I have a few questions guys.

How many calories do you eat daily? I've only been eating about 800 a day and I've stopped losing again. Should I up my calories a little to see if that would help? The last diet I did was Weight Watchers about a year ago. I consumed 1200 calories a day and lost 2 pounds a week every week.

What kind of meats do you buy? I bought lean ground beef, lean pork, boneless skinless chicken breast, etc but I'm finding those cuts cook up drier and can be hard to get down. Since I'm not able to eat much anyway should I buy fattier cuts so they will be more tender?

Also I'm always thirsty and I can still drink a glass of Water pretty fast with no issues but my bariatric coach says I should only sip and not take big drinks. Why is that??

Thanks!!

I've consistently lost on 800-900/day since banding. I've had a couple of very brief stalls (no more than a week or so), and always resume losing. It's just the way my body works--adding more calories doesn't do the trick for me.

What does do the trick, when I am stalled, is changing my exercise a bit.

I am eating between 1200 and 1400 calories a day right now. I will lose about 1 pound per week at that level. I am getting my first fill on the 8th and if I have any restriction will drop to 1000-1200. If I know I have a party of holiday coming I will eat a few hundred less for a few days before. I know that I will lose slowly eating this way, but I don't want to have to relearn to eat when I hot goal. At goal I will eat 1400 calories a day.

I eat lots of boneless skinless chicken and chicken or turkey sausage.

1200 calories sounds about right.

If you'd like to fine tune it more, you could do what I do. I use the calorie goal function at The Daily Plate on LIVESTRONG.COM - Calorie Counter, Weight Loss, food Calorie Counter, Nutrition Facts | LIVESTRONG.COM.

You input info such as age, height, weight, and how much you want to lose per week and it calculates how many calories you need.

For me to lose 2lbs a week at "lightly active" I get to have 1484 calories a day. Most of the time that's a huge plenty for me.

I buy lean beef (90/10 or better), skinless chicken (or remove skin before cooking/eating..depending on recipe), fish. I don't eat pork very often due to personal issues with the fat content (last time it gave me a gb attack..). The 90/10 is what our nutritionist advises. Yours might have a different opinion.

Probably what you need to do is to adjust your cooking methods.. use a moist heat (crockpot, oven roast with foil over it, etc.) OR use something to "lube" the meat while eating. I like Dijonnaise or low carb ketchup, nonfat refried Beans, etc. Just account for the calories in your "lube" in your total for the day. Another thing that works is to eat your veggies WITH your meat. I know.. heresy but I find that mixing the textures works for me.

My bariatric people (nurses & doctors) are OK with me eating the foods together as long as it is keeping me full long enough and I'm losing weight.

I think the sipping advise is to get you trained for when you eventually get a tighter band and can only drink in smaller amounts. I don't know 100% if that is their reasoning.. ask them. :smile2: I still drink fairly rapidly sometimes and have no issues. It all depends on how tight I am. Sometimes liquids flow right on through and sometimes I can feel them hesitate ..

Hope this helps.

I regularly eat around 1,000 calories a day. When I eat less than that my weight loss seems to stall out. I just got off a plateau and what seemed to help was switching up my exercising some and making sure I get at least 1,000 calories. I guess it is really just works for each person.

Changing up your excersise- or starting a program- is key. It will really help in getting that scale to move consistently. As far as calories, I ate about 1000 when I was loosing. As far as meat, I like marinated meat. I buy perdue perfect portions. They are great- indivdually wrapped and a "perfect portion" . I stick the bag in the freezer and take out one at a time. They have different flavored marinades. I also buy marinated port loin. It is very lean and also comes in a variety of flavors. Hope this helps! Good luck!