How many calories?

I recently had plastics, round 1. A lower body lift with lipo and fat injection.

For the past year and half, I have successfully maintained my weight loss by getting on the scale daily. I have a 5 lb range I maintain in, once I get above that range, then it's back to basics, cutting calories way back. It usually one takes two to four days to be back in the range.

Well, at this point I cannot go by the scale as my barameter since swell hell and seroma nirvana keeps my weight ALL over the place. I also cannot go by how my clothes feel since, again, I am in swell hell.

The only thing that I know I could keep track of to keep me on track is calories, but I have NO IDEA of how many calories I need to maintain my weight.

Have you successfully stayed at maintainence? Do you know how many calories you average per day? What is your bmi? What is your daily activity level?

Oh, pre-plastics, I walked/ran 5k three times per week, strength trained 2x per week. I had a bmi of 23.8

Right at the moment, I am released for slow walking only. I am only 2 weeks out from surgery, so I plan on walking distances via the treadmill starting next week. But it won't be cardio level--sigh. I so don't want to regain any weight during my heal time.

Thanks for your help.

Hi Rhonda,
I understand about swell hell and not knowing if you're gaining or if it's water. I've been going through the same thing recently. I started taking a zumba class and the swelling is way up and I can't trust my scale. I just keep telling myself that I'm OK, it's just the water, and maybe a little more muscle too.

I've maintained my weight loss by eating pretty much the same thing every day. So now I'm just counting on my normal meal plan to keep me on trac****il the swelling goes away and I can trust my scale again. I'm 3 years post and eat around 1600 cals a day. My BMI is 21.

I would suggest you go to an online nutrition site like fitday.com and post all the foods that you usually ate in a normal day. That would tell you your average calories and you could go from there. Good luck and I hope you heal quickly.

Well, if it's water weight, it should gradually go down. If it doesn't, then you are eating too much.

But, I'm not sure I'd worry about it. You are healing and you need protein to heal and most likely anything you might gain will drop off once you are done healing. Doesn't the swelling go down in about 6 weeks? It's going to be hard to gain a lot in that sort of time frame if you are still weighing yourself and watching what you eat.

I have been tracking since before surgery. So I have a really good idea of what I can and can't eat. I also know that I can eat to my hunger and be okay. That makes it easier. You probably have a rough idea too even if you haven't been quantifying it.