Anyone Else Pigging out & Not Gaining?

Me too guys. I have been scaring myself lately with the amount of food that I can eat at one time. I have been holding steady at 178 - 185 range for the last 6 months. I believe that it is a combination of excerise and nutrition that allow us to do this. I do have an occassional "bad" snack but, by and large, I remain with high protein, low fat, low carb eating plan. What worries me more is the old habits of grazing as a stress relief that are creeping back into my life. As long as I keep hitting the gym I seem to be OK. Keep up the good work men. Jay 

YES!!!!!!!!! I thought it was a DS thing, but it must be a man/exercise thing.  There is a post on the main forum of a poor woman who had the RNY who is seeking a revision. She is 1 year out, and has lost only 74 lbs, and only eats 800-1000 calories a day...YIKES.  I eat that before noon some days.  I can maintain my weight eating 5000-6000 calories a day, I'm still trying to lose, so on average I hit about 4000.   I do find myself hungry a lot ..and when I say hungry, I mean HUNGRY...like I could eat my left shoe...lol.   I do eat protein first, carbs 2nd, and most of the day is spent eating protein and veggies.  Although the last 2 days, I've eaten enough Cookies to fund Mrs. Fields for the next year...lol.  Scott  

Hey Guys, I'm with the majority here.  Seems like my eating is out of control, but I'm staying within a five pound range.  One day I'm up five pounds and then the next, I'm down two or three.  I seem to be eating non-stop when I'm home, but it's usually either sf popsicles, granola bars or crackers.  I cannot get enough crunchy foods.  I've never eaten so many chicken strips in my life. I think the exercise has alot to do with it.  Unlike you guys, I rarely exercise, except when I run an occasional race.  When I get into a running mood, and run every day, my weight really stays down.  The more I exercise, the more I have to eat so I don't lose any more.  I'm staying right around 150. I've also been told that I can never stretch my pouch, but I had the banded RNY, also referred to as the Fobi Pouch, and I think the band prevents stretching.  I'm not willing to find out tho.   Right now I'm at my healthiest and happiest point in my life.  That's saying alot coming from an old guy.   Thanks for all your inspiration. Floyd

Hai.  Watashi mo.  ;) Unfortunately, I'm not at goal yet, though.

Good Morning Gentlemen, Count me in....I pig all day long...and with the Ambien, all night long too....and nothing....but I will say that I put on 6 pounds when I had the PS...just sitting...but within in 3 days of going back to the gym...boop...it was gone again... But I do make better choices.... I got another question I want toget y'all opinion on.... I don;t want it to get lost down here so I'll repost Russ

I found I have to take in/eat more to keep my energy level up but you guys,.... are scaring the be-gebbies out of me.   I was eating 3500-4000 calories a day when I got to 408.  I have been doing some rough counting lately and getting worried that I'm reaching the 1800-2000 calories a day range at 9 months.  I really wanna see goal weight and am still about 50 pounds away.  I'd love to be there in 3 months at my 1 year surgiversary but that seems like too much to lose in that timeframe.  I kinda dropped off on my jogging to every other day,..or two.  I only have like 24 miles logged this month, so I registered for two races in Oct and Nov to get me motivated and comitted to get back on the road.  Reading youse guys posts keeps me honest and inflicts guilt about knowing I can do more and better too.  I appreciate the sharing.  It really helps me.   So,...I'm gonna take your knowledge and experiences so I don't weird-out but I'm gonna resist the intake increase a while longer,...just for the record.  Still a protein and water first guy too that definitley dumps on sugar and fat.  Here's a killer.  I was down to 236 for 4 days,...went to a Richond AAA Braves game and ate a boxed lunch (took the turkey off the bun and removed the American cheese).  Ate the 2 oz potatoe salad,   skipped the Lays chips, then 30 minutes later,.. I slowly and reservedly ate an oatmeal raisin cookie.  After an hour and no dumping,..I ate the second one (the lunch came with two cookies).  At dinner that evening, I ate a protein fruit smoothie with a 4 poptart chaser,...the night before my 9 month checkup.  What was I thinking???? Within the hour I was dumping.  At 8:30 I felt better so I went for a run to try and reduce the damage.  At checkup, I weighed in at 241 and have been bouncing at 240-239 the whole week.  What happened to the 236 for 4 days????  I am recommitted and am going to refocus and get this @!*&^#%$@  weight off.    Thanks for listeneing.   

I say "step away from the scale!!!!"   It plays mind tricks on you..esp at the point your at. In the beginning weight loss is almost guaranteed everytime you step on the scale (at least when you start over 400 lbs...i started at 492 lbs so i know just not eating 3 extra snacks a day and i'd lose 10 lbs).   But as you get closer to goal the scale stops the straight line decent and starts to level out.  It sometimes looks more like a heart monitor, bopping up and down with the bottom number bopping down lower and lower.  This didn't start for me until I hit about 230-240 range.  Now the scale goes down to a new low, stays there for a few days, bounces up a couple of lbs, then slowly goes back down....it's weird.  I was at 205 for a week...i weighed myself one day I was 205, the very next day I was 209...the next day 208.  I'm sure I didn't gain 4 lbs overnight....but when your closer to your goal weigh****er retention and if you had a good BM or not really make a difference at the scale, so it's best not to stress over it.   Dx has a great post on being a "slow loser"...maybe if he reads this he can repost it.  But it basically goes into detail about how the closer you get to goal, while the number may be smaller, it actually is the same body percentage being lost.  For example a 400 lbs man loses 40 lbs in a month thats 10 percent of his body weight, but if a 230 lb man lose 23 lbs....that is still 10 percent of his body weight.  So dont' get discouraged, just keep the course.  Scott

Only in my dreams have I not gained wait when I ate, especially pre-op. On the other hand even post op, i had a 3 week plateau between 4-5 months, and now I have mini-plateau for a few days, and the days I am on a plauteau, i'm up a pound or two, and since I'm eating between 1000-1200 calories a day, walking 4-5 miles and working out hard for 45 minutes to an hour in the gym, I know its not from what I'm eating.

I'm must be doing something wrong because my calorie intact is about 800 calories a day.  I'm still being very careful with what I eat - I had too many bad experiences with dumping. I am 3 1/2 months post surgery and dropped 95 pounds so far (started at 335).  I have 30 more pounds till I'm at my goal of 210. Just wondering, do people thing that I should I be increasing my calories? - Barry

Barry: I know every program is different, but 800 calories a day seems awfully low to me. The Duke WLS center where I had my surgery recommends 1200-1600 calories a day if I remember correctly. 95 lbs is a fantastic result - but here is where I am concerned: I had my surgery 3/29/07 so we are about the same duration post-op and I have lost 59 lbs. since surgery - now I only started at 282 so that makes a difference, but what I found is that when I got back into the weight-room once the risk of hernia had passed that I had lost a tremendous amount of my strength indicating that some of my losses were muscle or "lean body mass" So I wonder if the case is the same for you? Have you tried lifting since surgery and noticed decreased strength?  One last thing to keep in mind, and I know I often forget to take this consideration, and perhaps this explains alot about what all these guys are experiencing - is that our surgery doesn't just work through restricting the volume of food we can eat, but ALSO how many calories we can absorb. Depending on what it is you are eating, how long your bypass, etc. most RNYers never even absorb about 25% of the calories they eat (don't quote me on that exact percentage though) So guys who are very active eating 3500 calories a day are in effect eating closer to 2600 calories a day which is totally inline with their bodies actual calorie needs. So if you eat 800 it is really like eating 600 calories when you factor in malabsorbtion.  Anyway, I'm certainly NOT trying to slam you or anything, and at 3 months post op certainly not purporting myself as being an expert by any stretch. Just trying to offer an educated guess at your question. The bottomline is that a quick call to your program's nutrtionist will answer your question. Keep us posted!