Weight bounce back after VSG in maintenance

From what I have observed, the easiest thing to let happen is to stop tracking things.  Then one day you get on a scale and, horrors, you're up 10.  That seems like a "bounce," but it didn't happen in a day.  It's a slow process.... tracking my weight often and yes, graphing it, shows me the trend.  In maintenance I detected a slow, but definite up trend in weight.  I cut my calories a bit, it helped but not quite enough.  I cut a little more, and got to "stability" - I needed to get back into my zone, so I cut a little bit more and now i'm declining very slowly... tracking saved me.

Maintenance, in my opinion means tracking and "no sudden moves."

-Tom

Nothing to add, the vets have given some solid pointers..I do want to say that one of our posters, Claimmaster, is a vegan and may have some insight into high protein sources for you that fit with your vegetarian diet. She has posted some recipes on her blog along with a snapshot of what she eats in one day.

Here's her blog: http://thebariatricvegan.com/

I had a 12 pound gain at 30 months out.  The first thing my nutritionist advised me to do was to stop protein shakes.  She told me that drinking calories was too easy and I needed to switch to real food.

It took a long time to lose some of that weight and I only lost six pounds of it.  That took me well over a year of experimenting with Weigh****chers, low carb, high protein, low fat, high fat, exercise classes.  I was below goal when it happened.  It happened when I quit weighing myself and I gained three pounds a month for four months before I woke up and faced facts.

I maintain now by tracking everything I eat on myfitnesspal.  I finally lost some of the excess weight by eating 800 calories a day.  That took off almost a pound a week and in two months I went from 142 down to 136. 

Now I never skip weighing myself.  I go up sometimes.  I am currently at 139 and working on getting back to 136 by the end of April.  That is about a 1/2 pound a week and I am doing that by eating 1160 calories a day.  To lose a pound a week would mean cutting down another 250 calories a day and I don't want to go that low. 

I have found that after surgery, weight loss is much slower than before.  I accept that and plan accordingly.  Before surgery I could have knocked off fifteen pounds in a month, but six months later would have gained back twenty.

No significant bounce back here, but when I hit a designated weight I put myself back in weight loss mode to pull it off.  Back to basics, protein first, then green leafy veggies... manage the carbs so you don't take in too much at one time.  If you like shakes, a sure fire thing for me is 3 shakes a day plus 3 light snacks for a few days.  That slams the restriction back into full force, and from there my normal weight loss plan.  (Under 1200 calories, 1 hour exercise daily, protein around 110, lots of fluids 200 ounces or so).