This has been a great topic for me to read. As part of my pre-op, my surgeon had me take a 10 minute metabolic test a couple weeks ago. I was told it was primarily for his research purposes (I'll take another one at 6 months and 12 months post-op) but I found my discussion with him about it very interesting. He said that almost all his patients have a low metabolism (which we both agreed was not shocking). My metabolic rate calculated to me needing 8.4 calories per pound to maintain, however the average metabolic rate for "normal" people is anywhere between 12-14. He said that based on what he has seen, this 8.4 stays fairly consistent as I will lose weight. It can and will go up with increased muscle mass, but it doesn't have as big of an impact as people think. He did say any increase through increased muscle mass is good, which I think we all know.
According to the BMI charts, the high end of my healthy weight is 192 pounds, which means when I meet goal - side note: I said when and not if - I will need 1,613 calories per day to maintain. This is assuming that 192 is my healthy weight and not what some chart is telling me.
During my required visit with the nutrionist, I was told that when I will be back on solid foods for life that I would be eating 800-1,000 calories per day. Even before I knew my actual metabolic rate, the math didn't add up. A "normal" person my height needs almost 2000 calories per day (according to the standard calculators). The surgeon told me that the number I was quoted by the NUT was too low that that I would need more than that to avoid going into starvation mode.
So, that was a somewhat long way around getting to what I was meaning to. The problem I've been trying to wrangle in my head is how is it possible to get to 1,600 calories a day if you are eating half a chicken breast at each meal. Or even if I can get to a full chicken breast, which is under 200 calories. I would need to eat over 8 chicken breasts in a day, which is not possible if you are eating every 3 hours. I am part of a local support group here in town (that at least one person commenting in this thread is a part of as well) and I've been joining them for meals at a restaurant in which every meal is under 475 calories. From what I've seen in the couple times I've been there, most people don't seem to be able to eat the entire meal, many maybe getting through about half. I'm sure I'm probably trying to break it down too much, I'm a numbers guy by trade and the math doesn't add up.