Daily snapshot during weight loss phase

I need some help. My weight loss has really slowed over the last 6 weeks. I did start taking tastes of junk but I just want to show you all  a normal day and if you all would look at it and let me know suggestions or tell me what worked for you i would be so thankful breakfast. Protein coffee with ff half n half (don't measure)                                                 1.5 scoops syntrax matrix lunch 1.5 ounce chicken breast or tuna              Low fat ranch or mayonnaise  (I don't measure this)            If I eat chicken I sprinkle with reduced fate cheese 1 tsp            1/4 of corn tortilla or 4 reduced fat wheat thins crushed up for crunch factor       afternoon. Protein coffee    dinner / late meal. Either protein shake or 1/2-1 quest bar i drink 64-80 ounces of fluid in addition to the coffee   i have not been exercising. No excuse for this so it's one thing I'm changing.  Im scared to death my honeymoon phase is going to be over in the next 2 months and I'm going to miss out. Thank you all for all your help kathy 

Hi kathy and welcome to the LW board.  Your signature doesn't say what kind of surgery or when so it is hard to give you advice.  It looks like your protein level is probably high enough, good for you still keeping up with the shakes.  You may want to look at your carb level.  I tried to keep mine around 30 net when I was losing.  I would worry more about carbs than fat because you need some healthy fats in your diet.  Exercising will help but we all slow down around 5-6 months.  After that if was thrilled if I lost a pound a week.  Your calories may even be a little low.  Are you tracking on one of the on-line tools?  I used the tracker here on OH.  It was really helpful to see exactly what my intake was.  Many of us post on miles and menus daily.  Try posting there to get some more suggestions. 

Hope to see you around!!!

I had a VSG

Still no idea of how far out your are but you have lost 50 or so pounds so I am thinking 4-6 months.  Sleeves do lose a little slower than RNY because the don't have the malabsorption.  Sounds like you have done great so far.  Post for a while on Miles and Menus and you will probably hear from some others with suggestions to keep your weightloss going.  Typically, we think of honeymoon phase with RNY because of the absorption of calories so if you stay on track, use this time to learn an eating pattern you can stay with for the rest of your life, you can continue to lose and maintain.

Welcome to the LW Board!!!   If you have a few moments to put your surgery type and date on your profile that is really helpful for us when reading your posts.

The trick to losing with WLS and Maintaining when you reach goal is High Protein and Low Carb.  It doesn't matter if they are "low fat" carbs or not....they are carbs.  Use sunflower seeds or something like that for the crunch factor. 

You can lose weight without exercising (might be slower) but exercising does help firm you some and keeps your skin a little tighter. 

The last 20 or so pounds just drag by so you aren't unusual in that respect.  Your daily intake looks fine so I suspect your problem is what you mentioned, the tastes here and there of junk.  If it is slowing your weight loss then it is probably more then a taste or more often then here or there so that may be what you want to avoid, at least until you get where you want weight wise, unless you are okay where you are.  Most of us didn't start tinkering with our eating plans until we were well into maintenance and willing to make adjustments as necessary to keep our weight where we wanted to be.  It is all up to you.  The next time you are tempted to take a taste or two ask yourself if you want that taste more then you want to reach your goal?  That is a question you will probably ask yourself a lot in the future as you learn to use your tool to reach and maintain your weight goal.

It's time to make exercise a part of your life. I'm one of the few people who didn't experience a slow down in my weight loss as I as got further out and that's because every time my weight loss starts to slow down, I upped my exercise.

As we get farther out, we can eat more. This is a good thing pu to a point. In the early days, we were eating almost nothing and that's not healthy long term! But you can't eat more and expect to continue to lose like you did when you were eating 300-500 calories a day unless you up your activity level.

Actually, it's probably not a good idea to lose at that rate either. But 1-2 pounds a week like people who haven't had WLS is fine and normal and expected once you get farther out.

MacMadame, how long is it ok to eat around 500 calories? I struggle to get more calories. I am only half way to my goal so I am happy to be losing anything. My average has been about ten pounds a month. I do get 80 grams of protein daily with protein shakes and dense protein. Since my VSG, food is of no interest to me so I eat according to the clock. Elina_7 referenced you in a post regarding calories; hence my question. Thanks.

There's no definitive answer. The longer you do it, the greater your chances of hurting your metabolism.

But it's not just the calories but your activity level and your BMR and what you eat. It all factors into it.

If you aren't very active and 500 calories is 50% of your daily calorie burn and those are high qualify calories with lots of protien, then it's not as bad as if I you are very active and 500 is 1/4 of what you burn and it's a lot of junk, for example.

You need to go by how you feel and make sure you are getting enough protein. I was training for triathlons on 900 calories a day and I felt great! I was taking all my vitamins and getting in all my fluid and getting 90 g of protein minimum a day. If you are getting in 70 g of protein a day on 500 calories and have energy and are working out, say, 3 hours a week or less, and are less than 3 months out, then 500 is probably fine. If you are getting dizzy or taking lots of naps or working out like a fiend or getting in hardly any protein or are more than 6 months out, then you are going to screw up your metabolism.

And, if you aren't taking your vitamins and getting your labs done, you risk malnutrition.

Thank you all for your answers. One thing I think I need to do for sure is get in more dense protein and exercise. I have been feeling kind of dizzy a lot and that's not good. Heaven knows I don't need to mess up my metabolism anymore then I already have. So here goes...

thanks again, Kathy