DS'ers Typical Calories

 Hello

    I had my DS in 2001 by Dr. Anthone @ USC in Los Angeles and I went from 400 to 200 pounds.  I now want to lose about 50 more pounds so I have begun going to the gym and doing a warm up by the biggest loser fitness book, circuit strength training exercise, cool down, followed by an hour on the treadclimber, which is a combination of a treadmill, elipical and stairmaster.  You get 1.5 times the burn as the other machines.  I wear a polar heart rate and calorie watch with a chest strap to monitor my heart rate.  In 2 hours I burn between 1400 and 1500 calories.  If I swim for 1.5 hours I burn 1800 calories according to 200 calories burn per 10 minutes of certain swimming strokes.

    I started following the biggest loser diet plan but... I was only eating like 1800 calories, I did not lose a pound all week.  Then the light went on ... AHHH maybe I should be eating MORE, and lowering my carb intake.  So I looked on DS Facts (Diane C) DS Math and it stated I should be eating like 3000 calories which gives me 1268 absorbed calories.  So I am desperately trying to drink protein shakes, eat high protein usually about 120 grams, carbs about 50 grams, hardly any sugar, and tons of fat but I am still only coming up with like 1800 calories.  So I guess my question is do I need to eat 3000 calories a day to maintain my weight, or do I need to eat more since I am exercising so much and burning so many calories that I am going into starvation mode???

    When I look at everyone else's daily food intake, it seems like I am eating more.

Breakfast
Coffee with Creamer and EAS whey protein powder

Morning Snack
Cheese with Scrambled eggs, bacon

Lunch
Naan flat bread
Cheese
Prego Sauce

Afternoon snack
peanut butter and celery

Dinner
Filet Mignon
Asparagas with garlic and butter
Red potatoes with cheese

I am considering getting the Go Fit or the Body Bug to see if that would be even a better tool at keeping track of my overall calories I burn 24 hours a day versus what I am consuming.

Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks
Melissa

Melissa,

Diana was not saying you SHOULD eat 3000 calories a day.   She was explaining how it was possible for a DS'r to eat 3000 calories a day and still lose weight because of our malabsorption. 

The Go Fit and Body Bug are a waist for us with altered innards if you ask me.   We are not normal and that's who the concept of calories in calories out works for.   We don't really need to worry about calories.

We just need to understand our new insides and make them work for us.  

Looking at your sample menu it doesn't look like it's adding up to 120 gr of protein, but it could I suppose.   If you stick with the DS rules of high protein, under 50 carbs and plenty of fluids you will drop the weight.  

Throw into that mix the need for "Sports Nutrition" to support hard workouts and things become a bit harder to manage.   You need carbs to work out.   You then need to deal with the effects of said carbs  :)  

Good luck!

Tom

Good Morning !

    Thank You Tom for your reply!  I jumped on the scale this morning and I had lost 2 pounds Whoo Hoo!!! 

    Yes I understand that Diana was not expecting me to eat 3000 calories but what I was wondering if when I work out for 2 hours a day and I am only getting about 1300 calories absorbed, would'nt that put me in a starvation mode since I am burning WAY more calories than I am absorbing?

    Am I correct that if we want to lose weight, we must eat less sugar, a maximum of 50 grams of carbs and lowering our calorie count by 500 less then our expended calorie burn???  Because if that is true I aborbed 1300 calories and burned 1500, so I am negative 200 calories.  So that would lead me to think that I would not lose because I did not consume enough calories???

    Please give me an idea about what and how much you eat on a work out day, I just want to make sure I am not over working out and under eating and totally sabatoging my weight loss plan :)

Thanks Again So Much
Melissa

The idea that starvation mode keeps up from losing weight is a myth. If you operate at a calorie deficit, you will lose weight.

I don't know-- I have been at a 500-1000 daily calorie deficit for several months now (trying to get closer to 500) and have actually gained. I've kept meticulous rack of my intake and expenditures, I have the Go Fit and at almost 2 years out doubt I am very malabsorptive. Must be some mystries we just don't get to know the answer to, eh? ;)