I lost 10 pounds! (warning....long)

Well, this is a first for me! when was the last time we went on a diet and had to lose just 10 or 20 pounds? well for me by the time i became obese it was more like, what's the point of losing just that little when i really needed to lose over 140 pounds. so think back. way before pre op diets for surgery. back when you were just getting a little fatter. for me that's a long way back. about 25 years ago.

now for us guys a ways down the road we lament about a little bounce back in weight and how to maintain. yep, happens. now i'll tell you a little back story before i tell you about the 10 pounds so bear with me. you all know my story about a few complications. i lost all my weight by 7 months. hell, i slipped way past the doc's numbers as well. that was due to pain meds. i went from 287 to 145. i think you can see some of those 145 pics on my profile. everybody said i looked gaunt and sick. well, i was. i was addicted to pains meds and you know that whole story so no need to rehash that.

i'll give full credit to the surgery for the weight loss. the body? that belongs to me! some of the guys on here became small time athletes in biking, hiking, running, swimming, weightlifting, hell, you name it and we're doing it. so my body came from the new life style. that took a lot of hard work and determination. diet and exercise guys. it's not just a mantra or a throw away saying.

ok, so back to the ten pounds. well, when i kicked the pain meds sure enough, my weight started north and my 32" pants started getting tight. now it seems my body wants to stay around 150-155. it all depends on my lifting efforts and muscle mass but i got up to 168 pounds. i could see my tits getting flabby and my four pack going away. (forget the six pack, not in the stars without surgery!)

so what to do about it? diet. oh man (can't seem to swear here anymore) you gotta be kidding me. diet? yep. diet. well.......truth be told i work out about an hour a day and run 2.5 miles. i can really eat about anything and not gain. so how did i gain? i tested the waters and started eating garbage. crunchy is my downfall. i started eating some bad stuff, a little ice cream here and there and started my worse habit back up. grazing at night. what the hell was i doing to mysefl? i could see it manifest itself into weight gain.

by the time i gained back 18 pounds i knew i had to do something. i had to diet. now a funny thing has happened guys. at first, like everyone here, i ate like a bird. then my pouch stretched and i could eat again. now in the past few months, it's back to bird food. i just can't seem to eat very much. one of the best things i've ever done since surgery was to learn to eat on small plates with a small fork or spoon. yeah, it really worked for me! i also learned to stop eating when full. well, i stopped that last rule a while back. now for some unknown reason it's come back and i can stop. every single time we go out with friends i have the doggy back nearly full. it seems i can only eat about an appetizers worth of food IF that nowadays. so i admit, that's a start and a good help to weight loss.

but the dreaded diet. back to the beginning of my post. i'll tell you two times i can remember losing 50 pounds on purpose. when i first started gaining weight and realized it was out of control my g/f and i joined nutra system. yep, worked. at that time i may have come down oh, a pants size. i didn't keep up with it because i hated the idiotic meetings once a week. the ever changing personel *****ad from a script each week bored the hell out of me. i just wanted the food and get out on my saturday morning. no lectures please. as with all diets, you know i gained it back and then some.

the second time was maybe 5 or so years ago. my g/f and i had a speculative real estate venture going. i'm a contractor and we bought houses on the west side of LA, gutted them and resold. well, that's when the going was good. since i was on sight for months every day for 12 to 16 hours i would take trim projects to work on since i was stuck on site. i liked to build over the top decks mostly and the last house was done during a summer heat wave. man, i lost weight. i dieted while working too. my daily attire at that time was to wear these baggy parachute type pants. back then it was hard finding pants past 44's. anyway, i remember it being a weekend. my g/f was out shopping and i decided to try on some old jeans and a hawaiian shirt stashed way back in the closet. wow, they fit! i went out in the front yard of our house to garden a little. she came home and said hello thinking i was someone else! i turned and will never forget her look. she made me promise to burn my baggies and never wear them again. she said i looked so much thinner with real clothes on. what a feeling. remember those moments?

ok, fat again. you know the story better than i. down the timeline and i get the surgery. going great for the most part. then i gained back a couple years down the road and low and behold, that old problem rears it's head again. my pants are tight. ok, as promised, this is how i actually dieted and got the ten pounds off. i used substitutes for the bad stuff. if i was going to graze well, rice cakes instead of crackers. i've always sucked on sugar free candy and got a ton of it now. i chew gum to help too. i doubled my efforts to get in more water. i watched portion control as well. yeah, i had a cheat meal here and there. this time i felt like a regular person and lost the weight slow and steady so it would stay off. i could never have done this before because i would just jones on food, crave and feel starved all the time.

so this surgery saved me in the sense that guys, we can diet like real people now if we have to lose. there's no secret here. i think scott went to OA. hey, whatever it takes. i'm even thinking of nutra system again if the weight comes back. i'm a creature of habit so if i eat the same thing over and over, it will work for me. i guess what this long winded post is all about is this. once you've been out for a year or so, you're a normal human being again. so act like one. don't freak out like your old self that losing weight is hopleless. it isn't. it's about a little self control and a diet that works. approach your weight loss like you did way back when. who cares if you have to join a club or something to do it? we're normal again and have to take normal measures to lose weight. this time around i'm not starving doing it and that has made all the difference. the rest is purely in my head to have the guts to stick with the diet. now it's up to you as far as weighing in goes. if the scale makes you nuts do what i do. just go by how tight your pants feel. believe me, if they feel loose, your body fat is down and you've done it. i used to weight everyday. no more. lifting causes too much of change in daily weight. but if it helps you, read yourself daily. no rules here.

so that's it. just felt the need to once again reflect and vomit up something besides foam. i kept thinking what on earth should i do to lose 10 pounds? i read all your posts thinking it didn't pertain to me. what i found reading those posts is there's no secret here. i think at some point each of us will gain some back and be unhappy and fearful it won't stop and we failed. i say expect some weight gain but when you see it going north AND you know it's bad, then stop, re-read some of the posts on this subject and find a diet that will work for you. man, it's weird being normal again huh? .......carbonblob

Good to read you post, Bro!

My contribution here and on running boards lately has pretty much been the occasional blurt out when I've had too much coffee.

Gradual weight gain is probably something we'll always have to deal with. Looks like you've pretty much got it under control, though. The main thing is that it's on your mind and you're taking action when it starts to come back. Staying active pays big dividends, for sure.

The folks who will be in big trouble are the ones who take in a lot of liquid calories, don't work their metabolism by drinking water and eating high protein and high fiber food every three hours, those who pig out before going to be and so on.

My latest things in addition to the exercise are:

1. Still getting a lot of protein

2. Roughly a gallon of liquid a day

3. Tons of fiber from nuts, raw cabbage

4. Lots of good fat from flax oil stirred into two raw eggs in the morning (supposed to help with absorption of the oil, eggs first thing in the morning have also been shown to curb hunger)

I've cut way back on the workouts. I only have two upper body workouts a week: Chest and lats and then about three days later, shoulders and arms. In between that I get massive let exercise using every possible motion you can imagine, even doing exotic lunges (ever see the Plie lunge?) and using stretch cords for leg sweeps. Still do the deadlifts. Also increased abs to 45 minutes twice a week. I do the ab wheel, hanging leg lifts, back crunches, side bends and at least 4 sets of twisting abs exercises.

Anyway, this has turned into a ramble. Glad to see you and glad to hear you are well.

Best Wishes,

Dave

 

I hear you on the bounce back....I think the "fear" of being fat again is in all of us.  I don't know if there is a solution, I was hoping I'd eventually get to a goal weight, settle into it, not have a bounce back (wishful thinking...lol) and be the same size pants for more then a year for the first time in my life.   ........I guess this is a lifetime marathon, not just a sprint to our weight loss goal line. Scott

Hey Carbonblob, Thanks for posting.  I read each word and it really helped me a lot.  One of my biggest fears is that I will fail at this and gain my weight back.......it really scares the Hell out of me.  So far the worst thing I have experienced it a stall and even that is scary.  I still have some ways to go before I reach my goal and due to some physical problems have not been able to exercise the way I really need to.  But I have finally been given the go ahead from my doctors to start walking a little and that helps my mental outlook as well as my physical appearance.  I am not looking forward to the "bounce back" weight gain but I know it will happen at some point.  Your post helps me to look at it and know if I use my tool and my head I will be able to handle it.  I read all the post from you guys who have experienced this and they all help.  It still scares the heck out of me but at least I know others have been able to handle the bounce back weight gain effect.  And I thank you for you advise and experience.

Hey cb, Excellent post. I'm probably speaking for a lot of us when I say that you've told a version of my own history, a history of some successes always followed by failures (weight going up). I tried OA, Nutrisystem, Optifast (twice), liquid protein--remember that icky stuff, old timers? I once lived on oner--count'em, one!--slice of thin packaged turkey and two slices of dry bread for 6 weeks. Everything worked--for a time. Lately I've almost thinking of myself as "normal." I still want to lose about 20lbs, but I'm not terrified, angry, depressed, or in denial about it. I'm just serious about eating smart, etc. That's a new one. So, your story is a great reminder and comfort, wise, honest, and it came at a great time. Thanks, friend.

I appreciate all you old timers hanging around here and keeping the trail lit for us rooks. I'd like to get to 210 and just stick it and never worry about gaining or losing again. But then again, I've always been on the lookout for something easy. You're observation that it's possible to lose 10 or 20 if you'll work at it whereas 100 to 200 is impossible is right on the mark.