes after having a meal I was ready to eat again.

It lasted till last November, when I hit 290 lbs. The frustration turned into anger. I spent days to research diets and practices. As a result, I'm back on track, losing rapidly about 3-4 lbs a week, full of energy. Here are my 3 key pillars, which brought me back:

1. Low carb diet. After researching multiple trendy diets, Keto seemed to be the most promising one. But I didn't like the idea to consume lots of fats, and avoid vegetables. I'm an old-fashioned guy. So I adjusted the KETO idea by adding a decent daily portion of green veggies (zucchinis, asparagus, green pepper, kale - those which have nearly no sugars, but lots of fibers), and limited my fats to avocados, brazil nuts, eggs and fatty fish (salmon) - no huge amounts of bacon, butter, cheese and oils. For Protein those above also provided enough, plus I have some lean pork, beef or chicken. That type of diet keeps my in permanent ketosis, while I still have a decent amount of fibers and healthy protein. My nutrients are around 50-60% of fats, 25-30% of Proteins and 10-15% of carbs.

2. Intermittent fasting (IF), 18:6. It means my eating "window" is 1pm - 7pm, during which I have 3 meals. Personally I believe that low carbs diet and IF are made for each other. Being in ketosis I feel no hunger at all, as my insulin is very low. That makes IF a simple task. Also once a week I do a 42 hours fast by skipping meals on Sundays - right before my weight check on Monday morning! ). IF is also a solution to plateaus. I adjust the fasting time to 12:12 for a few days and do a long fast after (48+ hours) to reset.

3. CICO (calories in, calories out) is the 3rd pillar. Keeping everything written down is not just a good habit, but also makes me feel I control the process better. My daily intake is around 1,100-1,300 calories, which creates a huge weekly calories deficit for weight loss. One may consider it's a bit too low, and I would rather agree. I'll certainly increase my calories after hitting my goal.

A few more tips from my experience:
- After 40+ gym can't be the only solution. Keeping yourself active (especially with this pandemic) is important for general health, but unless I'm a professional athlete, 1-1.5 hour walk every day (outside or a treadmill) is good enough.
- Staying hydrated is a must, healthy weight loss won't work without it. Tracking Water was always a pain for me, I was forgetting to do that. Now I have 6 magnets next to my water cooler. Each time I refill my bottle, I move one magnet to the other side, which helps me to see how many refills left. No fuss with writing down, takes a fraction of a second to move the magnet - while keeps me fully informed. Helps a lot!
- Supplements!!! Lots of them! Since I'm restricted and have rather a distorted diet, I need to fill the gap of minerals and nutrients. Multivitamins, husk Fiber, omega-3, collagen, cumin, ox bile, Vitamin D, electrolytes etc. It's 18 pills per day, in 2 batches! My latest blood work returned perfect results - no deficiencies, and the lowest sugar level I ever had in my life.

As a conclusion - no hunger, no frustration, no cravings, energetic, clear mind, active, positive - and still losing weight! I even think that it would be very doable without my WLS, but in fact a restricted stomach makes everything much easier. So much easier, then it feels sometimes I'm actually cheating in this weight-loss game!

I do hope someone will find it helpful. I wish I knew that years ago, but better late than never.

[Suesloosinit 35]

Wow I'm glad you wrote this, I am going thru exactly the same after 2 years! I've had to reach out to surgeons office for help but this helped too! Its the sneaking things back in that's got me so worried, I'm going to have to throw everything literally in the trash and start over. I have my list of Water and nutrition written down in front of me but I choose to ignore it and now I'm finding that I need to live by it forever! I have no restriction any more so I think there's that too but they did warn me about it too.

Thank you and stay safe 😃