Calorie Intake Progression?

Hi Gwen M.-  

I actually do have a therapist who I started seeing prior to the surgery, so she and I have been talking about this.  I'm sitting down with my friend and talking with her later on about boundaries.  She has her own issues with food and my having the surgery. *nods*

FYI, I have not chosen friends who try to bully me.  I don't know how you're making that leap off of one incident with one friend. I know that you mean well, but please don't make assumptions.

Take care,

-LB

You're really not that far out from surgery to be ranging all the way up to 1040 calories IMO. I am absolutely NO expert though. I'm only around 4.5 months out. But you're only 3 weeks out and that is really high. I didn't start tracking calories until around 1 month but with what I was eating - hard boiled eggs and yogurt - I know I wasn't all that high.

When I did start tracking calories I stayed at 400-500 through 3 months and then moved up to 500-700 and I'm almost always satisfied with that. I have only gone over a few times. My carbs are usually under 30 because I haven't touched pasta, rice, crackers, anything like that since before surgery. I ate potatoes right after surgery until the good people here set me straight on the carbs in those. I plan on upping the calories to 800 around month 7-8 if I'm not satisfied anymore. Then 900 around month 10. Then 1000 around the year mark. I'll adjust as my weight loss does. Right now with my calorie intake I've been losing slow and steady and I'm happy with what I've lost. I started with 202 pounds to lose so I get the overwhelming thought of looking at all that weight and needing to figure out how to do it! Right now I feel like it's doable. At the beginning I definitely didn't feel that way.

Hi Mute-

Thanks for your reply-    

I'm glad to see your post- and I agree that 1,040 is too high at just 2.5 weeks out.  (It was a one time thing, trust me.) I'm glad that the low calorie intake is working for you, especially as you and I have almost the exact same amounts to lose.  *hugs*  

Seeing your low intake kind of inspires me to keep on the lower end of the spectrum, so thank you.  Glad to hear the outlook gets more positive!

Rock on,

-LB

It really doesn't feel like I'm restricting myself though just to let you know. If I'm hungry at the end of the day and I feel that I'm over where I should be on my calories for the day and for the week (if I've been high other days I try to be low to average out weekly) as long as I've met my protein goals I grab a sugar free popsicle and that satisfies my hunger now. It definitely would NOT have before the surgery that's for sure!!

The first month I was kind of hungry and not sure when I was full and not sure of anything. I think it was because the nerves that were cut were unable to be felt then. Or something like that. Either way, after that it got better and I was able to see why the surgery can work. It will work for you too if you listen to the people here who know a lot - which doesn't mean me lol, I just listened to them is all :)

Sugar free popsicles rock!  *nods*  

It is hard to tell if I'm full or hungry, and I do think it's the nerves being cut from surgery.  I know that once things have healed/grown back, I'll have a clearer idea of what my body is trying to tell me.  

I'm definitely paying attention to the posts on this site-  I lurked for months before I finally posted.  Everyone here is so knowledgable and friendly!  

Thank you,

-LB

In the interest of full disclosure, I had a few days in my liquid/puree phase where I got over 1200 calories just because everything slid right through and nothing filled me up. I was able to drop my calorie intake by about 25% when I switched to soft foods and finally felt restriction.

Thank you for the full disclosure, 4FurKids-  It makes me feel like I'm not crazy!  I'm still in the pureed phase and will be until September 1st.  Things really do just slide on through.  I've not yet gone over 1,000 again, though, and have kept the average between 600-700 daily.  :-)

Numbers,

-LB

There is no way I could have eaten 1000 calories at 2 weeks out.  I was lucky to get 300-400 and barely did that for at least 2 months.  I think you should start tracking everything you're eating...and stick to protein.  At 6 months I ate around 600-800.  At 1 year I'm eating 1000-1200 calories.  Hope this helps.

Hi iloveravens,

I'm definitely tracking everything I'm eating in a physical journal that I keep at home.  I do focus on my protein and am sure to get all of it in every day.  (Just the protein shakes themselves add up to 420 calories.)  Thank you for letting me know your calorie progression-  That definitely does help! 

Experience,

-LB

First, bad friend!!! Not really cool to be pushing a cookie on you... the meatball, hey, meatballs can be mushed up pretty fine. But, right now you need to keep in mind that your stomach is healing and can only stand so much.

I know when I got to the point of eating food, the 1st few weeks my caloric intake was low. But, now that I can incorporate more into my diet, I usually have between 700- 850 calories a day. I don't really like it when I go over 800 calories but I do. I really try to keep my protein intake over 80 because I am in the losing hair phase and I think I am having it kind of bad with the hair loss because my protein intake in the 1st couple of months hardly ever went above 70-80 grams. As to carbs, I try to stay under 50 grams each day. Carbs are my enemies!! That's just me... if I have a high carb day (above 50), I will gain weight, period.  And, yes, I weigh daily. I know we shouldn't be I have to be obsessive about this or I will fail. I also measure all of the food that I put into my mouth... I never guessimate! So, yes, I do measure an ounce of beef jerky on my scales (my son both laughs at me about this but says he is impressed that I do this). I do have a pretty nice food scale (because I make candles and soap, so I needed a scale with pretty exact measurements). 

Stay away from friends that would give you something like a sugar cookie.  And, I don't know about you but if I ate a cookie, I would be tossing my cookies!!!  LOL... I dump really bad on high sugar items... I have to be very careful.

Also, keep participating in the menu thread because it will make you track, track and track some more. Also, you can get great ideas for meals.

Good luck!