Obera Balloon?

StaciMarie1974

Working on the why behind the binge episodes/eating disorder seems to be something that should take priority. I'm not sure an eating disorder is something that can be 'cured' but can be managed.

150poundsofme

When I am "dieting", and I find that I didn't follow "my rules", I go off the diet completely and binge. It can take me months to get back to dieting. When dieting, I can lose 3 pounds or 4 a week, then 2, then maybe I maintained a week, lost 1 lb. Usually when I see I didn't lose enough, I go off my diet. I can now see with all of your help that my 3 to 4 pound losses means I wasn't eating enough. Though I do find when I am dieting, I feel fine and am happy with what I am eating. I think it is too may restaurants that I start making exceptions and whether it is the sugar or more carbs or maybe being upset about something, I end up going off. When I am doing well dieting, I sometimes wonder how is it I am able to stay on this. When I go off, I wonder what set me off to binge.
Internet research yesterday shows me that, and some of you mentioned this, about the pain and vomiting. How could I be sure mine would go away after a week. I wouldn't. And I see that I have to eat like I would if I had a gastric by-pass or a gastric sleeve. I did think about the sleeve over a year ago, went to tons of support groups, seminars and even had 2 doctor consultations. I realized that the way you have to eat forever is not for me. First of all, I am not into meat or chicken much. They want you to eat your protein first. With the balloon I could see maybe this would be ok because it would be over with in 6 months. The more I research and reread what you all wrote, the balloon, may not be right for me. I thought it would give me such a quick push to losing weight, a great start. I will definitely call the therapist tomorrow. I will do some more research. I have a consultation with doctor in a few weeks. Maybe I will cancel.

150poundsofme

This new dietician I went to a few weeks ago - she gave me a meal plan to follow - carbs at every meal and she wants me to snack between breakfast and lunch and between lunch and dinner and also in the evening. Right away I told her I never need a snack between B and L. She felt I should. Also full carbs (6 starches) a day I will never lose weight. When I was dieting I would have what I called one full carb a day (maybe about 200 calories though never accurate). You see, I never abuse any other foods so it all fell into place. I actually called her a few days later and said do I have to have a carb for breakfast. Or could I just have the 2 full carbs during the day whenever I wanted. She did say ok. I know that what I have been doing hasn't worked (though I do feel I know how to diet and how to lose weight. So I should listen to her but it just goes against all my habits of 45 years. I feel like you guys are my therapists. Again thanks for your input.

red99ryder

I know this is a hard decision for you .

Good Luck

courtneyfabulous

So glad you are considering therapy as an alternative!!

Be careful with dietitians- some really know their stuff, and some not so much. But if what you'd been doing the past 45 years worked, don't you think you'd be at your goal weight already? Instead of having issues with your weight and trouble sticking to a plan? Might be good to try it her way for at least a month or two. I know I need a snack between breakfast and lunch, and I usually have some sort of carb with breakfast (usually fruit or a rice cake).

Have you been weighing and logging your food into myfitnesspal? Might be good to check the calories and macros on this new plan you've been following.

Yes 3-4 pounds of weight loss is too fast. It's ok if it happens just the first week or 2 because it could be water weight coming off if you have sudddnly cut sodium or carbs, but it's impossible to healthfully maintain a loss rate like that long term. 0.5 to 1 pound per week is good. Also remember your body retains water weight at certain times of the month because of hormones, so seeing no loss or even a slight gain is normal and doesn't mean the diet isn't working. Often I gain or plateau for 3 weeks but then the water weight comes off and reveals that I've actually been losing the whole time and it all shows on the scale that 4th week. Then the same thing happens again the next month- but it averages out to about 0.7 pounds lost per week. That's why I advocate comparing your current weight only with your weight from 1 month ago (or more).

Most of all try to have patience and learn consistency.

Good luck!!

CattOfTheGarage

Great constructive approach, OP. A few comments:

Along with many, many others, you're tripping yourself up with this idea of being "on" or "off" of a "diet". This is causing you to swing wildly between chronic undereating and binging, and then your binges completely derail you because you think "oh, I binged, that means I'm not 'on a diet' any more". But there is no "diet". There's just what you eat. And if you want to lose weight, the key is to consistently eat a little bit less than you need to maintain your weight. Just a little bit less.

The more extreme your restriction, the more likely you are to binge, and binge hard. It's a defence mechanism against what your body sees as starvation. You need to break the cycle, and you can't do that by just "stopping binging" - binging is compulsive, you don't have much control over it. What you need to do is cut the cycle at the other end and stop over-restricting. Binges will not stop right away, but they will gradually ease off. Just keep logging everything you eat, including the binges, and stay calm.

The other thing is that you need to kick this idea that "carbs are bad". The only thing that matters for weight loss is how much you eat - not what you eat. There are no foods that will prevent weight loss, and avoiding specific foods and seeing them as "bad" will only increase binging tendencies (in my experience this has been one of the biggest factors in binging).

I realise you have some long standing habits here, and that you have been fed a line by the diet industry, as we all have, that losing weight is complicated and involves eating special foods and avoiding other foods, but it is all a lie - it does not serve our health or our weight loss, it serves their bottom line in keeping us fat and buying their products. The truth is, you can eat anything. Whatever you like. Bread, pasta, chocolate, ice cream, cookies, cakes - you will still lose weight as long as you get the portions right.

I say trust that dietitian - her schedule of meals and snacks may suit you long term, or it may not (meal timing varies a lot from person to person), but right at this moment, it could be exactly what you need to break out of your old approach and to regain your body's trust that you're not going to starve it. You can absolutely eat that many carbs and still lose weight. Try it for a while.

I am really rooting for you. I think you are so close to cracking this and starting on a healthy path. It will be hard - it's hard for all of us - but you can absolutely do this.

I'm going to repeat that you should check out Half Size Me - I think you'd find it really helpful. You can just go to the website and listen to episodes there, or find it using a podcast catcher, whichever is easiest for you.

courtneyfabulous

CattOfTheGarage wrote: »

Great constructive approach, OP. A few comments:

Along with many, many others, you're tripping yourself up with this idea of being "on" or "off" of a "diet". This is causing you to swing wildly between chronic undereating and binging, and then your binges completely derail you because you think "oh, I binged, that means I'm not 'on a diet' any more". But there is no "diet". There's just what you eat. And if you want to lose weight, the key is to consistently eat a little bit less than you need to maintain your weight. Just a little bit less.

The more extreme your restriction, the more likely you are to binge, and binge hard. It's a defence mechanism against what your body sees as starvation. You need to break the cycle, and you can't do that by just "stopping binging" - binging is compulsive, you don't have much control over it. What you need to do is cut the cycle at the other end and stop over-restricting. Binges will not stop right away, but they will gradually ease off. Just keep logging everything you eat, including the binges, and stay calm.

The other thing is that you need to kick this idea that "carbs are bad". The only thing that matters for weight loss is how much you eat - not what you eat. There are no foods that will prevent weight loss, and avoiding specific foods and seeing them as "bad" will only increase binging tendencies (in my experience this has been one of the biggest factors in binging).

I realise you have some long standing habits here, and that you have been fed a line by the diet industry, as we all have, that losing weight is complicated and involves eating special foods and avoiding other foods, but it is all a lie - it does not serve our health or our weight loss, it serves their bottom line in keeping us fat and buying their products. The truth is, you can eat anything. Whatever you like. Bread, pasta, chocolate, ice cream, cookies, cakes - you will still lose weight as long as you get the portions right.

I say trust that dietitian - her schedule of meals and snacks may suit you long term, or it may not (meal timing varies a lot from person to person), but right at this moment, it could be exactly what you need to break out of your old approach and to regain your body's trust that you're not going to starve it. You can absolutely eat that many carbs and still lose weight. Try it for a while.

100% YES

OP read this comment.
Then read it again...
And again.

So right on!

150poundsofme

Thank you all for taking the time to help me. I never heard of HalfSizeMe. I started reading the blogs. I so need to get my health and life back. You guys are great!

ahoy_m8

I also agree with everything Cattoff said.

I think too it helps to have an attitude of experimentation about weight loss, weight maintenance, exercise, diet... all of it. Even when I'm maintaining GW and happy with my strength training results, I'm always wondering, "is there a way I could be more efficient, get better results with fewer lifts if I restructured my routine?" Plus your body changes, so what was optimal for you once (diet or workouts) might have significant room for improvement presently. So try what the dietician suggests and make lots of observations about how you feel.... mentally and physically. Maybe it's an improvement over what you've done in the past or maybe not, but the only way to know is to really give it an honest chance.

Apologies for the repetition.... it bears repeating though: the fastest way to fail is under eating. Sure, everyone thinks about not over eating when trying to lose weight, but under eating has its own perils. Over restricting = binge waiting to happen for me.

It sounds like you have a good attitude and are willing to put thought into a solid approach. Best of luck to you, OP.

150poundsofme

Thank you. I need it