xpost: What I'm learning about my body

Amy, you're so right.  It's totally about figuring out what works for us personally.  It's great the level of awareness you have to spot the problem with the yogurt in the shake.   My fasting level glucose is really low, but that doesn't mean I'm not insulin resistant.

Being analytical is one of my strengths ... I should just quit messing around and standardize my meals for awhile (be less hungry /more happy cuz I'm not fighting with my body)  I usually most successful when I get myself stuck in good ruts :-)

I have to eat every 3 to 3 1/2 hours or my blood sugars gets too low.  But I'm finding that if I drink alot of water the weight starts to come off.  I eat about 800 to 900 calories a day.  I haven't eaten any bread, pasta or rice, but alot of my meals are greek yogurt based which I know isn't staying with me, but it's all I'm hungry for alot of the time.   I'm cold all the time and don't go anywhere without layering clothes.  I'm too early in this to figure much else out.

Get your iron and ferritin tested ... this for me has the had the biggest impact on whether I feel cold all the time

You'll start to warm up more and do get your bloodwork done.  At a year out I'm not quite as cold as i was the first year.

I'm still trying to figure this out, but I have learned that the weight loss is not a straight line. Some days, I am up almost .5 lbs and may stay the same for a few days or even a week, before letting go of any weight. For some reason, Feb. was a great month and I was able to shed about 8 lbs, and that is with my new addiction, a skinny latte almost daily. My calories were averaging about 750-850, carbs 35-50, and I increased my cardio a bit. Also, my PCP increased my thyroid, which may have been the real factor. Jan. was a slow month and I lost 5.5 lbs. I thought that I was just slowing down, because I have less to lose.

I think it might be helpful for your pcp to run more extensive thyroid tests, including T4/T3 and whatever else might be appropriate. I was low normal on some of the tests, with a normal TSH, and my thyroid medication was increased based upon the low normal values. What about seeing an endocrinologist?

Less than 700 calories seems low to me, especially with all the exercise that you do.

Hi Gail,  you did have a great month in February.  Congrats!!  You're also getting in wonderful exercise.  That latte doesn't appear to be hurting anything!  I lost more between January 10th and February 17th than I had lost in three months previously.  I know that it was the lowered carbs for me.

I'll talk to my PCP about the endo if things come to a screeching halt again. 

This was my fear!  I was really afraid that surgery would mean I'd need to keep my calories to really low level forever, and I know it's been true so far.  If I get above 650 calories, I gain.  If I stay at 600 calories and work out three times a week, I can maintain.  But to lose, I have to keep it at 600 calories and do hard workouts every day.  I just don't know if it's sustainable forever!

I knew I had to keep calories low,  I basically had surgery (vsg) to make it possible to keep calories lower without going insane (being hungry all the time)

I had the same surgery for the same reason, but unfortunately, my hunger never actually went away, so I am still on a "diet" all the time, and always hungry.  It definitely adds to the challenge!