I find several things confusing right now (and I don't like them!)

I am about 9 1/2 months out from surgery and several things are happening that stress me out and confuse me...

1. Sudden increase in hunger and capacity: I haven't made any huge changes in what I eat but I sure have been hungry.  I try drinking water and having been eating protein forward.  I don't think it's head hunger- it feels pretty darn real!  I also feel like my capacity has bumped up a bit.
2. The damn scale.  It went up by over a pound this week.  We were away for the weekend so I had a few more carbs than normal but tracked all my food and didn't go wild on calories.  The part that drives me the craziest is that even though the scale is barely moving and this week gained, people keep telling me how thin I look!  Today my nurse at work that I hadn't seen for 2 weeks said I looked like a lost a bunch of weight.  But it bugged me so much cause I knew that wasn't true according to the scale.

Has anyone experienced any of this or am i just nuts?!?  Any advice is super appreciated!!!

As the further out you get, the capacity gets bigger. You could be hungry if you still eating small amounts.

You can lose inches and the scale can stay the same or increased, people will think you lost weight. It's probably water weight that you gained.

If I eat carbs one day, I often see a 1.5 to 2 pound increase in my weight the following day.  I suspect carbs cause water retention, because there is no way I ate enough extra calories to gain this amount.  It takes a few days for the scale to fall again.

The way I determine head hunger is:  If poached salmon sounds good to me, that's real hunger.  If it doesn't, then I assume its head hunger.  But either way, its not-fun to manage. 

Carbs cause food cravings for me.  I'm wondering if your hunger is cravings from the carbs.  It might be time to cut the carbs and see how things change.

best wishes,

Carol

when you were traveling, was it a car trip or flight? If flying it may have just been from altitude change.. Made you bloat up some and retain some water.

I normally gain weight after I fly around for work, even though my eating is the same.

I am 19 months post op. I have found I am very Carb sensitive. When I add carbs, I crave carbs. My tip would be to avoid carbs if at all possible. You have this!

Many, many people report a sudden increase in capacity around 9 months out. I had a jump in capacity about that time. Seems like you are right in line with the norm. 

4 years ago this month I was about 7 pounds from my goal weight, too. I traveled to So Cal for a long weekend. I kept calories in check - never more than about 1200, but I ate highly refined carbs. I was up about 4 pounds when I returned after a 4 day trip. Disheartening for sure, but it came off quickly. What that experience taught me is that my body is sensitive to dietary changes and reacts strongly to refined carbs. If I have a carb heavy day now, I know that the scale will show me the effect the next day or two. 

You may look thinner. The scale doesn't always dictate our appearance to others. I found that I lost more clothing sizes my last 20 pounds than I did the first 80! Seriously, I went from 34-36 pants to 30s the last 20 pounds. 

My advice? Go hardcore to get those last 7 off. Start a plan now for transitioning to maintenance. There are some very well seasoned maintainers here that will be more than happy to share strategies with you. 

Thank you everyone for the thoughtful responses...sounds like I'm not out of the ordinary!  I am anxious to get to my goal weight and have definitely reduced the carbs again since last weekend.  Also getting some good exercise this week...I want to get to my goal weight!  I appreciate everyone's time and love having this forum so I don't feel alone!!