After the honeymoon....

Hi all...

I have been wondering about food intake following the surgery.  I know the stomach is too small to take much at first and therefore the weight loss occurs.  My question is regarding the period AFTER the honeymoon phase..If you set the calories or carbs too low...does it not make your body retain them even more.  I know that's how my body operates now...after all the years of yo-yo dieting.  If I cut back my system goes into conservation mode and makes it even more difficult to lose and easier to gain...

So my question is...wouldn't it be better to get closer to a level where you can live comfortably, lose slowly so that when you go into maintenance you don't fight your bodie's conservation mode? Would that make maintenance easier on the long run?  

Just eat every 4 hours to keep your metabolism up and you should still lose weight

Body will adjust to whatever tricks we play with it. Yes, you're right, somehow it "conserves" and fights back even at lower intake. The question is - will it help to go slower? Traditionally, all dietitians told us to lose slowly - 5-10pounds per month. It was the recipe to "keep body adjusting slowly". The fast weight loss was called "crash diets" and it's considered the bad way to lose weight, that usually gets regained...
All this I've heard like... 20 times in my 43 years. Tried it. something in my addict brain didn't let it work properly. Slow weight loss didn't work for me. Crash diets did, and so did the regain. Just as smart people in nutritional business predicted.

Well, with wls, the recommendation was lose as fast as you can. I tried to follow it. But the weight went off at the relatively sow rate but still faster than 5 pounds a month, especially first year. I know a few people who went down slower than I did... Some of them never saw onederland and their BMI remained in 30-ish. Going down slower didn't help, so far I didn't see anyone who was losing 5 pounds a month and lost like 150-200 pounds. Just never saw them here or IRL.

The slightly disappointing thing about wls - it's not over after the "honeymoon". Maintenance is the hardest part of journey. There will be no - "that's it, I'm done, I'm thin, let's eat normal'. Sorry, it won't be "normal" the preop way. It will be the "skinny ***** normal" - with counting calories, choosing salad over fries and chicken over bacon (not for DSers, but we have our own limitations), eating one chocolate candy instead of the box and beating up yourself afterward.

With the caveat that everyone is different (although my body used to operate as you describe), I'd say that the single most important tool for me in post-surgical weight loss and in maintenance  was / is -

Eat 40% of your daily calories in protein; 30% in health complex cabohydrates; and 30% in healthy fats.  This is one of the TWH rules / guidelines.

Many free on-line food journals will do this calculation for you.  I use Fitday.com.  When I break this rule I put the pounds back on immediately even if I'm eating very few calories in total. 

If I follow this rule, I can actually eat more food and stay the same or lose.

Claire
HW 350
CW 139
Surgery Feb 16, 2011

I hear what you are saying, but slow is not an option with this surgery because you physically cannot eat a significant number of calories in the early post op stages.  I remember how hard it was to get back up to 800-1000 calories, and it took quite a while.  When you get to maintenance, you will have to be careful about how many small meals you take in, and letting old habits in.  It is definately easier to eat more now, and it is also easier to tolerate many of the unwise foods that I could not tolerate in the first year.  For me, it is just like a diet I'm afraid. I have to make conscious choices. 

I have to say though, that even after almost 2 years, my pouch still really works for me at times.  For example, last night I ate at the Mandarin with my family for a special occasion.  I chose protein-centric foods, and had a bite of desert, and when I tallied up what I ate, it was astonishingly little- good old pouchy made me way full before I ate even a quarter of what I had dished myself.  I tried the things I wanted, but had help from my body to eat an acceptable portion, and as satisfied.

I like to call it, "maintenance hell" and I'm finding it very rough, even though I'm still in the first year out from surgery.  I'm terrified of gaining all the weight back overnight...I feel like the higher calorie intake gives me just enough rope to hang myself with and I really feel the weight of the responsibility of making good food choices.  The only way I am finding to cope with it is to take it one day at a time and continuing to plan and track everything I eat so if I do start to regain, I should be able to spot the eating patterns that led to it.

This is something I still find confusing, and, well, scary really, because the only answer I've been given for why regain happens is if someone stops following the plan, doesn't exercise, etc etc. 
But I guess what I don't "get" is how a pouch or 75% smaller stomach in VSG can hold enough food to facilitate so much weight gain.  How is it possible that if one is eating, say, 1/2?  of the calories one was eating prior to surgery, there would be significant weight gain at all?  I don't understand it.  I get the feeling that once we've "created" and pushed our bodies to obesity, it is messed up and requires much fewer calories to then gain weight even post WLS.  This disturbs me, and I don't know if I understand the biology of it - or if anyone really does.  I know...doom and gloom....lol