Food Tracking Assistance

So I would really appreciate some positive advice just as a reminder since I wasn't explained "numbers" for daily food intake for calories and carbs.

I see lots of people usually consume around 600-900 calories a day. I am 7.5 weeks post op now so just curious what your numbers are for right now around my time frame.

Also see lots of people preaching about carbs and not having too many but are you referring to bad carbs and/or good carbs for daily intake. Also I know the numbers for protein should be at least 60 grams a day.

I feel like I am doing an okay job with tracking foods but my life is a little chaotic right now so I don't always have the time to do it 100% but I do give try my hardest.

Thank you!!

At 8 weeks post I was probably taking in 500-600 kcal/day. My surgeon is one who advises a higher calorie count than most people here advise, and I'm tall (5'9") so by about 6 months I was up to 800-900 kcal/day and by about 10 months was at 1000 - 1100 kcal/day. Doc wanted me about 1200 kcal/day by a year out, which I was doing. I still lose slowly at 1200-1300 kcal/day and maintain well around 1500-1600 kcal/day.

You'll get a lot of different advice about carbs. I found Dr. Alvarez' YouTube video today very interesting. He says that balanced macros will do for most people with the sleeve, but if you really want to "kick it" do low carb/ketogenic diet. Most people here advise ultra low carb or ketogenic. Ketosis kicks in for most people under 50g carbs/day. Ultra low carbers will advise 30g or less per day.

My surgeon is ambivalent about low carbing. She says it works great for people who can maintain it, but in her experience people generally don't keep it up for long. She supports it if we want to try it, but doesn't pu**** My body physically does not handle ketosis well, so I technically do balanced macro, but I try to keep my carbs pretty moderate - about 30-35%% of total calories. However, when you're running so low on calories, if you are trying to stay out of ketosis, your carb % will be higher until your total calories go up. I try to stick to "good" carbs - avoiding sugar and refined flours. I don't always manage it, but that's my goal. :)

60g/day for protein is a little low, based on my surgeon's direction. She wanted me aiming for 80g/day, and now that my intake is up in the maintenance range I'm supposed to get in about 130g/day in order to build back up the muscle I lost post-op.

I worked with a registered dietician for a while, and tracking is a struggle for me as well. She said that some people do best when tracking religiously, and others use it more as a spot-check tool. It all depends on if your weight is doing what you want and expect it to do. If you think you're eating fine and the weight is not coming off, then track diligently for a while to see what's up. If the scale is reflecting what you think you're doing, and you trac****asionally to make sure you're getting your macros in most days, then you're probably doing OK. I personally eat pretty much the same things over the course of a week, I'm pretty boring. So once I establish a standard menu and quantities, it goes on auto pilot. If my diet were less predictable I might need to track more often than I do.

Hope this helps.

Oh, and I should have noted that I didn't even track calories for many months after surgery, I just happen to know what they were thanks to MyFitness Pal.

My surgeon had advised to only focus on protein and water goals until my diet was closer to "normal". I also had to kinda keep an eye on carbs to make sure I got 60g in daily to keep from going into ketosis. I ate my protein first, then a bit of carbs at every meal. That worked really well for me.

Where you are right now you are more likely to be in the 300-600 calorie range. 600-900 is more in the 3 to 6 months post op time frame. As for carbs, you should consider all carbs bad and keep them as low as possible. Make sure to cut out everything white and starchy. Get whatever carbs you get from leafy green veggies and greek yogurt. Beyond that you should be as low carb as possible. The only carbs I do not count are fiber and sugar alcohols as your body does not digest them and fiber is actually good for you. It will help you poop.

I hope you are using something like MyFitnessPal to track, makes it a lot easier.

I do use my fitnesspal when I remember to, like I said my life is a little chaotic right now so sometimes I forget but like I eat a protein bar for a snack to get some extra protein in and it's the Questbar brand. It says 20g of carbs on the back but then it has 14g dietary fiber,

I would drop the protein bar. They are all really just glorified candy bars. They don't help most ppl reach their goals.

My plan wants me to eat 3 meals a day, no snacks. Those meals should weigh 3-4 ounces each and consist mainly of protein.

The days I have tracked, I'm getting 600-800 calories a day and 60-80 grams of protein. I aim for 64 ounces of liquid. 96 is better. This is working well for me!

I can barely eat 3oz of food and I feel like I get hungry quicker then I should so I was advised to eat 6 small meals a day.

What, exactly, are you eating and drinking each day?

I think it's unlikely that you're actually getting hungry. Do you forget your meals on days you're busy? We *think* we're hungry a lot but it's just our brain telling us that. I did three meals per day and one snack if I needed it. I do 6 meals now to maintain, but it wouldn't have worked for me for loss.