Scare about regain

I am nearing my 6 month surgiversary and have lost aboit 94 pounds so far. (Heaviest at 319) i am so scared of regaining weight. How hard is it to stretch out your new stomach? I've never gotten sick from overeating, but there are some days i feel like I should not have been able to eat as much as I did. Like today, i had my protien shake and essentially grazed the reat of the day on turkey bacon and some nut mix. Then dinner. I had a grilled chicken soft taco and a jalepeno popper and cheese stick ( took about 45 min to eat) and then there are days i forget to eat and struggle to get my protien and calories in. Is this normal? (Cell phone, sorry for the errors)

I think the fear or regain is normal. As you get farther out, you will notice you start eating more. It's what you eat that will help with the weight loss. Yes your stomach will stretch, but the beauty of the DS is that you will have the malabsorption to keep your weight in check (as long as you don't overdo the carbs). As you get closer to your goal, you'll have to find the balance of what you need to eat to maintain your weight loss. The more carbs you eat the slower the weight loss so keep an eye on that.

In my opinion, you need to get into a routine. Forgetting to eat isn't an option with the DS, neither is getting in enough water. Track your food - how much protein are you getting each day? You should be at a minimum 90 grams of protein a day, if not more. You should also be drinking at least 64 ounces of water a day. You should also be taking your full complement of vitamins.

Thank yoi!! With protien drinks, i get plenty of protien... without, i am close, btwn 60-80, but still struggle. Today i did better, packed a small cooler while i was out and about and that helped. While at work, i stay pretty on track.

I remember thinking that I would be the first person ever for whom this would not work!! Your fear is normal. There is a good reply already on here with specific suggestions. I just want to say, please replace your fear of regain with celebration of your success.

thank you. You are correct , celebrate instead of fear.. :)

You're doing just fine, and yes your stomach will stretch. This is your key to kicking aside the need for protein shakes and you will soon be able to accommodate enough protein to not depend on shakes daily anymore, except for those days where you didn't feel like eating.

For instance, the average stomach is about the size of a football and can hold enough to fill that football. Shortly after surgery, it's about the size of an egg. For me, 12 years later, I'd say I have the capacity of a soda can. It's much larger than the egg, but still nowhere near the football. To watch me eat, you'd never guess I had wls at all. I eat "normal" meals, not small enough draw attention, but when I'm full, I'm full. To give you a gauge, I went to dinner last week and was able to eat about 6oz of steak with a caesar salad and half a baked potato. I even had two slices of the tiny loaf of bread with it.

Looking at your own food example, I only see a couple of bad things.

• If you're going to graze on nuts and bacon, make it real bacon and not turkey bacon. I swear it will change your life and there is nothing to be guilty about anymore.
• Beware the soft taco tortilla. Unless you get the crazy low carb ones, tortillas pack a much denser bread punch than real slices of bread. Corn tortillas have fewer carbs than flour, too. A hard taco adds some oil, which brings it through your digestive tract faster, probably absorbing even less.
• The popper and cheese stick if breaded goes to your carb count, but probably wasn't nearly as bad as that soft taco.

Thank you Valarie, that was a huge help and eased my mind!!!

Not the same surgery, obviously, but even for me soft corn is much easier to eat when I have a soft taco. I've come to like the taste of a warm one a lot better too.

You have a couple years, more or less, to lose all the weight and learn how to keep it off. After that you can still lose but it's work. That's why I tell everyone to just lose the weight as fast as they can. Don't worry about losing too much unless your BMI actually goes low enough to be underweight. The only good carb is one you don't eat. And as far as your dinner goes, more chicken and no taco shell.

Weightwise there is no way to tell what will happen. There is a chance you will be one of the lucky people who can eat as they please forever. Don't count on this being you! It's much more likely you will lose most but not quite all you want to lose and then gain about 10% back(this is why I say aim for 10% under goal!). We do lose some of our superpowers over time. We can eat more and we absorb more of what we eat. That's just the way it is, eventually many of us find our way back to dieting all the time. And the DS is the best surgery out there today, the people who have other procedures have it worse than us! The bottom line is, our bodies WANT to be fat. The best maintenance plan I have ever seen came from a woman here. She weighed every day and if she was over her number 3 days in a row, zero carbs till it was gone! Then regain never became an unmanageable problem.

For quite a while, protein and fat will be free foods. And that is what you should be eating!

It's OK. You chose the surgery that gives you the best option to keep the weight off.

I have what some people call big tummy days and little tummy days and for many that
is common. Keep your eye on protein totals, pick a high point that you feel means you
probably ate too much and try and stay under that. It's not that I am saying the extra protein
is the problem but I find that when my protein totals get high the "add ons" can be a problem.

While there are some people that can eat (within reason and protein first) as much as they want
I am certainly not one of these. After 5 years I have to keep a reasonable watch so as not to
fall into old habits.

My experience is that your stomach is never the same size as pre-op. I do consider it more of a factor
the first year and a half to 2 years. After that, for me, I focus more on the switch and eating to the
strengths of the DS which for me is high protein, regular fat, making sure carbs are not out of control.

Keep working on your protein totals. Over time you will e able to get more from food but don't be
in a hurry as long as you make up the deficit with protein shakes. Even at 5 years, scheduling and convenience lead me to days when I use the shakes to hit my totals.

Keep at it you are doing fine.

Pete