Need advice on maintenance

I cant find the medical article that gave the time line... I dont know if its for "everyone" and maybe the time lime differs just as the recovery time after surgery for patient to patient  but yeah surgery and recovery speeds up the metabolism... when i read the article i figured that is part of the reason we have the "6 month" honey moon period..

Interesting. There is increased energy involved in the healing process, so it does make sense.

Hi, and congratulations on your loss.  I'm only nine days ahead of you, so I'm no expert.  I am learning.  My best advice to you would be to follow the doctors advice.  At 5'4" you are still in need of losing weight.  Part of me understands where you are coming from.  I don't know how long you have been battling weight, but I think it's easy to be subconsciously afraid of what normal means.  Sometimes the mantle of chubby has been on us so long, we are afraid of losing a part of who we are if we trade teams, so to speak.  If you rebound a bit, do you really want to weigh in the 180's or 190's?  Maybe set your sights for 150ish.  It's still a compromise, but healthier.  In the long run, you will be happier with your decision.  Like I said.  Just my thoughts.
Marie

 Thanks to everyone *****plied.  I definitely take this journey day by day and I go back and forth with where to stop.  My plan is to hang out around 175 for a while and see how I feel.  If I decide a little later that I want lose more I will definitely get back to basics to take some more off.  

This sounds like a good plan, that way once you have been there for a bit, you will know what it takes to stay there, what you body looks like, and where you want to go from there...

Some of us gained after getting to goal, and I just want you to know, that after gaining, if we put our minds to it and go back to basics, we can lose the weight, it is just harder (for me) to lose it the further out I am... So know that if you maintain at 175 lbs for quite a while, it might be harder to get going down again, but you will be able to do it if you focus.  Many of us have lost the weight we gained or are working on it.  It is never too late.

Good luck with getting to 175 lbs.

Cindy

It's actually 10x  your weight, not 11.

However, all these calculation assume you are average in every way and also that you have never yo-yo dieted. For many of us, the calculations are bunk. I would definitely not jump up to that amount of calories all at once. I am sure you will start gaining. Instead, up your calories 100-200 at a time, wait two weeks to see if you are still losing and then up them again if you still are.

Or you could just keep doing what you are doing and see what happens...

Btw, your doctor is somewhat exaggerating with the "you'll gain 10-15 pounds at 6 months" thing. However, bounce back weight is real. It is really a good idea to go 10-15 pounds lower than the weight you want to maintain in the long run.

If I went 10-15 lbs lower than what I am now, I would be a skeleton. I'm medium framed and have some muscle on me. Do you really think 10-15 lbs is reasonable bounce back weight for someone with a VSG? I could see it happening more frequently with RNY.  When I asked the Bariatric Internist, she thought 5 lbs was reasonable, but anything else was a return to former habits.

I am so afraid of bounce back weight. I really don't want to gain anymore weight. I like the weight that I am, at the current time. At this point, I think that I would be losing more muscle.

Gail

Yes, I think 10-15 is reasonable. That doesn't mean that everyone gains that back. My surgeon says the average is 10 pounds. That's been my experience too. My lowest weight was 112-113 and now I'm around 126-127. Now, some of that was muscle but it wasn't all muscle.

In your case, with your low body fat %, you are already at the lowest you can go. So you've already got your cushion for bounce back.

P.S. I'm going to go get BodPod'ed tomorrow!

Dang!!!! I think I'll go to jog for awhile. LOL!!!

Where are you getting the Bod Pod done??

I still can't believe that my body fat was that low. I wonder, if it is because I am small? I have no boobage, so I'm sure that helps. I'm going to have it retested in November, when the testing company comes to the gym that I go to.

I would love to get rid of this excess skin and be able to see more of the muscle that I have developed.

Gail

It's possible something threw off your dunk tank measurement. It's not 100% accurate. DEXA scan is the gold standard but it's expensive. I know when I got mine measured with calipers, and the result was 17%, I found it somewhat unbelievable because I had so little body fat in my torso. I was sure the real number was lower. But right now my scale says that I'm at 20-22% body fat and I think that's ridiculous too. I am guessing 18%.

The thing is, my scale shows my body fat going up not just in my torso but also in my arms and legs. It claims my arms are 25% fat! Well, anyone can look at my arms and clearly see they are about 10-15% fat. Plus my MRI showed only a thin layer of subcutaneous fat in my calves. 

I basically only have essential fat in my arms and legs. I have D cup boobies so I have more than essential fat there and I am only slightly concave in my stomach area and my rear end is not that thin either. But those are the only places on my body that have more than essential body fat.

I'm getting the BodPod done at a fitness center in Sunnyvale.