Hi all,

My name is Amy I was banded 3 years ago. For the first year the weight was easy to loose. Now I have not lost anything in over a year. I work out 5+ times a week and actually enjoy it. I am currently training for a 5K and at my weight it has been extremly difficult. I have talked to a Nutritionist at my gym and got extremly depressed. The amount of food I was expected to eat was mind boggeling. I explained to her I don't eat in one day what you have me eating in one meal. So I guess it boils down to I can not loosed weight becasue my calorie intake is to low. She pretty much says I am starving my body, Sure I can get 1200 calories if I eat candy and iced coffe which don't get me wrong I would love to do but I also understand those are not nutritious calories. PLEASE HELP ME!! What do you eat? I need someone who has been sucessful and understands the challenges and limitations of lapband to be able to talk to.

Well, I'm not at the finish line yet but I can tell you what your nutritionist is telling you is what has been explained to me by mine. Also, my friend became an avid runner/marathoner and was losing weight and then just stopped. For months. It was because she was eating only 1000 calories a day! She also was really mentally blocked about eating more in her effort to slim down. Weightloss=very low calories + lotsa exercise. It wasn't working. Once she started eating more calories, her metabolism revved up again. Oh...and she added B12 to her regimen.

I am not a professional but I would go Protein shakes because you can bulk those up nicely and nutritiously. And I think they slide down nicely. The other advice I got was not to get into a rut with foods and shake it up so your body doesn't get used to the same foods to breakdown. It's actually kinda fun to look for new ways to change it up.

Good luck and hang in there!

Thank-you! I have always eaten fairly healthy lots of fruit and veggies so now that I eat so much less it is so hard to get enough calories in a day. I've been tracking what I eat on livestrong.com becasue I thought I was taking in more than I realized but I was actually worse than I expected. I only get 800-900 calories a day. What does the average banded person eat in a day to stay balanced?

Thank-you! I have always eaten fairly healthy lots of fruit and veggies so now that I eat so much less it is so hard to get enough calories in a day. I've been tracking what I eat on livestrong.com becasue I thought I was taking in more than I realized but I was actually worse than I expected. I only get 800-900 calories a day. What does the average banded person eat in a day to stay balanced?

My target is 1000-1300. But not to fall below 1000. Then you are in the danger zone. I find 1000 hard because to get the Protein in you have to eat more calories. Truly? I usually end up about 1350 or so and am still doing OK.

One analogy that I also have been told is that your metabolism is like a furnace and to keep it running at full capacity, you gotta put more logs on the fire!

I love the furnace/metabolism analogy it is very fitting. So how far out from surgery are you? What do you eat in a day to achieve you calories?

You need to eat more.....

I am 1 year out.

I really try to change it up but my staples are Protein shakes, Greek yogurt, Protein Bars, cottage cheese with fruit, Peanut Butter, hard boiled eggs. For meat, I really like fish (always order it when I am out) and chicken. But I like to make things too. Turkey chili, Soup during winter.

I do eat Breakfast, AM snack, lunch, PM snack, dinner. Typically, I shoot for:

Breakfast: 250 cals

AM snack: 150 cals

Lunch: 300 cals

PM snack: 150 cals

Dinner: 300 cals

Not a perfect science but it's my rule of thumb in meal planning. And I remind myself to be flexible so I might eat a little more at lunch but then adjust at snack time.