I'm 7 days post op and still on liquids. My doc said next week I can start mushies or soft foods. I've lost 10 pounds and am so afraid it's all going to come back on when I enter the real food (mushed as it may be) stage because i cant exercise yet. I have "my fitnesspal" app on my iPad that helps me so much with cal, fat, carbs, calories burned, etc and I'm going to try to keep it around 800-1,000 cal/day. Is that too much?

I'd love to hear other people's stories when they transisitioned from liquids to mushies...thanks

When I switched fromiquid to mushies the scale went banannas...so I am now ignoring it because I am still healing

Anything fork tender is mushie. Just because it is mushies does not mean it has to have more calories. Just don't panic, and don't weigh every day.

Also, understand that your body has a caloric requirement every day just to keep everything running. That's called your base metabolic rate (BMR). Lets say you weigh 250 lbs, and your BMR is 2500 / day. Whether mushy or liquid it's all about calories so eating 1000 a day will cause you to burn fat stores to meet the 2500 requirement.

If you google base metabolic rate there are lots of free calculators out there to tell you how much you burn at rest in a day.

The minute I went to mushies my weight loss stopped. However another 7 days and onto soft foods and I lost 5lbs right away. Since post op (banded 12/21) I've lost 17lbs. If its going to bother you then definitely stay off the scale. Your body needs to heal!

Yes, Jewels, and people should understand too that your body is made to adapt to anything you throw at it. Eating badly? Your body works harder to process it, like sugars, which leads to pancreatitis or diabetes when you're older, cause the system is being burned out at a faster rate. Even when you walk into the hot sun, your body changes to deal with it. You get used to the heat.

It's the same for weight loss. Rapid weight loss is not a happy event for your body. It freaks out, may put you in starvation mode to hold onto the fat stores if you're constantly eating under 1000 calories. Or, if you're not in starvation mode, it could just be giving your body a break from breaking down and eliminating fat. Those are plateaus. All you need to know is that the math will always owe you. And when you're on a plateau, drink more Water and practice patience! If you are eating less than your base metabolic rate every day, it will come off. (Not counting additional metabolic issues like PCOS or other conditions that are known to inhibit weight loss)