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If I’m calculating right that’s 255 lbs so at 5’1 that’s a bmi of 48.2. Have you considered another surgery? I agree the pound of cure book is great and may help you lose some but my experience at the higher bmi it’s pretty unlikely to get down to a healthy weight without help. Especially if you have metabolic issues related to your weight, surgery may be something to consider. Regardless, you may have to cut your calories below 1400 Depending on age and activity level. Have you talked to a nutritionist?

The more I read up on nutrition, the more I'm becoming convinced that calorie restriction is not the way to approach weight loss. It actually sets us up for failure and yo-yo dieting. You need to reset your metabolic set point by choosing the right foods and listening to your body for signs of when to stop eating as opposed to counting numbers. When I reached my highest weight last summer, I found the Pound of Cure book by Dr. Matthew Weiner, and this greatly changed my thinking. I started following his program and lost 13lbs slowly and steadily, and without counting a single calorie or macro. Of course, surgery has helped tremendously, but the months I was just following Pound of Cure guidelines, I never felt hungry or deprived. His YouTube channel has hundreds of videos to help get you started. The book is really cheap on Amazon, and there are no soecial products or supplements you have to buy. Just healthy, real food. Anyway, my advice would be to start there and see if it helps.

it's an individual thing, but most of us are supposed to shoot for 60-80 grams of protein a day. Calories are all across the board, depending on your body composition and activity level. There are people on here (well, women - men can usually eat more) who maintain on 2000 a day, and others who can only have 1200 a day. It takes some trial and error to figure out your maintenance level. Log your food for a couple of weeks (if you're not already) and note your average calorie intake. If you're gaining weight, slowly reduce your calories. If you're losing weight (and don't want to), then gradually increase them until you reach a point where you want to be - and are maintaining that.

Hi, looking for some advice, ive had a gastric band for 11 years and had it removed last month due to complications. Im struggling to loose any weight now. Im on a calorie restriction deficit now on 1400 cals per day & not loosing anything. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

hiya! do you have a team or doc to reach out to for guidance...you will find that calorie and macro advice will run the gamut on here, as our docs all have different recommendations! with that said, your intake will really depend you your own physiological makeup as well as if you are looking to lose more weight or maintain... at one year post, i was in maintenance, and was averaging about 1500-1600 calories with about 75g protein. i was also 5'2" and 110 lbs-ish at the time, doing about 1-2 hrs of cardio AND strength training 4-5 times a week today i am 5.5 years out and average about 2000-2200 (recently increased from 1800 because i am on an exercise kick at the moment: 1 hour of exercise 6 days a week) and weigh 118-ish on average. so the recommendation on your cals (and macros) will depend on how tall you are, how much you currently weigh, how much activity you currently participate in, and whether you are looking to lose weight or maintain.

Check with your dietician. We all have such different needs. From activity levels, whether you’re maintaining vs still losing, current weight, age, metabolic rates, to genetics, etc. I’m a little shorter than you, am almost 59, not very active, on the lower end of the BMI scale & I need around 1500/1600 calories to maintain. However, the actual total calories I consume a day aren’t important to me (never had to track) but I randomly check out of interest & people can better relate to number of calories. Portion size & the nutritional value & quality of what I eat is more important.

From the research I've done, your lifelong maintenance is less about counting calories and more about eating mindfully while choosing nutrient dense, natural foods. This is one of the best videos I have watched on the subject:

It may seem counterintuitive, but you may actually need more calories. At least, I've read that many times in other threads. Make sure you are feeling satisfied when you eat and not cutting back on calories just to keep them low if you still feel you need more. I know that as time goes on, we're supposed to be in the 1000-1200 range, and that sometimes our bodies can slow the weight loss if we feel we are facing starvation. Check with your dietician about that if you can. Having said that, I think expectations for how fast we will lose are sometimes skewed by results from outliers, either those who lose very fast or those who start at very high weights. I've lost 48 lbs since I started this journey, but only 22 lbs of it is post-surgery. Basically, yeah, I think just keep doing what you're doing and trust the process.

Two mos post op 4/29. I feel like the loss is slowing down. Since surgery Im down 33 lbs. I weigh weekly and in the beginning it was 5 lbs down,etc. Now its 1.5 down or sometimes just the same. Im taking in anywhere from 750-950 calories a day, usually toward the lower side, eating 100 grams sometimes more protein and being very careful, I always prioritize protein. Also Im walking 30 min 4/5x a week. Any advice? Just keep on and trust the process?

Hi I’m 1 year post op end of this month , how many calories and protein should I be eating now ?

Thank you everyone for you advice! I have been reading through it whilst struggling and it really helped actually. Yesterday was my 1st day and oh my god, one minute I was fine and the next I was an over-emotional, sensitive mess! The morning was completely fine, and I didn't feel too bad until about 4pm. Had a massive drama with my evening SlimFast shake - I didn't realise it needed skimmed milk, and by this point I was so done mentally but I still dragged myself to the shop. Got back home. Realised I'd bought semi-skimmed milk, which nearly brought me to tears 😂 My boyfriend had to go to the shop for me in the end 😅 Either way, I am gonna try and not spiral so much mentally today 😂 I had no chewing gum to hand, but I did have a few snacky pickles which are very low calorie! Thank you all ❤️

One of the therapeutic approaches they use for eating disorders is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. CBT is obviously more complex but one component is replacing an undesired behavior with a new healthy behavior. This sounds so simple and like it couldn’t possibly work (to me anyways) but believe it or not this helped with my self diagnosed Nightime Eating Disorder. NES is a disorder that is characterized by waking up feeling like you can’t fall back to sleep without eating and eating more than 25% of your calories at night after dinner. I believe this is just a form of head hunger. My therapist who uses a different approach said that CBT would suggest that when I wake up wanting to eat that I do something like my crochet instead. Well. It hasn’t been easy but this has worked for five nights thus far. Not one snack and I used to have around 4-6 snacks every night after doing so well with my diet all day. Basically I have a protein yogurt before bed so I know I am not actually hungry and when I feel hungry through the night I just tell myself that I am not hungry and that I can get up and crochet instead if I can’t sleep. I haven’t even had to actually crochet many times. Apparently just knowing that there is a replacement option is enough to help me go back to sleep. That or I’m just too lazy But hey whatever works 😂 Anyways, I found it kinda absurd that the solution was that simple to just do something else like I am dealing with a kid but I’m serious. It worked. There are also CBT workbooks for disordered eating (Amazon has several) which probably get more in depth and journaling about what you are feeling at the time to get to the root of why you feel hungry helps for some. But try doing something else as well Like I said it’s been five nights for me and it’s worked. Each night it has gotten a little easier too. I put a towel through the handles of the fridge in case I forget and I have woken up and walked to the kitchen less and less each night. After the first night I realized that the yogurt was enough to get me through the night and each night after just reinforces that. My friend said it makes sense to her because It’s like when people quit smoking and everytime they want a cigarette they chew gum instead. I did lollipops but it’s true, that did work for me as well. It’s Still not easy, but it works. If your at work I guess your limited on alternate options but maybe having a glass of tea or taking a short walk (depending on your job). You said you are already drinking your water but maybe try a whole new behavior. I hope I don’t sound too crazy and you try this. I hope it helps you as well.

This has really given me perspective. The whole "reset" and "new metabolism" is such a nice way of putting it. I have increased my calories on the days I workout to a 1000, let's see how it goes. Thank you very much ❤️

Hi, welcome! I read the posts here a lot before my first post too and felt like I knew everyone even though they didn't know me! LOL It is a funny feeling... My first thought is you aren't eating enough to be physically active. The body is pretty particular about how much energy it gets and after bariatric surgery our metabolism gets a nice reset (it is part of what helps us lose the weight) but to maintain that nice, new metabolism we need to EAT. And what is enough when you are mildly active isn't near enough when you are doing things that strain your heart, muscles, and burn a good bit of fuel. So I agree with the above, I'd eat more on days you work out. 65 grams of protein isn't enough for working out, I'd add in at least a protein shake, a little healthy fat, and some complex carbs. Second, it is normal to stall for a few weeks at any point, but it is especially normal if you start working out, or if you increase your workouts. This is because it changes the fluid balance in our bodies and the body takes a bit to even out. Some people even see increases on their scale when they start adding in more workouts! So if that happens, don't panic. We can also stall when our food intake changes. This is commonly seen when you go from fluids to solid food, but it can also happen if you jump in calories at any point, even if it is a needed point. My stalls seem to last for 6 weeks at a time. It is super irritating. At 4 months out you are not likely to be done losing weight yet. You may lose a little bit more. But weight loss slows WAY down the closer to goal we get and you are on the small end at this point so I wouldn't be surprised if it slows now. The most rapid weight loss is the first 3 months, then it tapers off slowly depending on how much you need to lose. Since you are used to being at the lower end of your BMI it is reasonable to expect you may drop a bit more to have the space you want if you rebound some. Just be careful not to starve yourself to get those extra lbs off, if it isn't sustainable for your body you'll really have to fight for it and it could damage that nice new metabolism in the process! Oh, and weight redistributes after weight loss. So you may look a little thin now and it may balance out a bit in the next year. This happens especially around the face for some people.

I can relate to being afraid of gaining weight after working so hard to lose it. We all deal with that here. But it's a fine line between being mindful about it and developing disordered eating habits. I can speak to this because it happened to me. I was dropping weight like a champ, then I hit stall after stall, and each one lasted longer than the previous one. And I would panic. And I would restrict the amount I ate, I would kick up the intensity and frequency of my work outs. I would have anger and confusion and fear anytime I either didn't lose or I gained a little (turns out, I'm one of the ones that gains 3-5 pounds during a stall and then just sits there for weeks and weeks. Then when the stall breaks, I drop like 6-7 pounds all at once). I had to actually go to a therapist that specializes in bariatric disordered eating (not easy to find, btw) to get my head on straight. And it's still a struggle sometimes. Especially since these last 11 pounds absolutely fight me tooth and nail and just don't want to come off. I said all that to say just be very careful. I never started out intending to have these issues. I thought I'd have the surgery, lose the weight, get healthy, and bada-boom bada-bing, life would be great. But it's never that cut and dry, is it? We can become obsessed with losing the weight, seeing how low we can get the scale, getting into that lower size, looking thinner, never gaining weight again, getting that bmi just a little lower.....and before you know it, you have a whole new eating disorder that's even harder to get out of and we're doing even more damage to our bodies without even meaning to. And we can justify what we're doing because HEY, we got off our meds, we're getting healthier, we're losing the weight, we're EXTENDING OUR LIVES damn it!!! And that's harder to overcome and harder to recognize and going too far than being obese is. We knew we needed help. We knew we were doing wrong. That's why we had the surgery. But now? Now it gets harder to see what we're doing because HEALTH!! WEIGHT LOSS IS GOOD!!! NO MORE MEDS IS THE GOAL!!! JUST A LITTLE MORE WEIGHT OFF CAN'T POSSIBLY BE BAD!!! So please please just be really careful with where you're at now and where you're wanting to get to. Lastly, on the days you're working out (especially the really hard weight days) increase your protein and calories. Your body thinks it's starving, so you need to reassure it that you're not. The heavier the work out, the more your body needs. You can't run a car without gas and you can't run your body without food. So give it what it needs, in the amounts it needs, and it'll do what you want it to. Make sure you also have a larger amount of fluids than you normally would on those days, too. Dehydration can really do a number on the body, as well.

Is it the sugar in grapes, maybe. I ask because I’m wondering about pineapple. I love pineapple. Realize it’s higher calorie but hoping I will be able to have some.

Would it make more sense if the fat was supposed to be 15g per meal? It seemed like she was calculating it from three meals when she was talking to me because she was adding the carbs out loud. That seems like a mistake that could be easily made and that would be closer to what the DS vets have said. Still not quite as high but it is a little different surgery than DS. Plus adding 30 more grams of fat brings the calories to 1,125 if I’m understanding and calculating that correctly which falls within that range that she gave me.

No, she didn’t say anything beyond that. Honestly I’m not sure if it’s because she doesn’t care or more because she just doesn’t know. Which is extra frustrating since I called her office and specifically asked if she was prepared to help with this particular surgery and they had to get back to me so they asked her. I basically feel like I wasted $100 at this point. On top of that the vets on here that had DS which is the closest thing are telling me that she is way off on carbs and fat and that DS doesn’t really pay attention to calories at all. I have an appt with the surgeon tomorrow and I already have a list of questions about the surgery itself so I’m going to ask him if I can make another appointment with him to talk about nutrition or if he has another nutritionist he can reccomend because this is getting to be ridiculous.

ok, well the macros your NUT provided only come up to 855 calorie : (4 cal/g of protein *90)+(4 cal/g of carbs *90)+(9 cal/g of fats *15) = 855 ..did they say (or care) how you make up the remaining calories to be in the 1000-1200 goal window?

So...I'm struggling with how to answer this because I want to give you helpful information, but I still have questions. I guess I'll jump right in and see how it goes. 1) You started off at a lower weight to begin with, so your body is likely at the point now where it's at it's healthiest. As of right now, you're 5'5" and 136 pounds with a bmi of 22. You're exactly where you should be. If you lose 15 more pounds, you'll weight 121 pounds and have a bmi of 20. On paper, that's still healthy. But my concern is you're becoming addicted to losing the weight and even though you're exactly where you should be (and could even gain 10 pounds and still be where you should to be) you'll panic and possibly go about things in an unhealthy way to drop those pounds. 2) Were there other reasons besides your weight that led you to getting the surgery? Did you have any comorbidities such as high blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, etc? You didn't mention that. My fear is, if you only wanted to drop weight and your bmi was 33 to begin with, and now you're wanting to continue to drop even though you're being told you look "stick thin" (and you're in the healthy range now but still want to go lower), that this might have more to do with the number on the scale than getting healthy. 3) Stalls are normal, and happen all the time. The fact that you haven't had one until 4 months out is actually kind of surprising. They do break on their own, but honestly, you may lose little weight going forward (and what you DO lose will likely come off slowly) since you're already well within the healthy and normal range and your body feels it's happy at its new set point. 4) Your body likely thinks it's in starvation mode, based on how you're working out and lifting and what you're eating. The harder the workouts, the more calories you need. Prioritize protein first above all else, then veggies, then carbs and healthy fats. But you definitely need to increase your calorie intake. This isn't necessarily advice for dropping more weight (although that tends to happen when things like this go on) but for healthy purposes. If your body thinks it's starving, it'll hold on to every single calorie and bit of fat. And it'll eat away at muscle before fat just to make sure you survive. So my suggestion is to increase your calories. I don't do heavy lifting, but I DO do weight training, and on those days, I go up to 1400 calories. Core and strength training, I go up to 1300 calories. Cardio I go up to 1200 calories. Non work out days I eat around 1000 calories. 5) You didn't mention what surgery you had, but I'm assuming it's the sleeve. If I may ask, what made you choose having surgery versus doing anything else for weight loss? Have you tried changing your eating habits before, did you try medication, or did you go right to surgery? How have you changed the way you eat, and what you eat, since the surgery? How much fluid are you taking in every day? How much protein and carbs are you taking in each day? Are you taking your vitamins every day? How many days per week are you working out (should give yourself 2 days off ideally, but for sure at least 1).

Dinner! smoked salmon and cream cheese on crostini. 329 calories. ate it all.

today's breakfast-lunch: a plate of various things (clockwise from top): brie, jelly/jam, slices of that bread i baked the other do further baked into some crostini, more juejed up labneh, and a crazy delicious foie gras pate (so very rich though, so couldn't eat alot of it...) 622 calories for the whole thing...u can see what i ate.

You might want to post this in the DS forum as well, as I know their requirements are different than those of the other surgeries. You guys eat more calories and more fat the rest of us (plus I remember certain carbs ar tough on DSers - they can cause G/I distress). I just looked up the nutritional value of eggs, and yes, your stats on both protein and fat in them are correct. The yolks are mostly fat. But then I would think eggs would be great for DSers - they're very nutrition, and you guys don't have to be as concerned about fat.

I have yet to see a nutritionist or dietician that truly understands the optimal diet for a SADI or DS patient. Most of the time we just get a modified version of what they give Bypass and Sleeve patients. But as you say, you aren't absorbing as much as they are, therefore to give you their requirements would leave you malnourished. 15 grams of fat is absurd by all medical standards. Most medical studies show we need 60 grams of fat for proper hormone function and even if you ate 60 grams of fat, with an altered digestive tract, you aren't absorbing that much, so you need to eat a little more than that. Even the ASMBS recommends 60 grams of fat by 1 year out!! Your dietician is not following best practices. Most SADI/DS patients I know follow the vets that have been living with this surgery for 10+ years and maintaining their weight loss. We figure they know more about optimal diet than a surgeon who has never lived with this surgery, or a dietician that has never even researched best diet for bariatric patients of various surgeries. Most patients I know are eating 100-120 grams of protein, less than 50 grams of carbs, and over 60 grams of fat, usually around 100 grams of fat for SADI and 150 grams for DS. You can increase your carbs once you have reached your goal weight, they tend to slow/stop weight loss, so in active weight loss it is important to keep them low so you stay in ketosis. A calorie range makes dieticians feel better, but it makes no sense for a SADI or DS patient because we malabsorb so much fat we can't even begin to properly calculate our calories. You could eat 1200 calories, but that wouldn't be what your body is absorbing. I'm sorry this is so complicated. In the end you have to decide what you feel best at. I don't feel good following guidelines like your dietician gave you and when I go over 50 grams of carbs I stop losing weight. So...yeah. I'm going to follow what allows my brain and hormones to function, what makes my skin, hair, and eyes feel best, what gives me the most energy, and what allows me to lose weight steadily. I'm the one that has to live in this body. It is sad these surgeries are so uncommon there are no good studies about optimal nutrition for them. But there is no way I'd go below ASMBS guidelines, they are the closest thing bariatric surgeons have to a standardizing body. Your dietician should be able to give you ASMBS guidelines for your surgery.

So I finally got an email back from My dietician and the macros she gave me for diet post Sadi is 1000-1200 calories 90g protein 90g carbs and 15 grams of fat. That doesn’t seem to be anything close to yours. I am so confused and wondering if she is wrong. I feel like if I don’t absorb a descent pirtion of that I would be malnourished.