YoYoing Right Now and a few bad days

That recipe does sound good. I will try it. Your advice is sound and like I said in the post I am 95% with it and am pretty good about. For the last couple weeks I have had a few bumps in the road. Its not like I have gained I am been YoYoing between 272.5 and 271 for about a week.

My breakfast is almost always a protein shake and I try to get it in within 30 but for sure within 60 mins of waking. My lunch is usually a protein with veggies if I can fit them. Dinner same thing. Lately though in the evening I have been craving sweets which most of the time I can ignore and when I can't I have been eating an Atkins bar. My "bumps" were a bite of birthday cake (and I do mean a bite) on two separate days. I have missed going to the gym a couple times, and the popcorn last night. My concern is why. Why did this suddenly start happening.

Oh, another thing I just thought of is that when I eat dinner, when I am done I want to keep eating. I don't, but I want to. That is something new in the past two weeks too.

I am a bit curious though what else I do that you disagree with and I promise I am not being defensive. Particularly given your scientific background I am very interested to hear them.

Sweet cravings are hard and it might be due to letting some of those sneaky carbs in. Have you tried eating a piece (ONE PIECE) of super dark (like 80%) chocolate? It's rich and may satisfy. The problem w. Atkins bars is that they are full of extra chemicals and really just not that great. Lots of folks love Quest bars, but they can be a problem (in that, people can't stop eating them!) so perhaps best to avoid.

Try the Elina strategy: if you think you want it, have some water. Get up and move. Change focus. If that "craving" is still there an hour later, then try a bite of something sweet. I'm guessing you need to break that habit of having dessert after dinner and reprogram your brain.

Everyone slips up. But the goal here is to stop it from becoming a new habit. If popcorn is a problem, don't buy it. I personally cannot have any of my triggers in the house.

As far as what I disagree with: there's been some posts here and there about sweets and such (recipes for cookies and the like) that are just...not what I would do. But in the end, I'm not here to be food police to you or anyone. You need to do what works for you. For me, I don't believe in substitutes (heck, even now on Paleo: I haven't made a single paleo "cookie" or "brownie" or "cake"). and I don't do "oh, I'll eat this because it is a special occasion". Those cakes will be there next year or the year after. Things are different once you declare "goal" but for now, focus on getting there.

Just for the sake of exploration I am curious why you feel that way about the substitute cookies, etc. When I read through the recipes other than the artificial sweeteners everything is pretty much low carb friendly stuff like flax meal or nut meals. OK there is some debate on the butter/coconut oil but like the lemon bar recipe that was posted is almond flour crust, some erithritol, egg and fresh lemon juice. I have only made the lemon bars, the cookies were posted because someone asked for them.

I have been staying away from the Quest Bars for that very reason. The Atkins Bars are there just for when I have to have something I bought two boxes about a month ago and there are still several in my drawer so they are not a regular thing.

I don't make a habit out of dessert after dinner, my thing before surgery was chips/popcorn/leftovers. I do have a sweet tooth but I was not a habitual desert eater. But the sweet cravings lately do concern me.

The more I read what I am writing and responding to these I am coming to relize this is about satiety. I am not feeling satisfied after I eat, which was a BIG problem before surgery. Any thoughts on that? Or more to the point is there a neuroscientific solution to the issue of satiety? because if you've got one of those you could make some bank on that idea.

Ugh,  I hate reading this stuff so much "eat nothing but meat and eggs and drink nothing bu****er!" If you want a slice of cheese cake drink a bottle of water instead or eat a leaf of lettuce.  What the hell? You had a BITE of cake,  you know that's not stalling you. Stalls happen.  I have had WW ice cream bars - 19 carbs and 120 calories. That is probably more calories and carbs than most people eat in an entire meal but yet I still manage to stay between 600-800 calories a day.  This can so turn into a eating disorder and it doesn't help that people bombard you on this board with STOP EATING CARBS, FATTY!  It seems that you like things in black and white - with the charts and what not but in reality you are just in a stall and it's not because you had some pop corn or ate a bite of cake or looked a carb sideways.  I am definitely playing devil's advocate here but I still say - don't beat yourself up, you are not a failure.  There was a girl who posted a couple weeks ago -- couple of years out, maintaining, lost 150+ lbs and her advice was - eat what you love once in awhile! 

I got curious about those WW ice cream bars, so I looked them up.  I did find one which contained 120 calories and 19 g of carbs, but I don't know if it's the one you were talking about.  The protein per serving (one bar) was 2 g. 

I'm just curious if your postop instructions were to get your protein first in any meal.

May I also gently say that carb sensitivity is a real deal for someone who is prone to it.  One bite of cake could be all it takes to open the floodgates for someone.  Especially in that golden first-six-months-postop timeframe of weight loss perhaps it's best to turn all of one's energy and food intake toward high protein and non-starchy vegetables to make the best of that time. 

Protein is always first but I don't rip myself a new one if I go over my carb ratio for the day. I spent 15 years hating myself and I refuse to do it now after surgery. If one bite of cake is enough to warrant such stress then is it really worth it? It seems people are more obsessed with weight/food now than ever when in reality this surgery is a gift and I choose to look it that way. It will take me longer than other people. I realized that 2 weeks out when I didn't magically lose 30 lbs. I am steady 2-3 lbs a week (with the occasional stall) which has me over the moon.  I just think telling someone who is obviously upset by a perceived weakness to lower his calories, exercise more, and eat less carbs is not good advice,  in my own opinion.  Eating as few calories as we do,  we will lose weight and going dangerously low is plain unhealthy. 

I would AGREE with every word you've typed...because I lived it and now I'm living with regain....

I understand you. I know it's a fight for life but nothing says it has to be complete self loathing and misery.  I refuse to live there again when I've spent half my life there.  A lot of this game is of the mind.  Just by following Keith since I've been here,  even way before I had surgery I can tell he is totally dedicated and works his ass off. I just hate that the go to around here is always cut calories/carbs way down to the point you have barely anything to subsists on.  You are right, he is probably building muscle. We all struggle with cravings.  I think cutting even more food out is not the answer to cravings. I think being hungry makes cravings and the eventual failure even more likely to happen. 

But I am playing devil's advocate. I know this all highly individual and what works for one won't work for all. 

Oh I never self loath but I also came to the REALITY for me that...carbs should NOT be a part of my life...vicious cycle that I've been on and since this week was/is my birthday I'm back on it...

Playing devils advocate and not saying everyone is an addict but many of us ARE...if his struggle was with alcohol isn't cutting it ALL the way out the only way to go?

I see your point but he did cut it down to 500 calories and exercised like crazy.  I don't believe that is healthy -- at all.  What happens on the next stall?  400 calories?