Question for the vets: Fear of regain

Hi Mahonia,

We have such low self-esteem it is a common fear for us all. Why should we be successful with WLS when we have failed our entire lives. This was such a fear of mine that I didn't put anything in my mouth that would be considered a bad carb for 18 months after I hit goal. It was bread, a trigger food of mine.

My personal experience after 13 years and being on these boards is never forget the "basic" rules of eating/living that got you to goal and you will ROCK it for the rest of your life Sometimes we stop tracking our food (after all you got this, right), don't have time to move, stop weighing ourselves, and bite by bite start eating more and more white carbs and before you know it the scale goes up and up and up....

Don't let this happen but if you do, stop beating yourself up and get back to the basics and you can get it off. Even after 13 years my tool still works and lost 60 pounds of regain.

I'm not a vet. I have surgery is exactly a month, but I am so terrified I won't lose weight, or that I will regain ASAP. Nice to know I'm not alone

I like to think of it as a healthy fear. Just enough to keep my head in the game and not live a pie in the sky fantasy of returning to 'normal' now that the weight is off. This is the new normal. Weighing daily, tracking food, measuring portions, having and adjusting macro targets and exercise. My side gig is keeping this weight off.

When fear becomes irrational/obsessive and prevents you from carrying out Day to day functions/interactions, it's a problem. For me it hasn't.

I think this is a good point - if the fear begins to rule your life, then it's a problem. Otherwise, it can be a safety feature.

When fear becomes irrational/obsessive and prevents you from carrying out Day to day functions/interactions, it?s a problem.

I like this... I'm trying to walk a thin line between a healthy 'fear' and not getting obsessive... sometimes I do it very well, other times I start to tip towards obsessive behavior.

Last week, someone brought in donuts... they were the 'designer' donuts... and I kept going into the kitchen and literally smelling them... it was becoming obsessive. After everyone left for lunch, I went in and threw them in the garbage can.

That might have been obsessive... both smelling them AND throwing them away!

This week there were individually wrapped cookies in there... I took two of them and brought them home to the kids... I didn't throw the rest of them away (and there was nothing to smell, being wrapped LOL)

Exactly- a "healthy fear" which will keep us vigilant.

I like to think this is where my Type A personality will benefit me. Weighing, tracking, measuring, graphing, and analyzing all come naturally to me. I know that if I don't stare it in the face every day I'll make bad decisions. So, I track everything - the good, the bad, and the ugly. I've found several instances where I haven't taken bites of things because my brain screams "BUT HOW WILL YOU TRACK IT?!".

Not knowing the nutrition contents of foods drives me crazy. When I go out to eat, I try to sort of make do on MFP with what they have for something like hunan chicken, or beef, but I know it's not the same as what I put in my mouth. I wi**** was a law in this country for all restaurants to include a nutrition packet with the menu!

Along these lines, remember the FDA allows calorie counts to be off by up to 20% in either direction! A 200 calorie serving of something could really be anywhere from 160 to 240 calories. So we never really know exactly what we're getting, but better to try than not pay attention to calories at all...

Yikes! I didn't know that at all! I guess all we can do is track track track and do our best!