If you're here and in trouble...

If you are here on the grads board and in trouble with weight gain...I have a question.

What happened? Why are you gaining or why did you gain? Please let some of us know where you went wrong and where we can avoid the pitfalls! I have my own ideas but want to hear your thoughts.

Thanks in advance!
Dawn

Hi Dawn,

No one has responded yet.. so I guess I will be the first to go.. so no one please flame me.. but back when I started this journey.. we were and still are told protein first.. well everything for me halted when I tried to add fruits and veggies to my diet in any substantial form and that lead me to other carbs.. bad carbs.. and then came my bout with Thyroid cancer and I said hey.. what the heck.. lets just eat everything.. fat was going to kill me but didn't -- now Cancer is.. well it didn't and now I am fighting my way back to getting on track.. but once you stray from the protein track from what I have been seeing  the road back in tough.. no matter how good you behave.. So for me it has been loosing sight of what I wanted.. You have to have the proper mind set and may I say willpower to stay the path.. of protein and supplements.. I have strayed and the road back just keeps leading me to left turns. You also need the proper support.. and I had it in the beginning even before the cancer -I lost it with a massive break up that lead me to anti-depressants that also contributed to massive head hunger and looking for my old friend-- food - the pills also chemically added to weight gain - but when I saw that I stopped them but that weight never went away.. So now.. while I never felt depressed as a fatter person.. after RNY.. I suffer miserably from depression.. but refuse to medicate for fear of the gain.. and suffer horribly in isolation..

All I can say  is moderation is the key to everything and those starting this journey now seem to have that under controll and I applaud them. Their bodies never became used to the protein only so they didn't have to retrain it and that is the key.. I don't know the science to it exactly.. if i did i probably wouldn't be here. but once your metabolism gets used to that the slightest stray send it diving.. So stay the path of what ever route you are taking to weight loss and you will succeed.

Good Luck to everyone.. and hopefully soon I will be able to consider myself a successful looser again.. I had lost 170lbs. I regained about 50 with the above issues. and have been playing with about a 10lb loss Up and down for about the last 3 months since I finally started to feel better after a long time of feeling just horrible.

So wish me luck..
Donna

I appreciate your honesty! I can totally understand the giving up. If fat didn't get you and cancer had you...then why bother to stay within the wls rules. It really makes sense on a mental level.

Moderation is definitely the key. Support is definitely the key.. Sheer Willpower is necessary after the mechanics of the bypass are no longer working and some people have more than others. I have less than most! That's when the mental issues pop up and I know I'm not well equipped to handle the mental issues.

Thank you so much for your post! Good luck to you!

Oh please let me chime in here, as I have fallen and can't seem to get up. Interestingly enough it was SF chocolate that led to my ultimate destruction. I tasted it, liked it and ate it, this led to trying the real stuff. It isn't that simple you see, I wish i could say it was, but i too had an illness that led to me hospitalized 7 weeks, needing IV nutrition and me as previously 326lbs, needing an appetite stimulant. For once i was encouraged to eat, had to eat and with the stimulant started to eat. I could eat a quarter pounder with cheese, not all at once but throughout the day. This led to getting the taste back. I can honestly say, that i had changed my eating habits and did not crave the bad stuff. But after this illness i resorted to whatever high calorie stuff i could eat to get my weight up and the DAMN central line out of me. I was at home and every night recieved TPN( IV nutrition) it played havic with my blood sugar, limited my life and when i could shower, etc. 4 months of this and i was done. My protein was back up to low normal, it had dropped to 2 and 17-40 is normal. So my advice is never ever ever "try" the foods you were told to avoid. Hard to get the taste out of your mouth once you have it again. Also exercise. Before my surgery leading to hospitalization, i exercised daily. It took me a year to really feel normal again, but 2 yrs later and i am still not exercising like i was prior to my illness. So i understand that i am TOTALLY responsible for the gain, but i do see how it happened and what little control i had at that point, but that is the past and this is the present and i need to get it together. Unfortuantely, it is not as easy as after surgery with the mechanical restriction and high motivation. Thanks for asking and i hope someone can benefit from this advice. NEVER EVER TEST YOUR LIMITS!

That's exactly what scares me! Since I have to eat enough to keep from losing more weight, I'm afraid that I'll start eating stuff I shouldn't and get hooked again...

"my advice is never ever ever "try" the foods you were told to avoid" 

I tell people this but of course, they "poo poo" me all over the map...

Thanks for responding!

Hi Dawn. I'm holding about 10 pounds I'd like to give back. I believe outright grazing is the culprit for me. I don't have many sweets and for the most part I eat healthy. I also exercise a lot. But for a long time I could pretty much eat whatever and whenever I wanted, and never seemed to gain, and all of a sudden it changed. So I'm cutting back on some carbs, mainly Kashi bars and things like that, and after only a couple of days I can tell I'm not as hungry. You know how it is with carbs, the more you eat the more you want.

Yes, I do know about the pull that carbs have...It's a diabolical plot to make everyone weigh 100 pounds more than they need to...LOL.

Carbs are evil. that's my mantra and I'm sticking to that. Thanks for answering...I knew all the grads would have insight!

I have to agree with Mel-- NEVER TEST YOUR LIMITS!

I was very unprepared for RNY. A friend's sister had it and my friend kept encouraging me to do it as well.  I talked to my PCP, he sent me to my surgeon, they got insurance approval, I paid them the extra money (that I still to this day don't understand what it was for) and had my surgery.  The only good thing is that a Psych eval was required, I went to a guy who was about 2 years out then, he told me about OH.

I followed my Doc's protocol to the T.  The problem was that after 6 months, she said you could eat anything in moderation.  I clearly remember her saying that it should take 30 minutes to eat 1/2 a turkey sandwich.  Nothing was ever said about avoiding bad carbs.  So I slowly added them back.

Then I got into the what will and won't make me sick mode.  I remember at Halloween some people on the CA board talking about eating candy.  So I tried it, no problem.  I craved salt and discovered Cheez-Its.  I also became addicted to spicy, putting Rooster sauce on everything.  I ate way too much soup and other slider foods.  The only thing I ever really dumped on was TJ's honey wheat pretzels.

I also take Effexor for depression and the comfort of food as well.  I can't sleep for more than a hour or two, so I've become Ambien dependent as well.  I was laid off at the beginning of the year.  I thought that was an opportunity for a new start.  I did the 5DPT, went back to the gym and a week later came down with shingles!

So here I am today, constantly fighting the carb monster.  It makes me so mad that I KNOW what I need to do, but I just keep slipping.  I can give the best advice, but I can't follow it myself.  I just can't seem to get it together.

I don't think my pity party is what you were looking for Dawn!  But I am a good example of what not to do!

Michele

Michele,

I am so with you.. Do as i say.. not as i do..

BTW.. cheese it's.. me too..

Good Luck to us both..

Donna

It's EXACTLY what I'm looking for! I cringe each time I hear a newly post op say they can eat this and eat that...I'm thinking to myself: You can but that doesn't mean you SHOULD...But the discussion was in newly post ops and they were crucifying someone who was 5 years out...I wanted to get the view point from the Grads side...People who have already walked a mile in MY shoes!

Thanks so much.