I know eating at a huge caloric deficit makes are metabolism slow down to a crawl. Does eating such low calories mess up our metabolism forever? Will we be able to eat 2000 calories like normal people do at some point. Will our metabolisms every become really fast because of the foods we choose to eat and exercise?

For women I would never want to do 2000 calories a day and those averages and aren't meant for individuals. The key is to get to your goal weight and slowly add calories and find your personal caloric intake to maintain.

My pet theory is that yes, we can permanently mess up the way our bodies respond to food intake. I don't think of it as simple as metabolism though because there are so many biochemicals involved like hormones and insulin.

I think, like Drm says, you will have to just find your own sustainable calorie intake. You are an experiment of one!

I made it my goal to not ruin my metabolism-- at the advisement of an awesome personal trainer. I eat about 2000 cals a day in maintenance now. I have for an entire year. If I creep up, I cut back a bit. I got my cals up to 1200 as soon as I could post-op in an attempt to not tank my metabolism. I lost most of my weight at the 1500 calorie point. I still made goal at 8.5 months post op! I think I am able to eat a hefty 2K per day now cause I work out and stay active and cause I didn't stay below 1200 cals a day for long. My friend that had gastric bypass ate 600 cals a day for almost year so now when she started eating a measly 1000-1200 a day now she has regained 50 pounds.

Thats why I love my sleeve. I can maintain my weight now at a reasonable calorie count!!!!

I planned to slowly bring up my calories once I hit goal. I actually want to start eating at a slight caloric surplus everyday to build lean muscle... a bulking diet is you will. Follow that diet for about 12 weeks... gain about 15 pounds and then go back to a cutting style diet for a couple months.

I just want to make sure that my metabolism will creep up as I slowly increase my calories.

Unfortunately, I screwed up my metabolism a long time ago from overly strict dieting from a young age. Add to that legitimate endocrine issues (pituitary and thyroid), and that's one of the reasons I decided to do this surgery. My body has to have a very low amount of calories to survive and even fewer to lose weight, even with exercise--and while I used to be able to do that for a certain amount of time, it's not sustainable over the long haul to do it from sheer willpower.

VSG is the tool that allows me to keep my calories where my body wants to be. I haven't thought much about maintenance yet (I'm so far away), but I have a feeling my weight loss phase will stay around 700-800 calories and maintenance may be 900 to 1100. Your mileage may (definitely) vary.

I probably would have weighed about 200 lbs more than I already do if I had been eating 2000 calories on a consistent basis!

My mom says if there's ever a famine, she and I will probably be stepping over the bodies bc our bodies seem to be able to sustain themselves so well. Great in case of a famine but not so great for regular life.

I love my sleeve!!!! Sometimes I think of it as the stomach I should have been given to accompany my very metabolically efficient body. Sort of like how I got LASIK so I can see like other people do with hereditary normal vision.

Mike Susan and I were talking about this a couple of weeks ago... On the vets forum and she posted some more about it on another thread... Of course the reasons of resetting your metabolism for US right now is weight loss but I think the theory is the same

This is what Susan said on the other thread let me know what you think....

BY SUSAN;

I am four years out. For the first year, I lived on 800 calories a day. Then, I maxed out at around 1200 a day. For the past eight months, I have been battling with gaining and losing the same three pounds. I was so sick of it. I had no energy and generally just didn't feel too great. My fiancé is a nutritionist and a personal trainer. For two years he has been preaching to me that eating so few calories for the the first few months of the weight loss phase was one thing, but that it wasn't healthy to maintain that few calories long term. He kept insisting I needed to eat more in order to lose weight. Like another poster said, he told me I wasn't losing weight anymore because my metabolism was so incredibly messed up. My body had gotten used to the fact that I was starving it, so my metabolism slowed way down to compensate for it and my body started storing fat.

About six weeks ago I decided to give his method a try. We figured out my base TTDE based on my age, weight, height and activity level. Just for my body to do nothing but lie in bed all day and do nothing but breath, I would need to eat a baseline of 1950 calories a day! So, we moved forward to "reset" my metabolism. I now eat about every two hours. I don't eat junk, I eat high Protein, healthy foods. The first few weeks, I gained between one and two pounds per week. I was in panic mode. I was terrified of eating this way, I just knew I was going to end up fat again. But, I promised him I would try it his way and would give it eight weeks. He warned me that I would probably gain weight at first, he said my body was going to take all those extra calories and hold onto them, because it isn't used to my actually fueling it like I should. But he promised if I stuck with it, I would get past the gain stage, and my metabolism would pick up again. Well, I finally stopped gaining and was maintaining. Next, he dropped me to 1750 calories a day, and if I exercise, I would eat those calories back. Guess what, it is working! I am now back to losing one to two pounds a week again and couldn't be happier. I have more energy and feel better than I have in two years.

So, I do believe we need to keep our bodies fueled. I have done a lot of research on this in the past few weeks, along with finally listening to my own personal nutritionist/fiancé. I have a healthy Breakfast, then a couple hours later I will have a Protein Bar. I eat a healthy lunch. In the afternoon I snack on fruits, cheese, Protein Bars, nuts, beef Jerky, whatever strikes my fancy. I have a healthy dinner and, usually a snack about two hours before bedtime. My body has responded well to fueling it every few hours and I am a believer now. Just wish I would have listened to him two years ago!

Mike Susan and I were talking about this a couple of weeks ago... On the vets forum and she posted some more about it on another thread... Of course the reasons of resetting your metabolism for US right now is weight loss but I think the theory is the same

This is what Susan said on the other thread let me know what you think....

BY SUSAN;

I am four years out. For the first year, I lived on 800 calories a day. Then, I maxed out at around 1200 a day. For the past eight months, I have been battling with gaining and losing the same three pounds. I was so sick of it. I had no energy and generally just didn't feel too great. My fiancé is a nutritionist and a personal trainer. For two years he has been preaching to me that eating so few calories for the the first few months of the weight loss phase was one thing, but that it wasn't healthy to maintain that few calories long term. He kept insisting I needed to eat more in order to lose weight. Like another poster said, he told me I wasn't losing weight anymore because my metabolism was so incredibly messed up. My body had gotten used to the fact that I was starving it, so my metabolism slowed way down to compensate for it and my body started storing fat.

About six weeks ago I decided to give his method a try. We figured out my base TTDE based on my age, weight, height and activity level. Just for my body to do nothing but lie in bed all day and do nothing but breath, I would need to eat a baseline of 1950 calories a day! So, we moved forward to "reset" my metabolism. I now eat about every two hours. I don't eat junk, I eat high Protein, healthy foods. The first few weeks, I gained between one and two pounds per week. I was in panic mode. I was terrified of eating this way, I just knew I was going to end up fat again. But, I promised him I would try it his way and would give it eight weeks. He warned me that I would probably gain weight at first, he said my body was going to take all those extra calories and hold onto them, because it isn't used to my actually fueling it like I should. But he promised if I stuck with it, I would get past the gain stage, and my metabolism would pick up again. Well, I finally stopped gaining and was maintaining. Next, he dropped me to 1750 calories a day, and if I exercise, I would eat those calories back. Guess what, it is working! I am now back to losing one to two pounds a week again and couldn't be happier. I have more energy and feel better than I have in two years.

So, I do believe we need to keep our bodies fueled. I have done a lot of research on this in the past few weeks, along with finally listening to my own personal nutritionist/fiancé. I have a healthy breakfast, then a couple hours later I will have a protein bar. I eat a healthy lunch. In the afternoon I snack on fruits, cheese, protein bars, nuts, beef jerky, whatever strikes my fancy. I have a healthy dinner and, usually a snack about two hours before bedtime. My body has responded well to fueling it every few hours and I am a believer now. Just wish I would have listened to him two years ago!

Yes! I had my metabolism checked (its was called BMR, or CaloriePoint at lifetime fitness) as well and my trainer says NEVER go below 1800! It works!

I can not wait to get to goal and start my bulking diet.

Great post laura... thanks.

Do you think this counts for newbie post-ops too? I lost 53lbs out the gate. I've bounced around in a 6 pound range for FIVE WEEKS now. My general calories have been 800-850 much of that time. I've struggled with protien but have *finally* found a milk/protein powder combo that my tummy does not regect and I'm doing really well on fluid intake now too. I asked today "when does a stall simply turn into abject failure?". I've got to find the magic combination.

Yes! I had my metabolism checked (its was called BMR' date=' or CaloriePoint at lifetime fitness) as well and my trainer says NEVER go below 1800! It works![/quote']

That's just one of the things I've always liked about you! With all these people here saying

"My word, I would never go above 600 calories"

You have always been there to say look at me I eat healthy! And I'm a success! (Which you are)

It's helped me overcome my own fear of going over 700 calories a day! guess what I had a 1000 calories one day last week! And at first I royally freaked out (funny huh) but its ok and I'm still losing (yes slow, but I'm a old lazy woman)

Thank you

Laura

That's just one of the things I've always liked about you! With all these people here saying

"My word I would never go above 600 calories"

You have always been there to say look at me I eat healthy! And I'm a success! (Which you are)

It's helped me overcome my own fear of going over 700 calories a day! guess what I had a 1000 calories one day last week! And at first I royally freaked out (funny huh) but its ok and I'm still losing (yes slow, but I'm a old lazy woman)

Thank you

Laura

you are so positive and kind!!!!! love your posts

I just can't even imagine eating that many calories again...but I'm only 8 wks out. I was in the typical stall around 2-3 weeks, upped my calories and started losing again. I'm working on pushing toward 1200 now. But it's hard!

i also love posts like these. I didn't have the surgery to live on slices of turkey and cheese sticks for the rest of my life. 600-800 calories a day just was never me, anything less than 1000 and I just feel like I had no energy but couldn't sleep.

My nut told me the Protein shake I chose was too high in calories. I ignored her advice, I know shame on me. Right now just w/ the shakes I'm getting in 600 calories a day and that's before about 400 calories of Soup for dinner. . The whole 600-800 calorie thing made me feel like I was screwing everything up right out of the gate.

I'm transitioning to blendered/pureed food this week after 7 weeks of full liquids. If I stay w/in a couple hundred calories of 1000, I'll be happy. I'm just looking for smooth transitions that don't get me sick and keep my energy levels up.

My metabolism was screwed up a long time ago from all of the fad diets my MOM put me on growing up: just eat pop corn and diet coke for a week, just eat stewed tomatoes and green Beans, etc.

Mary

I know eating at a huge caloric deficit makes are metabolism slow down to a crawl.

This is actually a huge myth. Google starvation mode myth and spend a little bit of time reading if you have a few minutes. Very interesting. Also, the difference between the faster metabolism people and the slower (excluding extreme conditions) is like, 200 calories a day burnt.