Hold my feet to the fire please! My 5 Day Pouch Test Results

I've only been on BAF a few months but you should know by now brevity is not my strength.  This is my second epic tale of the week. 

5dpt finished!  I’ve posted everything I’ve eaten in the daily ‘feet to the fire’ threads, so give me your critique please and be brutally honest.  Should I have lost more on this mission of mine? As usual, my results seem dismal compared to other posts I’ve read.   

What should I be doing differently?   

My results?  Pounds lost: 1.8 Inches lost: 0   
          ETA: Typo, pounds lost is actually 0.8 lbs

The Good:  I hit nearly all of my daily goals and made up for any deficits where I missed.  Yipeeeee!

The Bad: I took some creative license using pork rinds as a meat like it was bacon or a pork chop. I also used sf pudding as a laxative. Works better and easier on the gut, no cramping. 

The Ugly: This was a lot of effort to loose under two pounds  

Averages per day: 
Calories 897/ protein 116g/ carbs 49g (27g net)/ fats 32g   
Liquids 110 oz of which 50 oz was water   
Exercise, avg calories burned per day: 785
Deficit, avg daily calorie deficit: 1320, based on rmr of 1432  
Ccalculated weight loss: (5 day deficit / 3500 calories) aproximately 1.89 lbs

What have I learned? Well, it’s a lot of effort for the progress. It got me off the coolwhip and back to real solids, but a day or two of shakes would likely have done the same.  

My Analysis? Looking at my average daily calorie deficit, I should have lost around two pounds of fat plus some water weight.  The result was reasonable but not spectacular. 

I added potassium and a diuretic on day 5 for water retention. The wl is most likely  from the diuretic or even from the laxative effect of the sf pudding. I don’t believe I’ve lost any body fat at all.    All the same, I’m nearly two lbs down and hopefully its really not jus****er weight (plus ****) and this stall is broken at 4 weeks. 

Thankfully, Coolwhip is no longer my personal form of crack. However, next time I need a jump start, I’ll do two days of shakes and skip the rest.    

Now what? I will be doing a protein train but a modified version as of today. My last major stall was 58 solid days regaining and loosing 14 lbs while maintaining a calorie deficit daily on a similar plan. I broke it following a method of carb and calorie cycling used by body builders which I modified for a low carb diet. I’ll be going over the protein train and doing the same.

What I need to know? What and how much should I be eating to maintain a more consistant wl of a couple pounds a week?  To date the calorie deficit formulas have not held true for me.  If they did I'd already be at goal.  In the interest of full disclosure I am metabolically fkuc'd per my doctors and should expect to gain and struggle to loose forever.  I'm not settling for that. 

My daily calorie deficit is normally about 1500 to 1600 based on flat rmr not adjusted for normal activity levels (sedentary).  Is that too high for an average of 900-1200 calories eaten per day or is it too low.  Am I in starvation mode, over eating, or has my body grown too accustomed to my regular diet?  I have my own suspicions but I need your perspective. 

Any and all opinions, comments critiques are appreciated.  Hold my feet to the fire. Five days down, seven more to go on this mission. Thanks Fam!

I glad you posted this...I am on day 3 of my 5 day pouch test and i have stuck to it without any cheating what so ever. Yesterday I got on the  scales and I had gained 2 lbs. I was so disappointed and I want to say just forget this go back to the way I was eating, but I didn't. I have continued on today with my soft protein. I had a boiled egg for breakfast and some cottage cheese for lunch and then about 6 oz of can chicken for lunch. Didn't feel any tightness in my pouch at all. I am a litle discourage and wonder if this thing is working the way it is suppose to?? I will continue to press on just to prove to myself I can stick to it for 5 days straight but i am wonder are my expectation to high for this pouch test???

My pouch is always tight so I have to be careful with soft foods.  I was hoping to break my stall. 

Instead I gained too except for after the diuretic and the laxative and my pouch feels even tighter.  For the day I've had a 1 egg pepperoni omlet with mushrooms and onion and a 16 oz protein shake.  I'm too stuffed for my vits.   

Morning wheigh in, day by day: 
Day 1,                                                179.6 lbs
Day 2,                                                179.8 lbs 
Day 3,                                                180.4 lbs
Day 4,                                                180.4 lbs
Day 5,                                                180.6 lbs
Today after diuretic and laxative,     178.8 lbs 

Keep it going.  Perhaps you'll do better in the end. 

Wow! This looks great to me....I can't give you any tips...still a newbie in my own brain....but I love the idea of the tracking and the self analysis. I need to do more in this area. I say....keep it up for a while.  My only suggestion...not focus so much on the weight in this process. The amount of work that you are putting into it...would definitely make you disheartened if you don't see the result you expect. Remember the fat loss vs muscle gain phenomenon also. Kudos to you for the effort. You have motivated me! A lot of good info here. 

I have been factoring in muscle growth too.  

 As you may have guessed, I am an analyst by trade.  I started analysing my stats at about a month post op when I first started gaining body fat instead of loosing it. 

I monitor not just weight but my body fat and body water percents daily.  I use a body fat/ body water scale by tanita which gives identical results to the one at the dr's office and the gym.  I also use body measurements to calculate my fat percentage. 

You can do the same with the most basic excel skills.  You just need weight, rmr, calories eaten and calories burned by exercise.  Caloriesperhour.com does it all for you if you're not a spreadsheet person. 

I know it feels like a lot of hard work without the desired results, but it's my understanding that while the 5dpt usually results in about a 5 lb WL, it's actually not designed for you to loose weight, it is supposed to  get you back to basics.  Get your pouch to feeling like it did when you first had surgery.
I only successfully followed this once and I did loose about 3 or 4 lbs, but the main thing it did for me was got me back on track and got my pouch feeling like new.  I don't know if it was a mental thing or what, but I thats what it did for me.

I think we have to just juggle things and find out what works best for us.  It may be a combination of things or modified plans.

I pray that we BOTH find out whatever will work best for us to get us to our goals!

I knew when I started the objective of the diet was not really right for me.  I've only had one isolated slip with the coolwhip.  Otherwise, I've stuck to the program since day one.  I needed a control test. 

Since this seems to jump start most everyone, I thought perhaps it would do the same for me.  Proving I'm less of a metabolic mess than suspected.  The last thing I want is to go from diet to diet after having wls.

What's even more disapointing is I (wrongly) suspended my meds that cause weight gain to do this.  I thought for sure with them out of my system this would work for me. 

Back to the drawing board. 

I'm sorry you didn't see the results you were looking for.  I guess I didn't start with the intention of weight loss, more to refocus my mind on my eating.  Beginning Monday I am starting the Seattle Sutton healthy eating plan.  I chose the 2000 cal per day cuz I'm cheap and its only a $20 difference in price.  I can cut all the meals in half and half perfect band portions and have 2 weeks worth of food.

My only benefit was finding the perfect laxative in sf pudding, lol.

Now what is this Seattle plan?  Website please? 

www.seattlesutton.com

Its similar to Jenny Craig or Nutri System in that its prepared food.  Teh thing is its fresh locally prepared food.  They include fruits, veggies, juices-things the other plans send you to the store for.  It was thought up by a RN, so I fifgure I'd give it a try.