Starting over, eight months out

Apr 28, 2011

It doesn't matter how often I hear something, there's a moment at which I have to accept it and make it my own, that's when it finally becomes truth to me. I'm still 25 lbs from my goal, but my weight loss is slowing.  And if I don't fix things, it will stop short of my goal.

I had a meeting with Dr. Cirangle yesterday and he laid it on the line for me. First, he said - the numbers tell the story. You lost 61 lbs in the first 100 days and 25 lbs in the last 100 days. So I lost less than 6 lbs in the last month. At this rate he said, my weight loss will soon be over and then reverse.  And he cautioned that a goal of 200 lbs was not good enough. He thinks that I need to get to a BMI of less than 25 for maximum health effects and to give myself some headroom for possible weight regain.

Sigh. So I've reset my goal to 175 lbs  That puts me 50lbs from goal!  But I've started to think about why I'm slowing and I realize that despite all of the hundreds of hours of educating myself about the VSG and post-op regimens, I've failed to absorb some basic truths

1. Carb cravings returning is not "natural."  It's a consequence of returning to carbs. The more carbs I allowed to creep into my diet the more carb cravings I had. So I have to go back to being completely hardline on carbs. No fruit. No alcohol. No occasional sliver of cake because it's someone's special occasion. Not even a single tortilla chip because the guacamole looks good.  Yes, I have given in to all of those temptations over the last two or three months, and the scale has stopped moving and my cravings in the afternoon and nights are back.

2. Your BMR - basal metabolic rate - is lower than you think. Part of the reason I was over-fat was because I had a low BMR to start with.  If I look at tables online, they tell me I should be burning 2400 or more calories a day, so if I'm eating less than 1200 I'm fine, right? Wrong. Dr Cirangle tells me that my actual BMR is more like 1500-2000 calories a day. At 1200 calories I am closer to a maintenance diet than to a weight loss diet.

3. Calories count. And you have to count them! It doesn't matter where they come from. Finally, it's arithmetic. So even if I'm not doing carbs, and I eat nuts, or cheese, and add calories, the basic equation is the same. In other words, I either have to have a regimented routine, or I need to meticulously log my food. For the foreseeable future. I realized I have been avoiding logging because everytime I logged my food I would be dismayed that I had absorbed 900, 1100, even 1300 calories. Well, not logging your food intake doesn't make the calories go away. 

4. Exercise is not a weight loss tool. I've been exercising off and on over the last four months, and my weight loss has been slowest at those times! Why? Well, a half hour of hard running with my heart rate at the top of its aerobic range is only around 200 calories. But it made me hungry and I used it as an excuse to eat carbs. 

Certainly, exercise! Exercise for muscle mass growth, and for the daily hormonal benefits it confers, and for fun. But exercise has almost nothing to do with weight loss.  Recent studies have shown that people tend to eat more when they exercise; and they eat more calories than they burn.  So if you're exercising, make doubly sure that you are logging your food and not taking in more carbs. As any bodybuilder will tell you, sixpack abs are made in the kitchen, not in the gym.

5. Don't confuse cravings with things your body needs. I had been lying to myself about carb cravings, telling myself that I needed some carbs because my muscles needed glycogen to build mass because I've been working out. Simply not true. Dr Cirangle: "People are very good at justifying and making excuses so that they can do what they want to do."

The good news? My sleeve is perfect, I can't eat any more today than I could a month out from surgery, 2 oz. of chicken and I'm done. I still have the tool, I just have to start using it right again.

Good luck with all your journeys.

 

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