Bears_Chick

I am so happy to have found this thread! I am three days from five months, and this week I've been hungry constantly! I was eating around 700 calories a day, and this week I'm pushing 1,000 every day! I just ate about 3/4 cup of turkey chili, and I'm full... thank God. I typically don't get this full, but it's like I can feel it in my throat, so now I'm concerned I overate.

My doctors don't say how many calories or how small of portions I should have. They just say to focus on Protein and get 80g a day. But I need to know how much I should eat. Or more accurately, when I should STOP eating!

I don't eat bread, so I'm not sure I could eat a hamburger. While traveling, I have had about 2/3 of a Taco Bell bean burrito, and that did not agree with me... I think it was the tortilla.

MyFitnessPal is the life saver... I track every morsel that goes into my mouth. I'm terrified of eating 1,000 calories every day... terrified of what the scale will look like this weekend when I weigh. I do workout 6-7 days a week and get 15,000-20,000 steps a day on my Fitbit, so hopefully all that has paid off.

One hamburger isn't the end of the world... my bean burrito didn't kill me that week. Don't beat yourself up about it.

Great explanation. If you're still losing a pound a week, that's not a true plateau. I know it sucks to only lose 4lbs in a month... that hasn't happened for me YET since surgery, but it's happened to me plenty of times in the past with diets. Hold on to that four lbs a months because in five months, you'll be at your goal weight! I'm at five months out, and I'm terrified about hitting a plateau soon. Just my past I guess. So i'm already preparing for what I need to do to get past it.

Typically when we hit a plateau, we need to change something up. Look up different types of workouts or do two-a-days (cardio for 20-30 minutes twice: once in the morning, once in the evening), or add heavier weights to our routine or more reps or try a new routine all together.

Maybe have a cheat meal. I've read about zig-zag dieting where you allow yourself more calories one day. So if you're eating 800 calories a day, maybe try getting 1,000 on Saturday then back to 800 on Sunday. I've heard it's a shock to the body and can trigger weight loss.

Good luck!

Thank you for sharing so much valuable information! You look so amazing, and you were gorgeous before surgery! But I know how much better it feels to lose weight. I still have a way to go, but I'm about 99.999% sure that I'm going to need to have my wings (arms) cut off... and probably one or two more areas. So it's great to see your pics and read your story. Thank you!

I understand we all have our own views and different ways of losing weight, but I just thought I would throw this out there: the experts all say that tracking is important. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristin-kirkpatrick-ms-rd-ld/how-writing-everything-do_b_780535.html

That is just one of hundreds of articles. I'm not saying that tracking is easy. It's not. It's work. MyFitnessPal has made it MUCH easier than it used to be. I can log 1 oz of food. It's great! But I know for a fact that if I don't log my food, I'm probably eating something that I forgot about, even if it's an apple... yes, I still eat fruit. I get my 80g of Protein a day, and I know that because I track it. I can look back at the past four months at how many calories I've had, how much protein, carbs, fat, etc... so if there's a moment when I only lost one lb., I can look at see if there's a trend. Did I not workout as much? Did I eat more? So tracking is not just about making sure you didn't eat too much in one day; it's about keeping a record and looking back at that record to see if one thing works better for your body than another.

Again, I know that some may disagree... but a lot of professionals (those dang skinny people LOL) say that tracking is important. So I'm doing my best to listen.

Oh... and my not-fat husband is tracking now too... and he loves it.