BIG NSV (for me at least)

Hey everyone, I've been really busy the last week, a lot of things have happened and all of them good. I saw my surgeon and he was so happy with my weight loss. He spoke with me a long time, gave me advice on where I need to go and told me I need to pump my calories up to speed up weight loss. It felt crazy to me, but he's the doctor, not me. Wants me to go from about 500 calories a day to 1300 (where in the world am I going to get all those calories :( ).

Then last week I joined a gym and have been going about 4-5 times a week. I generally use the treadmill and some of the strength training machines, but I am unfamiliar with a routine, so I will need to look into that.

And finally, the last thing and most exciting thing for me, is that I signed back up for college. I had originally gone right out of high school, but dropped out because of emotional issues. This week I signed back up and will be going to school the end of this summer when the first semester starts, I plan to go into nursing. I am really exited for this change in my life.

Edit: Thank you guys! It is so nice to get advice and input from people who have lived this life. It always puts things into perspective for me!

Congratulations on everything. Getting into nursing school is a huge challenge, but one that's well worth it. Nursing is a great profession with lots of specialties, so if one isn't quite the right fit, another will be. I'll never regret going into nursing, even though I was late to the game. Best of luck!

Thank you for your kind words! I am excited. Nursing isn't what I had envisioned for myself, but it sort of just stuck with me when I thought about being a nurse. My only issue is getting over my phobia of blood being drawn. It isn't blood alone, or needles, it's blood actually being drawn. I faint.

We had a couple in my cohort who had that problem, and they got over it. Not sure how, as that's never been a problem for me... I was a paramedic when I was young, so no issues with needles or blood for me. Wish I had solid advice, but hopefully one of the instructors has run across it before and will have something to offer. I'm sure they've all seen it before.

1300-1400 calories a day is where I hang. I've seen that constantly staying too low in calories will destroy your metabolism. I found a resting metabolic rate calculator and input my information. It shows that I should be around 1800 calories a day. To lose a pound a week you supposedly need to drop 500 calories. I have been very successful doing it this way.

There is no scientific proof that eating too few calories ruins your metabolism.

I have to strongly disagree with the recommendation for1300 calories. Your doctor may be a good surgeon, but he hasn't lived this life, and what he'll be happy to see you accomplish is probably not the same thing that will satisfy you.

1300 calories will have you lose for the next few weeks, and then come to a crashing halt.

Very low calories will not wreck your metabolism. It didn't ruin mine. I maintain now at over 2600 calories a day. But I kept them as low as I could stand until I hit, and passed, my goal. This was a race for my life and I was determined to win. Eating more was just going to slow that down.

Caliries are fuel. Fat is fuel. As long as you are carrying around extra fat, use that for fueland skip eating more.

You can try it his way, but if you decide to cut back a few months from now when you are stalled, it will be really really hard. Probably too hard.

I agree with Grim. I ran my first 1/2 marathon a year to the day from my VSG, as I increased my training, I asked my surgeon if I could increase my calories, which at that point hovered around 800. His response? If you want to stop losing weight, yes. He told me he preferred that I stay under 1000 until at least my 16 month mark or when I got to (or below goal). We then worked to raise them to a maintenance level. I'll be 3 years post op on 5/12 and I'm at goal and my metabolism is not shot. The way I see it, you can keep doing what's working, follow the advice from vets who have lived the post WLS life, or follow a Doctor who may or may not have first hand experience in losing weight post surgery.

It is really confusing and upsetting for there to be such a different of opinions. One the one hand I feel like I want to listen to my surgeon, but on the other everyone seems to have their success with around the calories I was hovering around. I tried to eat more today, I got to 900 calories or so and I hated it. I feel so full and bloated and miserable.

Well, everyone on this website would love to listen to someone in authority who tells us to eat more. That's why we ended up on this website.