A note about our "tool" and regain

This is just a general note. We all know regain is possible (especially me). I think I am very guilty at times of recognizing the ways that being further out makes regain easier, but not really giving credence to the parts of the surgery that serve you in the long-term to help maintain your weight.

For example, correct me if I'm wrong but:

Even though you can eat way more at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5+ years post-op, if you are eating MINDFULLY, those portions are nowhere near what you probably ate pre-op.

That means if you are making stand-up choices (good, balanced choices) and paying attention to what and how much goes in your mouth, you are likely eating in a way that would make total regain a bit more difficult.

Even though much of our malabsorption of calories is reduced in the long-term, we still malabsorb some.

So again, you make good choices and you also have the benefit of at least a little bit of malabsorption on your side, yes? I know at 4.5 years out I still don't absorb a lot of fat. I don't take this as a license to eat a lot of fat (I rarely eat over 45g of fat a day). But when I make good fat choices I don't sweat them either.

For many of us...even though it can be a pain...even reactive hypoglycemia can have a positive effect on our eating choices.

I have special blood sugar moments but my surgeon won't (yet) call it RH. But I do know that fear of those special moments keeps me from going too carb crazy. So while it's a pain and I hate when my sugar does cra****'s sort of my negative reinforcement to good behavior.

Those are just a few thoughts I had. I still have my "tool" (not fond of that term but it's appropriate here). It just works differently than when I first got it. As does my whole body. But I still have a lot of valuable stuff going on that, when used properly, can help me maintain and lose weight. At least that's what I think.

What say you?

Great post Nik! I agree with you 100%. We have this amazing tool for life and we have to utilize it!

Good thoughts, all.

I have been thinking about weight vs. size lately, and you come to mind because when one looks at you, one would not guess your weight to be 200 lbs--not that there's a durn thing wrong with 200 pounds. I've been hanging pretty close to that weight for quite some time.

I have a theory too that the more and harder a post op exercises, the more he/she eats. It's not wholly a pouch size issue. I think those who seriously Work Out HAVE to eat more to stay running.

I also think that it's easy for us to fall into worrying about how much we have the physical capacity to eat. As long as we are mindful, as you say, we have some control over our process. And I think it's important to not confuse the amount we can eat with what we do eat. I could tear up some Cheez Its in mass quantities, but I rein myself in because I know that way lies madness (for me). It's much harder for me to eat mass quantities of chicken, for example.

It's taken me almost a year to figure out the concept of enough. As in, "I could stuff in more, but I've had enough."

 That is a great point! I always tell folks I couldn't tell you the maximum amount of chips I can eat because I haven't ever topped out. I can keep eating and eating and eating (these days a blood sugar drop would happen pretty quickly after or during that but still...). Give me 4 oz. of chicken breast OR even just 2 oz. of steak and you can stick a fork in me...I'm done.

So it's about choices. We can incorporate other things into our eating plans besides meat and protein but the protein must. Come. FIRST!!! There's a reason for that rule and it gets more important the further out you get. I think a lot of new folks don't get that one reason it's important to follow the rules early on (even the ones that seem like they are for appetite control even when you have no appetite) is so that those same things become second nature when you are further out. 

I had to learn the hard way. Don't be like me!

 i think about this a lot actually.  i can eat a lot more then a lot of people talk about on here.  but i think it's because i don't eat meat, so a lot of my proteins aren't really dense.  i still measure EVERYTHING, and make mindful choices.  at least for now.  i'm hoping that continues!

but sometimes i wonder if i shouldkn't go back to meat just to get that dense food.  i doubt i will though.

Um...for that particular reason I wouldn't.

Although you can eat more...calorie for calorie I'd be willing to bet you get just as much, if not more, nutrition out of your food. 

 yeah i guess that's true.  i'm trying to not get paranoid about the amount i can eat.

 My TOOL caused my wife to gain weight but only for about 9 months.  It has also caused me to develop a lot of new grey hair in the past few weeks!

I'm sure will cause your bank account to shrink in about 15 years if it hasn't already done so.

 I doubt anything will cost what the next 2-3 years are going to, but it will be totally worth it.

For an idea of what is ahead you can go back through my posting history and see what is going on.