Do calories really count?

OK, well I understand that if you eat 3500 Kcals you can gain a pound.

I have eaten about a million and a half to get where I am.

AND If you drop 1000 a day from your "normal" diet you will drop approximately 2 lbs a week.

But is that really true?

Do calories work the same on everyone?

For example..... I have been eating about 700Kcal a day. i am early post op. (about 5 weeks)

I keep track of everything I eat on myplate.com so I know what I am eating.

I also figure I was eating somewhere around 10,000kcal a day before the surgery. (Not kidding, I never ate at home, I used to eat McDonalds every AM, subway or KFC at lunch and usually a nicer sit down type place for dinner. Ruby Tuesdays, Applebees, or a buffet of some kind.)

So shouldn't I be losing like 3-4 pounds a day?

AND if I continue to eat under 1000 Kcal a day shouldn't I keep losing weight until I am like 100 pounds?

Or will my body go into a "starvation mode" and I won't lose anything?

And what causes a starvation mode? I mean, if I am only eating 1000Kcals a day I should keep losing weight starvation mode or not.

So is the whole Kcal thing wrong? A ton of Doctors stand by this. What is the deal?

Just wondering

The whole calorie thing isn't wrong.  The calories in vs. caloies out thing works just fine.  BUT ... our body is broken.  We've spent a lifetime whaling away at our metobolic system and we've damaged it so much that it doesn't work like it should anymore.  (My personal opinion sorta based on some of the research I've dug up.)

The yo-yo dieting.  The bad food choices.  The excess calories.  The insulin imbalance.  The hormonal imbalance.  The binge eating.  The starvation dieting.  And now we throw major, gut-rearraning surgery at our bodies and expect it suddenly to do what we want it to do.

Nik said it beautifully this morning.  Our body is really good at one thing.  Self Preservation.  Our body is programmed to survive and to do anything it can possibly do to keep us alive.  700 calories a day will signal to your body and its dying and it needs to conserve energy, hold on to every ounce of fat (energy) storage and protect us from whatever horrible element is attacking us.   You just went from eating 10,000 calories a day to 700 calories a day... the body reads that as famine.

So you have to prove to your body that everything is alright.   Feed it the protein it needs to fuel your muscles, organs and blood system.  Feed it the vitamins it needs to function.  Feed i****er to stay hydrated and flush the used fat storage toxins.  Exercise to prove you are healthy and want to keep the muscle mass you have.  Gradually you'll increase your calories as your body needs more fuel to keep you out of starvation mode.  Once you get into starvation mode, things slow down or stop because starvation mode = survival mode = self preservation mode. 

That whole 3500 calories burned equals 1 pound of lost fat.  Yes, it's true.  But it doesn't take into account the abuse we've dished out to our body all these years as we've lived with morbid obesity.  

 Pam - your post needs to be a permanent link on this site...beautifully said.....and absolutely consistent with all we know about metabolism and a history of obesity.

I learned something else interesting about what a history of being MO does to the body - my rib cage is bowed.......my upper ribs are prominent now (I'm very skinny)....and I had a plastics consult this week for arms/boobs...and my plastic surgeon put me in front of the mirror and pointed out the asymmetry and deformity of my rib cage - having not ever had bones exposed - I just thought this was what I looked like - but my chest wall is abnormal.....I would not look like this if I hadn't been overweight for so much of my life......compared to all the awful things that my MO brought to me - diabetes - hypertension etc....this is a small thing - nothing to worry about.....but again - our bodies do their best to deal with what we do to them........Susan

yes calories count

early out aftre surgery, for the first 12-18 months your body will lose weight really well.

as you get past that time, it becomes more of a job to eat correctly and thats when the old calorie thing comes into play again.  you will need to eat a certain number of calories to maintain your weight, or cut back if you have not achieved your desired weight loss.

and yes, your body can go into starvation mode if you do not feed it enough it will hold on to the weight instead of shedding it.

but one step at a time, you are early out and should be losing nicely if you are following your docs instructions

be safe and well, jacki

You have lost almost sixty pounds which is really good.  The most a person can lose with even the most severe calorie restriction, malabsorbtion and exercise is about a pound a day.

Even though you were eating 10,000 a day that was not what your body needed, that is an extreme amount and part of the calories simple flush through your intestines not completely digested or are part of what is added to your body as fat.  Calorie deficits are based on you metabolic rate.

Example a 6'1 500 lb 21 year old male uses approximately 3965 calories a day with no exercise or moving, just lying in bed all day.  http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/   As you lose weight that number goes down.

Once you have that estimate you can increase it based on exercise factors. 

I am 340, 5'6" with a BMR of 2250 per the calculator
@ 300 BMR becomes 2072
@250 BMR becomes 1855
@200 BMR becomes 1637
@150 BMR becomes 1420

Based on BMR of 2250
Metabolic rate of 2250 lying in bed or sitting very still  Calorie-Calculation = BMR
Metabolic rate of 2700 sedentary little or no exercise Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2
Metabolic rate of 3094 light exercise 1-3 days/wk : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375
Metabolic rate of 3487 moderate exercise 3-5 days/wk : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55
Metabolic rate of 3881 hard exercise 6-7 days/ wk : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725
Metabolic rate of 4885 very hard exercise& physical job or 2x training: Calorie-Calc = BMR x 1.9 
 
Hope that gives a very clear picture of the benefit of doctor approved exercise and how calories work.

Be very cautious of these online BMR and RMR calculators.  These numbers are based on the "average" person ... and since our metabolism is screwed up because of the morbid obesity, it is not always accurate for us.

I used the link you posted and it told me my BMR was 1690.  BUT.... I had my RMR tested professionally and it is 1450.  So if I used the online calculator I'd be eating nearly 250 calories a day too much. 

Good point, it is a tool and an estimate just like BMI is not accurate based on weight/height.

The test for Resting Metabolic Rate is called a VO2.

The main point I wanted to make in all of it is that 4 pounds a day is not a realistic expectation.