Am I eating too much? Nutritionist says no, but I wonder

Hi all, 

So its been a few days since I lost anything, and I am not complaining about that, I am being patient, but I had a question.

I read on this page various people's daily diets, and I am starting to think that maybe I am not doing it right. I had my 1 month follow up about 1.5 weeks ago and my nutritionist, who yes is a registered dietitian, told me that I needed to eat more. I had been eating around 650 calories a day. She says not eating enough is not a matter of your body going into starvation mode, but rather your metabolism slows down when it does not have to work as hard. She wanted me to eat 1000-1200 calories a day. Well, I do not want to do that. First of all, I don't know how I possibly could eat that much in a day, and second everyone on here says that eating more does not help. So this is my conundrum. I have my nutritionist telling me one thing, and people on here saying another. I just want to make sure that I am eating correctly. 

Here is what I ate yesterday:

6:00 am - Breakfast: 3 ounces of egg beaters (46 calories, 9.2 grams of protein, 0 fat, .9 carbs)

1/8 cup of sugar free/fat free pudding to take my morning medicine (20 calories, 0 protein, 0 fat, 2.0 carbs)

9:00 am - Protein Shake (160 calories, 30 g protein, 3 g fat, 5 g carbs)

12:00 pm - 3 ounces of baked chicken and green chilis and onions (103 calories, 12.8 g protein, 5.1 g fat, 3.0 carbs)

2:00 pm - sargento string cheese (80 calories, 8.0 g protein, 6.0 fat, 1.0 carbs)

5:00 pm - 3 ounces of baked chicken and green chilis and onions (103 calories, 12.8 g protein, 5.1 g fat, 3.0 carbs)

8:00 pm - sargento string cheese (80 calories, 8.0 g protein, 6.0 fat, 1.0 carbs)

3/8 cup of sugar free, fat free pudding to take medicines (more medicine than the morning) (60 calories, 0 protein, 0 fat, 6 carbs)

Daily total of 652 calories, 81 grams of protein, 25 grams of fat, 22 grams of carbs. Also I am drinking around 64-72 ounces of water per day. 

Soooo....am I eating too many carbs? Am I eating too much fat?  Or do I just need to be more patient and wait it out? I do not mind waiting, I have resolved myself to wait, but I just want to make sure I am waiting for a reason, and not sabotaging my sleeve.  

Thank you for your advice! :) 

The first thing you should do is ask your surgeon and nut is what percentage of his/her patients that are SMO has lost 100% EWL on their program.

From what I've seen, and you can do your own research because it's all here. Your program that they are suggesting is a low percentage path with 50-60% EWL as the goal. 

At 6 weeks out I was eating around 350-400 cals a day and my meal size was a half of a scrambled egg.

At over 6 years out my capacity is about 3oz. of chicken and some veggies.

Are your chicken meals calorie count accurate? Chicken with nothing on it is about 50cals an ounce.

I would say you are wise to question your program...... my non medical opinion..... no bueno on the 1000-1200 cal plans.

I lost 190lbs. (338----->148) in 13 months on a 600-800 cal plan.

Hope this helps.

frisco

That is what I was afraid of. I do not want to just lose a few pounds, I have a lot to lose, so if I need to eat less, I will. 

My chicken count is that way because its not actually 3 ounces of chicken, its a casserole, and its 3 ounces of the casserole. I put all of the ingredients into my fitnesspal and use that to count my calories. Maybe I should focus on just eating straight meat with a side of veggies, instead of combining them for awhile. I just do not want to stretch my sleeve out, and my nutritionist told me I should eat more! lol I thought I was losing my mind. 

I can definitely go smaller with my meals. Should I be drinking more protein shakes and eating less food? or is 1 protein shake a day pretty normal to meet our protein goals? 

Thanks for the feedback!

Protein shakes will not make you full and shouldn't be relied on long-term. If you're having trouble hitting your protein goal, go for dense protein: chicken breast, cheese, jerky, etc.

If you listen to your medical team and eat 1200 calories a day, then expect to stop losing at about 220.  If you want to lose down to about 145 then stay on lower calories.

I have no idea why they would recommend I eat so much. Strange! I will definitely stay on the lower calories. I told my nutritionist that I cannot eat that much food, and she suggested I eat more meals!  I think that will be the last time I listen to her for advice :P 

Thank you!

Ha! Mine told me to just eat slower. People who have never been overweight just don't get what it takes for us to be successful. I chose to listen to the advice of people who actually had wls and are maintaining their weight loss over someone who has never been overweight.

Listen to what they say and do what works for you.  

Disagree.

Not all nutritionists know their stuff when it comes to WLS, and there are plenty of examples here of questionable advice.

"Do what works for you" is often NOT a good way to do things. Do what has been PROVEN to work for bariatric patients in general using guidelines developed by surgeons and folks who've gone to medical school. "What works for us" is often what got us obese in the first place.

Let's think of the psychology of it all ... I'm trying to sell you a weight loss product (VSG) and tell you that the daily recommended calories for an adult is about 2000-3000 calories a day and if you had this thing I'm selling VSG done and you only had to eat 1/2 as much food to loose 60-70% (of your excess weight, a lot of people miss that and think it's 60-70% of their full weight) then you would probably be like... yeah but I'll be hungry.  To which I say... nope because I'm going to cut your stomach down and you won't even feel hungry! Applause and people sign up.

But if the story was your recommended total is about 2000-3000 calories a day, and I need you to get down to 600-800 a day... I think that number would freak people out especially when they flip over their Hungry Man TV dinner and it's already over that.  So what to do?  The marketing answer is split the difference.

What I'm seeing on these boards from those I consider successful people is that they really do eat 600-800 calories a day.  They drink the heck outa their water, and they keep that protien at about 80 grams a day.  So that leaves little space for carbs, and while their not the devil it's just hard to get them into a 600-800 calorie day with all the protien.  My fear is if you follow what your Nut says you'll be adding carbs and possibly processed food in order to get higher calories into that tiny pouch of yours.

So bottom line even if you don't think their is a lot of marketing going on behind the scenes is this "do you feel full, do you feel happy, do you feel energetic"  If so eat your vitamins and keep going at 600-800 calories.