How do I get the most benefit from my workout?

If you are consuming X amount of calories, and burning X amount of calories each day, at what point are you not consuming enough calories to keep from going into starvation mode or eating muscle.   For example:  I consume 1200 calories a day, and burn about 500 a day in my cardio workout.  I also do an hour and 15 minutes of strength training 3x a week.  How do I figure out the amount of calories I should consume to keep up a healthy workout?  I eat about 80 grams of protein a day at this point.  My RNY was in July, so I am just now 6 months out and should still be in peak weight loss mode.  My weight loss has slowed down alot, which I expected to happen initally with my workouts.  Thanks in advance for any information you can offer.

Mikki

You can find online estimators that will tell you what your resting metabolic rate is.
But these can be highly inaccurate.
There are professional tests that can be performed that will give you a more accurate reading.  These are done with a combination of Blood work and or respiratory analysis where they can actually measure the caloric expenditure you have.

Being in LA, you should not have a problem finding a medical or sports facility that performs these. 

Online calculator examples
http://www.shapeup.org/interactive/rmr1.php
http://www.caloriesperhour.com/tutorial_BMR.php

BMR estimation formulas (According to my dietician these are also flawed.)

Several prediction equations exist. Historically most notable was Harris-Benedict equation, which was created in 1919.

The original equations from Harris and Benedict are:

• for men,
• for women,

where P is total heat production at complete rest, m is the weight, h is the stature (height), and a is the age, and with the difference in BMR for men and women being mainly due to differences in body weight.^[2] For example, a 55 year old woman weighing 130 lb (59 kg) and 5 feet 6 inches (168 cm) tall would have a BMR of 1272 kcal per day or 53 kcal/h (61.3 watts).

It was the best prediction equation until recently, when MD Mifflin and ST St Jeor in 1990 created new equation:

• where s is +5 for males and −161 for female. According to this formula, the woman in the example above has a BMR of 1208 kcal per day.

During the last 100 years, lifestyles have changed and a survey in 2005 showed it to be about 5% more accurate.

These formulae are based on body weight, which does not take into account the difference in metabolic activity between lean body mass and body fat. A more accurate formula is the Katch-McArdle formula based on lean body mass:

• where LBM is the lean body mass in kg.^[3] According to this formula, if the woman in the example has a body fat percentage of 30%, her BMR would be 1263 kcal per day.

To calculate daily calorie needs, this BMR value is multiplied by a factor with a value between 1.2 and 1.9, depending on the person's activity level.

If you are interested there is also quite a bit of info on body composition testing as well
http://www.topendsports.com/testing/bodycomp.htm

So if you go by the bottom formula which is supposed to be the most accurate
I'm supposed to be eating 1925 calories a day.
I know it's wrong for a couple reason.  If I were to have plastic surgery and remove all the extra skin around my abdomen, I would probably lose a couple inches in that waste measurement, and some poundage as well.  that would likely change the results quite a bit.

The other indicator that it is wrong is that I should be losing a pound a week based on that calorie recommended calorie intake, what I really eat and the exercise I get in.  I'm not losing a pound a week.

Scott

Thanks for the reply Scott.  I see I have some major research in my future.  I am use to working out, and use to losing weight, but before gastric bypass I would never plateau.  Not even with hardcore workouts.  But now I do plateau for long periods of time everytime I start a workout routine.  If I stop working out, I stop plateauing.  So I can't help but think it has to do with malabsorbing calories and calories getting too low.

Scott.... I am frantically looking for where I placed my abicus!!!!

Dan if you can do that math with an abicus, I applaud you!

You are truly a mathmatical animal.

I found it, but Chuck Norris roundhouse kicked it and now it is saying 1 roundhouse kick by Chuck = 1000 deaths and it also says that 1 roundhouse kick to Chuck still equals 1000 deaths... Thus:

1 (RHK) x CN = ID

 

***RHK = Round House Kick
****CN = Chuck Norris
***** ID = Infinite Death

Chuck norris doesn't have to work out...the protein he absorbs by looking at a chicken breast roundhouse kicks fat cells until they turn to muscle!

A couple of years back I went on Jenny Craig and worked out basically the same way I am now.  I used a bodybug and tracked everything.  According to all the data, I was burning about 3000 to 3500 calories a day, and  was taking in 1500.  I lost a consistant 10lbs a month without hitting a plateau.  Over all losing 70lbs before quitting for who knows what reason and putting it all back on.  Ergo, gastric bypass.  I understand with Gastric Bypass that we malabsorb calories in the first year or two.  But now, with RNY, working out is causing me to hit plateauses.  I wasn't hitting them before I started working out though. So it makes me wonder if I am getting my calories too low, since before surgery I never hit plateaus no matter how much I worked out.