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Advice about calorie count please . . .



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I will be 3 weeks out on Thursday. I am now eating soft foods. I am concerned about where my daily calorie consumption should be . . . I have emailed the NUT that I saw pre-op but I haven't received an answer since yesterday. So if anyone has guidelines that they could share I would appreciate it. I am thinking about staying with liquids/ greek yogurt a while longer to achieve the weight loss I want. Good idea?

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At that stage my guidelines were to stay under 800 calories per day. Personally I don't think that liquids and yogurt have any magical weight-reducing properties. As long as you are getting your calories from healthy foods and following generally acceptable macros for protein/fat/carbs post WLS you should be fine. But if you are more comfortable with Protein Shakes and yogurt, I don't see any harm sticking with them, as long as you are getting adequate nutrition. But you will definitely want your dietician's input!

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I'm a little further out than you and on "regular" foods but I get around 700 calories max right now. Almost Half of which comes from my 2 Protein Drinks a day. For Breakfast I had 1 egg and 1/4 cup of crumbled turkey sausage.I'm big on lean meats and fancy cheeses right now...I had 2 oz of low sodium turkey and 1 1/2 oz of a variety of cheeses for lunch. That's all I can eat at once. dinner will probably be a lean meat and a boiled egg (mainly the white) Then my second Protein Drink later on.....well anyway there's an idea of a day of eating food with shakes. All that adds up to the 700 (usually less) calories and maybe 11 carbs. Just an example, you will be there soon. I wouldn't try to live on just yogurt and shakes though...you will need to start learning the right foods to eat. Good luck!

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I also elongated my liquid and softfood phase to lose more weight. It consumed two Protein shakes and lean and fit Greek yogurt everyday. You just have to keep in mind that the post op diet progression is constructed in a way to slowly introduce more dense foods as your stomach heals. I did Protein Shakes and yogurt for 4 weeks. My nutritionist recommended that I start trying more denser foods or my stomach will adapt to liquids.

You want to eventually be able to eat "real" food that you can chew and the best way is through the diet phase progression. If you stay on liquids for a long length of time and then suddenly out of the blue eat something hard and crunchy, I don't think your tummy would digest it very well.

At two months out, I still do yogurt and a Protein shake everyday. I usually add something more dense for dinner like chicken or tuna.< /p>

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At that stage I never really focused on calories. It is hard to get in a significant amount of calories. I tried and still try to focus on getting my Protein in daily.

At 4 1/2 months post op I get around 800-1000 calories a day.

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Yes I was also advised to try and transition to more real & protien rich foods such as eggs, chicken etc because the body gets used to the liquids and losses can slow down.

Also it's just more fun to eat real foods. I still have a few shakes a week though, as I like them for breakfast sometimes.

Edited by woo woo

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It seems that doctors & NUTs all differ in what they want us to do. Here is what my doctor had me do.

1st 2 weeks - liquids. 600 - 800 calories. I drank 3 Protein shakes a day & powders?utm_source=BariatricPal&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=CommentLink" target="_ad" data-id="1" >unjury chicken Soup. I'm not sure what else I drank but I did get in my Protein requirement but had trouble getting in 800 calories. Probably was more like about 600.

Next 4 weeks - soft foods. 600 - 800 calories. I still drank 2 Protein Shakes a day, poached eggs, strained Soups, sugar free Jello & pudding, cottage cheese.

After these 6 weeks were past I was allowed to slowly introduce solid foods. I was able to get in my 800 calories easier. I ate chicken, tuna, eggs, cottage cheese, Jello, pudding & I still drank 1 protein shake per day.

After 12 weeks I was told to increase my calories to 1000. Everything else was the same. I keep a journal & I use My Fitness Pal on my cell phone. This helps me to know how many calories, protein & carbs I have consumed. I do watch my carbs & try to not go over 50g a day but believe me, that is very hard.

Hope your NUT gets back to you but in the meantime maybe the information that everyone has given you will help you in your journey.

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. LeighaTR

        I hope your surgery on Wednesday goes well. You will be able to do all sorts of new things as you find your new normal after surgery. I don't know this from experience yet, but I am seeing a lot of positive things from people who have had it done. Best of luck!

    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

        Now I have a whole new big, bigger, biggest, best days ever. I am out there with those skinny people doing stuff i could never have dreamt of. Food is now an after thought. It doesn't consume my day. I still enjoy the good home cooked food but I eat smaller portions. I leave food on my plate when I am full. I can no longer hear my mother's voice saying eat it all up, ther are starving children in Africa who would want that!

        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

    • CaseyP1011

      Officially here for a long time, not just a good time💪
      · 0 replies
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