How I eat 4 months out

posterity

I lost 120lbs to goal in less than six months. There is no benefit to losing slowly, none.

13.5 years out and I wouldn't eat 2-3 pieces of fruit in a month.

You absolutely are doing ok at 4 months, but this plan will probably not be possible in a year, or two or thirteen. Part of the process of this honeymoon period is finding a way to eat that can become your way of life, forever.

Keep an open mind and an open communication to those who have lived this lifestyle for a period of time. Noone wants you to suffer or fail. All advice is given kindly.

If your plan stops working for you be willing to change.

Following a plan similar to yours got me to 300+ pounds.

After surgery, my nutritionist, a very thin woman, gave incorrect advice such as eating oatmeal and fruit for breakfast. Fortunately I questioned that and listened to vets here.

No one is being rude to you. They are saying your plan works now but won't long term.

We all act like weight loss is a mystery, but really it's just math.

Calories in, calories out.

That is why diets like the Twinkie Diet actually cause people to lose weight-- the dieter was taking in fewer calories than he used to. They were not quality calories, but still--it's just math.

So here you are 4 months out, and there is literally no way on earth you could fit the amount of food in your pouch that you used to eat. So you are losing. As a previous poster said--it would not matter if you ate Doritos for the first 6 months. Your calories are extremely restricted, so you are losing. Its the Twinkie Diet all over again--eat fewer calories and you lose weight.

But that is not a forever thing! Why? Because you are going to get hungry again! There are very few people who stay satiated long term. I hoped I would be one, but nope... my tummy growls and I am tempted by foods now that I would not have turned my head towards in year one. Your nerves will heal and soon you will be feeling hunger again and you won't get the same stop signals as you have today.

No one here is trying to be a meanie by telling you to weigh and measure. We are telling you because we actually care about your success. Really--what are the odds that you are the only one who had a surgery that doesn't require any long term vigilance?

Hi there... I am almost 17 months out from rNY... I follow a low carb diet. Actually I fought following a low carb diet. My Nutritionist recommended that I 1) up my calories, 2) up my carb intake in the form of oatmeal and fruit, and 3) stop weighing myself except once a month. I did. I stopped losing and gained 12 pounds.

I went back to what the vets on OH advise, although it made me sad. I used to love bread, oatmeal, fruit. But what I found was that the carbs make me hungry. When I follow a low carb higher fat diet I am much less hungry and I can easily avoid sweets. Luckily I still do not actually have hunger but I log everything because when I do not what I eat just grows until it gets above my limit of 1000 calories per day. I am still slowly losing at this weight. I continue to weigh myself every morning because that way I can easily spot a trend upwards before it gets out of hand.

Good luck to you. I appreciate your posting your experience, just want to post my experience of following a NUtritionist's advice as opposed to vets who have actually been down the path. I hope you continue to do well.

for posterity

People who disagree with you is not the same as attacking you. You should keep that in mind when posting. They're only disagreeing with your approach to weight loss & they have years of experience & success to go along with it.

Just like your posts indicate, you want to make a statement to lurkers, so are they. You're only 4 months out, part of tracking is seeing what you need to work on or change when you stall out. Because at some point you will stall out. How will you know what to change if you have no basis to work off of?

People do have to adjust as they work their way down. What about regain? Maybe not now, what about years from now when you're trying to maintain. I doubt if you're gonna remember your protein, carbs & calories on any given day, at least if you have something written down you'll at least have an idea of what needs changing.

If that is working for you now - great. But once yo get used to getting energy from carbs -it may be very difficult later to switch to low carb diet and force the body to start burning fat. I've been there myself. I learned a lesson.

I am 9 years post op and when I get too thin - 10 lbs too thin- I add carbs (fruits, veggies, ect). and I allow my pouch to dictate the qty. And I gain and gain fast.

I then need to switch to a very low carb diet to stop gaining. It is fun (not).

I am there now. I wanted to build my muscles and add some fat as a reserve. It took me just 3 months. Now I not only need to drastically limit the carbs but also calories to stop gaining. I miss my fruits. But I don't miss the extra fat I will gain unless I stop now.

I am back to one serving of fruit per week. It is what it is. I don't like it either.

I'm going to jump in and agree with the others. What may be working now, most likely won't work in the future.

They call the 18 months after surgery a "honeymoon period" because there will be no other time your motivation is higher, hunger lower, and capacity smaller than these months. A lot of successful people on this site utilized this time to instill good habits and lose as much weight as possible.

And, I have always been of the opinion that we all could have benefitted from depriving ourselves a bit more prior to surgery. A bit of deprivation is good for us. I have been maintaining a 250+ lb loss for just about four years and if I didn't believe in depriving myself, I would finish the entire bag of Dove peanut butter and chocolate pieces I just opopen. That's not a joke. I would eat the ENTIRE 1,276 kcal bag as well as my dinner. I can physically do it. Mentally, I want to. But I make a choice to go without. I tell myself "no" all the time and overall, I'm happier and healthier because of it.