Maintenance, How Hard IS It?

Well, I had intended to get to 130 but I have really questioned that goal and decided 135 to 140 works for me. Problem is, I'm still losing and this past Monday, I was at 132.8 which isn't horrible but I'm starting to drop a size (actually, I suspect a size down would fit just fine) and I really am happy to be a medium, I look great, feel great and have no desire to be any smaller than I am. I do exercise a fair amount but not obsessively so.

I think my real problem is finding a calorie level that's high enough. I feel like I eat constantly. I tend to enjoy plainer foods, am not a fan of sauces, etc. A great meal for me is a piece of chicken and veggies. I am starting to add more carbs, i.e. quinoa, brown rice to my diet. That is one problem, the food I prepare is as a general rule pretty low cal, low carb etc. The 2nd problem is that I still don't eat a lot in one sitting. Max 2 to 2 1/2 oz of meat and 2 sides of an oz to 1 1/2 oz a piece and like I said, I eat fairly plain food so I like broccoli, just broccoli, no sauce except for perhaps a bit of light margarine.

I'm open to suggestions for recipes that are more calorie dense, albeit healthy. Is this a weird problem?

Hi Grammy,

Oh my what a good question! So I am 5yrs & a bit post op. I am have been in maintenance for about 3 yrs now. Is it hard. OMG YES!

So I will share with you my opinion and my thoughts. Do understand that we are all different and this is what worked for me.

I am not surprised you are still losing. The malabsorption lasts a good 2 - 2.5 yrs, sometimes 3yrs. You are just a little over a year so you still have malabsorption and restriction.

I personally feel that our bodies will find their "sweet" spot. My body likes 130-135lbs. I do have to fight to stay there because there is a sugar addicted fat lady that lives inside of me LOL LOL LOL

Nothing wrong with enjoying plain foods, eat what tastes good to you! I think its amazing that you find a great meal to be chicken & veggies, that's ideal in my opinion.

IMHO I think your portions are way to small for being close to 18 months out. Your whole meal is approximately 4oz (1/2 cup). So I think you need to up your portion size to 1 cup, if you can't handle 1 cup right away, go with 3/4 cup and work up to 1 cup. Due to the nature of eating protein & veggies your calories will be lower than some.

Cheese is calorie dense. Peanut butter is calorie dense (I am not a big fan of peanut butter personally but lots of people eat it). Avocado is calorie dense and full of good fats. Quinoa, bulgar, couscous are great ideas to add in, I personally would not do rice (fills up the pouch way to fast) but that's just me.

Keep up the great work, and up your portions if you can. Best of luck!

Thank you for your response. I will definitely add the peanut butter, I like that with apples and in a pb & jelly wrap, I just never think of that. Grrrr Love quinoa but have never tried couscous or bulgur. I did order farro, teff & barley from Amazon to try since they are high in protein also. I do eat cheese but not a lot so could add more of that in. Not a fan of avocado. Today, I ate a whole ham & turkey wrap but that was because I didn't eat tomatoes. I love veggies, can you tell?

Congratulations on losing the weight. Maintenance is way harder than losing... especially the figuring it out part.

I agree with Daisy pick some calorie dense foods as well as inch your portions up. I am three years in maintenance this week, and definitely eat more fruit veggies and carbs than I did when I started but added them gradually.

Spinach is a big favorite of mine and it is easy to eat. Even my salads I like to chop everything small. Also eat whole fat dairy. Greek yogurt is a great one- protein, some carbs and goes down easy.

Generally at this point I eat 3-4oz of meat. But there can be some days I take 2 bites and I am like- yup I am done. The mysteries of our pouch. The other mystery of course are the days you can eat all the food.

I also feel I am eating constantly. I did go back to including protein drinks to keep my protein up. Even though I was eating a lot of protein -100+ grams a day- the last 15lbs I lost was all muscle. Not good. So as I say I had to listen to people smarter than me and add carbs back in gradually. I would botch the explanation but it does help with the gaining muscle equation.

Maintenance is a learning journey about yourself, and not one size fits all.

Good Luck

Thank you so much for responding. I really appreciate it. I still do protein smoothies although not every morning and I love my "iced coffee" which is basically a premier protein with coffee and sugar free torani's. I drink those just cuz they are good.

Maintenance is hard but doable with our tool. I know because I have lost hundreds, probably thousand of pounds over the years and always gained back even more so losing weight was pretty much the easy part.

I am almost 9 years out and what I have learned has taken me years to figure out what works for me. It is very individual. I cannot tell you how to eat or what to eat because what I do would probably not work for you or anyone else and what others do might not apply to me.

One thing I enjoyed when I was still losing and wanted to add calories was hollandaise sauce. Of course I couldn't figure out how to make it decently but every time I went out I would ask for a side of hollandaise sauce. I put it on eggs and meat and veggies and anything else I could think of.

I also have a lot of restriction and can't eat that much dense food so I am fairly liberal with things like cheese, sour cream, mayo and others high fat things. Also cream in my coffee and adding it to recipes.

At first I tried adding 100 calories at a time but that wasn't practicable so increased my protein drinks but by about 5 years out I got to where if I saw one more protein shake I would scream. Now I might occasionally have one if I am too busy to fix food but for a while I was having at least 2 or 3 a day.

Don't worry too much about losing too much weight at this point. It isn't too unusual and you will probably be hearing comments from people saying you have lost too much weight. That is because people aren't used to seeing us without excess weight and they think you look sick. Also, in the first several years my face looked very drawn.

After a while things will redistribute and I remember people started telling me how much better I looked with a few extra pounds and I hadn't gained a thing lol.

After about 2-3 years things will level off and you could experience a little bounce back and that should put you right where you want to be. I always tell people not to over react if they start hearing people saying they look too thin. They start eating junk in order to keep from losing too much and after a while that comes back to bite them. So don't change the way you eat just because others are telling you to go eat a cheeseburger. The only person I listened to was my doctors and as long as they weren't concerned I didn't worry about it.

Many people who have been around here for a while will tell you that many people who are concerned about losing too much in the first 2 or 3 years are crying about gaining too much around year 5.

Just keep doing what you are doing and take it slow and you should be fine.

LOL, I've been hearing you are getting too thin for at least 30 lbs. I know some of it is concern but a lot of it is I hate seeing you succeed where I keep failing and some is, you look so different and my mental picture just doesn't work. I'm the one who thinks I'm getting too skinny. Although I'm short, I'm pretty big-boned and not only can I see my collar bones (love them, don't know why but I know I've heard others say they can see their collar bones with excitement) but I can count my ribs by looking in the mirror. I also figure I carry 5 to 10 lbs in excess skin which I don't plan plastics for. I'm 67 and I can hide most of it without difficulty. Although I'm wearing mediums, I am pulling my mediums up cuz they are falling down and my bra shows on my blouses and shirts so I figure I'm more of a small now. I've never had any desire to be a size 2 and I'm tired of buying new clothes a size down. I want to buy clothes and wear them for several years and build a wardrobe. I know I'm being a whiny butt. I guess too, part of my problem is I'm a control freak and I want to be able to control my weight and I'm not doing such a hot job at it. I'm not losing like I was, of course, but 3 to 4 lbs a month will be 18 to 24 lbs in 6 months and that's a lot of weight. I guess I thought I'd hit my goal weight and the brakes would engage.