Finally joining OH, looking for support to lose regainI

Hi!

I had RNY in 9/2012 at 316 pounds, I'm 5'10. I have been lurking this board since July 2012 but never joined. I am finally going to start posting here because I think having some support will help me to lose the regain I have put on.

My story: A year after surgery I got down to 180. I got stuck there and got frustrated and accepted that as my final result even though I was hoping to get to 160 or below.

I had a tummy tuck and arm lift in 12/2013, and afterwards my metabolism was increased and I noticed I could eat what I wanted without gaining and started incorporating sweets and bread, but that increase metabolism ended 3 months after surgery, and a year later I was 198.

At that time I got pregnant with my 3rd child. I had a lot of pg cravings and food aversions, but despite eating whatever I gained only 20 pounds and after he was born I ended up at 187 within a couple weeks of the birth. I maintained there until I stopped nursing him a year ago, and my weight jumped to 200. I accepted it because I didn't want to change my diet. I felt it was still much better than 316 and considered myself a success still.

He is now 2 and in June I stepped on the scale and was almost 215 pounds. It was a wake up call, and I have been working on my diet since then, and I am at 202 today.

My GERD was acting up too, and that has given me more motivation than anything. I aspirated in my sleep in May because of acid reflux, and developed aspiration pneumonia, it was scary! I saw my surgeon and he said it's possible that a revision will help. I desperately want to avoid more surgery for financial reasons as well as not wanting more scars and health risks of undergoing surgery. So far I have had an upper GI study with barium that looked normal, but I will also be having an upper endoscopy. I have my fingers crossed that weight loss will help me avoid a revision.

Since surgery I have always avoided drinking for 1 hr after meals, and I have always made sure that my meals were mainly protein, but my mistake was allowing myself to have ice cream daily (as much as I wanted 1-2 drumsticks for example) and not limiting my calorie intake, for example eating 3-4 regular eggs with 2 tbs butter and adding 1/2 cup shredded cheese because I was eyeballing it and letting my eyes tell me how much I wanted to eat instead of listening to my pouch. I was eating buns on my burgers and hot dogs and tortillas with my tacos, ordering a cookie with my meal from Panera bread. Basically I started thinking I was a regular person and why shouldn't I be able to eat what I saw other people eating.

Thankfully my pouch hasn't allowed me to return to eating exactly like I could before, I have no desire to eat a whole package of Oreos and I hate doughnuts now. I think if I hadn't continued to follow some of the bariatric rules I would be back at 316 already.

I have been reading the daily menu thread and it has helped me a lot. I replaced eggs with eggbeaters, stopped using butter, started measuring my cheese, no more sweets at all ( I eat a few tbs pb2 instead), no bread except a 50 calorie wrap if I really want it with chicken. I have been weighing and tracking everything and stopped eating out every day at work. As long as I eat dense protein I can go 4-5 hours between meals and the carb cravings are gone. I have been incorporating some light exercise on my recumbent bike as recommended by my surgeon.

I am hoping to be able to reach my dream goal of 160 or below. Sorry for writing such a long post, thank you for reading, I look forward to participating here more!

Welcome! Glad you have joined! Wishing you success as you get back to basics. Onward and downward!

Thank you!

Sounds like you are heading just the right way. Keep it up and you will get to goal

Thank you! That is the challenge, keeping it up, but so far as long as I avoid carbs I don't feel like snacking or eating things I shouldn't.

Good afternoon! I'm happy to see that you are reaching out for support. It really sounds like you know how to use your tool and now that you've made the choice to do so you CAN do this!! Wishing you the best of luck- visit and post often.

Thank you for welcoming me, I sure am looking forward to fitting back into my pants again. It's pretty ridiculous but when I outgrew my pants I refused to buy a bigger size and have been wearing nothing but skirts and dresses. You are right that it's a choice, I had myself convinced that I was hungry all the time and was "done" with dieting. Now I realize that it was a vicious cycle caused by my food choices and not paying attention to how food was making me feel (similar to my behavior prior to surgery).

Hi Ginger,

Welcome here! I understand how you feel about regain. I was sleeved in 2008 and slowly over 9 years, I gained back 50 lbs. of the 175 pounds I had lost. I can attribute it to lots of things. Menopause, owning a travel agency, thinking I had a normal metabolism (LOL) and drinking alcohol. I gave up the alcohol with the exception of a rare drink because of chronic reflux and because I have lupus/sjogrens so drinking does nothing to make me feel better.

This is my third surgery in 14 years. Lapband to sleeve ( my band prolapsed a few years out) and now sleeve to RNY a few weeks ago. ( I was suffering from extreme reflux so thus a revision again.) When you have reflux, all you want to do is reach for bread, crackers or anything to make the feeling go away. I take full responsibility for the regain but its hard when you don't feel good and you have a disease which causes extreme fatigue. So there, glad you are here!!

I appreciate you sharing your journey. It's hard to pay attention to the physical signs of your bariatric anatomy if the rest of your body is calling for your attention and sapping your energy! I feel so much better already now that I am not causing myself to have reactive hypoglycemia and what I call "carb coma." Does your dr recommend that you take a PPI still?

Great to see you recognized your trigger foods. Mine are carbs also and I had surgery 2015 and haven't reached my goal of 195. My surgeon moved away 6 months after my surgery and I have a hard time getting back on track since he left.