Elina_7,what is your opinion on....

I'll offer my thoughts on moderation here - Sorry for being late to the party.

 

Too often in weight loss I think the word "moderation" is used as an excuse to eat things that we know we shouldn't eat.  All of the standard excuses ate thrown out there:

 

1.  I have to learn to live with food

2.  I will feel deprived if I don't let myself have what i enjoy

3.  I don't have any problems with food, I gained weight because XYZ

so forth and so on.

 

I am gonna say this straight out - BULL****

 

The weight loss phase is not about moderation.  The weight loss phase is not even really about losing weight - I'll explain.  The weight loss phase is about developing a new lifestyle.  You have to break all of your past associations with how you used food - the emotional connections, the habits, the favorites.  In doing this you will redevelop your relationship with food.  The wight loss phase allows you to do this.  You essentially go through your infancy with food again.

When we use codewords like "moderation" we give ourselves permission to short circuit that process without ever really saying it.  We don't face the real reasons we want to eat things that we know are not the best choices.  So why is this so bad in weight loss?

Weight loss is  a wonderful period after surgery where biology is on your side.  You have seriously upset the apple cart with the surgery and your body is still figuring out how to get back to homeostasis, back into balance.  That takes some time - a lot of time.  Like 6 months to a year.  Ghrelin is going to be at the lowest point in your lifetime during weight loss (other body tissues will start producing some Ghrelin later), leptin sensitivity is restored briefly (leptin is the hormone that fat produces to tell your body to stop eating), and a whole host of other changes are going on.  Normally your body will fight you losing weight.  It fights hard, thats why we never had real success before with just diet and exercise.

Surgery just took the fight out of your body, along with the majority of your stomach.  You have to make the most of this time while its trying to get back into balance.  This is not the time to assume a business as usual course, or even business as usual with smaller portions.  You have to use this honeymoon to develop new habits, develop new skills for dealing with food, work on your eating issues.

After you have lost the weight and you are transitioning to maintenance, this is when you apply the basic skills you learned in weight loss to the more complicated scenarios of dealing with more food options.  It really is a crawl before you walk kind of scenario.  Once you have basics, then work on the more advanced stuff.  

Maybe Elina can tell us how long the transition to maintenance takes - I will tell you its been almost 3 months I have been at goal and its still a transition phase for me.  Its a major head change, like going from high school to college.  I still rely on the basic skills and habits I learned in weight loss, but I am expanding those to more exotic situations and learning new ones.  Now I can use moderation in its strict dictionary sense - being within tolerable limits, not to an extreme.  Moderation now is only possible because I did the work during weight loss to start developing a healthy relationship with food.

OK, this whole friendship thing is just to casual for me, we are talking true love here.  :)  Love, love, love your post.

It took me a good year to year and a half to really and truly transition from weight loss to maintenance.  I am not just talking about food here, I am talking about body image and issues, learning social cues, emotionally letting go of the weight loss phase, and many other issues that need to be successfully negotiated in order to find real peace at the end of the rainbow.  It takes time and a whole new set of skills.  You, by the way, are rocking this phase too.  I found the transition from weight loss to maintenance to be the hardest.  Issues I thought were safely behind me, found me again but it a different way.  I had to learn to trust myself fully and considering how many times I had failed at weight loss, that was no easy issue.

Good discussion. Nothing to add. Nice job folks.

 I'm only 2 months post-op, but I am CERTAIN that the "moderation" philosophy is NOT for me!!! It's way to much of a slippery slope!  I'm following all of the rules... I've changed my habits for the good.  I'm making good progress. I WANT this new lifestyle!

I know without a doubt that if I "allow" myself even a small treat, that I'll be opening a big can of worms that I'm not so sure I'll be able to put the lid back on!  The only thing that I've really craved a few times is Cheetos.  I used to buy a bag every time i went to Target...so now every time I go to Target, I want Cheetos!  I know a few probably wouldn't hurt me...I'd still be under my calories / carbs for the day!  But I don't even want to know if my sleeve can tolerate such things!  i prefer to believe it would make me sick or have pain.  I know that the minute I learn I can tolerate things like Cheetos, I will eat them regularly again.  I am committed to completely avoiding things with no nutritional value.

Thanks to Elina & Rob for always being straight forward and not sugar coating!  i come here for support, but I also need the cold, hard truth!

I'm trying to figure out this maintenance thing. I love the idea of moderation but I'm so not so good at it...I'm starting to think I'm an all or nothing person.