No eating and drinking at the same time??

Yes, i know. There's no studies that I know of that track the reasons behind regain, and regain is a many faceted issue, just as obesity is.

I think that my weight loss has made me realize how simplistic I used to think it, and how non-simplistic it ended up being.

The simplest of all is the math. If you consume more calories than you need daily, you'll put on weight over time. One or two indulgences now and again won't have nearly the same impact on weight than will a pattern of more calories ingested than used.

But it's often not as simple as that. My diet is far mroe consistent than most people, and I was stumped to figure out why the food schedule that kept me maintaining for so long should result in my suddenly gaining. Finally it became obvious that it wasn't a calories in wasn't the issue, it was the calories expended that was going down, because of the lack of ability to move my body. Self reflection and close examination showed to me how I was failing, but it took me a long time to get there.

Drinking with meals seems to be the common thread in all the "plans" for those *****gain SIGNIFCANT amounts. I couldn't say everyone *****gained it all did it because of drinking with meals, but it seems that is hte first slippery step towards failure.

I agree... I did not mean to imply that drinking with meals was the ONLY reason these people and regained weight... Just that it was the one common thread. They all have other reasons that also contributed: one went back to eating fast food several times a week and does not seem to understand that even if you ony eat half a Big Mac and half a bag of fries, that is still a lot of extra calories and fat over the course of a week; another admittedly snacks a lot during the day at work (yet seems to be fairly controlled when not at work); a third one is just very careless about her food and snack choices (pizza, macaroni and cheese, and high fat cream soups are more than just occasional splurges for her and she often combines something unhealthy with her protein as a snack (e.g., a small bag of fried Cheetos with a small 4-ounce container of yogurt in the afternoon... The Cheetos are for "crunch")).

Lora

I know you weren't implying anything. For me this has been a fascinating topic my mind has been wrestling with for some time. My OWN simplistic vision that following the rules would result in my never regaining has been taking a beating! I wasn't a healthy weight at goal (154) and I was VERY unhealthy at 8 lbs below goal. When I got back to 165 after my surgery last year I knew it was the perfect weight for me. I still had the same size (10) as I was wearing 19 pounds lighter and I was a healthy weight. But then teh scale started to climb..... higher and higher until suddenly it was no longer in the 160s it was in the 170s.... I wasn't drinking with meals, and I hadn't increased my calories and it was climbing and climbing and when it got to 180 I was freaking out, evaluating everything and trying to figure out what it was.

Ultimately it came to muscle mass (I lost a lot when I was immobile for the better part of two months.... that is inevitable) so I was needing fewer calories to maintain my body, and I wasn't consuming a correlating smaller calorie load....AND a limit on personal movements at school that meant that I expended fewer calories at work than I was used to expending. That self-revelation was a long time coming. Fewer calories necesssary with less muscles, and fewer caloris with less movement of the body, and consuming nearly the same calorie load was an exercise to regain until the calories in and calories expended would equalize. (and they would have, long before I regained it all I'm sure).

Since I pulled it all together and figured out my issue, I realized that I had few choices. With teh reactive hypoglycemia, I couldn't really alter my food choices much. With the packed classes, I couldnt' move more. With my exercise phobia I CHOSE not to purposely expend more calories. So it was a conundrum.. My solution was to carefully evaluate each calorie for maximum potential. Would this snack keep my blood sugar stable? Were there lower calorie options I could enjoy that would enable me to keep stable? I think ultimately I shaved 250 calories off my day on good days, 100 on bad days. I also took to moving my body as much more as I was able without doing an exercise program. As of this morning I'm 161 (four pounds below optimum, 7 above my goal weight).

Often regain is multtifaceted and complex for those who feel they are following teh rules. I think it becomes more obvious in the case of those who choose to break one rule consistently (drinking with water). To me the water while eating thing is the cardinal rule. I can't break that if I want to remain a success. That's the end of that!

Over 4 years out and I still wait anywhere from 30 minutes till 2 hours, depending on what I eat and how full I feel.  My thoughts are to keep the tool working and keep the weight off we will need to follow the basic rules all our lives.

I, too, get really thristy sometimes and I have put a spoonfull of crushed ice in my mouth and let it melt to hold me over and I chew gum like crazy until I can drink.

I hate not being able to drink liquids, and sometimes I think it's bad because I make food choices based on how long I know it will stay in my pouch and keep me from drinking. When I started regaining, I had to deliberately choose things that would keep me full longer.

Sometimes I leave my heaviest meal to just before bed when I won't be drinking anyway.

Yes, it applies forever.  If you wash the food of your pouch WHILE you are eating, it allows you to eat far more than you would without the drinking before you feel full (and washes some of the last bit of food eaten out too quickly, so the next item also applies.)  If you wash the food out of the pouch right away AFTER you eat, you will get hungry sooner, which may also lead to overeating.  Either way, the likely result is eating too much.

Drinking with meals is one of the things that is very frequently common to people who have regained a significant amount of weight.  Every single person I know IRL who has regained a fair amount of weight went back to drinking with their meals or right afterward.

Lora

Brian,

I have always been told to not eat and drink at the same time because it will wash food thru the pouch and can make the stoma bigger.

Do you get hungry after eating and drinking, if so this could be why??? and cause of weight gain.

you eat, wash food thru pouch, eat again. 


I can't eat and drink at same time because it makes my stomach hurt. 


Tamara

Everything I read when I had surgery and since then has implied that a broken (stretched) stoma is pretty much the end of the line for RNY. I'll do everything in my power to avoid that. I think this can happen to some folks with no fault on their part, but some people who continually abuse their stoma day after day after day for months and years by drinking with meals so they CAN increase their consumption are purposely trying to get stuff through their stoma fast, and repeated over time this can result in a permanent stretching of the stoma.

At about 30 months out I had an upper GI with small bowel followthrough and it was interesting to see my tiny little pouch and stoma... nice to see all is as it should be.