I still don't have it together!

Here's the deal:
I went to my doctor, and was informed I had gained 4 pounds. I knew I had gained it, but gain and lose 2-3 constantly. I always figured it's water weight.
I decided to keep the carbs low, and watch the calories for a few days. SO....I immediately started to eat WAYYYYYYY more than usual. The diet mentality got me. I was eating my dreaded enemy potatoes in every way you can imagine! Also rice with lots of butter, gravy, you name it. White toast with preserves, biscuits and gravy. Out of control!
The result? I lost 6 pounds in a week.
SO NO! I don't have it together, and really cannot figure it out. I have gotten conrol of myself easily, dropped the carb count, and eat what has become normal for me. I eat low carbs, about 50-80 a day, and around 2000 to 2500 calories, mostly from meat, vegetables and fats like olive oil, butter and mayo.
Am I bragging that I can eat more than you? Not at all, and not my point. My point is, I don't understand the whole thing. I have a 200cm common channel with a RNY pouch. But I don't really know what to eat, even though I am educated on my surgery. I understand calories in and calories burned, carbs count more than fat with my surgery, and what foods I am supposed to push, and what to avoid. But it doesn't seem to be working that way. Talk about confused!!!!!
Sometimes I think it's a crap shoot even with bariatric surgery. Follow the rules and it may or may not work out. Don't follow them and it may or may not work out.

Sally, 

I know exactly what you mean!  Sometimes you have weeks where you've eaten high carbs and still lose, others you follow the rules and gain.  Makes no sense!

Michele

That would confuse the best of us...Suffice it to say that your body needed the carbs and wouldn't let go of the weight without them..I don't know why.

I've heard that the body will hang onto weight and cause a stall until you up the calories but personally, I've been too afraid to try that. To get the weight off is too hard to attempt that sort of tactic so I just stay the course and wait out the stall (or at least I used to before I was a year out).

Now I'm afraid to keep my calories high and gain a couple of pounds because I paid so dearly to get those pounds off in the first place..Psh! And they say I took the easy way out!? NOT.

I like to be 195 +/-5

Over the holidays I did not get to the scale regularly and just ate without plan or schedule.  Being the holidays, obviously, this wasn't always good food.  My last preholiday weigh-in was 194.  After the holidays I stepped on the scale again at 200 for a total of +6.

One of the things that I've mulling over is how changes in diet, routine, etc. can increase or decrease weight, NONE of which mean falling off the proverbial wagon.  So, I decided to do nothing differently other than to get back into my routine.  I didn't eat less or differently than I would during any non-holiday time.

Two days laters I was back to 194.  CLEARLY I did not burn off 18,000 extra calories in two days.  This confirmed my thoughts that minor (5 or 10 pounds) of weight fluctuation is normal when not eating normally.

I think real weight gain comes from returning to bad habits (your old normal) rather than temporarily being abnormal for special occaisons.

Over the many years of dieting prior to WLS (and since) I have found that my weight loss for a specific week isn't always related to that week. But if I eat lots of carbs, etc it does catch up the next week.

Anyway - eating healthy is always better - just because we can eat something unhealthy and not gain weight doesn't mean we should