How many calories should we be aiming for in Maintenance

I wanted to get a few inputs from my 'maintence' crew about how much calories to they aim for in a day. I know that it also depends on how much exercise one does, but I wanted to compare notes. I have to admit that I have not yet started charting my calories.I stopped early out as it was freaking me  out realizing I was intaking so little calories. Now that I am in maintenance mode I wanted to add that tool to my new habits. I have always measured my portions but never really counted calories and such. Any guidelines would be appreciated. I have read a few other posts on this topic but the numbers seem to vary quite a bit depending on who your surgeon is. My Wls clinic mentions not consuming more than 1000 cal a day. I know that I am eating a bit more than that. I know eat six small meals. Each being about one cup to one and a half cups of food at a time, low carb, high protein intake. I do eat carbs though. I tend to eat healthy and complex carbs. My fat intake is good fat(olive oil mostly) but I also eat alot of dairy products( cheese, coffee cream,soy products). What do you think I should be aiming for? I do know that with malabsorption surgeries the caloric intake may differ but I would like to get an idea what others are doing 'out' there..... thanks!

This is not an easy question... When i was losing, I stayed around 900-1000 cal per day . But since I have reached goal, it seems like I am always hungry ( psychological? or because I eat more appetite stimulating carbs?), and I  am unable to eat only 1000 cals. For my height and weight, my supposed daily intake is 1600-1800 depending on my exer****s. I wrote my intakes everyday, to try to see how much will be ok for me. Since Christmas, I stay between around 1500 and my weight is always around 142 so I think this is ok. I try to stay relatively low carb because I think carbs make me more hungry. I also eat low fat and high proteins. I don't have problem with the meals, as my stomach is still small, I cannot eat more than 1 to 1 1/2 cup per meal, but my problem is snacking, I can eat very frequently, and even if it is fruits or complex carbs, it adds up rapidly on the sugar side...

I think 1000 cal is too low for maintain and I don't have malabsorption... You should eat more IMO.   When I exercise, or just walk and work, 1600 is ok, and I even lose a few onces. When I am immobilized, like now with my knee surgery, i tend to eat more, ( around 1700), nothing more to do!!! and I gained 1 pound ! I think every metabolism is different, that's why I still weight myself everyday, and write down everything that I eat,  to see how my body works. But the main thing for me, despite the calories, are the quality of what I eat, the density of the meat, the "filling" sensation, and the exer****s ( that I neglected recently...)

I use " my fitness pal" on my IPhone, also available on internet. It is free, and easy to put your intake, and it calculates carbs, prot, etc... Very useful.

Tonight, it is the superbowl party here, pizza, nachos and chicken wings... I think I won't check my calories today!!!

Have a nice Superbowl night!

Your question is a very good one, Miss B, but unfortunately, I just can't be of much help, since I don't measure portions, nor do I count calories and I doconsume significant amounts of carbs...and still, my weight tends to go down (175.4 lbs)... and moreover, I had a malabsoption surgery.

But I still would like ball park figures on the amount of food one should eat on a daily basis after surgery...There is probably no easy answer to this question but maybe someone knows better than I do... But then again, I never really been a great fan of nutritionnal arithmetics...Such theoretical models can't account for the complexity for the complexity of human metabolism anyway...If those models were working, obesity would have been eradicated 20-30 years ago...

The one thing I learned since DS, is that staying alive only requires a tiny fraction of what I used to eat before surgery. I guess, experiencing this surgery was the only way to get that in my skull...

I'm currently working remembering  myself that my activity level is much superior to what it was pre-op...therefore, It's perfectly nomal to eat decent amounts of food...I just got to make sure I remain active and that my weight doesn't vary (as in going up) to much...

I'm  presently working my food intake with a few rules of thumb like:

1) Proteins first (from regular food; meat, dairies, beans, etc)
2) Vitamins and antioxidants at each meal (fruits and veggies)
3) Sufficient calcium intake (since I tend to produce oxalate kidney stones)
4) Enough complex carbs to avoid ketosis and be energetic. (brain cells burn carbs...and brains are a good thing)
5) Avoid excess lipids (but I never really dumped to this day)
6) Shakes or protein bars only if no regular food is on hand

My two cents...

Allo ma belle Brenda! 
I am not too sure where I had read this but the number that keeps coming back for "maintenance" is 1200 calories per day. I think I had read it on one of the DS websites I had consulted almost 2 years ago today but that number just sounds right. Like the others said, it all depends on how active you are.

Keep up the great work girl!

Derek

Thanks guys for your thoughts....it is nice to compare notes and I will start charting to see where I stand and work from there.

Cheers!

Wow, I am kind of afraid now, I think I consume too much calories! some doc said 1000, Derek said 1200 for DS with malabsorption... I really thought I will have to stay around 1200 to maintain, but I seem to maintain ok at 1500, even if I don't exer**** Everyone is so different...

"Everyone is so different" is key here...  That's why I think caloric accounting has limited accuracy. Caloric content of food varies according to the source of the info, and so are portions size, surgery types and individual metabolic specs. Building a theory on such basis could be hazardous!

Following someone's weight and food intake sounds much more reasonable to me. What I mean is that counting calories can be useful to follow the impact of food intake  on  weight, but the quest for some "magic number", be it 1000, 1200, 1500 cal/day,  seems a bit foolish to me.

For example, if someone gains weight while having 1200 or 1500 cal/day, the caloric intake should then be lowered and activity level should be monitored...It's much more a game of trial and error than a search for a gold standard.

Promising a simple way to manage weight is what makes popular diets so darn popular...Do you remember how successful those diets were when you (as I did) tried them???