Calories at 6 months?

Yes, I shoukd ask my team, but the whole office is out sick with food poisoning, so my 6 month was reschedule for 2 weeks from now.

So, how many calories should I be eating now? I was told 800 to 1000 calories for months 3 to 6. Should I stay at that or do most people move up to 1,200 or so now?

i have found myself waking up starving in the morning and really wanting carbs/candy at night. I have been distracting myself and water loading. Maybe increase the calories and add more protein? I am averaging about 85 grams a day.

I haven't counted calories regularly in more than 6 years since surgery. I focus on low carbs and high healthy fats/proteins.

But a few times for fun I have calculated what I eat, and if I reached 1200 calories a day even now I'd be shocked (except on some crazy special occasion, or a bike ride day, or something).

My advice, don't worry about increasing calories just yet. Take this next two weeks and listen to your tool. If it's "starving", take a closer look at what you are eating, as proteins and fats are supposed to make us feel much more full more quickly (and a lot longer) than carbs. If you are already getting 85 grams of protein a day, is there anything else you are eating in addition to that which could throw off your tool's "hunger trigger".

If you could post a daily menu, that would be very helpful to us. And remember that doctors, surgeons and nutritionists can be wrong... many don't even follow the guidelines of the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgeons (the medical body that offers best practice for RNY patients).

And remember, thanks to your newly-rebuilt GI system and the miracle of malabsorption, you will still lose weight right now no matter what you eat. But that won't last forever... so good habits now mean good results for a lifetime.

Audrey

Yesterday was a pretty typical day:

Breakfast, 6am Started out applying my vitamin patches

1/2 cup of egg substitute

1 TB Kroger brand pizza sauce

1 Laughing Cow Light Cheese Wedge

5 turkey pepperoni

137 calories 5 carbs 5 fat 18 protein

7:30 - way to much coffee

Second Breakfast, 9am

2 ounces low sodium ham

1 slice kraft deli deluxe 2% fat cheese

120 calories 3 carbs 5 fat 14 grams protein

10:30 20 oz. Propel

Lunch, 12pm

4 oz. tilapia, cooked with Pam

1 TB of tahini, 1TB water

2 TB diced onion

198 calories 4 carbs 12 fat 23 protein

1:30 20 ounces Propel

Afternoon snack, 3pm

1 hard boiled egg

1 TB Jason's Peanut Butter

1/2 of the weird Starbucks bread in the protein box (my kids ate the rest of the box and sucked down fraps)

187 calories 10 carbs 12 fat 10 protein

4ish, Peppermint Tea, 16 ounces

Dinner, 6pm

Nature's Own Life Wheat 40 Calorie Per Slice Bread

Starkist Creations, one pouch

1 slice Kraft Deli deluxe 2% cheese

155 calories 12 carbs 4 fat 22 protein

Snack, 8:30pm

One Plum

75 calories 19 carbs 0 fat 1 protein

For a grand total of

873 calories 53 carbs 38 fat 88 protein

I didn't eat any more, because I had to eyeball the sauce for lunch and it's so easy to get more than you think that way. I was still starving at the end of the day and again this morning. I ate more fat today, but it does not seem to be helping. My nutritionist said I needed to get 4 servings of fruit and veg a day, so I am trying to do that, as well.

OK, taking a look:

First, fruits and many veg contain a lot of carbs. Fruit especially... sugar is sugar whether it's fruit or any other kind. Your need for fiber and vitamin C can be met many different ways. Your nutritionist is wrong and is following old, bad science. If I had a plum at 8:30 at night, I would wake up hungry (and hypoglycemic) in the morning too. I commonly munch some cheese before bedtime (Gouda is my current obsession)... and I wake up un-hungry.

Dump the bread. All of it. Wait a year or two before you try it again.

Second, try full fat cheese, full real eggs, etc. No "light" or "low fat" or "turkey" anything (unless of course you like turkey lol). Fat will make you feel fuller and it will NOT make you gain weight as long as you are watching carb levels. If fat made us fat, none of us would have needed surgery from all the low fat diets we followed prior to RNY...

Protein and fat-forward wins the race. Then and only then, if you have time and room, low-carb, low-glycemic veggies. Treat fruit like a dessert... something you should only have on special occasions.

Audrey

^^^ so much this

How many cals you can eat really depends on how many you burn and whether or not you still want to lose or just maintain.

Bear in mind that as you lose weight you will burn less calories.

I'd keep it at 800 until you're done losing. Every calorie you eat is one less calorie of fat you'll burn.

I stayed under 600 calories a day until well after six months. I am 18 months out now and am still at no kore than 1000 calories a day. I would gain if I ate as much as 1200 calories a day. Everyone is different, but in the losing phase I would recommend you keep your caloris as low as possible to lose as much as you can.

I am over ten years out and gain on more than 1300 calories a day. You need low calorie to lose and low calories to maintain. You may never go back to more than 1200 calories a day and six months is way to soon to be eating that many.

Eating carbs is what causes you to crave carbs. Learn to eat meat instead of carbs and you will stay full and keep losing.

i stayed 800 until i was done losing...