Questions for you maintainers...

Maintaining has always been where I have failed.  I have always been pretty skilled about losing the weight but never keeping it off.

Had I done this without my tool, I would be happy with where I am right now.  My surgeon and I have never discussed goal weights.  I have randomly picked the highest level that allows me to be "normal" BMI wise.  This weight is 12 lbs lower than I was in high school and about 30 lbs lower than I have ever been able to get to during my adult years.

My questions are:
How did you choose your goal weight?

How does maintenance differ from the weight loss phase?

What are the mental challenges?

Did you experience a bounce back?  How much?  When did it occur?  Can you attribute it to anything?

How did you know when you could safely buy a new wardrobe?

Please fill me in on these and any other helpful pieces of information.

Thanks

my surgeon never gave me a goal weight either, she gave all she gave me was how  many pounds needed to lose all my excess and then told me that on average patients lose 70-80 percent.

my nutritionist on the other hand asked me what my goal was, and told me i should pick a realistic one of around 150 lbs..

I lost 13lbs under that, when i got to a size 4 i didnt really want to go any lower in size i even regained 5lbs over christmas but still fit my clothes but im trying to get it off again.

I guess it's safe to say we all have been maintenance failures.......

My questions are:

How did you choose your goal weight?

My surgeon gave me a weight to shoot for pre-op..... Than when I got to that goal we adjusted it 4 more times. A lot has to do how much face time you get with your surgeon.... I see mine monthly at support groups or scheduled appointments and I believe we fine tuned it. As a matter of fact at my last appointment he actually used the word "stop" which was foreign to me to have a doctor say "Stop losing weight" My current BMI is 24.6..... the very high end of normal.


How does maintenance differ from the weight loss phase?

For me..... not much.... add a food here and there... only increased calories a little bit.... still 80% on my WL plan.


What are the mental challenges?

To many to list.
But, mental benefits are huge and many more things are possible again.


Did you experience a bounce back?  How much?  When did it occur?  Can you attribute it to anything?

No bounce back yet.... My surgeon says the first key to maintaining (statistically) is to maintain your weight for a year after reaching goal.


How did you know when you could safely buy a new wardrobe?

I didn't do well here..... bought to many clothes at "supposed" goal weight. Pre-mature ahh... purchases.

frisco

Welcome to the maintenance forum for vsg and actually anybody. You are wise to begin considering maintenance issues in advance of goal. All of us are failed maintainers, dieting over and over and each time regaining more. We now understand the role of ghrelin and other things in this though I don't think the phennomenon is yet fully understood by science. But to get to your questions:

My surgeon set a range of 130 to 140 as goal. So I used 130 on my ticker and then changed it to 135 or something. When I got to 137 which was a bmi of about 24, he told me i looked good and i was done. I said i wanted to go to 135 and he said fine. So I thought i was maintaining by increasing calories by 100 or so for that first month in which i happened to be traveling and didn't weigh. lost 5 more pounds. over a couple of months some more pounds fell off so i am now 122 or so. Surgeon  says thats still fine. Bmi is now 21. Internist says watch it and don't lose anymore. So goal is a moving target. Ultimately choose something in the 21 to 24 bmi range based on what you think is doable.

Frisco is right that maintenance is not that much different than weight loss phase except that I eat about 500 more calories  a day and carb level is maybe 50 to 60 instead of below 40. I journal my food and weigh everyday. I worry about regain so I have set myself a one year goal of weighing not more than 125 December of 2011.

Mental challenges are that the  initial excitement of this adventure is gone and now its a  daily drag of staying with new eating habits. Plus being physically able to eat a little more than early on and just getting sick of the rules and retstrictions. but the complements and good feeling of being slim makes up for it.

I have not had any regain other than being up and down a pound or two from time to time over several months. The fact that I do not weigh exactly the same every day kind of annoys me but i know its water and whatever and I think its important to weigh regularly.

I bought a few new things on the way down that didn't get much use but were inexpensive. At 135 my brother bought me a boatload of new stuff as I did a big favor for him. Some of those things are a little large now but they are ok. So I don't know when its safe so when you get to what you think is your goal buy a few things and see how it works.

Read this group and all the threads in it for all kinds of ideas on maintenance. This group is all sharing the maintenance phase together and its really a task that there are not a lot of guides for as its very individual. But you can gain insight on how to find a maintenance plan or philosophy or whatever you want to call it by reading here.

Diane

I picked my goal as the top weight for a normal BMI- my surgeon didn't choose one for me either.

For me maintenance was different from losing in that I added meals to my day. It ended up being basically every two hours I eat to keep my weight stable.

My mental challenges are seeing myself as pretty/thin/normal...and managing the minefield of attention...

I haven't had bounce back, and have been at goal for over a year now.

I have bought and given away probably three new wardrobes at this point, so I am no help here. I have done it almost entirely through thrift stores though, which I recommend.

How did you choose your goal weight?

I wanted to dip my toe into the "Normal BMI" range. I am 2 lbs. from that but have more than 2 lbs of excess skin which will say bye-bye when I have my tummy tuck & boob job :-D

How does maintenance differ from the weight loss phase?

I've tracked everything for the past 1.5 years . I've truly not cared about my calorie count, I just want to make sure my protein is up to snuff. My protein requirements change with my weight, so I try to stay on top of it.

What are the mental challenges?

Maybe it will change for me, maybe it won't - my mental challenge sometimes comes from convincing myself that I need to eat since I don't experience hunger. So many times I have to psych myself into eating.

Did you experience a bounce back?  How much?  When did it occur?  Can you attribute it to anything?

No bounceback to date. I don't want to go down anymore honestly. But if it happens I'll deal with it.

How did you know when you could safely buy a new wardrobe?

I was doing laundry the other day, including a bunch of new jeans I got at the Goodwill/Salv Army. Out of 22 pairs of jeans I own (which cost around 80 bucks total) I figure 15 really fit, the others are a little too big but I still win. I don't want to go below the size I'm at now (4,5,6).

 How did you choose your goal weight?

At first I had a pretty high goal weight. 145. My idea was that I had done that before and, while I'd had trouble maintaining it, I thought maybe with WLS I would be okay. I could eat 1400-1600 calories a day at that weight and I thought that could work.

But, as I hung out on WLS message boards, I began to see that WLS isn't like dieting and people all over were getting to normal weights and not having the hunger issues that you have when you diet. So I got a bit more ambitious. I set my goal to 132 which is a BMI of 24.9 and I figured that, once I got there, I'd probably still be overweight and want to lose more, but I didn't know what weight under that was the right weight so I'd just keep losing until I got to it and that would be my real goal weight.

That weight ended up being 115-120. Which is where I am now.

How does maintenance differ from the weight loss phase?

It doesn't. Now it took me a few months to figure that out and it was quite a surprise, but it really doesn't change. I still watch what I eat, I still exercise, I still log everything.

Now, I am eating more calories and therefore more carbs and I can allow myself more indulgences, but for the most part I'm just doing what I did all along.

What are the mental challenges?

Figuring out that some things I was doing in the losing phase will probably be part of my life forever. I thought I could stop logging my food, for example, but whenever I try that, I get in trouble.

Also freaking out every time the scales goes up even by 1 pound.

Did you experience a bounce back?  How much?  When did it occur?  Can you attribute it to anything?

I decided to gain some muscle about 6 months ago and I went up a few pounds from that. It was mostly muscle, but I also got more of my fat back in my torso. I was concave before and it worried me so I'm okay with that. I also went up a cup size and that can't be explained by muscle. LOL

I also go up 3-5 pounds every winter when my triathlon training slows way down. It's generally gone by April-May though. The first year, I freaked. This year I freaked a little but decided to pretend I wasn't freaked and see what happens. I'll let everyone know what happens after my first Triathlon on May 1st. If I'm not back to a weight I'm happy with by then, I'll try something different next year.

How did you know when you could safely buy a new wardrobe?

I started buying more than 1-2 pairs of pants and 1-2 bras (which I did at each size change) at size 4. I had decided I didn't want to go lower than that though I did end up getting to a size 2. I didn't go out and buy a whole new wardrobe all at once, though, but would buy a few piece every time I went shopping until I had a whole new wardrobe.

I had to get rid of a few things that were too large and a few that ended up being too small but most of what I bought I still have and it fits fine.

How did you choose your goal weight? I saw pictures of me at 135 and decided that was where i wanted to get down to again. Then I lost another 5 lbs and just stayed there, so I decided that was where my body wanted to be.

How does maintenance differ from the weight loss phase?

You can relax a little bit more, but not too much more because it's easy to gain.

What are the mental challenges?

I am afraid of gaining weight back. i read the studies .They scare me.

Did you experience a bounce back?  How much?  When did it occur?  Can you attribute it to anything? I am up 8 lbs now from Christmas holidays. I can't seem to take it off. It's really scaring me. My body seems to like it here now because no matter what I try, this is where I stay. I am almost 2 years post op.

How did you know when you could safely buy a new wardrobe?I bought new things all along.
I shopped clearance and thrift stores.

Please fill me in on these and any other helpful pieces of information.

I did not choose a goal weight...it chose me!  I just wanted to get to a normal BMI but my body had other ides.  I hit that normal BMI goal in 10 months and then my body kept dropping very slowly to my current weight of about 135.  It took me 22 months before I stopped losing!

My diet is essentially the same.  I never did the super low carb thing.  I just ate protein first and that naturally limited other things.  But I still ate complex carbs in tiny amounts throughout the losing phase.

I think the biggest mental challenge is accepting the new body and not doing something stupid to sabotage myself.  Paying attention to the scale but not letting it get you down because of daily fluctuations. Once the losses stop...the fun part is over.

No bounce back yet.  I still eat very carefully and I think it's an essential part of maintaining.

I'm still nervous about clothes...not because I think I'll go down more, but because I don't trust myself not to go up!  I've only bought 1 pair of $200 jeans.  We'll see if they fit for 1 year and then I'll buy more.

Good luck.   This is doable but it takes dedication!

Laura

I kind of really chose a goal "size" more than a weight.  When I found a size that I thought I looked healthy at AND realized that finding my pants (6 Long) were becoming a problem without having to special order, I called goal.

Because part of my "forever after" was going to be lifting weights and gaining muscle to drape my nice rouched skin over :} I knew that the weight part was not going to be as much of the "stickler" than the size.  Although, honestly, if I build up enough muscle in my hams and bootay to firm up my skin a little more and so I wear an 8 instead of a 6, that will not freak me out either, especially since now I get my body composition done every 6 months, so I can see where I am with lean body weight  versus not lean body weight. 

Maintenance differs for me with just the few foods I slip in, I added my peanut butter cocoa burrito thing and more oils when I need more calories.  Occasionally will have a sandwich on 1/2 a flat out artisan bread but the basic truths remain the same for me.  Meat PLUS other stuff makes it so I do not stay full as long, so I make my choices accordingly.

I had been building up my wardrobe since I called goal size, but I controlled that and did not wait for my body to do whatever, so I cannot really speak to that.  Also about bounce back, for me I still log foods and exercise, and use dietpower to tell me how manymuch calories I need any given day to maintain, so I do not have the bounce that other folks might get if they were being more intuative than I am. 

Keeping the mental stuff on my mind, keep my head in the game.  To be successful I have really needed to (and not resented it this time!  :} ) get organized and be a planner. See the places where I totally dropped the ball before ever in maintenance and be thankful for those lessons from the past and UTILIZE THEM to create STRATEGY AND STRUCTURE for the protection of my investment this time.

Strategy for success for me consistent nutritous food, consistent nurturing words in my head, a consistent recognition and plan for places where I have lost to destructive behavior in the past, and consistent purposeful movement.