Yoyo dieting and the DS?? Xpost

I have not reached my surgeon's goal for me of 150.  I am 47 pounds away and the one thing I feel confident of is that I will never make that number.  This has me so screwed up in the head that it's disgusting!  I feel sad, depressed, like a failure...you name the negative adjective and I feel it!   Anyway, I am mulling over the possibility of maybe trying a diet program like Weigh****chers or the Curves eating plan (I go to Curves gym three days a week and have since November.  I love it.)  I have tried the low carb, high protein, more water, fitday thing and it hasn't done much.

Anyway, my question, or rather my concern, is whether the yoyo effect that one gets from starting a diet, losing weight, then quitting the diet and putting all the weight and more back on would still happen to a DS'er.  I can't see why it wouldn't but I thought I would ask.  

I don't want to EVER go through the yoyo thing again so I am scared to diet, but by the same token I would like to lose some more weight.  I realize that I won't ever see 150 without plastic surgery, which I will not be having, but I think reaching 175-180 isn't unreasonable.

What are your thoughts?

Thanks and have a great day!

I suspect these things are HIGHLY individual, so any answer you get may not apply to you. I never tried "dieting" with my DS until last year, 3+ years out.  I had stopped losing at 1 year out, landing at 203-207 lbs.  Not great, but a helluva lot better than nearly 300 lbs!  In November 2006, for no reason I know, I started losing weight again.  In April 2007, I thought I would try and drive that slow moving train a little faster so I could get to 190 by my daughter's wedding in June (the ex would be there dontcha know!).  So I tried Nutrasystems -- I was pretty sure it wouldn't work, and my daughter needed to lose weight to fit into her wedding dress, so I figured I'd give it a try and if I didn't like it, I'd give all the food to her. That's exactly what happened.  And then DH and I went to Europe for 2.5 weeks, and I ate my way through Copenhagen, Prague, Munich and the Romantic Road in Bavaria -- sausages, bread. wine, desserts, etc.  And I lost several more lbs, made it to 189 on her wedding day, and have continued to drift slowly downward to 184.  My goal is 175 before plastics, so I can end up at around 160. If I were you, I would not avoid a deliberate attempt to limit carbs (as opposed to limiting ALL calories) because of fear of regain.  Yes, it could happen, but you should trust in your DS to provide you with a comfortable way of "dieting" -- by concentrating on protein and fat, and easing back on the carbs. Having said that, one of the reasons my goal is 160 and not 140 (besides the fact that I looked pretty damned good at 160 the few times I got there!) is that I also think I would have a lot of trouble maintaining the lower weight.  160 sounds like a weight that I could maintain more easily than 140 -- and I want it easy.

Hi Diana- Thank you very very much for responding to my post.  It means a lot to hear your story...it kind of gives a bit of hope, you know? Val has posted to me also, and I am going to take your (and her) suggestions and give the carb limitation a try again.  (I did it before but didn't have much luck.)  Val has some great recipes on her profile and I hit the grocery store and made some up so I am ready to go this week. Would you mind if I ask what your doctor said your goal weight was?  I can't tell you how screwed up I am over this whole goal weight thing.  I went into his office and told him I wanted to weigh 180 and he said "How about 150?"  And so started my obsession with that number.  Now I just feel like a failure because I didn't make that number.  I know I am stupid to feel that way but I can't help it.  I feel like I am his only failure and I am so ashamed I am embarassed to contact him about it.  I know that is stupid too but that's how I feel and i don't know how to change it.   Anyway, thank you very much once again for your input.  It truly is invaluable! Have a great day!

I was never given a number by my surgeon, nor did I want one.  I remember how I looked at 160 (in my 20s) so that's what I set my goal at.  140 would probably be ideal, and if it happened without any effort for me I would be cool with it, but I am completely unwilling to work that hard, either to get there or to stay there. The DS weight loss average is 75% of excess weight.  You have more than achieved that and are apparently maintaining without a lot of effort.  That sounds pretty damned good to me! And besides, how much excess skin do you have?

Dawn, I just had to reply to your post. I had an RNY not DS surgery so I don't have advice about that but I feel so bad that you feel that you have not been successful. You have lost over 180lbs!! That is success to me. You must feel healthier and have more energy than before surgery. I know that many of us struggle to get to "goal".  I wish that we could appreciate how far we have come and not focus on someone else's goal for us. I would go with your own goal of 175-180, and if you are unable to reach it you will still have been sucessful in losing a great amount of weight and can focus on maintance.

Those are my thoughts.

 Sher  

I agree with Sher, I think you're a great success already. I was also over 300 pounds when I started, and my real goal was to weigh "anything that starts with a one." (At first, it was to weigh something that started with a two, that was a happy day.) I hope you're able to reach and maintain a good weight for your body, and that's a different number for all of us. But wherever you end up, please don't feel like a failure, because you've really accomplished a lot.