irrational self doubt, help!

Not true unless you consider 10-15lbs a month snail slow. Everyone is different tons of people are losing at 1000 calories a day by not restricting early on.

OK guys, like maybe three days post my taking your advice and low and behold the scale is moving right along again! I just broke into the 180s!!!!

At the end of the day, it is the number of calories you consume which will determine your rate of loss. Keep them low, but quality/high protein. I didn't get over 800 calories until about 7 months post-op. I still drop lower than that periodically when I am in "adjustment" mode (compensating for larger than normal calories on a previous day).

you're right - lightweights lose more slowly than those of us with 100+ lbs to lose. That said, I had 100+ lbs to lose, and I never saw any spectacular drops. I lost 16 lbs the first month, and then 10-12 lbs a month until month six or seven (at which point it dropped even further). And I've lost 230 lbs, so....

I had about the same number of calories that your nutritionist is recommending. I remember being at about 800-1000 from months 6-12, then I went up to 1000-1200 once I was a year out. Now in maintenance, I average 1500-1700 calories a day - and have been maintaining on that for four months (actually, I've even dropped a little lately - not sure why). My calories have always been on the high side (compared to other WLS patients), and I always worried about that, but somehow, the weight came off regardless. Maybe I just have a decent metabolic rate or something - I don't know.

1. And this is why I follow this advice and not the super calorie restrictions which seem to require restricted maintenance. Everyone I've seen whose lost on reasonable calories are also able to maintain on higher calories...

Exactly my experience so far. Slows down, after month seven. Still dropping. My NUt recommended 1000 calories a day. I am trying to keep closer to 800.

Metabolisms have a range. I know people that need to eat 1000 calories in maintenance or they will gain. Someone a similar size can maintain on 1800. It had nothing to do with how much or how little they ate while losing. Some believe that, because they ate more while losing, they can eat more in maintenance. But cause does not equal effect. I know countless people that ate more during the losing phase, either hoping to have a higher metabolism in maintenance, or to minimize excess skin. The vast majority of those people never got near their goal, and never even got out of obesity.

I kept calories really low to maximize the weight loss window. I have maintained for almost 4 years on a little over 2600 calories a day. Low calories clearly did not effect my maintenance number.

Calories are pretty much like the gas pedal on a car. Press down, go a little faster. Let up, go slower.

Exactly. I can tell you that the OP is eating almost as many calories as I do now on maintenance.

However, I am also only 5'5" and I lost over 220 pounds total. I was never a "lightweight"

The less you weigh, the fewer calories it takes to maintain that weight. If someone had told me that I'd have to eat between 951 and 1100 calories to maintain my goal weight three years ago, I would have probably had a tantrum. Sometimes in low moments, I still want to lay on the floor, fists pounding, and wailing like a baby whose candy was taken from them. Well, my candy was taken from me.

Had my first experience with irrational self-doubt this morning when I got on the scale was and up 1.6lbs from last weeks weigh in. I had to kick myself because um, I've lost for 14 straight weeks and I just started a new cycle of weight training. BUT, I thought of you as my illogical brain wanted to crawl in a corner and sob.

How are you doing?