1200 calories - starvation mode?

As most / all of us, I have been on so many diets before deciding to go forward with the VSG.  On all of those diets everyone would say don't go below 1200 calories today or your body would go into starvation mode.  The benefit of the sleeve is that we can easily go below that number at first without feeling crazily hungry.  Will this push our bodies into starvation mode?  Will our metabolism be forever messed up after eating so little for so long?

Thanks!

I don't believe so.  I know I remain pretty full after breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  With water in between and fruit as snacks, I haven't really felt hungry at all.

If anything, I am tapping into all of my stored energy.

Also- I stopped drinking coffee after VSG.  14 weeks and not a drop.  I was at 2-3 Venti cups a day.  Didn't skip a beat!

The starvation mode is pretty much a myth........

WL is about a caloric deficit and you want your body to feed off of stored fat (weight loss)

People "tend" not to make goal(100%EWL) on 1200cal programs. Sure, some have.... not many.

The metabolism thing is kind of a moot point.

At this point it is what it is. We all probably have some sort of broken metabolisms.......nothing about this process is going to make it worse or better......

Lose the weight as best you can and than re-establish your new levels.

frisco

Thank you for that one frisco...I've been wondering if I had screwed up my metabolism by living on 800 cal a day for the last year but hellooooo....it's not like it was working so well before lol..what am I worried about? 

For a brief period of time, yes... which results in the stalls. Without surgery, and without extenuating cir****tances, most people cannot maintain a super low calorie diet. Your body fights too hard to make you eat. Eventually you do.

With the surgery, you don't have much choice unless you literally force yourself to eat that much. I know I couldn't right now. And can't imagine eating enough to equal 1,200 calories a day any time in the near future. Eventually, your body realizes this is "the new norm" and adjusts.

Thanks everyone. 

I think my biggest fear is that my sleeve will not offer enough restriction and that I will steal feel hungry and need to fight myself to not eat to satisfaction.  

A man at my surgeon's support group this week who was 19 days out of surgery was saying that he was eating 1200 calories / day and pretty much eating everything already.  This really freaked me out.  In my conversations with the nutritionist I will not be on all foods until 8 weeks out.  I'm tempted to ask my surgeon on the day of surgery to make sure he makes it small enough.  

Lots of anxiety right now.  My surgery date is 12/9 and I don't think I will stop stressing about it until they put me to sleep for the surgery.  

I am 2 months post-op and I still have discomfort at times when I eat. And I eat SMALL meals. Sometimes even moist scrambled eggs bother me. The only things that don't ever are things like yogurt, cottage cheese, malt o meal, soft soft soft stuff.

Sounds to me like he decided he was going to eat, no matter what. It's not good, in my opinion. As long as you don't push yourself, and take your time eating, pay attention to your body... I don't see how you would be up to eating that much.

Gail I'm glad to hear another person can still only tolerate soft foods. I'm early out at 3.5 weeks and had a tear. I'm so tired of eating yogurt and cottage cheese!

That sounds like someone that is not going to do very well with the surgery.

My surgery is dec 11th and I feel the same way. Once Im knocked out i will be good lol.

If the gentleman at your group is grazing, it is no problem to eat that much.  Small amounts of junk food frequently could easily be done.  I have had days where I am over 3000 calories (not very often and I have been able to crawl back on the wagon after struggling like that).   But the part that will be hard to wrap your brain around until you experience is how much easier it is to stick to the planned diet.  It is also much easier to get back on plan should you falter.  With that said, if you are very mindful during the first few months you will entirely retrain your eating habits.  I still can't believe looking back that I went from terrible overeating and mostly junk food to craving salads and fish in less than a 2 month period.  Don't waste your energy worrying about it, instead use that energy to do some exercise or something productive!