Feeling so Discouraged

Hang in there! This is hard stuff no matter how you look at it -- if it was easy, we wouldn't need the surgery, the therapy, the RD/nuitritionist help!

In my pre-op phase, the surgeon said "lose 10 lbs". I lost and gained the same 8 pounds over and over again. It was so frustrating and discouraging and I was really afraid that it would cause my surgery to be delayed. What helped was that I was meticulous about the food/emotional journaling, kept my exercise as requested and was completely honest with my treatment team (whi*****luded way too many teary conversations than I was comfortable with). Get in your water, keep the food tracker and try for the exercise -- everything you work through NOW will help you later.

Ugh! I feel like that's going to be me. I'm going to be crying to them soon. I can feel it. I just hope they believe me that I'm not cheating. I'm truly not.

Mine were very supportive while also questioning to make sure I was doing what I said I was doing -- and they had plenty of kleenex waiting for me. You will get through this!!

Teacher, I'm sorry you're feeling so discouraged. I definitely can relate.

My WLS nutritionist suggested counting blocks - dairy, protein, fat, vegetables, fruits. I tried that for about a day. I just can't do it, it was more frustrating to me than anything because I use so many recipes.

She also said I can have up to 1600 calories per day, and to eat every 2.5 - 3 hours. And protein within an hour of waking up. And tracking. It's been demonstrated over and over and over that tracking is a key to success and that's 100% true for me.

So I'm doing what I know works. Limiting my calories (trying to anyway). Staying away from processed foods. Staying away from sugar. And every month when I see her, she says to keep doing what I'm doing. I've lost over 20 lbs so far, but it's slowing down because I'm over-eating, as well as eating stuff I shouldn't. Maybe as a final farewell, since my surgery is only about 10 weeks ago. OMG 10 weeks! I need to get back to business.

Do what you know works, if that's Weigh****chers, then so be it. Personally, I think you're restricting yourself far too much, especially with your surgery so far away. You'll have plenty of restriction post-surgery.

This is just my opinion, from my own experience. Don't give up!

Yes, your results seem discouraging, but this is a long term game and the scale can be fickle.

First, the 5 pounds you lost in 2 days was party (mostly) water. If you are weighing daily (or multiple times a day) normal fluctuations are taking place - water, hormonal, or just adjustments

Those pounds are in the bank, and often, if you stay on a low-cal regimine, those pounds will drop all at once and you will see a bigger than expected drop in a future week. You really have to do the plan for 4-6 weeks before you want to give up for lack of results.

Exercising will also help with the head game.

Good luck and hang in there!!

If you are following that plan to a T, and weighing and logging everything, I can pretty much guarantee that you are losing fat - just don't get discouraged! People tend to get discouraged just when they start to lose fat, which is precisely when they should hold the course! Let me try and explain it in a concise fashion:

Your body is efficient. When it needs energy, it burn sugar first (glycogen). Glycogen is bound with water in your body. So, when you reduce calories, your body burns that sugar, and dumps the corresponding water that it was bound with, that's probably why you dropped 5 lbs in 2 days - it was your body dumping water.

Eventually your body realizes that it isn't a temporary "famine", and that it needs to rebuild those glycogen stores for emergency purposes. It switches to burning fat for energy (which is what you really want), and starts to reload those glycogen stores along with the necessary water needed to bind it.

So - your weight-loss may seem stalled, but you are probably burning fat.

The body is extremely complex, and there is a lot more than this going on (menstrual cycle, etc), but it is a key factor that's worth knowing.

During my weight loss phase, when ever my weight loss would slow down or stall, that was the exact time that I noticed all my clothes started to get too big. I actually started looking forward to those times, as it's when I felt the most change to my body.

Hang in there, it'll work. And once you have the surgery it's a whole other ball game anyway. This is just a great practice run for getting used to what is probably a pretty major change in eating habits.