Increasing calories

I'm looking for some feedback. I met with my dietitian today and she strongly recommends that I increase my daily caloric intake due to the amount of exercise I perform. As she is incredibly conservative I was shocked to hear this recommendation from her. In fairness, all of my other doctors & my trainers have been saying the same thing for the last several weeks but, well, I guess I have just been ignoring it. In fact, my mental health doctor only agreed to stop talking about it when I promised to ask my dietitian for her recommendation. Her recommendation for my daily caloric intake is 1100 calories. I am currently 800 - 900 calories on average.

I have backed off on my exercise for various reasons (lack of energy, slight injury, work craziness). Here is my revised workout schedule:

M: AM - Boot Camp, PM - circuit training

T: AM - Walk average of 5 - 7 miles

W: AM -Boot Camp, PM - Yoga

Th: AM - 5-7 mile walk, PM - circuit training

F: Rest day

S: AM: Long walk day. Currently 9 - 12 miles but this will increase as I'm training for a 20 mile walk in Oct and a full marathon in January, PM  - Yoga

Su: Rest

What do you guys think? It's weird, if it was someone else I probably wouldn't hesitate tell them to follow their doctor's recommendations, especially when several of them all have the same opinion. She wants me to try it for 1 month and then we will meet again and evaluate. 

I don't know why I'm struggling with this concept so much. But I am seriously struggling here and need help getting out of my own head and I obviously need to work on this fear of sabotaging my success. 

If you still want to lose, I wouldn't increase calories.

I have some thoughts. First, only you can really decide what to do. That said, I think some things need to be considered very carefully before adding calories to your daily intake.

1. You do a lot of exercise. A LOT! How certain are you that you will be continuing this routine in 2 months, 5 months, 12 months from now? If you are anything less than 100% certain that you will maintain this level of exercise, I'd be wary of adding more calories in. Why? Mostly because once you add the calories back it is VERY hard to take them away again.

2. You have lost 100+ pounds. According to your ticker you still have a moderate chunk to go. As you lose weight your body needs fewer and fewer calories to do the same job it was doing when you were obese. Couple this with the fact that even the most active WLS experience a some metabolism slow down adding calories may be counter productive for continued weight loss.

3. Have you considered asking your NUT if a stair step approach would be okay? Instead of going straight to 1100 calories per day, how about starting at 900-1000 per day for a few weeks and see how that goes. Then if you continue to lose and feel well you can up your calories again. I would be concerned about adding in so many calories in one fell swoop.

4. How is your weight loss right now? Pretty steady I'm guessing. If you stop losing are you okay with that? Could you be at peace and find acceptance at your current weight? (I'm not saying you will stop losing if you add calories, but it is a possibility.

Like I said, you'll do what's right for you and if you decide down the road that it's not the right choice you are now in a position that allows you to change course. You are in the driver's seat!

Karik,

Thank you for the feedback and I agree that you raise some really good things for me to think through. I don't believe that I will sustain this level of exercise for the rest of my life. I think that I will keep it up through January (which is when my marathon is) and then scale back. I believe that i will keep the walking, yoga and some type of strength training but not quite this much. 

I think your second point is part of what is causing me difficulty with following my dietitian's recommendation. I'm not exercising for weight loss. I'm exercising because I have a goal of doing a full marathon in January and a few events in between now and then. I 100% believe that I am losing weight because of my current caloric intake and not the exercise. The exercise does a lot of other really wonderful and valuable things but it doesn't cause me to lose weight. That was already my believe and then I proved it,at least to myself, when I was forced to take a couple of weeks off from exercise and still continued to lose. Actually my loss increased. 

I really like your idea of a stair step approach. I think that is something that I could live with giving a try for a month and seeing the results. My weight loss is very steady and I do want to keep losing. I may end up adjusting my "goal" number but I won't know that until I get closer to it. I really do not believe that I would be happy or at peace where I am at now. I'm thrilled at my current weight but I don't feel "done". 

Thank you again. You really have given me some good things to consider and that was exactly what I was looking for when I posted!

Totally agree with Karik on this one. During the weight loss phase I exercised a lot, and I did eventually work my way up to 1200 calories a day (I think around 4 or 5 months). I still lost and had no problem making it to goal, but I am also 6'2'' tall. So, if you are comfortable at your caloric level let it be, or perhaps just start with adding 100 calories for a while. Energy levels might improve if you consider the timing of your carbs... not that you necessarily need to increase them, but rather coordinate it with your exercise. Good luck!

I'm in the same boat. I was sleeved 24 weeks ago. Started out at 230.4 and as of 2 days ago hit 156.0. My personal trainer has long said that I should have increased my caloric intake. Two months ago my nutritionist asked me to increase my intake to about 1100 cal. I have remained at 700-900 calories. 

My goal is 140-135 pounds. My plan was to lose much of that weight within the 1st 6 months (since weight loss can drastically slow down after 6 months).

 I exercise 6 days a week. 2 days with my trainer, 5 days cardio ( running, spinning, elliptical or the Gauntlet). I' ve been averaging 80,000 steps per week.

My energy is good, I haven't lost significant hair. I'm still falling asleep at 7:30-8:30 .

I planned to keep eating this way which I know is wrong. I plan to discuss this wth my therapist  and nutritionist the month.

Why is eating this way wrong? I think you're doing well. Personal teainers don't know jack about what's best for WLS patients. Or nutritionists for that matter.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the way you are eating. Why do you think it is wrong? Have you had labs drawn? Are your vitamin and mineral and other values normal?

I might recommend something a little different -- reduce your exercise.  Why are you doing circuit training & bootcamp in the same day? 

Exercise can become a compulsion -- I know I have fought it myself.  You are working out a lot.  I actually found when I dialed my exercise back to a more reasonable 5-7 hours / week my weight loss was not affected at all.  

If you are still trying to lose I wouldn't recommend adding too many calories back in.  As someone else mentioned once they are in the routine it is hard to pull them out again.  

for reference -- I workout ~1 hr / day -- intense (running, lifting, vinyasa yoga) and eat ~1300 calories / day to maintain at 170-175.  I think everyone needs to find their numbers themselves through trial / tracking. 

Yes, what she said.