IT HASN'T BEEN A YEAR YET BUT.......

All hail the grads. I'm only out 7 months but my weight loss has slowed drastically. I need to know from you guys how I can jumpstart again for real. I 've read so many different articles and have gotten so many different views from thers that I find myself getting fed up with the whole WLS process. Please, information from someone who knows the struggle would help out for sure. Any suggestions? I've only lost about 80 lbs in the 7 months. I eat right but I don't exercise as much as I did the first couple of months out. That i'm sure is part of the problem.

What do you mean you've ONLY lost 80 pounds in 7 months? Have you ever been able to lose that much that fast before? How much total weight do you have to lose? If you are a light-weight the weight wont come off all at once. You don't really have a profile so I'm not sure how much help you will get. Do you track your food intake? Fitday.com is a good place to do that. You should be getting in at least 60 grams of protien daily. How are your carbs and calories? Are you eating under 1000 or over? Under will not be enough to keep up the weight loss. Are you getting in plenty of fluids? Exercise at this point would be an assest since you are in the "window" of opportunity. You need to find a way to get yourself focused and back on track. Do you have a local support group in your area? You say you are struggling but aren't very specific as to what it is that you are struggling with really? It just sounds like you think you should have lost more weight and are unhappy with that. Think back 80 pounds ago. How far have you come since then? What have you been able to achieve and accomplish that you couldn't before with the added 80 pounds? Just some questions to ponder over. I hope you are able to find what you are looking for and wish you continued success! amber 299/141/140 -158 (1 more to my goal)

Thank you for your reply. I weighed 295 lbs 5 minutes before my surgery began. I wasn't exactly a light weight. That's for sure. I do get in at least 70g of protein in daily and am eating more than 1000 cals. I don't always get in all my fluids everyday but most days. As for support groups, my surgeon does have support groups every other week or so but I am a nurse working in a State Psychiatric hospital and don't always get to leave work to go much anywhere else but home to kids and then to church. So needless to say, OH is my support group. Alot of us in my anniversary forum are going through the same problem right now but some are loosing like crazy. So I thought maybe I could get us some help from the grads. Well, thanks for giving us something to think about. Shana

It's almost impossible to even begin to offer suggestions since there is no information on your profile and you didn't give us any details in your post. I can say with assurance that the weight won't continue to just drop off like magic. It gets harder to lose every month after wls because we can eat more and are absorbing more of what we eat each month. Most people are able to continue losing if they are following their food/exercise program but the weight drops at a slower pace. I honestly think each person has to figure out what works for them. Some can eat any kind of carbs and lose, others can get by with eating complex carbs, some of us had to almost delete carbs from our diet in order to keep losing. Each person truly has their own unique wls journey. My surgeon gave me this formula for how the weight will drop for compliant patients and it pretty much proved true for me. First six months weight loss (fill in your actual #'s) Second six months weight loss (1/2 of first six months) Third six months weight loss (1/2 of second six months) Example First six months 100 lbs Second six months 50 lbs Third six months 25 lbs Best of luck!

Congratulations on the 70 pound loss....I bet you already feel much better. It's important to keep in mind that everyone looses at a different rate. Those with less to loose typically loose at a slower pace than those with a great deal to shed. In 13 months, I've lost 193 pounds....I have a total of 228 to lose (only 35 left to lose!). The first few months the pounds seemed to just melt away then I hit a few periods where I lost the same 3-5 pounds over and over and over again. Since Christmas, I've only lost 33 pounds....but you know what? It's all good! It's 33 pounds less that I carried at Christmas! I have come to the conclusion that in the overall scheme of things, the TRUE measure of the WLS sucess is the improvement in the quality of life. I feel that I now have a life whereas prior to surgery, I was merely existing....and it was not a happy existance. I'm doing things now that I never thought I would ever do again! Things I would never have attempted prior to surgery. While I still have another 33 pounds to go...if I never manage to get rid of it, it's still been a successful surgery! Hang in there....it will come off!