Weight Maintenance / "Rules of the Pouch"

For all of you who have had Roux en Y surgery, and are in your weight maintenance phase, I have a few questions...

Up until now, while losing weight, I've been following all the guidelines re: not drinking for 30 mins before meals, not drinking with meals, and not drinking for 30 mins after meals.

I'm now 125 lbs (sooo surreal!!!).  I originally thought I'd be happy to lose 80 lbs, but now that I've reached my 4th revised goal and lost 102 lbs, I want to start a maintenance program.  I've been reading and re-reading the "Rules of the Pouch".  I'd like to find out if you follow these rules, and if you find they work.  Specifically, do you stop drinking 15 minutes before a meal?  Do you take only 5-15 minutes to eat and finish each meal?  And, more importantly, do you wait at least 1.5 - 2 hours after each meal before drinking?  This last rule sounds very difficult.  I've adapted (not happily, but c'est la vie) to not drinking with my meals, but I'm thirsty after meals, and even waiting 1/2 hour seems long, sometimes.  I really don't know if I could wait 1.5 - 2 hours to take a drink, following each meal (even if I manage to do the pre-meal "water loading").

Also, how did you approach the transition from weight loss to weight maintenance?  I track my protein and calories (and sometimes my carbs), and thought I was eating more than before, but the weight is still coming off, albeit more slowly.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, but I want to be realistic and maintain at where I am now.  Did you start adding a certain amount of extra calories each day, for example on a weekly basis, and seeing if your weight stabilized?  I would have thought that the calorie malabsorbtion would be over by now (my surgery was almost 9 months ago), but perhaps it's still happening.

Would appreciate your input and hearing about your experiences.  Thank you and have a great day!

The rule of waiting 30 minutes before and 30 minutes after is for life. It is something you just get use it. I have never heard that you have to wait for 2 hours. That is just crazy. As time goes you just start to add more calories to everyday living. I am working on losing 5 pounds and I have to keep track and be careful of what I eat. I know I will have to weigh and measure my food for the rest of my life.

I have always gone by the 30 minutes before and 30 minutes after rule for drinking. You are still in the malabsorbtion stage. I believe it last until 18 to 24 months. I am trying to balance my calories and eating. I still make sure I eat my protein first then add vegetables/fruit. I can't eat refined carbs. They are trigger foods and I just gain weight. I am staying around the same weight. I notice on really active days I need some more calories which makes sense. I find maintenance a trial and error kind of thing to see what works for me. I am very concerned about adding empty calories and then when malabsorbsion ends finding I pile on the pounds.

Good luck with finding your balance.

While I enjoyed reading most of the information given the in the "rules of pouch", I do not full agree with all of them.  In particular, the water loading theory is somewhat troublesome.  I do think though that it speaks to the importance of water between meals to help somewhat retain that "full feeling". 

Like the previous poster said, the rules are for life and it's very easy after a while to slip from them.  I was only given the rule to stop drinking 5 minutes before a meal. 

Eating in the 5-15 minute span is the WORST thing you can do in my opinion.  While it would not be prudent to say eat a meal over the span of an hour where it starts to become grazing, it's also important to take the appropriate time.  The common theory is that it takes our brains a good 20 minutes to receive that feeling of full from our stomach...so slowing down for life is important...and this is a skill that at 7 years out, I need to get back in touch with!

Because it's easy to ge****er in me now, I try and retain that "full feeling" from food as long as I can and I typically wait to drink til I get the feeling that the full feeling is diminishing. Then it's time to start loading on water. 

Maintenance after 7 years is still a complete ***** to me.  I honestly still advocate getting UNDER goal and giving yourself leeway...and watching the scale very closely to deal with it creeping up. I do believe that you have to find the sweet spot for yourself and that may be a highly individual thing.

Dawn