Help I'm gaining and I can't stop!

I need encouragement, help or a swift kick in the butt! I'm gaining weight and I can't seem to stop! I can't seem to find my way back to the beginning of how to eat. I feel like my brain is constantly focused on eating food that is full of carbs and sugar. Please any words of encouragement would be gladly appreciated. I am almost 5 years out and have gained 20 pounds.

It sounds like you've triggered your addiction. You may have to start getting through one meal at a time right now until you're back under control. You know what to do. Cut out the carbs. Drink your water. Measure your food. It's not fun but it's a system that apparently worked for you at one point. You can do this - you just need to put on your big girl pants (no pun intended) and log on to these boards whenever you're feeling like you need inspiration. We're all there with you. I'm struggling this week with boredom and reading your post was a good reminder to me what I should stay on my path.

AZ -

Your "put your big girl pants on" triggered a book I read before surgery called "Big Girl Panties" by Stephanie Evanovich. It's about a large woman, her trainer, and is pretty funny in some areas. A good summer read.

-Jan

Jan - Thanks! I was looking for a good summer read. -Cher

At five years out from surgery on this forum you are considered a veteran. One of my personal criteria for a person being a veteran is that they have gone through the cycle of regain and losing it again.

The "average" person loses one hundred pounds after weight loss surgery. They regain twenty pounds during year three. About fifty percent of those people have regained fifty pounds by year five and have even more regain by year ten.

I will be ten years out this October and have regained and lost several times on my journey. Here is what works for me.

I do not go back to basics in the sense of trying to eat like I did right after surgery. To me that is as unrealistic as asking a teenage son to go back to formula and baby food.

My pouch is fully grown now and I can eat "normal" foods. What I do have to do is cut calories to lose weight. I track every bite that I eat or drink. I weigh myself daily with a scale that tracks BMI, muscle weight, body fa****er weight, bone weight, as well as overall weight.

I know if I have a gain or loss whether it is muscle, fat or water weight. I wear a fitness tracker and get my 10,000 steps a day in. I track my calories, sugars, fats, protein and water. I concentrate on high protein and lots of water.

For me, a twenty pound regain means twenty weeks of concentrating to get it off. I mark each week on my calendar and put a big red star on my day when I will be at my goal weight. I weigh daily and track weekly and if I did not lose my one pound, then I cut calories further the next week.

There is no magic to surgery, but it does let you get on a level playing field with people who work at staying at their goal weight. The rest of it is up to how hard you want to work at it.

Everyone is different. Some never regain, some regain all of their lost weight. Your personal journey is that you regained twenty pounds and it is up to you whether you want to make the effort to lose it again or to just accept it.

First, I have to commend you for admitting you need help. That's the first step. Now, as others will surely say, get your mind in gear and do what you need to do to get the 20 lbs off. If you want it gone - you'll make it happen. Track everything and exercise.

You just need a boost of confidence and now you have it. You've got this!

Let us know if we can help down the road...

-Jan

Once we go off the rails carbs and sugar it is hard to get back on....the best way I know how is to white knuckle it and get very basic and simple... Drink lots of water/fluids and get your protein in first maybe a few green veggies...forget fruit and carbs for awhile....

See the 5 day meat test in my signature line...it really does help...