Calories...

For those of you who are using Fitday or something like it, approx. how many calories a day are you consuming ? I am averaging around 325 a day and am wondering what everyone else is eating. Sometimes I wonder if I am eating too little or too much ! (LMAO... never thought in my life that I would worry about eating too few calories !) Let me know what you guys are doing !

So i joined fiday.com and so far i have eatten 650 just today. I am working out everyday and according to my chart i burn like 2500 more calories than i eat. so thats good right? i dunno nowi feel like i am a pig when you ate 325 aday and i have eatten 650 just today ugh most of it was protien though does that count? J

I too am not eating many calories. I had a big eating day yesterday, and I still only ate 545 calories. I usually average around 400-500, and that includes 2 protein drinks per day, lunch, dinner and a snack. I really tried to take in more calories yesterday, as someone suggested that maybe that is what was causing my weight loss plateau. I figured it couldn't hurt. Even with eating more, I could not take in the amount of calories I thought I would. I have to laugh at your comment... I too could never imagine me saying I can't enough calories in a day!!! LOL Hugs, Deanna

I think I'm eating between 500-700 calories a day. I'm worried about this because I don't exercise as much to burn some of those calories off. Maybe that's why my weightloss is so slow? I need to figure something out...perhaps I am snacking too much? I haven't even dumped thats why I'm not afraid to eat sometimes--I try to just have breakfast,lunch,snack, dinner, and snack. I think I could do without that last snack huh? Elisa

Elisa, if you go to the link below you will see what your body needs just to live ... BMR ... you don't want to 'burn off' all the calories you take in because your body needs calories to run [for fuel]. On a regular diet [for non WLSer] the 1-2lb weight loss a week recommendation comes from the formula to burn one pound of fat ... it takes 3500 calories to burn one pound of fat, regular folk cut 500 calories off per day, times 7 = a one pound weight loss that week. If you add exercise then that's more fuel your body needs. YOU DO NEED THAT SNACK! When your body takes in too few calories, nature makes the metabolism slow down so you don't need the same amount of calories to live. I.E. that chart I linked to says I need around 1900 calories to support my body functions [BMR], 2300 to maintain my weight ... most of us that have struggled with weight have problems with our metabolisms, so I'm guessing that my BMR is actually a bit lower. But taking in so few calories has caused my body to slow down even more to protect the vital organs, [thus the side effects of being so tired - my body just telling me to slow down] ... the reason WLSers need protein is so that the muscles don't break down ... the reason for exercise is to keep our metabolism steady, the reason for a minimum calorie target is so our body doesn't shut down. Not sure if I'm writing this so it makes sense. But IMHO, I think your calories are way too low! xosm

Thanks so much Grouchetta (ok give it up...what's your real name?) I just posted thanking you and the other ladies with nuts for the help.I'm going to have read what you wrote a couple of times to let it sink in...it's so damn complicated. I never thought about this stuff before, reason why I became morbidly obese. Thanks again !! Elisa

Trust me, my real name is equally complicated ... it's too unusual for me to ever post out here. You can type GG or SM [those are really my initials in more ways than one] ... My alter ego is Grouchetta, I am a GRINCH LOL and I always sign my name xosm ... short and sweet. I lost a lot of weight on WW and I was in the medical field for 10+ years prior to having my 3 year old, so I know some about nutrition, it's all the WLS rules and post-bariatric patient issues that are new to me. I like to research, I can get a little [haha] compulsive about it all. It's not complicated girl! Well, OK, it is for the next few months, just the struggle to get it all in [and THAT seems weird to say!], but after we break the old habits and get in the swing of eating to live and not living to eat, we'll be golden!! xosm

I checked my fitday log and I'm now doing 700/800 pretty consistently. I do notice that after 3-4 days at 800 I'll have a 300-400 day. Same seems to happen with the water. I'm close to goal for a couple then I only get in about 32oz. one day. Go figure.... J.

I was averaging around 650 for the first 6 weeks, but came to find out I was only getting in half the amount of protein I should. Now that I bumped up the protein, I think I'm hovering around 1000 [I feel like I'm eating too many carbs the last few days though]. The nutritionist did calculations for my body and activity level and said I should be 1100 to 1600! Here's a link someone here gave me of a guy who has it on his site: http://www.thinnerself.com/files/calculator.htm - you put in your weight, age, height, activity level and it give you some target ranges and the calories you need to maintain your weight. I found it interesting. I also read somewhere that if we stay consistently UNDER 1000 that is when our body's stall because the body goes into starvation mode ... The thing I read that was most important is to hit your protein targets [your surgeon/nutritionist/calculations] may be different but I am aiming for 100g a day, and to hit your fluid targets [mine 48-111oz a day]. After that I was told that 70% of the calories should be coming from protein, 10-20% from carbs, 5% from fats. Right now, I'm still on mostly soft solids and soups and suppliments [not crazy about the puree stage which I am supposed to be in for another week and a half] ... so it's hard to hit those other ranges with mostly supplements. But I also find the more I EAT FOOD, the harder it is to stay in the latter percentages [I think I'm more evenly divided, just a little higher in the protein when I eat foods]. Anyhow, rambling. The nutritionist told me last week that if I make the protein and fluid targets and try to increase my calories a little, I will stop the stall. HTH. xosm

1st let me say thank you thank you thank you. i was feeling down because i felt i was eating too much. i work out an hour a day and lead a acive life and i feel so hungrey i was dieing. i try to follow the rules and i do a good job at it and still was hign in calories but not alot of carbs you just made me realize i am doing the right thing thanks i really needed to hear that.! J