Thoughts on Calories

I looked at several calorie calculators today including the one that Pam linked to in a previous post. This is really interesting to me. I'm 5'10 and weigh 172 now. I'm hoping to get to 165. According to this I can eat around 2500 calories a day and maintain this weight. I actually have no idea of my current calorie count, but I imagine it is much lower than 2500 calories. However, my weight loss is very slow currently. I've lost maybe a total of 10 pounds in the last 2 months. Not that I'm complaining. I wonder if our metabolism has been altered by the surgery, having been obese, yoyo dieting..... If so, does it ever normalize? Will we be able to eat all those calories in the future??? Wil we want to? I've been doing a lot of weight training lately and I know I've gained muscle....for every pound of muscle you gain burns an additional 50 calories a day....

I know since my 9 month Dr visit I have been eating around 1000-1200 calories per day, I do not "count" calories but I always know a rough estimate in my head. I was losing 6-8lbs per month. Then in July I hurt my back and could not exercise except for some walking and I lost 10lbs that month. So I started to wonder about the calories and if I was burning too much exercising (usually around 500 calories a day on the elliptical). So I emailed my dietician and she has not asked me to up my calories to 1200-1400 to help me lose again (I've been stuck for a little over 2wks now). It is hard most days to eat that amount. So I really doubt we'll ever eat 2000+ calories a day again unless we get to a point of needing to up our calories in order to stop our weight loss, I'd guess even then it would be lower than that. We would have to consume higher calorie foods in order to get in that amount since we can't eat as much qty. Just my thoughts on the subject.

I'm usually at around 1000 calories per day. Maybe a little more, and maybe a little less too. I've lost all of my excess weight (down 111) and am maintaining goal weight of about 142 pounds. The more I exercise, the more I get hungry so I eat more. I simply watch for the hunger, feed it intelligently, and check the scale periodically to assure that it's not going the wrong way. I don't know if I'll ever get much higher, let alone hitting anywhere near 2500 calories, but it'll be fine if I do as long as I maintain my weight. I think that if you increase caloric intake when weight loss slows, that many times the weight loss will increase in speed. I think my metabolism has normalized since surgery but we've all got a lifetime of figuring this new life out. Things like metabolism, calorie intake needs, etc. will change over time I'm sure. ***Shauna***

Hey Courtney - don't know the answer but wanted to say howdy and see if we could meet for lunch (early) in the next couple of weeks. I wonder when they'll get your picture up! love donna