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How many calories are you eating? "5-8 oz" is not a meaningful measure of the number of calories you're eating. 5-8 ounces of peanut butter is a lot more calories than 5-8 ounces of cauliflower. If your weight is stable over a long period of time, you're eating a maintenance level of calories. The smaller you are, the fewer calories you burn just to operate and move your body, so if you're eating the same number of calories at 195 pounds as you were eating at 273 pounds, you're not going to lose weight as quickly, and maybe not at all. If you want to keep losing weight, you will have to reduce your calorie intake. Calorie intake is much more important for weight loss than exercise. Exercise is certainly beneficial, but as you have noticed, it makes you hungrier, and it's very easy to eat more extra calories than what you burn from exercise -- especially if you're not monitoring your calorie intake. Also, don't get too hung up on the number on the scale. There's no magic in reaching your goal weight. You might need to reevaluate your expectations. It's quite possible that your goal weight will be too low for your body, especially if you are building muscle. And don't be in such a rush to get plastic surgery, either. Your body will redistribute itself over time, so some parts of your body that you don't like now may improve on their own without plastic surgery. You may still want to get plastic surgery eventually, but there's a reason most surgeons want you to have a stable weight for a while before you get it.

@ShoppGirl I feel like I getting the same benefits. At least burning calories, feeling sweaty and out of breath. I am too hard on myself. I will build back to where I was, I'm just whiny LOL With everything you have been through your attitude is admirable, and your still working out! Good job, your really taking life by the horns! So proud of you

My win is getting back in the gym and back on track! I have been cleared to do lower body, biceps and triceps. I have been prioritizing cardio which is great but now that I am back in the gym I feel so much better! I cant wait to hit back and shoulders but all in due time. I have been tracking and making sure I am staying in my calorie deficit. I started to interment fast, not a crazy one just 12:12, but its helping the food noise and helping me be more structured.

lunch! ½ a bagel with cream cheese, smoked salmon, avocado, onion and sumac. 599 calories, ate it all!!

Are you measuring and logging everything that goes into your salad? Not all salads are created equal and it’s not uncommon to underestimate what goes into them. A salad can have over 800 calories pretty easily if you aren’t careful. The usual culprits are the dressing, cheese, crouton's, nuts/granola, avocado, bacon, etc. If you don’t use measuring tools at least for a while it’s pretty difficult to know if you are getting just one serving or more. And if you are getting more than one serving of a few of these things you may as well just have a cheeseburger calorie wise and you may not realize it. I hope this helps.

Glad you’ve turned a corner. We do say it gets better & easier but it doesn’t seem like it in the beginning. And it will continue to get better too. PS - Watch the calories in the shakes you’re having between meals though. They do add up. Bone broth may be a better lower calorie alternative but still giving you protein & some flavour. Or protein water.

Most often when folks ask this question they already know their answer and it's usually "I will be drinking." In so many words, they are looking for someone to give them permission to drink. Assuming your answer because you've already done your test in a safe environment. You will be with friends so you have a safety net that hopefully you will not need. It's easy to sit and drink and not realize you are over doing, so get up and walk around frequently to ensure you are OK. A reason you are cautioned from drinking early is, in addition to avoiding empty calories, is transfer addiction. Early post-op food is not as available as comfort or a coping mechanism and other things can easily fill the gap. Be careful. Enjoy your night out. Tek

Yes all of the above. I still calorie count everything, every day. I log it religiously. I weigh myself every day. I am super scared of repeating my past mistakes. My first stall was scary. The second, well it was still a fright. By the third, I was quite used to them. Further along, I had a three month stall and everyone said I was done but I was no where near my goal so kept doing the same good things. It broke in its own good time and I chugged down a few more stones. In the end I chose my goal weight and with help from my team, upped my calories. That was a scary trip for me. I had to relax a bit. That was tough because I will not go back to being over 199lbs. Like you say, you have lost so much weight already. A lot more than 90% of us have, at six weeks. Your body needs to recentre itself. You will have to have faith and stick with the plan. We are all proof that this does work. Just take our word for it for now. Wait it out. x

Thank you for sharing your experience! What a journey that has been! And to be honest, you would need to be eating more to balance out the amount of calories you use when you exercise! Amazing achievement though - really inspiring. How did you find the Stairmaster? I really want to try it but I am terrified haha

then i wanted something crunchy. a bowl of Harvest Cheddar SunChips: 190 calories, ate it all!

Some people can just have a taste but I learned after my sleeve that I am not one of them. I can’t have one slice of pizza or one brownie. Even if I manage to have just one that day I will crave more unhealthy stuff the following days. At bedtime I have been doing the sugar free popsicles. That seems to be working. If you have actual hunger then something with protein would be a better option. Like a Greek yogurt maybe. Can you budget the calories so you can do that. I think the triple zero is only like 80 calories. That should keep you full through the night though.

I didn’t read all the replies but 800 calories doesn’t sound like a lot until you break it down and supply your diet with nutrient dense foods over energy dense ones. Here’s what I would do for an 800 calorie day- Breakfast- 6tbsp egg whites, a medium diced tomato, 2 cups of fresh spinach and 1oz reduced fat cheddar with 1/2 cups blueberries Lunch- a tuna packet mixed with 1tbsp light mayo, on one slice 35calorie keto bread with 2 cups salad greens and half a cup sliced cucumber afternoon snack- protein shake dinner- chili made with 1/2 cup canned kidney beans, 1/2 cup tomato sauce, 1/4 cup diced onion, and 1/4 cup diced bell pepper dessert- 1/2 cup nonfat plain greek yogurt mixed with sugar free, fat free pudding mix. Total count- 803 calories, 77g carbs (24.5g fiber), 16g fat, 95g protein

Fixed myself a snack: Spicy Halloumi and Zataar flatbread, which chili paste. Before: After: No idea of the calorie count 🤷‍♀️

Pre-op diets vary so much - unbelievably so, given they're pretty much all geared to the same goals of shrinking our livers by whatever means in order to permit access to our stomachs and intestines. Mine was 800 calories in meal replacement shakes only - for 10 days. If you get bored then there are loads of sodas you can add in if permitted. I drank lots of herbal teas. And lots of warm bouillon for a savoury hit - because I was permitted that. As long as you stick to your surgeon's/team's parameters then you should be good. Best of luck with your surgery and your recovery. We're all here to help you through your journey. It's such a knowledgeable and helpful forum here.

½ an everything bagel with about ½ a cup of tuna salad (tuna, ceasar dressing, sour cream, green onions, cilantro and spices) 270 calories...ate it all!

Unless your program has given you an extremely restrictive carb limit, your carb intake is perfectly fine with a reasonable calorie intake for early on and most of your calories coming from protein. The only thing I would question is if your sugar intake is natural sugar or added sugar. If it's fruit, great. If it's added sugar in your coffee, not so good. You don't seem to be getting more than 3g of fat right now, which you may want to ask your program about just to make sure that's not too low.

Could you please give us some more details Age, weight, weight lost in three months, activity levels and lastly foods eaten, the portion sizes or daily calories. Thanks

Great ideas above but if that doesn’t work for you or for others reading this later, What if you were to just divide your alloyed macros or calories into meals/snacks. Like if you were allowed 1200 a day you do meals around 300 calories and 3 100 calorie snacks. For macros just don’t routinely eat any food over X grams of fat or added sugar. You can break it up differently. I did a protein shake for breakfast so I could have what felt like a little more substantial lunch and dinner. It should’ve be as hard forever. Once you figure out a handful meals that are within this plan you most likely will just sorta remember what meals work. I know I did and I live my life by alarms and reminders. Sometimes I joke that if my alarm didn’t tell me to wake up one day I just may not…ever. That’s how reliant I am on them. Anyways, I have a handful of my common meals that I know will work if I don’t have time to think about things. And if I’m having a less ideal lunch then I already know it’s chicken breast of fish for dinner with a veggie. Every meal for me has protein unless it’s a real odd day out and then I do my best to make up for it with a Greek yogurt or shake for snack. Another option would be to do the guess work the night before and pre plan what you eat the next day. You can play around with options and log it all into Baritastic or another calorie tracker app and know if it fits you plan and then just eat what’s on your list the next day. That may actually take a little stress out of it as well just having the decisions already made the day before. The meal prep mentioned before seems like a great way to achieve this as well. I know that I have single serve meals like that in the freezer. My regular and chicken chili are really great because they can even be defrosted in the microwave so they are good for days with zero planning or time.

A few things stood out to me about your post. 1137 calories is oddly specific. Since most people can't be that accurate with their food intake, I'm curious why you used this specific number? Can you elaborate? For example, most food logging software is only accurate within about 10% plus or minus, even if you are really meticulous with weighing everything. Keep in mind as well that if you are eating very many processed foods, Manufacturers are given a pretty wide latitude in terms of the listed calories, so those aren't near as accurate is you might think. Most people drastically underestimate their overall calorie consumption by as much as 20 to 25%, even if they are logging their food. There are a number of reasons, but things like guestimating certain amounts, using "average" calorie amounts for some items, and not counting certain types of foods are common errors. In short, you may actually be eating a lot more than you think. I'm also curious how you came to the conclusion that 1137 calories per day is the proper amount for you to lose weight? It's entirely possible your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), is anywhere between say 900 and 1700 calories per day. While BMR is just one component of your overall calorie burn per day, it's typically the largest single component, even if you are super active. If you are only working out 3 days a week, I'd not put you into the super active category. My point is that while it's not super likely, it is possible that you are actually eating at maintenance right now. Especially if you are eating more than you think. (See points one and two.) Scales are a REALLY terrible way to track success since they don't account for variations in other tissues besides fat. Water, which is a huge component of your overall weight can fluctuate dramatically day-to-day. Ask yourself honestly, are your clothes fitting differently? There is a pretty good chance here that you have been losing fat, but made up for it by retaining water in your muscles. This is super common in people when they work out, especially when they start a new fitness routine. There's also a small possibility you are actually adding some muscle mass, especially if you are new to strength training. Muscle is much more dense than fat, so if you gain muscle and lose fat, your clothes will fit better, but you might weigh about the same. My advice is going to sound counter-intuitive, but I'd suggest adding 200-300 calories per day to your diet. Preferably lean protein. Do this for 4 weeks and then reassess where you're at. If you are really currently eating at maintenance (as you might think from weeks of no loss), then you would be expected to gain a tiny bit in the next 4 weeks. If it's as I suspect and you're actually eating too little right now, eating a little more may actually up your metabolic rate as well as change your hormone balance. This could be just the thing to kickstart some fat loss in the next 4 weeks. Best of luck whatever you decide.

Can you add in some raw veggies and fruits? Apart from your daily salad that is? At 18 months post op I was still chopping up carrots and celery and cucumbers into sticks every morning and sticking them in a tub in the fridge and if I wanted something to eat (not to say I was hungry, just wanted to chew) I would go for those first. Or a small apple or even a handful of berries. Honestly, you'd have be eating them all day to reach 200 calories with a sleeve. I might also completely ditch as many white carbs as you can - that mashed potato might not be adding many nutrients to your diet and it's so calorie restricted you do need to pack them in at this point. Good luck - whatever tools we use there always will be times when we stall and it's so demoralising. If you stick to 800 calories you *should* start to lose again - hopefully soon. I'm sorry your dietician isn't being more helpful and more pro-active. As the others have said - totally reasonable to ask for more specific advice about what you can do to change your current eating.

I was never given macros or calories just portion size recommendations & it came from my surgeon not the hospital. I was told to begin with 1/4 - 1/3 cup from purée stage gradually increasing to a cup at 6 months. I was also told 60g protein & keep low fat & low carbs. And I clearly remember my surgeon drawing a picture of a plate and sectioning it off to show the portion of protein, vegetables and carbs on a plate I would be consuming at a meal when I was in maintenance. If you think you’ll feel more comfortable with having more guidance, keep pushing your dietician or surgical team. It comes down to what you feel you need to be most successful.

Hey, I understand everybody knows their limits! Also miss the cookies right along with you! I spent a lot of time tweaking recipes to be bariatric friendly. These cashew buttercup like I can eat 2 to 4 of these a day and be fine and I cook big big batches and I don't go back for more so that's some real self restraint to be honest. Let me see I think the calorie content is. I think they are about 100 cal per cashew butter cup. People can adjust them to be lower switching out ingredients.

Clean Simple Eats is really good. You can get the variety pack- adding them into Greek yogurt helps because that tang balances out the sweetness in my opinion. Isopure is great and very low carb, Premier protein is good. Latte one with decaf coffee makes an excellent cold brew. Making shakes and adding them are "ok" just have to be careful they can end up being high in calories and not super filling. You can do unsweetened almond milk, scoop of powder, 1/4 of banana, 1/4C of Greek yogurt, handful of spinach if you wanted to keep is low cal, and high protein. But are you trying to protein shakes/ powders due to the stage you are in your journey? I am 16months post op and am able to get all my protein from food. (I am able to eat probably more food than the average post op patient)

Sorry you're feeling this way. Did you try upping your protein and calories?

Yea well if you get an honest picture you may find that you have been losing all along on even higher calories than you think. We are definitely not all the same with what our body requires even if we could do the exact same in terms or activity. So many things play into our metabolism that I’ve seen people on here who can maintain their ideal at as high as 2500 calories and others that have to maintain at like 1200. Weight loss calorie requirements are probably just as varied. How is the activity going? Have you started any new cool classes?? I did a PIYO class that was pretty fun. It was at a local gym that has a day rate for people who don’t want a membership and it was only $5 which is more than I pay for YOGA but it was something different and it was on a Saturday so my friend got to meet me. I am actually thinking of doing a tai chi class that’s also at my community center. The Beginners class is at kind of an inconvenient time for me Is what has stopped my from trying it already but I can make it work I guess since it’s not forever. The regular class time works better for me. I figured if I like it I may do yoga one day and tai chi one day then as soon as I can get back to it I will do cardio two days.