My crazy body and it's ups and downs....what gives?

OK experts- I'm coming to you all for advise.

Background:

Lap-Band 6/2004. Got to goal at year 3. Stayed there for almost 4 years, had a baby. I put on just a few pounds during  the pregnancy but nothing significant. I then ended up with 2 obstructed bowel issues, an appendectomy, a colonoscopy, an endoscopy that ended in my dr cauterizing ulcers, and various female stuff. Then we realized my port was leaking, so Oct 12 I had a port revision. The point of including all the surgeries (10 total in almost two years) is that I had to be unfilled each time. Now that I have the new port I have restriction.  In the almost two years since I've had the baby I have gained 60lbs.

Fast forward: Two weeks ago I had the horrible stomach virus that's going around. I lost 12lbs in about 5-6 days. I slowly started eating again. I saw my scale go up about 5 lbs- I figured normal since I had been in starvation mode from the virus.  Last week I progressed to a normal diet....ie yogurt and coffee with milk for breakfast, cheese slice around 10, 1/2 cup of mostly protein at lunch, 1/4 cup almonds around 2-3pm, 1/2 c of mostly proteins for dinner.... water and tea throughout the day for hydration. I've had little to no loss. Yesterday I ate my yogurt and then a protein bar, then I ate 2 cookies and 2 pieces of fudge out of the teacher's lounge, lunch was a homemade slice of pizza,  then I had 1/2 cup of salad with chicken pieces (I mostly ate the chicken) for dinner. I lost 3lbs yesterday.  

I notice that when I eat like a crazy person (like yesterday) that I'll lose a pound or two (or more) but when I stay on course I tend to stall. I am eating mostly healthy and don't veer too often. What gives? What are your thoughts? 

 

 I'm so sorry to hear you had to have all those surgeries in such a short time. That's more than most people undergo in a lifetime.

I've had a low-calorie/no-loss, high-calorie/loss pattern in my own body in the past. Not all the time, but enough to make me sit up and take notice. It does seem like my body is hoarding calories when I'm not eating enough, then letting go of weight when I'm eating more. But you'd have to talk to your dietitian or doctor about whether that's physiologically true. My understanding is that the body forecasts its caloric needs based on food intake and energy output (and therefore weight gain/loss) over a matter of weeks, not days.

I can't endorse eating like a crazy person even if it seems to trigger weight loss. That kind of eating is what made me obese in the first place, and cookies, fudge and pizza don't do your health any favors regardless of what they do for your weight loss. But I don't see any harm in following a "calorie shifting" eating plan that includes mostly healthy foods and a few treats. If you Google "calorie shifting" you'll find lots to read on the subject.

Jean

Thanks Jean!
I don't normally eat like that. Being the holidays we had less than healthy food in the teacher's lounge. I've been at a crazy plateau while eating healthy for months. After I had eaten the pizza and such I expected a slight gain. I was shocked when my scale went the other way. I'm not regimental, I'll eat an oreo once in a while but never crazy like the other day.
I wonder if it really does have to do with a calorie shift.... Thanks for the information. I'll start giving it a try with an alternate of calories using healthy foods.

As they say, starvation mode? Sometimes you have to shake things up a bit, that is how I lost weight, I stayed on course Mon-Fri...and ate more food on the weekends and it worked like a charm for me, but I also walked daily too.

Thanks! I'll have to track calories to a 'T' for a bit again. I've used fit day in the past. I hadn't given any thought to shifting calories around.
Thanks!