Daily calorie intake?

For those of you still trying to lose weight or when you were still trying to lose, how many calories were you consuming a day? How many do you consume to maintain?

I still haven't reached my goal weight and am still trying to lose....it's getting harder and harder. I had a virtual meeting with my dietician a couple weeks ago and she told me I should be consuming around 1000-1200 calories a day to maintain. (She keeps telling me I'm in maintenance), but I still want to lose. Anyway, I have been trying to stick with around 800 calories a day, but some days it's so tough as I still feel hungry. Sometimes by the time I get to dinner I have already exceeded or have come close to exceeding my calorie limit. I know it's doable....I just have to be more strict with myself.

I was just curious what others calorie limit was? Also any tips on how to stick with a certain calorie limit? What foods are you eating etc? I do try to weigh everything I eat.

Thanks in advance!

A good guideline for maintenance is 10 calories a day for pound of weight that you want to maintain. So 1200 to maintain 120 pounds. My goal is 136 and I maintain at 1400 a day.

When I want to lose fairly quickly, I stay at 800 a day and lose a pound a week. For me, 800 does sometimes leave me quite hungry. I normally will do that for a set amount of time, maybe to lose eight pounds in eight weeks.

The only way for me to keep at 800 calories a day is with high protein and almost no carbs. No cereal, bread, milk, flour, sugars, or fruit. Just lean protein, cheese, and vegetables. It requires planning, weighing and measuring, and careful tracking. I combine that with plenty of exercise. When I start I mark the calendar for each week and put a big star on the day when I will quit doing it. I also weigh daily. It does work for me, but is not sustainable, just a strict diet.

When I was younger and long before weight loss surgery, I could lose seven pounds in a week on Weigh****chers. That no longer happens and I have to work hard for every pound l lose.

Thanks! This helps a lot! I just recently started incorporating whole grain breads and cereals into my diet, but it eats up a chunk of my calories. I'll need to lay off those for awhile. I love cheese, but the only low calorie ones I can find are the laughing cow variety. Which are delicious! Just didn't know if there were others I don't know about. For the last several weeks I've been stuck fluctuating between 160-165. I'd love to get down to 145, but preferably lower. I'd say 130 range. I'm grateful for making it to this weight as I never thought I'd ever see below 200, but I'm still overweight for my height so I'm hoping I can keep losing. I just need to have more discipline! Lol

You have done a fantastic job with losing weight after your surgery. Most people do not lose more than 100 pounds. You are way ahead of most people.

It is not impossible to keep losing, but it gets a lot harder after you are about 18 months out from surgery. It will be hard work. You do not need the cereal or whole grain breads. Stick with lean protein and vegetables. I like the Frigo Cheese Heads string cheese.

I kept to 600 calories per day for the first 175 or so pounds of my loss, then went up to 650-680 until I reached goal. Actually I kept losing beyond my goal and at my lowest weighed 123. Going that low just happened, it wasn't intentional. I am 5'8"+, and I started at 353. My ideal is 127, and though I am truly very lean at that weight, being there makes me feel very free. Right now I weigh 132 and am trying to get back to under 130. I'm still a size 0-2, mostly a 2, and I know I look ok, but I just experience such a sense of freedom and joy at being in the 120's that that weight range remains my promised land. I bounce around slightly but haven't been steadily under 130 for a few months. I'm trying though! My birthday is in October so I would like I give that to myself as a present.

I was able to maintain at 125-128 up until these last few months, but 2020 has been challenging in dozens of ways. My RnY surgery was in mid-June of 2017. I think I may have had a longer honeymoon period than most, but my body is fully healed now and staying this slender requires more focus, determination, and effort. Losing definitely does.

I find that I can maintain where I am when eating up to 1300 calories per day. To lose I have to tighten things up. I have terrible control with frozen sweets so have to eschew even sugar free popsicles - otherwise I can (and will) plow through many more than is wise. Miraculously, this is never an issue if I don't bring them into the house to begin with! Who says I can't (eventually) learn?! I also have truly crummy will power when it comes to cheese. One ounce never seems enough! Four ounces is more like it, but that 400-500 calorie cost is far too high a price to pay for such a momentary pleasure. I dislike the rubbery texture of reduced calorie diet versions, and prefer full-on cheeses like jarlsburg, bellavitano, and manchego. Anyway my workaround is that I now only will buy these in very small quantities and only occasionally at that: I know where my weaknesses lie. Nuts, too, were my personal, delicious kryptonite. I no longer indulge in them because my control when they're available is very poor, and they are so wickedly caloric.

If I drop my calories to 900-1000 I do lose, albeit slowly. I do experience hunger especially at night, but I find that if I resist that hunger, it usually foretells a drop on the scale the next morning. So with that in mind, I try to welcome it as a sign of progress. I will have some sparkling water, like Pellegrino, which does seem to fill me up a bit - I guess it's the sparkling fizziness. It takes the edge off. And that hunger doesn't last that long, I find; if I can manage to resist, it passes.

I weigh myself every day. For me, this is a central, key habit for success. I still eat no breads, cereals, pastas, grains, starchy vegetables or sugars beyond the naturally occurring sugars in nonfat plain Greek yogurt, blueberries, and blackberries. And ham. I do like ham! I eat lean meats, poultry, hard-boiled eggs, fish, shrimp, scallops, crab, lobster, occasional yogurt, and some very low-carb vegetables. Remembering to eat protein first and to not drink for at least 30 minutes afterwards helps my satiety. Eating this way is pretty habitual at this point, I just have to watch my calories and cool it after 7 or so at night (I am a night owl and rarely sleep before midnight). I also have had this week to crack down on my overly well-developed SF flavored coffee creamer habit. I find that these make it very easy to drink too many calories. In the end, we are all works in progress!

Wow your progress is so inspiring! I can't even imagine staying around 600 or so calories even for a short period of time. That is a feat in and of itself! So kudos to you! I can relate to so much of what you said. I'm definitely a night owl as well which is not good because that's when my hunger kicks in.....not even sure I should call it hunger, but rather cravings. They can become pretty intense and at that point I know it's time for bed because I don't trust my willpower late at night. I'm definitely addicted to the SF coffee creamers as well and those calories definitely add up! Especially with how much coffee I can drink during the day. I can easily drink up to 6 cups a day and while there is only 15 calories per tablespoon, after 6 cups of coffee I have drank 90 calories! That's 90 calories I could have consumed elsewhere that actually contained protein. I also don't just blindly pour in my creamer. I measure out exactly one tablespoon to make sure I'm not going over the 15 calories. I usually allow myself 2 cups of coffee with the SF creamer and then after that if I want another cup I'll have any additional cups with just Splenda and no creamer.

Its definitely a struggle though! Thank you for your feedback!

Staying for that long at 600 to 680 calories was not that hard for me, and I honestly did not grapple with either hunger or cravings. I can have a very single-minded focus when I really want to accomplish something. I'm fact I think it's my Superpower (when I use it for good!). The flip side of that type of personality is inappropriate stubbotnness, which I can testify can harm just as much as it's other side helps. As long as wisdom enters into the equation it's a generally positive thing.

I can't say I've experienced distinct cravings for any specific foods since my RnY, but I do sometimes get hungry overall, for anything, basically. Even my poor control with cheese and nuts and popsicles I wouldn't classify as real cravings. More like weak links in the fence of wise diet balance. One trick I used to use prior to surgery when I was dieting and wanted to eat something off plan was to imagine to myself that I had just polished off whatever it was I was craving - ice cream, cake, lasagna, whatever. I would see myself as taking the last few bites, and then I'd sit with my full belly, and after a minute or so I'd ask myself how eating that had made me feel. Pretty inevitably the answer was that I'd feel disappointed, and that it hadn't been worth it. I'm sure such tricks aren't everyone's cup of tea, but in a pinch they worked for me, unless I had given up and thrown all caution to the winds, which obviously was a chronic state of affairs at 353 pounds.

I think you are doing fabulously. Obesity, unforunately, is a lifelong condition, requiring lifelong determination and strategy. It can be managed, thank God! But in my opinion, it probably cannot be fully eradicated from our psyches. We are simply different than people who have never waged this war. It's all good though! Here's to our health and happiness!

my maintenance range is 1500-1700, but then, I'm defending a higher weight than some (I bounce around in the 150s). If I consistently eat at the low end of my range or drop below it, I'll lose. I'm 5'6", pretty active, and pretty muscular (I had a DEXAscan a couple of years ago when I weighed 146 lbs. My body fat was 22% and my muscle weighed 117 lbs, so all that factors in as well...)

I ate 800 or so during pretty much my whole loss phase and then slowly added calories until I stopped losing which brought me down another 15lbs during that time frame (and I do mean slow, like 50 calorie addition per week). I eat 2,000+ calories to maintain, probably more. I don't track anymore, but have spot checked just to see.

I am still trying to lose another 35-40 pounds so I generally try to keep my calories at 800 or below and my nutritionist is not happy with me for this. She called me last week and wants me to eat 1200 calories a day because she says if I stay at low calories then I will be more prone to regain later on. She thinks my weight loss has been too rapid and thinks I will have trouble later on. I am terrified of eating more calories since I'm still in the weight loss phase and only 9 months out.

I know it is a struggle even after the surgery and we will always have a fat brain apparently. I know for me that if I eat over what I feel is comfortable for me then panic sets in and my anxiety goes crazy. This is just me though so don't take what I say as what is the right thing. I just feel better with 800 calories or less daily instead of trying to cram in extra calories just because I'm told to.

I wish you good luck in everything and hope you find your happy place with what your body needs with calories to keep you losing until goal. I ramble on a lot lol sorry about that.