Increasing calories fears

You might think in terms of just making minor changes in your diet, like have another yogurt or a few more veggies, or the occasional carb, if you're trying to increase rather than the total. I think none losers have very different ideas of what a "treat" is for me it might be having a few crackers with my cheese.

i got down to 118 when my initial goal was 145, then 135 then kept going until I couldn't lose anymore. when i was at 118 i had hernia and twisted bowel and was basically on liquids, so when the dr told me to eat 1200 calories, i gained fast... it made me very very unhappy though I know my body was trying to heal up. I would do what others have recommended, a little at a time.

1200 was too much to fast for me and 5 pounds came on- then even more from Dec-May. Now im busting arse to get it off....

OH My, memories!!! I told my surgeon no way would I increase my cals and was scared out of my mind. He gave me some great advice. He said add 500 calories a wee****il my weight stabilizes and I stop losing. It was hard but it worked. I was shocked that I was maintaining taking in 1800 cals to 2100 a week. I was a guy rat at that time so I could afford the extra cals. So try that, add 500 at a time until you stop losing. If you gain then back it off.

Good luck and keep us posted on it goes

I never increased calories. I ended up at 10 below goal and just stayed there. I was not counting calories or logging, just tracking water and protein. At about three years out, I started gaining and then had to count calories to control it.

You can get a feel for what your ultimate caloric level will be by looking at your last months' loss rates. If you were losing around 5 lb per month, that works out to around a 500 calorie deficit, so you need to add that much to your diet - rough ballpark figures. If your loss wasn't that stable, take an average of your last three months. It's just a rough approximation, but gives you an estimate of where your target should be. If your loss rate was slow and varied in those final months, then you probably aren't far off of your ultimate maintenance level. I was losing consistently at 10 lb per month as I approached goal weight, and sure enough, I am maintaining at right around 1000 calories higher than I was losing at.

As I recall, you were more on the moderate carb side of things - that will help as you will likely have less of the "bounceback" regain than those who were agonizingly low carb; most of that "extra" weight that one is supposed to lose on a low carb diet is water weight that comes back once you normalize your diet.

Good luck in finding your place...

Thank you, I never even thought of using my past weight loss trends. I looked at my previous months and I seem to be be losing at about 10pounds a month give or take a couple.

I have almost completely stopped worrying about carbs. I am still mindful of "bad carbs" like slider foods, but I have tried to let myself completely ignore vegetable carbs all together and am getting there on fruit carbs. Most of my energy problem stopped when I increased my carb intake.

It sounds like you are making good progress. I certainly understand the energy problems, as that is a common side effect of low carb dieting (and one of the reasons that I avoided such diets from the outset.) At around four months out I added whole grain bread/toast back onto my menu at selected times as I was running into a wall when swimming past an hour - that silly piece of toast made all the difference in breaking down that wall and giving me the needed energy when I needed it (note that marathoners and other endurance athletes don't "fat load" prior to an event as that does no good other than add unneeded calories - they carb load to ensure that their glycogen levels are as high as possible.) Not only that, but I also never stalled or had my weight loss slow; indeed my loss rate trend improved. So much for those diet myths that "carbs make your weight loss slow/stop" or "carbs make you gain weight." I love it when physiology wins out over fad mythology.

Like when you were newly post-op and checking tolerances to newly added foods, this is another time when we are typically adding variety to help us maintain, and we have to do some testing to see what works for us. We need to add variety to improve our overall nutrition and help us cut back on needed supplements while being watchful for triggers that can work against us. We need to avoid the cookie cutter mentality of the diet crowd that "carbs cause cravings..." etc. and explore what exactly it is that triggers cravings in us rather than someone else. Triggers can just as easily be fats (nuts are a common one) as carbohydrates, but it is extremely rare for someone to be triggered by broccoli or an apple into scarfing a box of twinkies.

I was one (still am) who planned and tracked all my food using My Fitness Pal. That permitted me, like a few others who've posted above, to do some arithmetic to figure out what my maintenance calorie budget would/should be.

When I hit 150 (my original goal) I gradually started adding 100-150 calories a month until I was averaging 1,700 calories a day.

And that's what I ate during the next 9 months ... while unexpectedly losing another 15 pounds. I wound up at 135 pounds while eating 1,700 cals/day. I was also (and still am) aiming for 80-100 grams of protein daily.

So that's what I did for a couple of years. And maintained beautifully. Then last fall, right after my fourth surgiversary, I decided to ramp up my veggies and fruits to 8/day, which sent me up to 1,850 calories a day (apparently the calories in veggies and fruits take more energy to digest than other kinds of calories, eh?) and also lost another 3 pounds.

BTW, during all that time, my exercise and activity levels were pretty stable.

That's my story. I hope it's useful to you. :)

Couple of months back, I changed my diet and started counting calories(1000 to 1200). And trust me, it really helped. I lost more than 10 kgs in 3 months. Also, I started yoga. Yogic yoga and weight loss are closely related.