My NUT and ONE of my personal trainers believed that I had "disordered eating" because I avoided carbs due to my PCOS. I have lived in this body and I KNOW what packs on the pounds in it. Now I am on Metformin adn having to eat some carbs (or I slur my words and appear drunk due to low blood sugar). Then Endocrinologist and the psychologist told them to "Leave me alone."

Here is my experience on the carb thing.  I have lost the same amount of weight off carbs and one carbs so this is a good "case study":  Add those carbs in and WATCH your weight loss slow WAY down.  For real, I had a fun fourth of july weekend complete with lots of carbs and gained 8 lbs. I was/am ON METFORMIN and metformin allegedly helps people lose weight. I also got my tool (the RNY).  I am still eating a few crackers at breakfast (when I take the meds), at dinner (when I take the meds) and before I go on a long run (every other day). So I am averaging about 27-36 grams of carbs in crackers. My experience has been...IT HAS TAKEN ME ONE MONTH AND TWO WEEKS to lose 7 Lbs.  Yep.  ALL THE WEIGHT IS NOT GONE I STILL HAVE A pound to go!!!  This.is.terrible.  

Now-lets contrast this with me coming back from my honeymoon in January (just 7 months ago).  I had eaten carbs on it, gained about 8 lbs, was NOT on metformin, still had the RNY tool, and was able to eat an essentially low/no carb diet.  I got those 8 lbs off in 2 weeks and thought THAT took a long time.

So furkids- I am not telling you what to do.   My expeience has been that it will take me 7-8 weeks to lose 8 lbs on carbs and two weeks to lose 8 lbs off carbs.  Which is better, especially when you AREN't at goal? 8 weeks or two weeks?

Nothing is "free" for us. Count your supplements, gum, mints, Tums, anything that goes into your mouth has some carbs and calories. All of them count.

Increasing carbs is a very bad idea. The more carbs you eat the more you will want. Concentrate on protein and drink water if you need something in your mouth. Don't sabotage the rest of your weight loss now.

Throw away the Tums and try 50 carbs a day.  See what your weight does.

Unpopular opinion coming at you:

Don't substitute Sweet Tarts or something else to put in your mouth. Do some really hard and deep thinking/work/therapy on why you are eating the Tums. What are you feeling during your "Tums time" that you are trying to avoid confronting? Are you anxious? Bored? Lonely? Nervous? It will help way more to get to the real issue as opposed to just substituting with some other food. 

Good luck, I'm rooting for you.

That's some good advice. It's funny, my NUT thinks this issue is nutritional and my psych thinks it's psychological -- imagine!  :)

I don't think she thought adding candy was a good idea per se, but she wants me to recognize that candy is basically what I'm eating, and since she knows I'd log sweet tarts (and think twice about eating them), it would at least get me to think about it more and hopefully lead more to the decision to lay off them.

I think Roma has a good point. Look at the form of the behaviour. What is the antecedent, the purpose (what are you seeking to gain or avoid) and what are the reinforcer for that behaviour. Once you have analyzed the behaviour and understand it, you will more easily be able to replace it with a desired/ beneficial behaviour.

BTW - Tums contain calcium carbonate - which we don't absorb. So no danger of calcium overload there. 

Do we really not absorb it at all? I thought we absorbed it less readily than calcium citrate, but did still absorb some of it.

we don't absorb it . It can build up and cause kidney stones because we don't absorb it. Op is not eating them for the calcium, she is eating them for the sugar.

Good to know re: risk of kidney stones! Thanks!

20 Tums have 200 calories and 40 gms of sugar.