4 months post op: Am I eating too little? How to maintain my metabolism going?

Hi everyone! I'm 4 months post op (RNY) and I'm a little concerned regarding my weight loss journey in the upcoming months. The loss has started to slow down while I'm still very overweight and I'm worried about how to maintain a "normal" metabolism to be successful in long term maintenance. Would love to get your feedback as my nutritionist has not been very helpful in this sense.

Some stats and specific concerns (sorry for the long post but I want to be thorough):

• Age: 28 yo female
• Height: 5'3
• Starting weight: 297 lbs. Starting BMI: 52
• Surgery weight (Dec '19): 259 lbs
• Current weight (4 months out): 191lbs. Current BMI: 34.
• Food: My daily average intake is of about 500 calories (450-650 range) and I get about 60 grams of Protein (eat mostly protein and still use protein supplements). I follow my plan which is based on portion size and not weight or calories, but I weigh and track my intake because "eyeballing" doesn't really work for me. While I'm good in that range of food intake in terms of hunger, I could definitely eat more if "needed". I've been able to stick to my plan during coronavirus lockdown no problem.
• Exercise: Desk job. I do very light weight training about 3-4x a week and short walks on the treadmill 2x a week. I used to swim more often but now that's not a possibility.
• Other: I'm trying to up my water intake but it's about 40 - 65 oz a day. I take all my Vitamins and supplements. I don't have diabetes or any hormonal issues that I'm aware of.

While I have been consistently losing weight (60 pounds in 4 months), I'm starting to notice a slow down and have hit a couple stalls (one lasting 3 weeks). I want to make sure that I keep a good rate so naturally I thought about increasing exercise and maintaining my current diet (reducing is not a possibility) but I'm also concerned that:

• If I start exercising a lot now to try to speed it up, then as time progresses and I hit more stalls, they will be very hard to break as the exercise would have to be incremental and there is only so much time/energy/will power that I have. So do you recommend adding more exercise at this stage to maximize loss in the first months or should I "wait" until I need the extra kick?
• Same thing with food, by eating 500 calories a day, am I sabotaging future weight loss? It will be impossible for me to cut down on calories if I hit a stall. I'm also worried that as soon as I start increasing the calorie count I will gain a lot of it back or completely stop my weight loss. I know that 500 kcal a day is not sustainable in the long run.

I have read so many threads trying to find an answer but there doesn't seem to be a right one. My nutritionist just tells me to "stick to portion size and allowed meals" and not look at calories when I ask these questions. My surgical team has told me to just follow her instructions and keep the focus on weight training.

Any personal experiences, words of advise, etc would be highly appreciated. I'm starting to obsess over these concerns of balancing maximizing weight loss in the first months (which I understand are were biggest loss is achieved) and mid/long term success. I know comparing journeys is not ideal (it has definitely been a source of frustration as I see people with lower BMIs losing faster than me)

Thanks!

Hi,

congratulations on your surgery. Start by writing down every single bite you take in. A slow in weightloss in the first year, especially the first 6 mths, is not usually due to portion sizes but grazing. Eating a little taste here, a little bit there. Are you really just eating measured meals or are snacks creeping in?

Also, research says exercise contributes little to weightloss. It's what you put in your mouth. For example to burn off a single cookie you would need to row on a rowing machine for 24 minutes. Almost half an hour of ROWING for 1 cookie!

Good luck!

Really makes you think twice before craving a cookie, huh?

I've been pretty good about not grazing snacks but the gatorade throughout the day might be adding up. I would hate to be drinking my calories, so I'll keep a closer eye on it.

Thanks!

You need 10 calories a day to maintain one pound. As long as you have excess fat, you will burn that when you eat lower calories.

Increasing calories will make you lose less quickly. When you weighed 259 you would have lost 4 pounds a week on 500 calories. There are 3500 calories in a pound.

You would need 1910 to maintain 191 or 13,370 per week. You are eating 3500 per week. So that is 9870 less than you burn. That will mean you should lose 2.82 pounds per week.

The less you weigh, the less you will lose each week. Adding calories will decrease your rate of losing. If you can keep your calories low, then your body will burn more excess fat and you will get to your goal quicker.

White Dove,

Thank you so much for the explanation, that was extremely helpful. That indeed seems to be the approx average rate at which I'm losing. I feel much more comfortable now staying at this level of calorie intake and increase my cardio a bit.

Congratulations to a great start to your journey .

While I always had an idea of my range of calories while losing the two things I counted were protein and water. At 4 months out you should be able to get 64oz of water in. I am not saying it is easy, did not get easier until after my first anniversary.

Second thing I would recommend is higher protein. In my book 40g is on the very low end. Once I could physically do it - food and protein drinks- my goal was 100g a day.

Also recognize- even though you still have a lot to lose you can still go through plateaus. I found it helpful to write done a monthly weight and also a weight every Wednesday. I weighed daily but this helped me see the trends.

I also started at a 52BMI. One foot in front of the other, it will happen.

Glad to see someone who also started at 52 BMI get down to goal weight. I still haven't defined a goal weight and neither has my team, how did you define yours? based on BMI? something you felt comfortable at?

Honestly when I got to around a 30 BMI I went for a Dexascan for body fat testing. It was very helpful. You can read about the first one on my page. Think it is my only blogpost.

Lose the weight as fast as possible (while still getting enough protein and taking all of your supplements). Many of us here consumed about the same number of calories as you in the beginning and kept calories around 800 until we lost all of our excess weight.

My surgeon did not have a calorie limit, either. I was told what portion size to stick to.

Good luck!

Thank you! I see now that a lot of surgeons don't have a calorie limit and just a portions size, but to me portion size can be SO relative and while it's important to respect the portion size, I don't want to forget about calories in vs calories out.