Hey Everyone,

My question is around calories, I understand the difference between "Good" and "bad" calories, I'm now trying to maintain my weight and build some muscle, I'm 7 months PO and my weight is still going down which is a little worrying. I'm consuming between 1000-1200 calories a day and doing weight training 4-5 times a week with 10-15 minutes of running on the treadmill as a warm up.

I've been trying in incorporate Nuts, Seeds, Legumes, Protein, Avocado etc into my diet as its more caloric dense healthy foods however I cant seem to get past that 100-1200 calories a day 100-150 grams of weight per meal. I was looking up online about how many Calories I would need to consume daily to maintain my weight which is sitting around 2000 calories and that is a Sedentary lifestyle, being active I would say "Active lifestyle" its saying I should be consuming 2941 Calories !!! how is this possible!

I would like to hear from patients 1+ years out which had a similar issue with continual weight loss and how they managed to maintain weight, Did you need to consume that many calories? Did you continue to exercise or did you reduce activity? Will your body just stop losing when its comfortable?

Thanks in advance!

20 minutes ago, HarleyS179 said:

Hey Everyone,

My question is around calories, I understand the difference between "Good" and "bad" calories, I'm now trying to maintain my weight and build some muscle, I'm 7 months PO and my weight is still going down which is a little worrying. I'm consuming between 1000-1200 calories a day and doing weight training 4-5 times a week with 10-15 minutes of running on the treadmill as a warm up.

I've been trying in incorporate Nuts, Seeds, Legumes, Protein, Avocado etc into my diet as its more caloric dense healthy foods however I cant seem to get past that 100-1200 calories a day 100-150 grams of weight per meal. I was looking up online about how many Calories I would need to consume daily to maintain my weight which is sitting around 2000 calories and that is a Sedentary lifestyle, being active I would say "Active lifestyle" its saying I should be consuming 2941 Calories !!! how is this possible!

I would like to hear from patients 1+ years out which had a similar issue with continual weight loss and how they managed to maintain weight, Did you need to consume that many calories? Did you continue to exercise or did you reduce activity? Will your body just stop losing when its comfortable?

Thanks in advance!

I'm four years out. I am a distance runner. I lift and train like a beast.

Did you ever think you would have to work at eating more calories in your life? *smile* Transitioning in to maintenance mode take some adjusting. I used a TDEE calculator similar to yours. It says maintaining for me is 2166 calories. Honestly, I gain weight at the macros it suggests. I can burn 700 to 1000 calories on long run days. My diet changes to support my activity.

https://tdeecalculator.net

TDEE did not work for me. It may work for you. Your calories and macros will look different than mine. (age sex height weight activity is a factor) I had to change up the numbers from the TDEE to find what works for my body. Hate to say this but it has been a lot of trial and error.

All instructions from dietician are different Below is my instructions

Add low glycemic carbs Sweet potato, whole wheat bread/pasta and brown rice. If you are looking to get more calories in, eat small meals often. Eat as often as you need you need to get the calories in and stay within your calories/macros.

Maintaining is a new mindset. It's no longer 3 meals two small snacks. Grazing has always been mentioned as a bariatric no no. Think of this as a maintaining health graze - several meals to hit your maintaining calories and macros.

Wishing you the best,

Jenn

2 minutes ago, Healthy_life said:

I'm four years out. I am a distance runner. I lift and train like a beast.

Did you ever think you would have to work at eating more calories in your life? *smile* Transitioning in to maintenance mode take some adjusting. I used a TDEE calculator similar to yours. It says maintaining for me is 2166 calories. Honestly, I gain weight at the macros it suggests. I can burn 700 to 1000 calories on long run days. My diet changes to support my activity.

https://tdeecalculator.net

TDEE did not work for me. It may work for you. Your calories and macros will look different than mine. (age sex height weight activity is a factor) I had to change up the numbers from the TDEE to find what works for my body. Hate to say this but it has been a lot of trial and error.

All instructions from dietician are different Below is my instructions

Add low glycemic carbs Sweet potato, whole wheat bread/pasta and brown rice. If you are looking to get more calories in, eat small meals often. Eat as often as you need you need to get the calories in and stay within your calories/macros.

Maintaining is a new mindset. It's no longer 3 meals two small Snacks. Grazing has always been mentioned as a bariatric no no. Think of this as a maintaining health graze - several meals to hit your maintaining calories and macros.

Wishing you the best,

Jenn

Thank you for replying to my question, Yes sounds like it will be trial and error. I never thought i would need to worry about loosing too much weight lol. How many calories are you currently consuming a day, I posted a similar question on a Facebook group I'm in and laugh when people suggest eating "McDonalds" to add extra calories *shakes head*. Totally agree with the "Grazing" Its impossible to limit it to 3 meals a day and hope your weight stops. I eat 5-6 small meals a day all of with are health, nutritionally dense foods.

Hiya

Another thing you might find interesting. My surgeon tracks his 1700 gastric patients, pretty closely. After 1 year the vast majority (over 60%) are still under 1000 calories a day.

I was a bit worried the weight loss wouldn’t stop! But about 9 months it just evened out. I have stuck to my ‘three meals a day’ and added one - with nuts, often - fruit if I want sweet. My daily calories is now 100-1200 on a big day. I am running 5k (3 miles) 3x a week, weight training 4x a week - mostly because I literally weight-lossed my arse off!! and I am trying to get some butt muscles!

I think our bodies know how to get themselves into maintenance- my surgeon said so, and it sure happened with me.

11 minutes ago, Biddy zz ?️? said:

Hiya

Another thing you might find interesting. My surgeon tracks his 1700 gastric patients, pretty closely. After 1 year the vast majority (over 60%) are still under 1000 calories a day.

I was a bit worried the weight loss wouldn’t stop! But about 9 months it just evened out. I have stuck to my ‘three meals a day’ and added one - with nuts, often - fruit if I want sweet. My daily calories is now 100-1200 on a big day. I am running 5k (3 miles) 3x a week, weight training 4x a week - mostly because I literally weight-lossed my arse off!! and I am trying to get some butt muscles!

I think our bodies know how to get themselves into maintenance- my surgeon said so, and it sure happened with me.

Thank you for your reply, you've eased my major stress levels lol. Great to know eventually this will even out, I do not wish to be a walking skeleton.

I'm about 13 months post op and lift weights 6 days per week. I hit my goal about 8 months post op and had to increase calories by about 200 each week til I found where my maintenance was. For me, I found it was about 2600 calories per day.

To get this in, I eat between 6-8 times per day. Some of what I eat is pretty much the same every day, and some is different each day. See below for today's food log as an example day:

Meal1: 8oz of skim Fairlife milk mixed with 8oz chocolate fairlife milk. I drink this pretty much every morning during my work commute. If you've not heard of fairlife, look into it. 26g of protein for 16oz!

Meal 2: two scrambled eggs covered with cheddar cheese, 2 pieces of bacon, about 1/4 a serving of hashbrowns, and 1/2 a pancake w/ sugar free syrup

Meal 3: Clif bar (chocolate brownie flavor... These are made of oatmeal and are about 250 cals)

Meal 4: About 2/3 of a Chipotle chicken and cheese quesadilla (it's not on the menu, but you can order it). I get nothing on it but chicken and cheese.

Meal 5: Sargento Break packet which has cheese cubes, nuts, and raisins in it. I eat one of these as a snack at some point pretty much every day.

Meal 6: A 5.5oz grilled chicken breast, serving of green beans, and about a half a baked potato with "I can't believe it's not butter" 0 calorie spray and shredded cheddar cheese on it.

Meal 7: One and a half servings (I measure using a food scale) of Ice cream! (yes, I said ice cream!.. I dedicate about 250-300 calories per day to my treat/sweet tooth every day. It satisfies my cravings and keeps me from binging)

Meal 8: 8oz of skim Fairlife milk mixed with 8oz of chocolate Fairlife. This is most nights as I use it to get to my protein goal for the day. My protein goal is 165g/day due to my weight-lifting/muscle-building goals

Yesterday ended with 2670 calories and 168 grams of protein.

On 01/06/2019 at 14:00, BlueCrush said:

I'm about 13 months post op and lift weights 6 days per week. I hit my goal about 8 months post op and had to increase calories by about 200 each week til I found where my maintenance was. For me, I found it was about 2600 calories per day.

To get this in, I eat between 6-8 times per day. Some of what I eat is pretty much the same every day, and some is different each day. See below for today's food log as an example day:

Meal1: 8oz of skim Fairlife milk mixed with 8oz chocolate fairlife milk. I drink this pretty much every morning during my work commute. If you've not heard of fairlife, look into it. 26g of Protein for 16oz!

Meal 2: two scrambled eggs covered with cheddar cheese, 2 pieces of bacon, about 1/4 a serving of hashbrowns, and 1/2 a pancake w/ sugar free Syrup

Meal 3: Clif bar (chocolate brownie flavor... These are made of oatmeal and are about 250 cals)

Meal 4: About 2/3 of a Chipotle chicken and cheese quesadilla (it's not on the menu, but you can order it). I get nothing on it but chicken and cheese.

Meal 5: Sargento Break packet which has cheese cubes, nuts, and raisins in it. I eat one of these as a snack at some point pretty much every day.

Meal 6: A 5.5oz grilled chicken breast, serving of green Beans, and about a half a baked potato with "I can't believe it's not butter" 0 calorie spray and shredded cheddar cheese on it.

Meal 7: One and a half servings (I measure using a food scale) of Ice cream! (yes, I said ice cream!.. I dedicate about 250-300 calories per day to my treat/sweet tooth every day. It satisfies my cravings and keeps me from binging)

Meal 8: 8oz of skim Fairlife milk mixed with 8oz of chocolate Fairlife. This is most nights as I use it to get to my protein goal for the day. My protein goal is 165g/day due to my weight-lifting/muscle-building goals

Yesterday ended with 2670 calories and 168 grams of protein.

Wow, thankyou for the very informative reply! It’s great to see that in time; you can still fit a decent amount of good food in. Yes as is, I believe I’m not eating enough at all roughly 1000-1200 calories a day and i do weight training 4x weekly along with running. I will try to structure a meal plan around this, I live in a Australia so different types of food you listed we don’t have however there would be alternatives. Again, thank you for taking the time to respond.