Is there a myth that you can eat anything after the DS and lose weight?

If there is it is definitely a YMMV type thing.

For starters there are food intolerances.  I cannot eat wheat gluten.  So that means almost no bread, flour, etc..

Then there is dairy.  No milk for me,unless it is Soy or Lactaid.

Then there is sugar alcohols.  OMG is all I can say about those suckers.

Then there is weight loss and regain.  For me, I have found that I absolutely must live a low-carb diet or my weight will start going up up up.

I think a lot of folks have a period of time where they can eat quite a few carbs and still lose or maintain but for ME that time has ended and I am not yet two years out.

For a real life view of how a subset of DSers eat read the bites and vites thread. 

I just don't want folks to feel they were mislead by some promise that the DS miracle is going to allow them to not change their eating habits and that they will still lose all their weight and keep it off.  Because for me that has not been the case.

~Becky

There are several factors for what kind of diet we need to maintain. I happen to be very active, so I don't feel like I need to keep my carbs super low. I am definitely not as strict as what I generally see on the BV&E thread, but I don't do anything stupid:-)

But then again you are not very far into your DS.  The malabsorption CHANGES WITH TIME.

Yes, I know. I don't eat high carb, but I see Becky averages like 50 carbs a day. If I'm burning a good 500 calories a day with exercise, I do not think I will have to resort to that. Even if I did need to, I would rather be a bit more relaxed, even if it meant some weight gain. I have some days like today with super low carb, but I tend to keep it around 150.

does malabsorption change or do people just become lax with watching what they eat?  Not being snarky, just honestly curious as a pre-op..just researching as much as I can! Thanks in advance :)

With time,  your body health and adjusts,  and you absorb more and more.

so basically you're saying that you lose your DS with time? I understand absorbing more over time I suppose..but that is kind of scary. People say they never want to 'diet' again..but what youre saying sounds like the DS stops working after so many years (loss of malabsorption)..

My understanding is that you will compensate some over time (will absorb more), but that with the DS there is so much bypassed (usually all but about 100cm) that your body cannot compensate for it all and that you do not/will not "lose" all of your malabsorption.

There are occasionally posts of people who are years and years out (like 5 to 10) who have had some regain, but then go back to a higher protein/lower carb diet and the weight melts right back off like it did when their DSes were newer.

I have seen posts of people who had significant regains who were able to lose weight by going low carb again, but I would not say that their weight "melted" off like it did when their DS was new.  I think that is misleading.

I am not even two years out and I have been struggling to lose 5 lbs for two months.  I would not call that "melting."  I"ve kept my carbs around 50, have gone to 3-4 protein shakes a day and have gotten some exercise.  At most I think I have learned that that is what I need to do to MAINTAIN.

I think you and I are at either end of a continuum both in terms of what we eat and what we believe about how the DS will work for us long term.  I imagine most people find themsleves somewhere in the middle.

~Becky

Perhaps "melt" wasn't the right word.  What I meant was that the weight seems to come back off much more easily than before they had their DSes, meaning that the DS is still working all those years later.  (I may be a bit too colorful with the language sometimes!)

I imagine you're right that most people fall in between you and I.  I think that I'm more okay with having a laxer diet and going up 10 pounds or a pant size and you are more willing to follow a stricter (more strict?) diet in order to maintain that size 4.  For me, a size 4 isn't worth having to diet like that.  Neither is a 6 (which is where I am now).  If/when I start to outgrow the 8s and enter the 10s again, then I'll have to reassess, but I think (and I say think because one never really knows until it happens) that I'll be okay in a size 10 at 5'7" if it means I don't have to count every carb. 

I guess that is what I was trying to say earlier when I said I know this honeymoon phase will most likely end and I'll get to the point where I will have to find the right balance for me between eating a diet I can live with and being happy with my size.  That balance is going to be different for everyone.

I think we've gone off track here!  I feel like I'm rambling off on some tangent now.  :)