Calories after the DS
I typically do not count anything. I eat whatever I want, when I want. I've done that for 11 years. I have counted by calories just to see how much I eat....I've eaten as much as 6000 calories and over 500 grams of carbs and not gained weight.
Scott
PS Disclaimers: It's not the same for everyone. I am a guy, I do exercise now and again, and I do have an "old style" DS (larger VSG, longer bypass).
I don't really track calories as a measure of how I am doing. At 4 years I mainly still track protein and liquids. I don't do high fat but I never eat low fat foods by choice.
Calories are a hard mind set to let go of and some people never do. Just like some people weigh in every day. You can track calories but you need to go at it backwards. Work out menu's that meet your protein and carb goals (trying for under 50 during active weight loss is the goal for most people) and then using that to work out your calorie goals. You still need to pay attention the the food mix though not just the calorie count. That is the biggest issue with calories, it doesn't account for different types of food.
The first 2 years I did manual tracking and then a spreadsheet so there wasn't any idea of calories in my mind. Just hitting my protein and liquid goals. Carbs and calories took care of themselves.
Once I started using MFP (MyFitnessPal) on my smart phone I looked at calories a little bit. Finding hacks to allow for the malabsorption but I still mainly use it to see protein and liquids although I do pay more attention now to carb totals and overall totals than I did before.
I find at this point if I'm not eating right (protein first) and not exercising I can gain. It keeps me in a range around 230, closer to 220 when I am exercising more and closer to 236 when I'm not.
I just kind of like trying to see if the calorie part of MFP (which tells you how much weight you may lose at your current calorie burn) works the way they think it should but I still don't really pay attention to the totals.
Pete
Thanks for your reply. I like your idea of going at the calories backwards. Your very right, getting out of the calorie mindset is hard. I know the D'S is all about protien/fat/carbs etc, but it would also be nice to know the calorie range.
Do you gain easily if u don't track dilligently? Or is it more like u don't track for awhile and then start gaining? Does the weight come off easy once u track again?