I was banded on Jan. 10, 2013 and so far I've been doing pretty darn good. I had one mild set back a couple weeks ago when I had my fill and I was too tight, so my doctor had to do a slight unfill. The first week or so after my unfill, I was doing great, I wasn't hungry and felt very satisfied when I ate. However, the past 3 days I have been really struggling to eat right. I'm not sure if I'm just not getting enough to eat, or maybe I'm just head hungry. I've been staying between 600 - 900 calories a day, but I'm beginning to wonder if that's enough. The past 3 days I've eaten 1000 - 1200 calories and I have gained 2 lbs! I have also felt really tired this week and have had to give myself some serious talks to get myself motivated to exercise. So I'm curious, how many calories does everyone else eat? What do you do to stay motivated when you feel you're beginning to lose control?

I can tell you this- you didn't gain weight from eating 1200 calories a day. It's simply not possible because at 1200 calories a day because you're still in a calorie deficit. Plus, slight fluctuations in weight are very normal and expected.

I eat around 1000-1200 calories a day. I find if I eat less than 1000 calories a day my weight loss slows considerably.

I dont really count all the time. I mostly measure, but I probably get about 1000-1100 a day. You need calories to burn calories. You also need high protein meals.

I try to stay around 1200.

I log everything I eat in My Fitness Pal. Yesterday we had a birthday celebration for a co-worker at Breakfast. I had 2 slices of bacon for the first time since being banded. Since I didn't know exact brands, I chose general items. Perhaps it was off more than I thought. Also, I tend to swell really bad if I'm not careful with my sodium intake and/or exercise. Obviously I need to be more careful. This is why I hate eating in social situations or eating out. You just can't be certain exactly what you're eating.

Missy, I read on another board where you were carb cycling. I bought the book and started reading it today. I might give that a go next week if the scale doesn't start moving again.

I love this site. I have learned so much on here from everyone. I'm not a huge fan of My Fitness Pal because everyone there seems to be so judgmental about people who have had WLS, so I just log my food there and stay off their boards. I come here for advice!

I also may need to increase my calories a little. As I said before, a typical day (minus bday celebrations) for me is usually between 600-900 a day. Maybe that's why I'm not losing.

I was curious, so I did a little experiment on myself. This info is from Jan 14th to about April 14th of this year. Copied and pasted from an earlier post I made. You can look up your BMR on any number of sites. The math doesn't lie.

I started tracking/logging my food/exercise on Jan 14th. I used an app called LOSEIT....Not, repeat NOT to limit what I eat, my band does that now, but I was just curious. Here's what I have found over 3 months.

I averaged eating about 1750 calories per day. Average calories burned exercising was appx 600 per day. ( I felt that put me in the "active" category) So my Net was 1150 calories. During this timeframe, three months, I went from 252# down to 218#, for a loss of 34#'s.

Everybody says a pound equals 3500 calories.

THEY'RE right!

My BMR is 2950 TO MAINTAIN: according to the Mayo Clinic website http://www.mayoclini...culator/NU00598

My Intake was 1750

Thats a 1200 calorie deficit for 90 days = 108,000 calorie deficit. 108,000/3500 = 31 And I lost almost exactly that.