10wks post-op: 600 calories a day???

Am 10 weeks post op, have lost 60 lbs, but for the last 3-4 weeks, it's been coming off very very slowly.  Am wondering if I'm not getting ENOUGH calories in.  Average between 500-600 calories most days primarily of 60+g protein, fibrous carbs & very little fat.  Been trying to focus on low-carb eating, like keeping net carbs below 40g per day, but can't seem to get the fat up any more.  Taking all my vitamins(Vista) and calcium citrate every day.  Have been low on the water intake but know what I need to do there. 

Just wondering if the calories are too low and I should be upping that with more protein & good fats while I'm concentrating on getting the water intake up to at least 64 oz (sometimes don't get over 48 right now), or forget the calories and just get the water up.

Thanks!
Dena

CALORIES
Looking back at my food journal, it looks like I did 600 - 750 calories until my 6 month post-op check-up (at which time I increased to 1000 calories per day). 

CARBS
This is not Atkins.  Your body NEEDS carbs to USE the protein it is getting.  The RD that did my MedGem test (who specialized in WLS post-ops for YEARS) said that 50% of my caloric intake should come from carbs.  (She said not to worry about "net" carbs.  She said to count total carbs.  To get that number you'd take your total calories and divide it by 8 to see how many carb grams you should be getting in a day based on your caloric intake.)

FAT
There are VERY easy ways to add fat to your diet.  (You'd better do it ASAP too before things like constipation, dry skin and hair, etc kick in from lack of fat.)  I really LOVE cocoa roasted almonds.  But ANY kind of nut is pretty much loaded in fat.  Peanut butter is also really high fat (even the "low fat" kind).  You can also increase fat (and good fiber/carbs & protein) by adding 1/2 teaspoon of ground flax seed to almost anything. 

SUMMARY (in my opinion)
You're not getting in too little calories. 
You're not getting in enough carbs (unless you're "netting" out a whole bunch of other carbs).
You're not getting in enough fat.
Everyone has periods of slow loses.  You are worrying too much about a slow down. 
You need to get in more fluid - no matter what it takes.  This could be contributing to your slow down. 

Thanks so much, Wendy.  You're right, I need to get more vegetables in to raise the carbs some.  I just mentioned net carbs, because I'm getting around 20g fiber per day.  The veggies don't always sit so well with my tummy which is probably why I've been avoiding them a tad bit.  Need to plan for more green beans - HA!

On the FAT side, I'm not cleared to eat nuts yet, that's why I haven't tried those.  I like almonds and macadamia nuts, but haven't had anything so far.  I'll go back and check my handbook to see when the program I'm in recommends nuts.  Yeah, I could start doing the peanut butter, but unfortunately peanut butter was involved in my first dumping experience and I'm not quite sure I'm over that yet. ;o).  I made a protein drink with milk (had only used water before, but wasn't even thinking about the milk bothering me) and some peanutbutter for flavor.  Drank the darn thing too fast which is probably what made me dump, but since then I've avoided milk for the most part and yup, peanut butter.  On the good side, I have some low-carb yogurt every day with 2 tsp milled flax seed, so I'm getting the dairy and the flax that you'd mentioned.

Anyhow, thanks for all your advice.  Am copying your e-mail into my notes so I can refer back to it and check to see if things improve as I make these changes.  I'm an avid record keeper, so it should be pretty apparent pretty quick.

One last thing - what in the world are cocoa roasted almonds?  Do you have a recipe or are they something you purchase somewhere?  They sound heavenly as I am a recovering chocoholic myself.  Tee hee hee.

Thanks,

Emerald makes cocoa roasted almonds.  They are heavenly.  You can get them at Kroger in canisters or Sams Club in tubs. 
http://www.emeraldnuts.com/

I'm almost eight months out and I still only eat an average of 600-700 calories a day. I lost my first 50 lbs in 6 six weeks but it took three months to lose the next 50 lbs. So it definitely slows down, but that's to be expected. I also work out at least an hour a day six times a week.

I use a Qwave Diet system, there is a nutrition log and exercise log, where you can calculate the calories consumed and calories burned. You can try it on qwave com

You will be able to calculate calories consumed and track details on over 70 nutrients.

You can create a set of meal templates for your most common meals. A meal template will save a lot of time in entering your meals especially if they are similar from day to day.

                     

Danielle