How many calories should we consume daily?

sweetie333 · December 12, 2009

I read in some place that post sleeve we can consume only 500 calories a day and on other sites 600-800. I get about 700-800 calories most days. do I need to work more on reducing my calories?

I am 40 days away from surgery and I lost 30 pounds.

I need to speed up losing the weight but I don't know how. I try to walk daily for 30 minutes. I dream about losing 10 more pounds by new year's eve as I am invited to attend the wedding of a very close friend.

wish me luck. Love you all.

mountain_lover · December 12, 2009

I read in some place that post sleeve we can consume only 500 calories a day and on other sites 600-800. I get about 700-800 calories most days. do I need to work more on reducing my calories?
I am 40 days away from surgery and I lost 30 pounds.

I need to speed up losing the weight but I don't know how. I try to walk daily for 30 minutes. I dream about losing 10 more pounds by new year's eve as I am invited to attend the wedding of a very close friend.

wish me luck. Love you all.

My pre-op diet was set at between 700-1000. I could only have 4-5 milkshakes and Protein bar daily. The Protein shakes without anything else in them was about 200 each, so I only had 4 each day and 1 Protein Bar which was 210-240 each. I added nuts and pineapple to the shakes at times, which raised the calories up some. I exercised on the eliptical and went to swim exercise classes at the Y. I found out that those two things helped alot because they were the easiest for me to do. I only lost 8 pounds on the 2 week pre-op diet, but I have lost 7 1/2 pounds in 9 days post-op. I wish you all the best.

shanda7182 · December 12, 2009

Hello!

I was sleeved about 3 months ago. I have found that when my calories are super low like 700 and less....I dont loose weight, I stall! Others on here are successful with those calories! I noticed that when I increased my carbs from 30g per day to 50g per day-I broke my stalls as well and the weight begin to fly off!

Everyone's body is different. For me, the super low calories and super low carbs per day does nothing for me. The more that I eat (proteins of course) the more that I loose. Its a struggle for me to eat over 700 calories though....because im not hungry nor do I have the desire but that is the only way that I have been able to loose weight. Other than that.....I can forget it!

It takes awhile to learn what your body needs to loose. Even my dietician told me that 30g of carbs per day was too low but I continued to try it without success. Finally, I increased those carbs a little more (with good carbs like fruit) and the weight came off again!

Hope this helps!

mnb · December 12, 2009

congrts on the 40lb loss and good luck with your goal sweetie!

just keep working out and it's come off eventually. and what helps me is the tickertape website every day i go down a pound iput it on the site and it records all the days my weight went down. To me it feel like it's takeing FOREVER! but when i see my records it shows that i lose about a pound every 3-4 days. And doing that ususally gives me an idea how long it would take to lose a certain amount of weight.

Jachut · December 13, 2009

I think below 1000 calories a day long term is seriously risking your health.

That said, I dont think WLS patients can compare to normal people - I know i cant as the charts all say at my height, age, level of activity I shoudl be eating about 2400 a day. I eat about 1500 to maintain my weight. Because at the end of the day, whatever your surgery, you have lost weight by fairly strict calorie reducation and yoiur metabolism IS affected by that, no matter whether you're doing a newfangled low carb diet or the perfect strength trainign routine. Once you have lost a lot of weight by calorie reducation you will never be able to maintain your weight on a "normal" calorie intake.

that said, I lost easily on 1500 a day (I do a lot of exercise) and I really think that there's no medal for starving yourself. I can nourish myself adequately on that level if I eat carefully. If you're eating 700 a day then you will need to be obsessed with your nutrition for the rest of your life, there's no room for treats in there, and even so you WILL become deficient in various nutrients, and your metabolism will slow markedly and you will have more trouble than you need to maintaining lean body tissue.

It really should not be necesary for most people to eat that little, but I guess its one disadvantage of the sleeve, they have to make your stomach small and restrict your eating a lot because if they allow you more leeway and you peter out 50lb above your healthy weight range, there's nothing more you can do about it. You're stuck with the size stomach you have and would have to diet and use willpower to lose the rest.

Its a moot point anyway because you will have your sleeve for life and so eating low calories should be doable for you without undue pain, as long as you're very attentive to nutrition, I'm sure most people would swap that for the pain and undoubtedly more severe medical complications of obesity.

Edited December 13, 2009 by Jachut

mountain_lover · December 13, 2009

congrts on the 40lb loss and good luck with your goal sweetie!
just keep working out and it's come off eventually. and what helps me is the tickertape website every day i go down a pound iput it on the site and it records all the days my weight went down. To me it feel like it's takeing FOREVER! but when i see my records it shows that i lose about a pound every 3-4 days. And doing that ususally gives me an idea how long it would take to lose a certain amount of weight.

Hello mnb,

Thank you for your comments! I am going to try to get more exercise in when I can go to the Y and go to my swimming exercise classes, they really make me feel much better and I am sure that they have helped me to get some of the pounds off pre-op. I started weighing my self when I weighed 239 when My daughter gave me my early christmas present, a Healthometer scales that measure several different things. I enjoy using it and I just started me a weight journal. I write down the date I weigh, how much so many days after surgery, Body fat %, Water mass%, and Bone Mass. I will be glad to start on my soft food diet after Wednesday after My 2 week check up. I should get in more calories then, and slow down my weight loss a little, but maybe by getting in more exercise it will all even out in the end. Have a great day!!

deedee · December 13, 2009

I think 30 pounds in 40 days is EXCELLENT. I know we are not supposed to compare ourselves, but I just went back to check my weight loss in the first 40 days and I was down 25 pounds during that time. I think that 700 calories is fine (I stopped tracking my calories, only Protein so I'm not sure where I fall), but if you are really concerned maybe you should run it by your nutritionist.