goal weight

I know this may sound like a dumb question but I'm asking anyway. When you reach your goal weight what do you do to stop the weight loss?

You have to bump your intake up to your individual maintenance level.  Susan can tell you more about it.  There is a formula that takes in your activity level, exercise, and body size and all that tells you how many calories you need a day to maintain if I have it right.  Susan or Rhonda?

How can this be a dumb question? It's one that none of the doctors or dietitians you talk to pre-op ever address. I think it's because they want you to concentrate on losing and doing the best you can at that before "muddying" up your process with the whole maintenance thing. Certainly it's a valid question and one that every person on this journey needs to know about.

I think part of the issue is that so many WLS patients never reach goal,they might get close,  so the answer doesn't apply. Then, there's the controversy of "how" to maintain. Let me tell you, and Wendy can attest to this as well, it's not as easy as one would think!!!! Some doctors tell you that your body will find it's own happy place and you'll stop losing on your own. I have not found that to be true. Scary as this sounds, maintenance has been a hundred times harder than losing. There are a few websites that you can plug numbers into that will give you an approximate number of calories needed per day to maintain your current weight. I'll see if I can find them and post them on another thread, or come back here and edit.

Anyway, say you need 1400 cals a day (like me) to maintain your weight. For someone who has been eating 800-1000 cals a day for months, that sounds pretty scary, right? How do you get those extra calories in?  Well......here is where all those months of discipline from following the rules of your surgery come in. It's all about WHAT you're going to eat to get to those numbers, making the right choices. Adding beneficial carbs is one way to do it, choosing a slice of high fiber bread with a tbs of low fat peanut butter as a snack, or 1/2 of a baked sweet potato with your dinner. Also, adding a healthy snack or two during the day will help too. I eat three meals a day with at least two snacks. I log everything into Fitday.com, and after dinner if I find I'm short on something, I'll have another snack. Seems like I'm eating all day long now. But I have to make sure my choices are the right ones. Are they always, heck no! But at least I have to try for them being right 9 out of 10 times LOL

Boy, I guess not being here for awhile has made me just spew!  Sorry if this has gone on longer than necessary, but it's one of those things I could talk about for hours.  Actually, maybe this should be our topic for the March support group meeting. Hmmmmm

Well, I hope this answered your question, at least a little. I'm going to try to be around more. So ask away!

First of all thanks to each of you *****sponded to my question. Your answers are very helpful. I have lost a lot of weight in a very short time. I am about 40 lbs away from my goal and being the thinker that I am I had a what do you do now moment.  I like the idea of knowing what's ahead. the weight loss so far has allowed me to feel better physically. I'm still working on the mental stuff, and I plan to be at this months meeting.  I see old friends who take double takes when they see me. Those greetings make me feel better. However the dip stick at Walmart  who continues to ask my friends and family if I'm sick or have some catastrophic disease is getting on my last nerve.  I even asked her why must I be sick, can't  the weight loss be because I want to be healthy? Sorry got off track there. Thanks again to all here who help us along our journey.

It is a simple matter of slowly increasing your calories until you STOP losing.  That is currently what I am doing. 

Edited to add: When I said it was a simple matter, I wasn't saying your question was dumb.  I honestly believe that there are hardly ANY questions that are dumb.