Losing the old Harley

Hey everyone just curious to see how much everyone can eat, the quantity I can eat has increased over the past few months and depending on what I’m eating I can fit anywhere from 6-9 ounces, if it’s dense food it’s on the lower end.

Well done mate, I’ve been working on my caloric intake and I’ve been training 6 days a week weights and a little cardio, definitely noticing muscle definition. I’m sitting around
2,200 calories I’ve gained about 2.43 pounds in 1 month which I would say is muscle. According to a lot of the TDEE calculators I’ve entered my info into online they all say around 2,200-2,400 being maintenance. I’m worried shitless about increasing calories more it’s a total mind game! Any suggestions. My current macros are around 220 grams of Protein 200-220 grams of carbs and 60 grams of fat.

21 minutes ago, Healthy_life2 said:

I maintain a ten pound bounce range.

Great so I shouldn't be worried about gaining 1.5kg over the past week lol. I'm still trying to work out my maintenance calories, on one hand i lose then the other hand i gain meanwhile my calories have stayed the same lol, weight training and cardio have increased though as i'm prepping for a half marathon. Plus when i say I'v gained 1.5 kg I'm acutely going off the weight I was when i returned back from a camping trip and may have been slightly dehydrated.

Hey, what’s everyone’s maintenance weight fluctuations?

59 minutes ago, Healthy_life said:

It's ok to have a freak out moment. Maintaining and eating more calories is a whole new mind set. Your surgery restriction is still good at 6/7 months out. Your restriction may feel less after your first year.

Check with your dietician and see if they would approve liquid sources.

I drink liquid carbs to increase my intake for distance running. look into body building weight gain/muscle mass Protein Shakes. The macros are much different than bariatric shakes. (Read the nutrition fact labels)

What I am worried about though is increasing too much and gaining weight lol. I'm happy to maintain but would hate to gain if that makes sense.

1 hour ago, Healthy_life said:

You are doing great. This can be done

Embrace that it's going to be a chore until you find your maintaining zone. How many meals are you eating to consume 1500 to 1600 calories? Increase your meals again to hit 1700 or more.

I distance run and have the sleeve. It takes me all day to get in 2500+ calories. I carb load for seven days before a half or full marathons. It's chore. But, it's necessary to stay healthy.

Hey !

I'm consuming about 6 meals a day at the moment, Today if all goes to plan i will consume 1766 calories and stay around that for the next week to see what happens weight wise. Looking at my TDEE its sitting around 2016 so give or take around 1800 should be good.

Ok so as some of you would know I’m trying to currently tweak my calories to stop me from losing anymore weight.

The past 2 weeks I’ve been eating around 1500-1600 calories, 120 grams of Protein, 110 grams of carbs and around 60-90 grams of fat. I’m still losing; I acutely jumped on the scales this morning as it’s been going up and down over the past few days and I was hopeful I had found the key to maintenance however this morning I have dropped 2 pounds.

My question is what other foods can I add to increase my already 1600 calories, it feels like it’s a chore all o do is eat every day !

I was sleeved in June of 2018.

I’m a little over 7 months PO, 72kg down. I can’t believe the difference!

When I was fresh out of my surgery I found it to be, at times, a struggle with knowing what to do and what not to do. There was conflicting posts everywhere.

I’ve been studying nutrition for the last 12 months pre and post op and have worked alongside my dietician very closely and had great results. I’ve learnt so much when it comes to Health and Fitness which has helped me have such a great result in a short period of time. I have decided to share the things I have learnt to other people in hopes I can ease some of the confusion and unanswered questions that people have.

So I’ve created a personal group on Facebook, If anyone is interested in following my journey I will post daily “what I eat in a day” posts, along with exercise routines and nutrition education and meal preparation idea If anyone wants to join feel free.

https://m.facebook.com/groups/229652411279566?ref=share

I was sleeved in June of 2018.

I’m a little over 7 months PO, 72kg down. I can’t believe the difference!

When I was fresh out of my surgery I found it to be, at times, a struggle with knowing what to do and what not to do. There was conflicting posts everywhere.

I’ve been studying nutrition for the last 12 months pre and post op and have worked alongside my dietician very closely and had great results. I’ve learnt so much when it comes to Health and Fitness which has helped me have such a great result in a short period of time. I have decided to share the things I have learnt to other people in hopes I can ease some of the confusion and unanswered questions that people have.

So I’ve created a personal group on Facebook, If anyone is interested in following my journey I will post daily “what I eat in a day” posts, along with exercise routines and nutrition education and meal preparation idea If anyone wants to join feel free.

https://m.facebook.com/groups/229652411279566?ref=share

(Admin delete if not allowed)
I was sleeved in June of 2018.

I’m a little over 7 months PO, 72kg down. I can’t believe the difference!

When I was fresh out of my surgery I found it to be, at times, a struggle with knowing what to do and what not to do. There was conflicting posts everywhere.

I’ve been studying nutrition for the last 12 months pre and post op and have worked alongside my dietician very closely and had great results. I’ve learnt so much when it comes to Health and Fitness which has helped me have such a great result in a short period of time. I have decided to share the things I have learnt to other people in hopes I can ease some of the confusion and unanswered questions that people have.

So I’ve created a personal group on Facebook, If anyone is interested in following my journey I will post daily “what I eat in a day” posts, along with exercise routines and nutrition education and meal preparation idea If anyone wants to join feel free.

https://m.facebook.com/groups/229652411279566?ref=share

2 hours ago, RickM said:

You lost fairly quickly, which implies that you still have a relatively strong metabolism, so you have some work to do. As a very rough approximation of where you should be, take the average of your last couple months' loss; for every 5 lb (2.3-ish kg), that's about a 500 calorie per day deficit that you need to make up. For instance, I was losing at 10lb per month the last three months of serious weight loss, which works out to around 1000 calories per day deficit; I was averaging 1100 calories per day, and am now maintaining (for the past 6-7 years) in the 2100-2200 range. This will at least give you an idea of how large the steps up that you should be making to ease into your maintenance range.

I started working toward maintenance at the six month mark when I was 10 lb from my goal (or about a month away) so I started increasing things then to slow things down; as this was early November, I in part just let the holidays happen and it took another two months to lose that final 10 lb, and I had minimal overshoot; I still needed to fine tune things from there, but I was pretty close by then.

I just done a quick calculation. Since September i have lost since September 2018 an average of 8 kg a month, (32kg in 3.5 months), which would mean i would be in a calorie deficit of 28,000 calories a month averaging out to be around 800 calories extra i would need to add a day does this make sense?

On 01/17/2019 at 07:32, RickM said:

You lost fairly quickly, which implies that you still have a relatively strong metabolism, so you have some work to do. As a very rough approximation of where you should be, take the average of your last couple months' loss; for every 5 lb (2.3-ish kg), that's about a 500 calorie per day deficit that you need to make up. For instance, I was losing at 10lb per month the last three months of serious weight loss, which works out to around 1000 calories per day deficit; I was averaging 1100 calories per day, and am now maintaining (for the past 6-7 years) in the 2100-2200 range. This will at least give you an idea of how large the steps up that you should be making to ease into your maintenance range.

I started working toward maintenance at the six month mark when I was 10 lb from my goal (or about a month away) so I started increasing things then to slow things down; as this was early November, I in part just let the holidays happen and it took another two months to lose that final 10 lb, and I had minimal overshoot; I still needed to fine tune things from there, but I was pretty close by then.

Thanks Rick for such a good reply it was very helpful. Glad to hear your still maintaining, yes my metabolism is very strong lol

49 minutes ago, Healthy_life said:

@Losing the old Harley

Woah !!!!.......700 to 900 is weight loss mode calorie, No wonder you couldn't stop losing weight. Glad your moving your calories up. Hope you get to your sweet spot soon.

how long did it take trial and error to find that “sweet spot” where you didn’t gain nor lose?

Can't remember how long it took. I just remember is was frustrating. i wished it was a magical set calorie and macros for all of us..Just takes fine tuning.

I'm female 5'5" Maintaining for me is staying with in a ten pound bounce range. If the scale moves up I change my calories and macros to bring it back down. I eat mainly healthy but, I like having the freedom to choose when to indulge and live life.

How many calories do you need to consume to be able to maintain?

• I'm at 1000/ 1100 to lose weight.
• I can eat 1300/1500 maintaining.
• Distance running/ carb load for seven days - around 2300/3000 calories.( Takes many small meals)

How long have you maintained for?

four years.

How long PO were you when you had to move into a maintenance routine? 

I got to goal 140 in six months. After goal I dropped to 125. I like to maintain in the 130's It's where I feel healthy.

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my question with an in depth response. Yes i can see why I couldn't maintain on 700-900 calories lol however it would be a lie if i said it was easy consuming 1300 calories let along 1500 lol this early out. It takes me about 7 small meals as my restriction is very much real haha.

Great to hear I'm not the only one that reached goal weight so early out my dietitian is amazed and hasn't seen it happen this quick before. I work out 4 times a week and run and live a very active life so extra calories is a must to try to maintain.

I was getting really concerned when the scales wouldn't stop moving I don't wish to be very thin (i know how ironic). My dietitian said that I was one of the "lucky" ones where my metabolism has adjusted really well and took a full 360 degree change and is burning at a high rate.

Hey guys and girls,

I posted not that long ago regarding calories required at maintenance, I’m near 8 months PO and have reached my goal weight about 2 months ago (176 pounds), over the past 2 months I have continued to keep losing and now sitting around 152 pounds.

I saw my dietician two days ago and she had requested that I up my caloric intake as it was sitting at 700-900 calories a day before. She done up a draft plan with items she wanted me to consume, some of the changes she made was changing my no fat milk to full fat milk.

The last two days I’ve eased into it and have been consuming around 1300 calories a day which include 105 grams of Protein, 90 grams of carbs and 60 grams of fat. Still losing fairly quick .5 or a pound in 3 days.

Today I will up it to 1500 calories and see how I do, those of you hitting the maintenance stage.

how long did it take trial and error to find that “sweet spot” where you didn’t gain nor lose?

How many calories do you need to consume to be able to maintain?

How long have you maintained for?

How long PO were you when you had to move into a maintenance routine?


I have been incorporating healthy fats as requested, what are some of your go to meals/snacks that are healthy to up the calories?

I'm in the same boat, I'm trying to up the amount of times i each each day I have went from 311 pounds to 153 pounds in 7 months seems like i just can't maintain.

2 hours ago, GreenTealael said:

Same boat, I was told to look for a goal range.

Safe Journey 🎈

2 hours ago, elcee said:

I don’t know if you are male or female but females often have large weight fluctuations throughput the month because of hormones, Water retention etc

Thankyou, I'm male.

Hi all,

I’m 7 months PO and have been fluctuating between 70.8 - 72kg for a while now. I’ve reached my goal weight but I’m just wanting to know what everyone else’s fluctuations are like at goal.

How do you handle these fluctuations mentally. I struggle when I see the scale go up because I question my eating and ask myself “am I eating too much” but in fact I know my eating is fine and I’m not eating much and everything I eat is healthy food.< br />
If I were to guess I would be consuming 800-1000 calories a day.

I’m happy my weight loss seems to have stopped. My eating hasn’t changed.

On 01/06/2019 at 14:00, BlueCrush said:

I'm about 13 months post op and lift weights 6 days per week. I hit my goal about 8 months post op and had to increase calories by about 200 each week til I found where my maintenance was. For me, I found it was about 2600 calories per day.

To get this in, I eat between 6-8 times per day. Some of what I eat is pretty much the same every day, and some is different each day. See below for today's food log as an example day:

Meal1: 8oz of skim Fairlife milk mixed with 8oz chocolate fairlife milk. I drink this pretty much every morning during my work commute. If you've not heard of fairlife, look into it. 26g of Protein for 16oz!

Meal 2: two scrambled eggs covered with cheddar cheese, 2 pieces of bacon, about 1/4 a serving of hashbrowns, and 1/2 a pancake w/ sugar free Syrup

Meal 3: Clif bar (chocolate brownie flavor... These are made of oatmeal and are about 250 cals)

Meal 4: About 2/3 of a Chipotle chicken and cheese quesadilla (it's not on the menu, but you can order it). I get nothing on it but chicken and cheese.

Meal 5: Sargento Break packet which has cheese cubes, nuts, and raisins in it. I eat one of these as a snack at some point pretty much every day.

Meal 6: A 5.5oz grilled chicken breast, serving of green Beans, and about a half a baked potato with "I can't believe it's not butter" 0 calorie spray and shredded cheddar cheese on it.

Meal 7: One and a half servings (I measure using a food scale) of Ice cream! (yes, I said ice cream!.. I dedicate about 250-300 calories per day to my treat/sweet tooth every day. It satisfies my cravings and keeps me from binging)

Meal 8: 8oz of skim Fairlife milk mixed with 8oz of chocolate Fairlife. This is most nights as I use it to get to my Protein goal for the day. My protein goal is 165g/day due to my weight-lifting/muscle-building goals

Yesterday ended with 2670 calories and 168 grams of protein.

Wow, thankyou for the very informative reply! It’s great to see that in time; you can still fit a decent amount of good food in. Yes as is, I believe I’m not eating enough at all roughly 1000-1200 calories a day and i do weight training 4x weekly along with running. I will try to structure a meal plan around this, I live in a Australia so different types of food you listed we don’t have however there would be alternatives. Again, thank you for taking the time to respond.

11 minutes ago, Biddy zz 🏳️🌈 said:

Hiya

Another thing you might find interesting. My surgeon tracks his 1700 gastric patients, pretty closely. After 1 year the vast majority (over 60%) are still under 1000 calories a day.

I was a bit worried the weight loss wouldn’t stop! But about 9 months it just evened out. I have stuck to my ‘three meals a day’ and added one - with nuts, often - fruit if I want sweet. My daily calories is now 100-1200 on a big day. I am running 5k (3 miles) 3x a week, weight training 4x a week - mostly because I literally weight-lossed my arse off!! and I am trying to get some butt muscles!

I think our bodies know how to get themselves into maintenance- my surgeon said so, and it sure happened with me.

Thank you for your reply, you've eased my major stress levels lol. Great to know eventually this will even out, I do not wish to be a walking skeleton.

2 minutes ago, Healthy_life said:

I'm four years out. I am a distance runner. I lift and train like a beast.

Did you ever think you would have to work at eating more calories in your life? *smile* Transitioning in to maintenance mode take some adjusting. I used a TDEE calculator similar to yours. It says maintaining for me is 2166 calories. Honestly, I gain weight at the macros it suggests. I can burn 700 to 1000 calories on long run days. My diet changes to support my activity.

https://tdeecalculator.net

TDEE did not work for me. It may work for you. Your calories and macros will look different than mine. (age sex height weight activity is a factor) I had to change up the numbers from the TDEE to find what works for my body. Hate to say this but it has been a lot of trial and error.

All instructions from dietician are different Below is my instructions

Add low glycemic carbs Sweet potato, whole wheat bread/pasta and brown rice. If you are looking to get more calories in, eat small meals often. Eat as often as you need you need to get the calories in and stay within your calories/macros.

Maintaining is a new mindset. It's no longer 3 meals two small Snacks. Grazing has always been mentioned as a bariatric no no. Think of this as a maintaining health graze - several meals to hit your maintaining calories and macros.

Wishing you the best,

Jenn

Thank you for replying to my question, Yes sounds like it will be trial and error. I never thought i would need to worry about loosing too much weight lol. How many calories are you currently consuming a day, I posted a similar question on a Facebook group I'm in and laugh when people suggest eating "McDonalds" to add extra calories *shakes head*. Totally agree with the "Grazing" Its impossible to limit it to 3 meals a day and hope your weight stops. I eat 5-6 small meals a day all of with are health, nutritionally dense foods.

20 minutes ago, sillykitty said:

I haven't weighed in a number of months, since I got close to and entered maintenance. But I would say it is on the lower side, definitely closer to 3-4 oz. When I was weighing my meals, they'd usually be in the 2 oz range.

This is a horrible example of the type of food WLS patients should be eating, but someone asked me recently for a visual of what my volumetric capacity is. That is a 1 cup measuring cup.

 

Furthermore, considering your 11 months PO your portion size of 1/2 cup - 3/4 cup seems to be the normal. I was just looking at a barbaric site and it said.

"Eat small amounts. Your meal portion size will range from ¼ cup to ½ cup of food 3 to 9 months after surgery. After 9 months you may be able to eat ¾ to 1 cup of food at a meal. To keep the weight off, you should eat no more than 1 cup of food at meals. You risk gaining weight and making your stomach larger if you are eating more than this."

12 minutes ago, sillykitty said:

I haven't weighed in a number of months, since I got close to and entered maintenance. But I would say it is on the lower side, definitely closer to 3-4 oz. When I was weighing my meals, they'd usually be in the 2 oz range.

This is a horrible example of the type of food WLS patients should be eating, but someone asked me recently for a visual of what my volumetric capacity is. That is a 1 cup measuring cup.

 

Yes, even though i measure around 100-150 grams of food I never finish it. The mental struggle sometimes lol. I'm trying to maintain now so trying to work out how i can do that with the limited capacity I have to fit food in.

5 minutes ago, sillykitty said:

I'm nearly 11 months post op, and I still have a lot of restriction. My current capacity is 1/2 - 3/4 cup.

Soo the 1/2 - 3/4 cup size would be around that 3.5-5.5 ounces i would assume ?

Hey Everyone,

My question is around calories, I understand the difference between "Good" and "bad" calories, I'm now trying to maintain my weight and build some muscle, I'm 7 months PO and my weight is still going down which is a little worrying. I'm consuming between 1000-1200 calories a day and doing weight training 4-5 times a week with 10-15 minutes of running on the treadmill as a warm up.

I've been trying in incorporate Nuts, Seeds, Legumes, Protein, Avocado etc into my diet as its more caloric dense healthy foods however I cant seem to get past that 100-1200 calories a day 100-150 grams of weight per meal. I was looking up online about how many Calories I would need to consume daily to maintain my weight which is sitting around 2000 calories and that is a Sedentary lifestyle, being active I would say "Active lifestyle" its saying I should be consuming 2941 Calories !!! how is this possible!

I would like to hear from patients 1+ years out which had a similar issue with continual weight loss and how they managed to maintain weight, Did you need to consume that many calories? Did you continue to exercise or did you reduce activity? Will your body just stop losing when its comfortable?

Thanks in advance!

Eating that small of an amount is crazy if he expects you to do that forever! that small amount you wont even get a good mix of Protein and veggies in. Maybe early out that is recommended however, long term its far from possible. Its been proven that stretching your sleeve will happen overtime naturally regardless. Yes you can prevent it stretching more than it needs to be ensure you consume under 1/2 cup per serving 100-150 grams (3.5-5.5 ounces). The whole idea of this surgery is by the time you reach 2 years out you will have a solid foundation of what to eat and what not to eat or what to eat in moderation.

I will attach a video below it explains about your sleeve stretching no matter what. It also explains that 99% of the time people regain their weight not because the pouch has stretched but because we have learnt how to manipulate the pouch (eating high simple carbs, sugars, processed foods and fats). Our stomachs will NEVER be able to stretch out to be the same size it was before however, overtime natural stretching will occur and you will be able to fit 6-9 ounces of food 3+ years out which in turn will regain weight if you eat poorly.

Create healthy eating patterns and behaviors now that is the only way you'll succeed life-long.