Tell me what I am doing wrong!

I had gastric bypass on 9/13/07. My weight at the time was 230 lbs. I now bounce between 178-181and have since late winter. I am demoralized and beyond upset. Except for last week when I was ill, I go to the gym 3-5x a week and do water aerobics and/or swim for over an hour. Tell me what I am eating that is wrong. When I saw the surgeon at my six month checkup he told me that if I am not losing weight I am eating too much. Today's menu: Breakfast. 1 go-lean waffle with a sprint of "i can't believe it's not butter" 1 cup of tea with some cofffee mate no sugar creamer. Snack: 1 lite yoplait yogurt Lunch 3/4 cup homemade turkey chili, no fat added. 1 cup fresh berries with sweet n low Snack 1 graham cracker with 1 tbs. natural peanut butter Dinner tonight Fresh shrimp ****tail (6-8) shrimp 2 tbs homemade ****tail sauce (heinz ketchup with horseradish) Snack skinny cow I drink 4-5 12 oz. decaff teas at work. I do drink diet cranberry juice. What is wrong with the above? Please any advice will be greatly appreciated. I am regretting my decision to have this surgery if all I am going to lose is less than 50 lbs. Bonnie

Hi There, Are you drinking when you are eating? I would stay away from the waffle. It is carbs carbs turn into sugar and sugar turns into fat. For breakfast I do Yogurt and coffee. No graham crackers either. Peanut butter on an apple. No rice potatoes I am 6 years out and have not had any rebound weight gain at all. I started out at 267 when I came home from the hospital. now I am at 130. I would spend the money and go and see the Dietition and see what she has to say. ARe you drinking soda of anykind????? Just some thoughts. Carla

Bonnie, I'm no expert --- but looks like you need more protein and cut out the unnecessary carbs. My Dietician recommends to have a protein and a GOOD carb for snacks and meals. Example: apple with peanut butter, slice of turkey and a small amount of a green veggie. I'd make sure to have protein first at every meal, have a protein based snack too.  Check the yogurt labels when shopping. The Yoplait had a higher sugar, calorie, fat count than many of the others as I recall.  Get rid of the waffles, graham crackers and skinny cow, the nutritional value is what your body needs, not always the tastes good fillers. Track your intake to see if you are getting in ENOUGH protein and not too much of the other stuff. Does that give you a better idea? Several of us post what we are eating daily and give each other advice. Check that out for additional ideas. Annette

Hi Bonnie, How frustrating for you.  Keep trying to analyze what you are eating/drinking and like Carla said it's worth it to see the nutritionist.  Are you journaling your food including protein, carbs, calories, sugar, etc.? so that you can see where it's not adding up? The 3/4 cup of chili would have been enough for me at lunch and I would have made the berries with sweet & low one of your snacks.  Can you cut back on the snacks?  I find if I get enough protein at breakfast and have a busy morning, I can usually make it to lunch without a snack.  I cannot however make it from lunch to dinner without a snack.  Then I usually like to have a little snack with my hubby after dinner at night (but before 9:00 p.m.).  Maybe you need the morning snack but can forego the evening snack. Tailor it to what you can do.  I also try to stay at or under 1,000 cal., at least 65 grams of protein a day.  I also don't do carbs like rice, potatoes, bread and pasta. When I got to a fifty lb. loss I still felt much better than I did before.  Linda has a daily food log that you can compare what your eating to that is called "What are we eating, what's eating us?"  Take a look at it.  If you ask Linda she'll help analyze it too. Keep up the good work.  Fifty lbs.  WOOHOO.  You can do it. Bev

Hi all, Thanks for the replies. I am a carb freak, that I know. I'll get rid of the waffle, graham cracker, and snacks and see if that helps. Do you think the diet cranberry juice (it's made with splenda) is hurting? It's only like 2 carbs. I do mix it with a little diet orange soda.  I am not using this tool very effectively, I guess. I am just terrified that I will fail at this, too. Bonnie

Hi Bonnie, I was told before my surgery NO MORE CARBONATION.  This was devastating news to me who was a 4-5 can a day Diet Coke fiend (starting at 8:30 a.m. I might add).  I quit cold turkey and have not gone back since.  The carbonation expands your stomach, can stretch your pouch and makes you hungrier, and is suspected in leaching calcium from your body causing osteoporosis.  So I would cut out the diet orange soda. The only way to fail is to stop trying and it looks like you are doing pretty good at trying by asking questions on OH. Good luck. Bev

The cranberry drink is fine ... it's only 5 calories. I actually like those as a change of pace, just don't mix it with anything. There are those who say carbonation makes your pouch stretch ... my dietitian says that's a myth, but you don't want to overdo it with diet pop. I have a cousin who is a coach; he was kind of overweight, went on a diet, one of things he did was to give up diet pop ... he lost lots of weight. The sweeteners tend to make you crave carbs. So you want to stay away from them as often as you can. 

Hi all, Thanks for the replies. I will take all of your suggestions, as in getting rid of all carbs and snacks. I am a carb freak, that I know.  I am terrified that I will fail at this weight loss attempt, too. Bonnie

I hear you Bonnie.  I had the gastric sleeve so my surgery is different than yours and I had given up diet soda for years and recently got hooked again but not as bad as before.  I can't drink that much at a time so I will never drink what I did before.  I have found that the occasional soda makes me really full and satisfies my sweet urge.  I sometimes have a small glass of soda as my snack.  It makes me really full and no calories.  With the Gastrick sleeve I was never really told not to drink soda although I had my surgery in Mexico and was not given that many rules.   I still drink way more water than soda and I agree that the stretching is a myth.  Just do in moderation.  I agree about the carbs, but don't cut them out completely because you will just end up craving them more.  The best thing that has helped me lately is tracking on dailyplate.com an upping the exercise with dailyplate.com helps me realize how many calories I get back when I just do 30 minutes of anything.  I was 240 when I started and have gotten stuck in the 189 weight frame as well.  I think there must be something about the way that some of us are made that age and metabolism really hang on to those last 30 - 40 pounds.  I have not been there in such a long time and my body is really fighting letting it go.  Be patient.  track your food for awhil, it really helps to think about what your putting in your mouth.  Just going back to it for not even a whole week, I budged 21/2 pounds.  I hear your pain, don't worry.  With just a little effort and thought your tool will do it's job even if it takes us longer to get there.   

Bonnie, I agree with what everyone ahead of me has said. I would wonder about the diet soda also. I was told to stay away from soda (diet or otherwise) since the carbonation in it causes the pouch to streach. That is about it for me. I would say that the diet cranberry juice is alright as long as there is no sugar and it is low in carbs (most fruit is high in carbs) but don't add the soda to it. Take a peek at the thread that Linda starts every morning. It is a big help and so is Linda with her ideas. Keep us posted on how you are doing and remember that we are here to help each other. Keep positive and focus on the weight that you have lost since before the surgery if you are like me you would have gained!