Let's share!

Regain seems to be on a lot of peoples minds. I often wonder if people following their food/exercise program really do regain. The people I personally know who have regained have gone back to their old eating habits. Lets share our personal experiences. (1) How far out from surgery were you when you hit goal or quit losing? (2) How much weight did you lose? (3) How far out from surgery are you now? (4) Have you regained any weight? (5) If you've regained was it due to reverting back to old eating habits or stopping your exercise? (5) How hard has it been for you to maintain your weight? I will post my answers in another post.

(1) Stopped losing around 18 months. My surgeons goal for me was 215 because he didn't think I'd be able to lose below that figure. At 5' 6" I now weigh 188. (2) I lost 222 Lbs (3) Now 27 months out from surgery (4) No regain at this moment (5) N/A (6) I'm finding it to be a continuous struggle to maintain. I will admit that every time I see the scales go up it doesn't come as a surprise, because it usually means I've been eating sweets again (no dumping in my life). I made a 5 pound rule before I started maintenance. If I see a 5 pound gain on the scale I go back to basics until it's gone. So far that's worked for me, but I'm in the process of re-evaluating my 5 pound rule because I'm tired of gaining and losing the same 5 lbs over and over. I need to learn to live with my food/exercise program daily with the rare treat, rather than the old all or nothing thinking. I want to get out of the diet mentality and change my thought processes to a more balanced lifestyle. WLS has brought so many wonderful changes to my life but I've realized recently that by allowing myself the 5 pound gain that I set myself up to have to do the diet thing for the rest of my life. It's time to get real with myself and accept that sweets can't be a part of my life, except on rare occasions. I've known it, but I suppose I didn't want to accept it until now. I do love to play this mental game of denial with myself. Starting today my 5 lb rule is out the door. I will accept nothing less than a balanced relationship with food, which will lead to no weight gain.

(1) How far out from surgery were you when you hit goal or quit losing? At about 9 months did not hit my goal, but my docs goal was right on it seems to be where my body likes to stay. (2) How much weight did you lose? 105 at lowest ended up at -98 (3) How far out from surgery are you now? 2 years (in 3 days) (4) Have you regained any weight? Yes about 17 pounds, but I got 10 of that back off and am pretty successful at keeping it off. (5) If you've regained was it due to reverting back to old eating habits or stopping your exercise? absolutely I went for 18 months before I ate anything with sugar in it. Although I do have to admit to eating lots of crackers (wheat thins) and popcorn. (5) How hard has it been for you to maintain your weight? It's not hard at all IF i can kieep away from the sweets. That is getting easier, as I said i went for 18 months without, and I felt so deprived when I started eating it again I went a little crazy, thinking all the time ... what can I have now? Michele

) How far out from surgery were you when you hit goal or quit losing? About 18 months (2) How much weight did you lose? 110 pounds (3) How far out from surgery are you now? 21 months (4) Have you regained any weight? not yet. (5) If you've regained was it due to reverting back to old eating habits or stopping your exercise? I think I stopped losing because I started to go back and stopped exercise. (5) How hard has it been for you to maintain your weight? I watch the scale and get nervous and scared if it goes up more than a few pounds. But I am scared to death of regaining. I am reading a book by Susan Maria Leach. Before & After weight loss surgery. She has a saying in there that I want to share. I hope I get it right. "is this food as good as being thin feels?" she asks herself this before she eats something that she shouldn't. Good Luck!

Good Afternoon: 1) How far out from surgery were you when you hit goal or quit losing? Had RNY on 9/28/03. Quit losing 6 months ago (10/05) (2) How much weight did you lose? 160 lbs. (3) How far out from surgery are you now? 2 years, 8 months (4) Have you regained any weight? YES. 20 lbs.!!!! (5) If you've regained was it due to reverting back to old eating habits or stopping your exercise? I was never a really avid exercise person due to my many jobs and hectic lifestyle. I have reverted back to eating while watching TV and snacking. However, I don't eat sweets and I now realize that cheese, protein bars, etc. all have CALORIES!!! (5) How hard has it been for you to maintain your weight? I need to regroup my life to get back on track. CAN SOMEONE HELP ME!!! I'M DESPERATE. I DON'T WANT TO PURCHASE A LARGER CLOTHES SIZE AS IT WOULD COST ME MONEY I DON'T HAVE. Kathy from Massachusetts

(1) I quit losing about 15 months post op. (2) I lost 103lbs (3) I am now almost 23mo out from surgery. (4) I regained 8 lbs right away and slowly gained another 6lbs. (5) I think the initial 8lbs was because I was too low (124 lbs) and the other 6 was due to SNACKING!!! (5) Although it hasn't been "hard" to maintain (I did quickly lose the extra 6lbs), the mental part of it is excruciating!!!! I FREAKED OUT when I went over 135lbs!! I guess I set the limit @ my original goal of 135 lbs. Anything under that is acceptable to me, but over that and you would have thought my world was ending!!! When the scale read 138, I felt soooo bad about myself and then I remembered how THRILLED I was when I first dipped under 150!! Funny how our focus changes, huh. I always failed at dieting because I hate feeling deprived. I know that was my problem. I think that I will continue to be successful at this as long as I remember the word "moderation"! I will continue to indulge in my favorite snacks. Just not as often or as much. Snacking will once again become a treat not a habit. I also decieded it was time to do one of the things that I had listed in my reasons to have WLS: I want to run!! I am going to sign up to participate in the Inaugural Disneyland Half Marathon!!!! I AM SCARED TO DEATH!!!! I have NEVER been able to run before and on top of that I have to raise $1900 to participate. I don't know how to do either, but I am going to give it a shot!!! WISH ME LUCK!!!! Patrice

(1) How far out from surgery were you when you hit goal or quit losing? Hit goal at 9 months, quit losing at 13 months. (2) How much weight did you lose? 141 lbs (3) How far out from surgery are you now? 15 months (4) Have you regained any weight? At almost 13 months post-op I reached a low of 119 lbs but it didn't stay there long, I now stay between 121-124 lbs. (5) If you've regained was it due to reverting back to old eating habits or stopping your exercise? I don't think it's considered "regain" more of a leveling out. I continue to eat the same way I did early out and do so 95% of the time. (5) How hard has it been for you to maintain your weight? Well, right now it's been fairly easy as I'm still early in the game....it does scare me how much I can eat now and I'm so afraid to gain any back. Dana

(1) How far out from surgery were you when you hit goal or quit losing? I quit losing at about 10-13 months out. (2) How much weight did you lose? Lost 172#. (3) How far out from surgery are you now? A few months over 3 years. (4) Have you regained any weight? I play with 6-8 lbs. (5) If you've regained was it due to reverting back to old eating habits or stopping your exercise? Sometimes my weight gain is due to hormonal fluctuations and salt intake and other times it is due to wheat thins. I still avoid sugar and behave myself about 92% of the time. (5) How hard has it been for you to maintain your weight? In truth, it's not hard for me at all. I run at least 6 miles a day and I also lift weights and walk during my lunch hour. So when I do gain due to wheat thins, just imagine how many wheat thins I am eating. LOL I can't eat a lot at one time, but I can pack em in throughout the day! Traci 303/131

Hi, Pat! This does seem to be a very timely topic these days. Thanks for posting this. Here we go: (1) How far out from surgery were you when you hit goal or quit losing? Neither I nor my surgeon had set a goal weight for me. Prior to surgery, I felt that getting under 200 pounds would be wonderful for me, as I had not seen that weight in 25+ years. I quit losing weight at about 9-10 months, I believe. (2) How much weight did you lose? My highest pre-surgery weight was 270, and I lost down to 160, so a total of 110. (3) How far out from surgery are you now? 32 months out. (4) Have you regained any weight? Yes, I have regained about 20 pounds from my lowest post-surgery weight. (5) If you've regained was it due to reverting back to old eating habits or stopping your exercise? In all honesty, I would have to say that my eating habits are about the same. I still eat now pretty much the way I did prior to surgery, just less of it. I do try to focus on protein first, and have it at every meal (which I did not worry about prior to WLS). I do not have dumping, and have not eliminated sweets from my life, unfortunately. I have never engaged in regular exercise post-WLS ****il just recently). I realize now that I'm going to have to go into "battle" mode and exercise will have to be a part of my routine if I'm to stop this gain, and possibly lose back a few pounds. (5) How hard has it been for you to maintain your weight? Up until a few months ago, it was not difficult, really. But I think that was because my body was still responding to the surgery. I believe that is all over now, and my body has readjusted, I'm able to eat more, and I don't believe there is as much malabsorption going on. Thanks again, Pat. Reading all these responses is interesting and informative. Carlita

1 - Stopped losing at 1 year maintained for 1 year and lost antoher 10 pounds. Started at 336 day of surgery this morning weighed 139. I also weigh eveyday. 2 - 197 pounds total. 3 - almost 3 years 6/17 4 - No regain, but worry about it everyday!!! 5 - N/A 6 - I feel like it is hard to maintain my weight. Because I can eat more I feel like i need to exercise more to compensate for the extra calories. I am a gym junkie. I think I have burned myself out. Been feeling really tired alot. I take all my vitamins. My heart rate and blood presure is really low now. The dr. seemed concerned about it my heart rate is about 50 BPM and my last BP was 60/80. I have not had a peroid since Sept. (I am not pregnate) my PCP just did some labs to check my hormones but I have not got the results back yet. Has anyone else experienced this?? Wish ther was a spell check on this. Jennifer