Calories & Exercising Help??

Okay.. I swore I wasn't going to be a calorie counter, as my doctor said we shouldn't focus on them.. but the more I exercise I am finding myself...Yes..counting my calories, as now they matter.  Yes Joyce I remember we debated this before, I have come to your side of it....I'm sure you knew I would eventually. So question...how many calories should we be eating at a year post surgery? I'm not worried about my portion sizes, just wondering how many calories we should be eating. I am focusing so much on how many I am burning, I would like to know how many I should be eating. I know how many a normal person should be eating at my age and so on. Just don't know what a person with surgery should be. Also, I am starving, and sometimes nauseated after I get done exercising. Is that normal? Or does that mean I am not getting in enough protein or something. I drink plenty of water during?? Any tips on that? I hate to eat right after working out. Seems kinda like a waste, know what I mean. I have tried drinking a half a profect a couple times before hand. Thinking of doing a full one and trying that. Just not sure it's a good idea to fill up my tummy with a protein drink right before exercising either. Any suggestions??

Just out of curiosity, why have you switched to counting calories.  I have the same surgeon as you and have been doing well without getting into the "diet" mentality.  It has been so freeing since I have spent so many years with that mindset.  You are further out and I was wondering if something changes?  Thanks!

I am almost a year out and that honeymoon phase is long over, its been over and pretty much can eat whatever I want without an negative side effect.  I do not count calories, I still count my protein.  I have reset myself for another jumpstart and started as if I was back to day 1.  Lean Protein only.  I have to keep on remembering that the surgery was a tool, not a quick fix.  I must use the tool in order for it to work.   Melissa,  I would suggest having a protein bar or a protein drink prior to working out.  I will sometimes have one after also.  Make sure you are drinking lots of water during your work out.  Before I finish my mile on the treadmill, I make sure I finished a bottle of water, then I do the rest of my workout. I would suggest to meet or email the nuturionist at SBC.  ~Nicole

Nicole. Thanks :) That is a good idea. Do you have there e-mail address? Yes the honeymoon period is way over for me also, and I still have a lot of weight to lose. I've had to get really serious about this! :) Thanks for the help!

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Yes, for me the honeymoon period has ended. That is the time when you can pretty much eat anything you want and the calories just seem to continue to melt away. When I say eat anything you want I mean you don't really want to eat much, so it seems you are eating anything you want. You get full really fast. Eventually though you will find that you suddenly go from being able to eat a 1/2 a cup of food to a cup of food. And your cravings will come back. For me, my dumping symptoms were very minimal so I can pretty much eat any type of sweets I want also. So not much ill side effects if say I want to eat a chocolate chip cookie or have a glass of wine, so on so on.  So even though my pouch is still small I am able to pack a lot of calories into a small area where someone who might have had dumping might not have been able to. Honestly it wasn't so much the "dieting" that got me counting calories as the exercising did. Once I started counting calories I was losing I got more curious on the calories I was taking in, and to be honest I was surprised by the calories I was taking in. No wonder my weight was at a stand still. You don't have to put a lot of food in your body to add the calories up. The stuff we put on our food alone, like dressings, ketchup, bbq sauce, all that adds up really quickly. It is good though. I understand you concern, and not wanting to get back into that "Diet" feeling. By the time you get a year out I don't think you will feel that way. I don't feel like I am on a "diet". Not like I did before the surgery. Counting Calories in or out is just something I do. It is a health obsession for me. In some sort of way, it is sorta...okay.. call me nuts...but fun. Okay I realize it sounds crazy, but for me I either gotta love it, or I will never stick to it. So I have charts in excel, and I have made it part of my life. And I absolutely never feel like I am lacking anything like I did on "Diets" before surgery. If I want it, i have it. I log it. Obviously the more I see things on paper, the less and less I tend to want them. A Hershey bar is 220 Calories. That for me is 2 miles in the park walking. Sometimes its worth that, sometimes its not. Sometimes I say screw it and just have it without the walk, but I see it on the paper, and know what I will or will not lose at the end of the week. It also helps that I am very content with where I am right now. I feel good, look good, and I don't mind if it takes me another year to take off the rest of this weight. I hope that answered your question :) Let me know if it didn't. I know I ramble sometimes. LOL.

Thanks for the reply.  You are doing so well!  I fear the end of the honeymoon, but hopefully, like you,  I will continue to lose.  I try to be aware of carbs more than anything, although I'm not really counting them either at the moment.  I am a slow "number loser", but I can certainly tell the inches are melting away.

I am sure you will do fantastic!!! I was a huge carb person presurgery. . My tastes have completely changed since surgery. Most of the things I lived on I don't like anymore and things I never ate are some of my favorite now. For instance ..brocoli.. didn't like it presurgery.. like it now. Same with chocolate cake, hated it pre-surgery..like it now. Okay not a healthy example, but a honest one ! :) Just remember slow and steady wins the race! It will come off. Most important thing you can do is just make as many changes, emotionally, mentally and physically while your in the honeymoon period as you can. Get those good habits now, and it will be so much easier when you really need them. It will be a year out before you know it!

Wow!  High Fives to you for Exercising!!!!  Weigh 2 go Miss Melissa!  .........Calories vs protein becomes a little more of an issue when we start eating a little more traditionally than the immediate weeks after our WLS when it was a couple of ounces of nibbling.  We start adding veggies, fruits and some other carbs back in and our ketosis (fat burningi) exits our bodies!  ......You can combine the 2 sciences though by trying to focus on lean protein and protein drinks to put your body back into ketosis.   You can still have a lot of volume in eating if the carbs are limited.  The basic calorie plan for a "girlfriend" is around 1200.  But if you are working out hard then you have flex calories. A great website to help you figure out your calorie, age, gender, height, activity level, etc. is www.fitday.com  It's a free site and takes a little work to navigate and set up with your personal favorites but you can even put in target weight loss goals and it tells you how many calories need to be used up to reach that goal.  How about checking into your surgeon's grad support groups?  As we get further out; we experience new challenges that we didn't have as newbies.  Our early days and weeks are all about getting in enough calories and enough protein.  We weigh and measure to make sure we get enough.  Then we have to retrain our brain cells to weigh and measure so we dont' get too much!  Hidden calories can sabotage the best post-op.......Sauces, gravies, soups, alcohol...... I'm babbling!  The bottom line is to give yourself a great pat on the back for exercising, for losing so well to this point....for reevaluating and trying to regroup!  You rock!    You CAN get back on track!

Thanks Joyce. Yes I have fitday on my computer. I got that one right after my surgery. I know the formulas for a "Normal" person and what they should intake just wasn't sure on what we "WLS Patients" should be intaking. I thought it was around 1200 calories, I just wanted to make sure :) The exercising is killing me!!  Don't get me wrong, I love being able to exercise. It is the not being able to part that has me absolutely frustrated!  I have to join a gym which I absolutely do not want to do. I hate gym's. But I don't have a pool, and that seems to be the only thing that I'm going to be able to do until I build the muscle up in my leg. I was crippled again last night after just a two mile walk, and I was taking it easy. About two blocks from home my leg just collapsed, and I had the limp the rest of the way home my knee just throbbing. I was so mad!  I wasn't speed walking, running or anything. SO disappointed. Getting very frustrated with the constant obsticles my body seems to keep putting up against me. I don't mind fighting through the pain, but it is getting ridiculous, and I don't know what to do, other then to rant, rave, keep the ice on, and try again tomorrow :) Other then that I have just found that I am mostly starving after I get done exercising. I am trying to make sure I do it before lunch and dinner, so that at least I'm not eating extra food. But still I hate to come home right from exercise and fill my pouch full of calories. Know what I mean?