800 Calories While Hitting the Gym 5X A Week? Metabolism Slow Down?

Hello,

I"m 3 weeks out, 28 lbs lighter and can't wait to go back to the gym.  My 1st post op surgeon appt. is still one week away (ridiculous!) so I'm giving myself permission to do aqua-fit tomorrow.  I'll take it easy and stop if anything hurts too much.  Is it ok to do the ab work or should I wait until I'm 6 weeks out?

Now for the calorie question.  I'm eating approximately 800 calories, 40 net carbs or less per day, 3-4 litres of water and average around 90 grams of protein.  I am light headed and have a headache every night.  During the day I have lots of energy but my head hunger is ferocious! It hurts!  I'm not complainig...I'll work through it...failure is NOT an option.  Just wondering how the heck I'm going to work out at the gym when I feel that  800 calories is barely sustaining me. 

I've been stalled for 1 week and am worried to up the calories but I seriously think I'm stalled because 800 isn't enough.  All my life I've been told that lowering caloies too much puts the body in 'starvation' mode and lowers metabolism.  Why is this different after WLS...or is it?

I am a former sports junkie and have a ton of muscle - do I need to eat more?  (I gained over 100 lbs 10 years ago after an injury)  At 331 lbs,  I fit into size 20/22 jeans.  I would really appreciate advice as I don't want to do harm to my body!

Also, when I'm interested to know when you started weight lifting.

Thanks,
Suzanne

I think you will be fine starting.  I started walking at week 2 and jogging at week 4.  I think you need to up your calories.  When I went to my 4 week checkup I was only getting about 800 calories and he told me to up to 1200.  The weight started to come off when I did.  I would try it for a week of 2.  It was the first time in my life that someone told me to up my calories!!!!

I would hold off on the ab wor****il your checkup to me safe.

Wait on your doc's release for weights and ab work. When you get the ok , start slow.

 as far as calories.. I stayed with a gross 800-1000, heavy protein, very low carbs,  until I was pretty close to my initial goal weight.  Yes, it made me pretty tired,  and my performance undoubtedly suffered.  Once I was close to goal and the miles got to around 10 or more a week,  I switched slowly to "net" cals, working my way up to a 500 calorie deficit for the most part, and break even leading up to races.

Thanks for the info. :-)

6 weeks for ab work and weight lifting is what my doc said.
He did clear me early for weights if they were done on a machine that would isolate and not put any stress on the abs, which really means very few if any of them.

I believe it was 6 weeks when I started working out. I walked daily from day 2 of post op. That was recommended as it would help with the gas.

I never did the 800 cal thing, my body doesn't work efficiently there. My surgeon suggested 1200-1300 cal and I worked with the NUT and we got me to that range and it showed I lost more weight at that range and it gave me a lot of energy. The lowest I have ever eaten was 1000. I somedays get upwards to 1500 and it hasn't affected me negatively.

Hi Suzanne!

Love your enthusiasm!!! I also heard about too few calories putting your body into starvation mode.

At my 5 week follow-up appointment, the Dr asked me why I wasn't excercising! And here I thought I had to take it easy! He said there was nothing stopping me and I had no restrictions to any excercise.

Every Dr is as different as every patient. But I think walking is a safe start until you get the "go ahead" from your Dr next week.

Good luck with your weight loss. You already have the great attitude to make it work for you!

Maria

PS...He also told me to work on 1200 cal/day

I trained for my first triathlon on 700-900 calories a day. My metabolism is great - above average when it was below average pre-op.

You do need to manage your calories when you work out. I would eat most of my carbs before or during a workout, for example, and would make sure not to workout on an empty stomach.