Tips for avoiding slippery slope?
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segwayne
Posts: 52 Member
Hi guys,
Had Bypass in April and I'm down about 100 pounds from my highest (about 5 pounds from where I want to be really) but I am running into issues. I'm a compulsive eater and when the decision was made to get surgery (even before surgery) I was ok with just eating when I was hungry and sticking to protein shakes and tiny portions.
Now, 6 months later, I'm pretty much hovering where I guess I always will weight-wise, but I keep hearing my nutritionist's voice in my head harping "you MUST eat 3 meals a day plus your shakes!"... I've tried to stick with that, but see my calorie count increasing from 1200 a few months ago, to 1500-1800 on a random day today. It's not even so much how much I eat, but how often, and WHAT I eat that contributes.
For a normal person, 1800 calories would probably be fine, but after surgery, 1200 seems to be my drop weight and 1500 my "maintain" count. Even MFP says 1500 calories should be losing 2 pounds a week, but I'm not getting that result at all.
The question in all of this is that I now find myself conditioned to eat 3 meals a day, whether or not I'm hungry, and if it's in front of me, I'll probably nibble at it until it's gone. I also find that doing so, I never really seem to get hungry.
Do you find yourself eating out of conditioned habit, or do you have to purposely say "I may be munchy, but I'm not hungry"? Can you really tell if you're hungry or head-hungry after 6 months? What's your secret?
Wayne
Had Bypass in April and I'm down about 100 pounds from my highest (about 5 pounds from where I want to be really) but I am running into issues. I'm a compulsive eater and when the decision was made to get surgery (even before surgery) I was ok with just eating when I was hungry and sticking to protein shakes and tiny portions.
Now, 6 months later, I'm pretty much hovering where I guess I always will weight-wise, but I keep hearing my nutritionist's voice in my head harping "you MUST eat 3 meals a day plus your shakes!"... I've tried to stick with that, but see my calorie count increasing from 1200 a few months ago, to 1500-1800 on a random day today. It's not even so much how much I eat, but how often, and WHAT I eat that contributes.
For a normal person, 1800 calories would probably be fine, but after surgery, 1200 seems to be my drop weight and 1500 my "maintain" count. Even MFP says 1500 calories should be losing 2 pounds a week, but I'm not getting that result at all.
The question in all of this is that I now find myself conditioned to eat 3 meals a day, whether or not I'm hungry, and if it's in front of me, I'll probably nibble at it until it's gone. I also find that doing so, I never really seem to get hungry.
Do you find yourself eating out of conditioned habit, or do you have to purposely say "I may be munchy, but I'm not hungry"? Can you really tell if you're hungry or head-hungry after 6 months? What's your secret?
Wayne
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Replies
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Sounds like you need another session with your nutritionist to recalibrate now that you're a few months out. Every program is different, but my doc wanted us weaned off daily shakes after 6 months or so. He felt by then we should be able to get our protein through normal food. Not to say I don't still supplement occasionally, but it's not an every day thing.
Best advice I can give you for calorie creep though is to measure everything before you bring it to the table. If you have your portions already on your plate, then it won't matter if you nibble your way through it all, you can't overeat unless you go get another helping. If you're not having dedicated sit-down meals, you should try that too. It helps with the nibbles if you are only focused on eating and not multi-tasking and not paying attention to your body cues about actual hunger.0 -
Sounds like now is the time to meet with a psych and a RD to get a plan together and to deal with your compulsive eating issues. Print out the last few weeks of your [very accurate!!] food log and bring it with you to your appointments.
Eating disorders do not go away overnight (or even in 5 months), and if you really are a compulsive eater (which is a term whose meaning is diluted because it gets thrown around a lot and misused, but has significant meaning to health professionals), you should consider meeting with someone on a regular basis and work through these issues.
One thing to talk to the RD about is intake. "Calories in" is just one part of the picture. I think that the proportion of macronutrients you are taking in is just as important. When you fill in your food log on MFP, look at the % of carbs, fat and protein at the end of the day. If you are eating 1800 calories of mostly fat and carbs, and getting a relatively small amount of protein in, you are practically guaranteed to gain weight.
I give you a lot of credit for catching your issues now, before you regain. This is the right time to focus on honing your diet.
Good luck
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