Need help losing weight

I think my punctuation was a little askew.  I said a non-DS person would need 60.  Sorry for the confusion.

Still, I would think that at 150 or 180 is still awfully high, but you have to do what is needed according to your own labs.  Is there something else that's preventing good absorption?  However, my point is that it is going to be hard to lose weight at 2800 cal/day even with the DS.

With our malabsorption, ~2200 calories (which is what that sample shows, not ~2800) is not a lot of food. Look at how many of those calories are from fat alone which is 80-80% malabsorbed. 

The protein malabsorption estimate is 40% but most people believe it to be closer to 20-30% which means we need even more.

Each person is very individual as well depending on their surgical structure and how long their common channel is (the longer it is the more nutrients are absorbed).

But the central complaint here is that she's not only not losing any weight, but that she's gaining.  So somewhere in all of that there's too many calories consumed vs. calories expended and/or not absorbed.  I am just questioning whether all of this math is defeating the purpose.  Even if not eating all meals in a single sitting, some of those meals look like a big quantity of food, regardless of protein/fat calories.  

I want to thank everyone for their help with this question.  I feel guided now.  I do not feel lost in the woods.  I am going to make some changes to my food plan and it feels great to have people helping me find what will work.  Also, I figure no one made me out of a special mold.  What has worked for all of you is what is most likely going to work for me -- and I am hearing you all say that is Low Carb!!!  And I am feeling like my set of tools for tackling low carb have definitely increased.

You guys are a world of help.  THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

Are you eating enough?  I eat every 2 hrs or sooner.  I can't tolerate bread, so I make a sandwich with 6 slices of cheese with mayo between the slices and 4 oz of lunch meat between the sets.  It's 60 g of protein.  I eat 1/2 at a time.  Early out, I ate lots of jerky and nuts, cheese & salami, sausages etc.  You need your body to think that food is plentiful and that means lots of protein.

You can do a high carb day or two to trick your body and see if you start losing weight again, but your body may have just stopped.  Mine stopped at 5 months out, then kicked in at 9mo and I lost another 10lbs.  I never made it to a normal BMI.    I can't complain, I'm in size 7 & 9 jeans, and medium tops after my lift.

You may have to watch the carbs if you start gaining.  I was maintaining great after my PS, but I started dancing 4-5 nights a week.  When I stopped I did put on 10-14lbs.  I was able to slowly take off 4, but the last 10 came back off when I had my upper body lift in Jan.

Maybe try to take 1 or 2 15min walks a day. 

When I was initially pushing for low carb, I wasn't getting in enough food.  I was eating often however.  But, after I added up the calories, I was getting in around 700 cals a day and I didn't stick with it because I started feeling like my body was starving.  It wasn't that I was hungry, although there was some of this.  There was another sensation like my body was being starved.

There was another mistake I was making.  I hadn't realized that DS'ers were doing low carb for the purpose of getting into ketosis.  I thought it was only a way for them to cut cals.  So, on those weeks where I was doing a protein shake for breakfast and lunch and some homemade chicken soup for dinner plus some snacks of cheese in there, I was pushing through the week and then taking the weekend off to eat other stuff definitely not part of the low carb plan.  I did lose weight while keeping carbs low and cals ubber low but I didn't feel like I could sustain that low of a caloric intake.

I am currently working out another menu plan. I'm going to try dropping out dairy and see how I feel. I was reading up and learned that sinus issues can be related to a sensitivity to casein.  I have a sensitivity to casein and I always have sinus allergy issues... I just hadn't realized it was from the milk. So, I'm going to try to drop dairy.  But, I'm going to eat a lot of chicken, have a protein drink for breakfast, and eat a lot of olive oil -- a lot, to get my absorbed cals up to the low 900's.  I'll give it a go and see how I feel on it!  I'm doing a test run with the olive oil right now to make sure my system behaves with it.  I think it's helping clean me out in a good way!  lol

I forgot to add - yep, you're totally right.  I need to start walking.  And, I never reached my target bmi but I'm a size 16.  I look good in clothes but I'd like to explore getting smaller.  Most of all, though, I want to stop further gain and lose the 10 lbs I've gained.  After that, the goal is to try to keep going with it and lose some more.  As long as I'm feeling good, that's the most important thing.

Thank you for your help!  It's neat to get everyone's experiences.