How I eat 4 months out

100% protein is actually what you should be shooting for, more or less. 600 calories of chicken breast will absolutely have you at your protein goals?

What are you eating an in average day?

You were doing fantastic. I would have ignored that dietician's advice. Eating more is NOT going to make you lose faster, not overall.

Starvation mode is total crap.

I would question if your "dietician" is actually a registered dietician, or if she is a nutritionist. If I were you, I would check. Because, if she's a nutritionist, you should be aware that there is no required training or certification/licensure to be a nutritionist in most states. I have yet to met one that's not a waste of time and money.

I have also ?modified? my plan to suit my needs. Staying under 30 grams of carbs is just not doable for me. I am counting calories and I stay under 1000 per day. I get my protein in, and I take my vitamins. I also get my fluids in. I?m not a big meat eater, and some of the non meat proteins are so high in calories they defeat my purpose. Tracking helps to keep me honest, but if you are having success without tracking I would say keep doing what your doing. When/if you get to the point where you aren?t losing, tracking is always an option. I am happy with slow steady losses. I feel like this is a marathon, not a race, and the starvation, unhealthy, no veg, low carb thing doesn?t do it for me. A lot of folks will disagree with me, and that is okay too.

edited to add: the point being, there is more than one way to skin a cat!

4 months is NOT enough time to be able to declare yourself a success. You could eat nothing but Doritos for four months post-op, and still lose weight.

It's great that you can get by without weighing, measuring, and tracking... but I very seriously doubt you will be able to maintain that after your honeymoon period ends after the first year.

There are plans that guarantee success. There are plans that may or may not succeed. There are doomed plans. There are plans that work for a while, and then they don't.

All plans work for about the first six months. Somewhat at least. But after enough time has passed, the window of opportunity is gone.

The "eating until sated" plan got me to super morbid obesity and a BMI of 60. It's a horrible plan. You will lose for a while, but so does everyone.

You say you don't eat carbs 99% of the week, but then you make a very long list of the carbs you eat.

Using the word "treat" at three months out is a huge red flag.

When several items on your plan are qualified by "most days," it's time for a better plan.

I wish you luck, I truly do. But you are still in the phase where everything works.

I knew I'd get these very strong reactions, & I'm ok with that. 1) I'm 45 2) i most definitely did not declare myself a success. I specifically said I've been successful thus far. 3) I did not become obese by eating until I was sated. I became obese by eating to the point of nausea & feeling sick. I became obese by eating carb laden foods such as ice cream, chocolate, & pasta. I did not become obese by eating a couple of clementines & some grapes as snack. Not sure what you consider carb heavy in 2-3 fruits, some tomatoes, & lettuce. If you're referring to beans or nuts, I'm ok with that too, as it's recommended by my nutritionist. She's highly certified, runs the bariatric nutrition department at a very prestigious NY hospital, so yeah I'm ok with it. I specifically posted, because I firmly believe there are many lurking here, not posting, following a similar food regimen to mine, yet too intimidated by the reactions i just received, to post like I did. & yes, there are opinions that 600-800 calories is too low, & will contribute to more challenging ability to stick to a healthy plan long term. But I don't disparage or question it, I respect it. My plan is to stay here, as it's a tool to my long term success. If my version fails, ill be the first to admit it, & take advice for turning it around. If I'm a success long term, ill share that as well.

I've yet to meet a nutritionist who had WLS. I've yet to meet one that was even overweight. And most WLS programs aim for 50 percent excess weight loss. The advice you've been given will get you to 50 percent loss. It will not get you anywhere near 100 percent.

Some say this is a marathon, not a sprint. I emphatically disagree. I can count on one hand the number of people who continued to lose over several years. It's really, really hard to do.

This is a race. Get the weight off as fast as you can. It's your best shot at reaching goal and staying there.

Again, best of luck. Please continue to check in long term and let us know how it's going.

You've had a few posts politely and respectfully disagreeing with you. That's NOT a strong or "intimidating" reaction.

FYI: Fruits are carb heavy.

You're getting the reactions because you're so early in the process, and the vets here have seen hundreds if not thousands of people and know at least anecdotally what has and has not worked for them.

I try to be very cir****pect when I post things contrary to what seems to be the standard advice from the vets here of severe calorie restriction for the duration of the weight loss period and very low carb eating forever.

I am only a year and a half out, so what may seem to be working for me may end up biting me in the butt. I never want to get someone else off track because of my experiences.

I personally cannot do very low carb because ketosis makes me very ill. I still restrict sugar and try to get my carbs in with complex carbs. I'm also 5'9" and apparently have managed over my life to not diet and cycle my weight to the point of damaging my metabolism because I kept losing weight as I upped my caloric intake to over 1,000 by 6 months out. I'm finding my maintenance calories to be much higher than others here at over 1,800 at least SO FAR.

It's the SO FAR that's the issue with contradicting the vast majority of people here. While part of me wants to reach out to other people who don't want to or can't do the very low carb, I've been in WLS communities here and elsewhere for over 2 years now, and the vets in all communities give the same advice through their experiences and what they've observed in their in-person groups and the online groups. They are speaking out of concern that someone new out will see your success SO FAR with eating in a way that's closer to what they want to do, and follow your advice, and fail.

Even if my experience with balanced macros and higher intakes ends up working for me long-term, it may be specific to me because of my body's oddities. But I'm nowhere near long-term yet, so I can't even call my experience to be a success. I'm thrilled with my loss and experience up to now, but I'm constantly watching for evidence that my current plan is starting to backfire.

In short, there's really good reasons the vets give the advice they do, and we would be short-sighted to contradict it.