Question:
I know there is a weight loss calculator on the gallery page .

But it tells us the calories we need to give up to lose weight. Is there such a calculator to tell us what is an acceptable range for us in the first place? My surgeon has is no source of info on this subject and doesn't use a dietician.Thank you. Open RNY 05/26/00 -93#    — Heather T. (posted on November 5, 2000)

November 5, 2000
Dear Heather, I am not a dietician, but I have seen it written several times that for a sedentary person to MAINTAIN body weight, she needs 10 kilocalories (the official name for calories) per pound of body weight. Athletes may need as many as 13 kcals/lb or more. (My most recent nutrition textbook, written for nurses, states that 10 cals/lb should result in a slow, safe weight LOSS for the average person. That has not been my experience, and I believe most obese people with a strong genetic component would agree; therefore I am aiming for less than 10 to lose, and 10 cals/lb to MAINTAIN. But this is strictly a personal observation; ask your doctor or a licensed dietician.) One pound is 3,650 clories, so if you weight 250 lbs, that's 2500 calories/day to maintain (or slow loss per my new book), and anything less than that will be the fraction of a pound per day that you lose. Although many people get by fairly well on the 600-900 calories they can consume without difficulty in the early post-op days, it is unwise to do this for long, because your metabolism will slow down. In the long run, that makes it easier to regain the weight. I would ask your doctor, but I am aiming for 1000-1200 calores, with exercise helping to balance the extra. And eat your protein first--otherwise you lose muscle and again your metbolism slows down--not to mention it is hard to heal from surgery, keep your hair, etc.! (Protein deficinecy will casue severe water retention, too--and not in the blood where you need it, but stored in tissue near the skin where it looks and feels puffy. That is why eating extra protien--and, surprisingly, drinking extra water, helps break a stubborn plateau!) ...A gram of protein is 4 calories, and you need more thaan 50 grams a day, according to most of what I am reading. I intend to aim for 90 grams of protein a day, but drinking plenty of water to keep it from being a burden on my kidneys in processing it, and enough carbohydrate grams to avoid severe ketosis, which causes dehydration and bad breath (even though ketosis is no longer thought by many researchers to be dangerous for a healthy person who's drinking plenty)! At 600-900 calories a day,that would mean about 1/2 to 1/3 daily intake in protein calories. Because I have always tended to gain more easily when the carbohydrate ratio was higher--as compared to fat and protein, I intend to lean toward protein and a little fat--and leave off refined carbs altogether! (Refined being anything that doesn't still have its fiber, or has been processed more than one step beyond it state in nature. If I can't tell what's in something without reading the label, it's too refined/overprocessed for me to eat.) ---hope this helps!! Jesse
   — Jesse M.