ruthie74

One thing to consider is a metabolic test. Everyone's is different. My doctor has me do a 10-minute one where I have to breathe into a machine and it tells me what my rate is. You could use that test to work with your NUT on a detailed plan for you.

So I am about 16 pounds away from my ultimate goal of 135! I don't have an appt with my nut till January but I plan on calling her sooner.
My question is since I am so close to my goal do I continue to eat 800-900 calories? Or do I eventually raise my calories?
I mean I want to eventually maintain my weight so I assume I have to increase my calories. Do I just experiment with my calories to see where I will be able to maintain? I'm wondering for those who reached their goal what they did?
Thanks for any advice in advance!!!

So I am about 16 pounds away from my ultimate goal of 135! I don't have an appt with my nut till January but I plan on calling her sooner.
My question is since I am so close to my goal do I continue to eat 800-900 calories? Or do I eventually raise my calories?
I mean I want to eventually maintain my weight so I assume I have to increase my calories. Do I just experiment with my calories to see where I will be able to maintain? I'm wondering for those who reached their goal what they did?
Thanks for any advice in advance!!!

But my mom wanted me to add her 2 cents..lol
She says, you should always ignore comments made in ignorance. If people don't know you had the surgery they will naturally think your sick or on drugs. She says WLS causes major changes and you can look completely different from month to month. She says don't be offended by their lack of experience with WLS results.
She says when they ask if you're sick, you should ask if they're stupid...well, they're both equally disturbing questions....I "mskeekee01" disagree with this statement..
Mskeekee01 says always smile and always take the high road!!!

I had my surgery on my husbands and I anniversary and normally we dine and wine the night away...nope not this year and I was almost tempted not to have the surgery that was scheduled a few days before my anniversary just so we can wine and dine! I really had to snap out of it! I told myself this is how bad it is for me that I would reschedule my surgery so I can wine and dine! I said I can do this! My husband and I did other things other than go out to eAt. We have to learn to have a good time without food! I did some major Soup searching my first 2 months.
You'll get through this. It's your birthday go have fun but something that doesn't involve food. At first it's hard to come up with things but eventually it will change well at least it did for me.
Happy birthday!!!
Many blessings to you and congrats on the surgery!

I had my surgery on my husbands and I anniversary and normally we dine and wine the night away...nope not this year and I was almost tempted not to have the surgery that was scheduled a few days before my anniversary just so we can wine and dine! I really had to snap out of it! I told myself this is how bad it is for me that I would reschedule my surgery so I can wine and dine! I said I can do this! My husband and I did other things other than go out to eAt. We have to learn to have a good time without food! I did some major Soup searching my first 2 months.
You'll get through this. It's your birthday go have fun but something that doesn't involve food. At first it's hard to come up with things but eventually it will change well at least it did for me.
Happy birthday!!!
Many blessings to you and congrats on the surgery!

So Today I hit 149.2 lbs. According to my BMI I am NORMAL!
I had surgery March 20, 2013 and weighed in at 240 lbs. I have chosen to only tell 2 people. My husband and sister. So when I posted a picture this week it created quite a buzz. I have lost 91 lbs in 7 months and feel better then ever. I could not ask for a better change in my life I can run and play with my son and not get tired. I have been so blessed to have had an easy recovery and a sleeve of steel.
I have attached a picture from February 2013 and from this week.

Opps soul searching not Soup searching! Lol

My birthday was a couple of weeks after my surgery. I had a massage, facial and pedicure. It was much better than cake

I had my surgery on my husbands and I anniversary and normally we dine and wine the night away...nope not this year and I was almost tempted not to have the surgery that was scheduled a few days before my anniversary just so we can wine and dine! I really had to snap out of it! I told myself this is how bad it is for me that I would reschedule my surgery so I can wine and dine! I said I can do this! My husband and I did other things other than go out to eAt. We have to learn to have a good time without food! I did some major Soup searching my first 2 months.
You'll get through this. It's your birthday go have fun but something that doesn't involve food. At first it's hard to come up with things but eventually it will change well at least it did for me.
Happy birthday!!!
Many blessings to you and congrats on the surgery!

Why not enjoy your B'day??? Here's something to think about. Celebrate and enjoy whilst not placing food on a pedistal??? Food is fun, but we are all learning to have a more normal relationship with the food we need to live. There is so much more to life than food, and Happy Birthday!!!

I am a little over 4 months post op and I thought I wasn't getting enough calories either, so I stopped counting calories and just focused on Protein because by the time I ate my 60 gm of protein, I couldn't eat anything else any way. The following is just what I have been doing and I've lost 56 lbs since June 18. My personal choice is to focus on protein, carbs, fluids, and my Vitamins. I take a chewable Multivitamin by opurity made especially for sleeve patients. It tastes like a sweet tart and I suck on it, I don't chew it. I also take Krill oil, chewable calcium citrate and a sublingual B-12. The B-12 absorbs better if it's sublingual. You can get the liquid or a dissolvable B-12 pill. I prefer the dissolvable pill. The Krill is 1 small gel pill vs. 3 of the Omega that I was taking. I am sticking with the Opurity vitamins as long as I can because when I switched to an over the counter brand, my hair started falling out. I switched back to Opurity and within 3 days, my hair stopped falling out. I focused on protein (at least 60g daily) and carbs (I tried to stay under 20 a day) but it's hard to keep carbs under 20. If you watch your protein and carbs, the calories shouldn't be a problem. I found a wonderful sugar free popsickle at Wal Mart. Its in a yellow box and they are tropical favors. Very tasty, sugar free, with only 4 carbs. They absolutely saved me. It's a nice treat when u want something sweet, but you CAN over do them because they have carbs. I also use products from Walden Farms....especially the salad dressings. No carbs, no sugar, no calories. If they are too thin, you can add fat free non flavored yogurt to thicken them up. If you go lonline and google Phase 1 ideal protein diet, it will show you a good diet plan to follow with low carb veggies and when it says to add the ideal protein that they sell, just add your personal protein. Focus on drinking Water & at 6 weeks you can start exercising. I have not because I have bone & joint problems but I have continued to lose weight. I lost weight quickly the first month, then I started with the plateaus. I wouldn't lose for 2-3 weeks, then all of a sudden, I would get on the scale and drop 5 lbs over night. After the first month, the weight loss slowed to 8-10 lbs a month for me. I recommend checking out Dr Guillermo Alvarez on you tube. He has awesome advice & he answers a lot of questions. I searched the internet daily for all my questions & did a lot of research on my own, because my doctor was not very detailed in what he told me before surgery. Just an FYI...I met a lady the other night that had VSG in 2006. She had gained a lot of weight back & when I asked her what she was doing, she told me she ate sweets, especially a lot of cake. So, stay away from that and anything that has liquid calories...forever!!! I am eating Protein Bars now, instead of shakes, and they have high carbs, but they are good carbs and you should eat them before noon and then try to stay away from carbs the rest of the day. When you hit a stall, increase your protein and water intake and you will lose again. If it's not lbs, it will be inches. Good Luck!!!

Are you eating Protein first? Are you drinking your Water? Ate you staying away from junk food? Are you staying below the calories your doctor told you to? If your answer to all these is ye, then it's too early to worry. I find that I "cycle" between low and high calorie days. And 1 lb of weight is only 2 extra glasses of water so don't worry about that either.

my doctor never set a calorie limit for me. all i was told was 60-80g of Protein everyday and under 90g of carbs. i see a lot of people have calorie limits, idk why i was never told one!

Hi. I'm doing well. Each day it gets better. The only lasting pain I have is the largest incision on my right side. I am so anxious to start mushies. I got to my check-up appointment on 10/31. I am noticing that some days it's hard to get those fluids in. I'm trying though. I have different juices and am trying. You are very inspirational, I will take into account really limiting the carbs and keeping a good amount of Protein in my daily diet.

I'm also confused as to why anyone is afraid of eating fats. Healthy fats are good for you. I eat 40% fat, 40% Protein and 20% carbs. I've eaten that since the beginning and as my calories have gone up the total grams of each has gone up, but my ratios have stayed the same. My weight loss has been great and these ratios fuel my long workouts perfectly.

Ruthie.....stick with it, try not to get too obsessed about the scale, keep your end goal (in shape and toned) in mind, and you'll get there.
Meliss000 does make a good point. Obviously a pound is a pound no matter the substance. She stated that muscle weighs more than fat. Not the typical statement we see here a lot...."a lb of muscle weighs more than a lb of fat"....which obviously isn't true. But on a volume basis, Meliss000 is correct. A cubic foot of muscle would weigh more than a cubic foot of fat. So in a sense, muscle does weigh more than fat volume-wise..... due to being more dense.

First of all muscle does not weigh more than fat, it weighs exactly the same, but it is more dense and smoother. And sore muscles are muscles that have been worked which means torn so they are rebuilding and that creates swelling ie, Fluid retention. For awhile as you increase your muscle mass but before the fat loss starts, you may show a higher weight for awhile, but then the increased muscle mass will jump start your fat loss and it'll be groovy. Good job on exercising!!

Shaun T is great! Insanity is insane! It help me build muscle. Never mind the scale. Use a measuring tape.
Happy workouts! :-)

Yes, remember muscle weighs more than fat, but more compact. I get frustrated to the fact that I haven't moved on the scale for months... But my size and shape is dramatically changing for the better! So why is that number so important to the way that we judge ourselves ? Who knows... Fat girl syndrome maybe? Keep up with the exercise you will look and feel better...try not to worry about that stupid number!

I hear ya "Tokva"! I tried one closer to home temporarily about 2 months after my surgery. (I work about 40 minutes from my home and workout at a gym close to work). I was off work for about 2 weeks during the holidays and just wanted a gym to go to since I was just getting back into working out and didn't want to take 2 weeks off from lifting or drive 40 minutes one way just to workout. So I joined PF knowing it would be only a month membership and with some understanding that it's not a gym for serious, or semi-serious lifters. My first trip......2 lunk alarms. Second trip....same thing. I didn't make a third trip, just worked out at home on my punching bag and did push ups, sit ups, etc and never set foot in that gym again except to sign the paperwork to cancel my membership. Keep in mind, I'm going to PF just less than 2 months post-op......so I'm not lifting heavy at all and I've never been a "grunter/yeller" on my lifts like some competitive power lifters or bodybuilders. I simply didn't put up the weights with zero sound, so I got "lunk alarmed". Perhaps they need rubber or foam weights......just sayin'.
I don't dislike PF personally and I think it's a good fit for someone who wants to do mostly cardio with occasional light resistance training and without emptying their wallet or purse. And any environment to get people to exercise that normally wouldn't at a regualr gym...... is a good thing. I do think calling themselves "judgment free" is a lie, but other than that, it could be a good fit for many people and obviously is quite popular. So "marfar7".......if you like PF and it fits what you are trying to accomplish.......by all means, continue. It doesn't really matter what others think, it's your money. Some of us burned or led astray by PF (myself included), are just sounding off with our personal opinions about PF, that's all and giving a heads up to people who may be expecting more from PF than they offer. I for one, am thrilled you're taking this step and I say go for it and I'm wishing you the best!

I'm almost 4 months out and doing well. I've lost almost 74 pounds and my hair is falling out :-/ Other then that doing well! Feeling great! Still have energy issues but I know in due time I will feel 100% Glad everyone is doing well as well
My start weight 230 Current weight 156 my goal is 135.