Confused.

I often extend the analogy, between debt and obesity. WLS is like declaring bankruptcy. Wiping the slate clean. Some who declare bankruptcy watch their finances like a hawk afterward, and avoid debt like the plague. Some go right back into the same hole.

The danger of WLS is not working hard enough in that first 6 months and year. If you get out of that mental "honeymoon period" with a lot of weight left to lose, it's easy to say screw it and go back to old habits, gaining weight. It's like doing well making a small dent in a pile of debt. But if it looks like the mountain is insurmountable, it's easier to give up.

That's what makes this a race. Wipe the slate clean as fast as you can.

Another great analogy Grim!

Great post.

My RMR is about 1900 calories a day. If I did nothing but lay in bed all day that is the amount of calories my body would burn just to stay alive.

I can eat 1900 calories and lose weight, just slowly.

I can eat 1400 can lose faster for a little while, weight loss just doesn't last for me at that kind of calorie deficit.

I can maintain on like 2200? It is hard to eat that much honestly, but it doesn't make me gain.

My research on raising your calories, and I did a lot of research and worked with several Drs including some in sports medicine (where I get my DEXA scans and RMR tested), is that raising calories keeps your metabolism working better if you have a good functioning metabolism. Most people don't know because they never have theirs tested (laying down with a tent on your face or a mask, those scales that you stand on for a few seconds can't do it).

Using science and scientific testing enables you to know exactly what you should be eating for your body and your body composition. I have around 125 lbs of lean mass and I have lost almost 160 pounds of fat and only about 9 pounds of muscle without weight training. Just walking and pegging my protein goals to my lean mass. The result is I burn a lot of calories a day, and I can easily maintain and lose weight because I have a huge calorie buffer.

Keeping your calories low for an extended period of time trains your body to exist on that amount of calories, and if you raise those calories you regain. That is how people are regaining on still relatively low calories.

The types of calories matter also, but that is a different topic. My calories come primarily from protein and fat, with fewer than 25 carbs most days and maybe 1-2 days a week of between 25 and 50 carbs.

I really urge people to get professional BMR/RMR testing (it takes about 30 minutes) so you really know how many calories YOU are burning.

>> Keeping your calories low for an extended period of time trains your body to exist on that amount of calories, and if you raise those calories you regain. That is how people are regaining on still relatively low calories.

I'd be very interested to see the scientific studies supporting this.

This is certainly not a scientific study, and I plan to do some more digging on this (including reading all of his citations), but I liked a lot of what I was reading in this article:

http://www.precisionnutrition.com/metabolic-damage

Wanted to throw it out for discussion.

I have read where people here make the pat statement like "starvation mode" doesn't exist or won't damage metabolism. Interesting to me because decades of overeating mean that I now gain weight on far fewer calories that I should at my weight. How can it be that over eating does alter metabolism but under eating doesn't?

It reminds me of an OB/GYN I worked with right out of nursing school.

On the same day we saw two women.

One was distressed to learn she was pregnant. The doctor told her it only takes one sperm...

The other woman was disappointed that he wasn't pregnant. He told her it takes millions of sperm to get pregnant.

There are several studies of children (and grandchildren) of woman who have starved. The offspring are genetically altered.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/07/140731145845.h tm

Other studies indicate that the children and grandchildren of these starved women are more prone to obesity.