This maintenance stuff is hard

Ive been hesitating if I wanted to post this or not as I know there are many out there who are struggling to loose weight...... but here goes.

My surgeon never gave me a goal weight.  I set my own goal weight at 150  (Im 5'  9").  I got there with very little problems.  Great right?  Time to enter the maintenance stage.  Well I lost more weight and got down to 143. I was starting to worry and met with my NUT.  She wasnt concerned.  She said I was still at a healthy BMI. She said my body would eventually stop. She told me if I continued to loose weight, to add some nuts & peanut butter to my diet.  (I did).

I had a follow up appt with my NUT this past Friday.  I weighed in at 139!!!!  I know I look sickly. I have people telling me that on a daily basis.  The NUT told me to add whole fat cheeses, milk etc to my diet instead of low fat as snacks.

For 17 months leading up to my surgery,  I listened to 2 NUTs preach to me about eating my meals, dont graze in between meals etc  Now Im being told to add more foods to my diet & add snacks.  This scares me.  While I know I need to gain a few pounds, Im scared of that slippery slope and the grazing get out of control and gaining too much weight.  Im trying to figure in the bounce back weight too. 

Never in my life did I ever dream I would have this problem.   Has anyone else had to deal with this?  Cindy

Welcome to the NFL, babeeee!  Yep, I started grazing on trail mix to slow myself down. It worked but I graze now more so than I ever have, just not on trail mix. {sigh}  You're right, it's a slippery slope.

--gina
 

The choice isn't between 3 meals a day and grazing, you know.

Plan to eat 3 meals and 2 snacks (to start). Make it planned eating. Make it healthy foods. And you should be fine...

I think the big thing is to stop thinking like a dieter. Dieters are constantly depriving themselves with low calorie and low fat foods. They drink diet drinks and eat diet food. You need to eat real food and not worry about making everything low calorie.

I know it's hard. We've trained ourselves to think of these foods as "bad". But there is nothing bad about having a handful of nuts for our planned afternoon snack instead of having a scoop of non-fat cottage cheese. They are both healthy snacks. They both take up about the same amount of room in our tummies. But one has 100 calories more than the other and that will help slow down the weight loss.

You're right,  I do still have a dieters mentality.  Ive been on "diets" for 25+ yrs, guess I need to break that habit   :)    Thanks Ladies!   Cindy

I hope that I have this problem in the future!!
BUT..having said that..
HUGS. to you..hope you gain only the bit of weight you need.

I'll bet! I am ALMOST there, and find myself fretting about how to "stop" the weightloss too...
I am already getting the coments "don't be losing anymore weight!"
Because I am in a healthy BMI range, I am not terribly worried just yet, but I relate to what you are saying. We ALL want to look good, and not begin looking "sickly", and I personally cannot fathom having to force myself to eat when i am already satisfied!
Good luck to you Cindy, figuring this out... I may be asking for pointers here soon myself!


Kim

(((((Cindy))))) I am right there with you.

Marie (MacMadam) is correct about losing the diet mentality. At this point, it's about finding the amount of calories that will stabilize you and allow your body to redistribute the little fat you have left.

It's not grazing - it's planned meals. I finally (with the help of my nut after I went in and showed her my bony ribs) worked out that, for me, 4 meals and 3 shakes per day equals stability. It's between 1600-2000 calories a day, although all the logging sites say that I should eat no more than 1600. My body can't read, and it wants more to stay put.

Some days it feels like all I do is eat, plan to eat, pack foods to eat, and eat again. But it's working. Take some time to figure out what really works for you at this point, you'll get there.

 "It's between 1600-2000 calories a day, although all the logging sites say that I should eat no more than 1600. My body can't read, and it wants more to stay put."

That happened to me too!

I know - all this angst about teaching *kids* to read - what about teaching our *bodies* to read? LOL!

I've come to the conclusion that it's all about individuality.  YOUR body (generic your here, refers to anyone) is not like HER body (again generic) or HIS body or HER body or MY body - and any preformatted plan that tells you "this is how it works and will always work" is either naive or lying.

Everybody's body is different and responds differently and needs different things in different ways.  Oh sure, there will be some commonality, and you definitely want to start with what most reputable studies have found to work, but you can't rely on them to be true for YOU.

And that's a really hard mind set to have - it would be so NICE to have an instruction manual where 2+2 always =4, but sometimes for my body it  =3 or =5 - and the first time I try it, I have no idea which one it'll end up to be.

I went through a sickly looking time and started to increase my calories by adding snacks (plus the ones I was already having) and I have big regrets.  #1 your body will start adjusting itself and maintaining and #2 adding more snacks turns into bad habits.

I decided from the very beginning that I wasn't going to go low fat.  If you are already including low fat milk and cheese in your menus then you won't be adding on any more "snacks" by switching to whole or partial fats. Be smart....change up the meals you are already eating without adding additional snacks. 

Increasing my Protein Drinks made me feel much better....