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Hi, I have a question. How do you (most) trac your calories if you are only eating a couple of bites? I'm having trouble losing and have been trying to count/trac but still not working. Is it posible to have too few calories? I doubt thats my problem, but maybe posible???

Thanks for your help

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Hi, I have a question. How do you (most) trac your calories if you are only eating a couple of bites? I'm having trouble losing and have been trying to count/trac but still not working. Is it posible to have too few calories? I doubt thats my problem, but maybe posible???

Thanks for your help

Yep, many people find that if they take in too few calories, they stop losing. You should be able to eat more than a couple bites at a time. How far out from surgery are you? Have you had any fills?

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Its just math really. If one is worried about eating too many calories they can write down the whole caloric content of something they only ate a little of. If you are worried about too few calories, try to divide up how much you did eat and figure out almost exactly how many cals you have had.

i.e. something has 100 cals, but you only eat 1/4 of it thats 25 cals. Divide your food up into fourths if possible so that it makes it easier.

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I myself just guesstimate my calorie intake. It is not an exact science for me like some. I figure ok 1 serving is 100 calories and I eat 3/4 it I had around 75 cals. Just keep a rough estimate in my head throughout the day.

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I actually have to write mine down, Im really really bad with numbers and remembering them. So I carry journals and plan my meals ahead of time, and always bring a calculator, because I have a learning disorder with math...But Chris's way definately works and is much more simple than what I do. Just remember to keep up with it. Im a little OCD with mine :)

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Hi, I had my surgey in June, and up till about oct had realy no restriction. I'm at 3.0 in 4cc band and now I'm pretty tight although its surpriseing what I can and cant eat. I cant realy eat in the a.m and It kinda seems like I can only have about 1 solid meal per day, but I get by on Soup and low fat yogurt. I have been trying to eat solids and can usualy do just a few bites. Its been hard but I think I'm finaly getting the hang of it, and I'm anxious to start losing.

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Hi, I had my surgey in June, and up till about oct had realy no restriction. I'm at 3.0 in 4cc band and now I'm pretty tight although its surpriseing what I can and cant eat. I cant realy eat in the a.m and It kinda seems like I can only have about 1 solid meal per day, but I get by on Soup and low fat yogurt. I have been trying to eat solids and can usualy do just a few bites. Its been hard but I think I'm finaly getting the hang of it, and I'm anxious to start losing.
I really encourage you to get a very slight unfill. The tightness in the morning doesn't concern me as much as the not being able to eat more than a few bites of solids. You really should be able to eat more than that.

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I've always been a guesstimator too, never wanted to "diet" but I've been tracking lately which is totally unlike me, but I really really want to get off 15lb more, to get to the bottom end of my healthy weight range.

I've been using CalorieKing.com.au - Australian Online Diet and weight loss club. Lose weight for good!. There's a US one too CalorieKing - Diet and weight loss. Calorie Counter and more..

I tried fitday etc but I found I really needed and Australian one because otherwise I was having to enter every single darn thing I eat as a custom food.

I've been pleasantly surprised to discover that when I choose a good day's menu, my proportion of carbs/fat/protein is pretty near perfect but also unpleasantly surprised to realise how poorly I had been eating for the last couple of months. When I choose the right foods, like I did early in my journey, I can barely make 1200 calories for the day, but I can still eat rubbish easily enough, lol.

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I use Free Diet Plans at SparkPeople

If anyone joins please use me as referral my user there is 4jin02

It is a free service...kind of like the weight watchers online...has diet program, track calories, track exercise, has talk forums, threads, exercise groups...etc...inspiration stories, ideas, recipes...

and on...and on...it is great and don't forget FREE.

:)

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fitday.com and sparkpeople.com are both really great (at least for American food choices) and easy to use. They already have a lot of foods entered and you can add custom foods if you have the nutritional info. And they do the math for you, not just totaling calories, fat, carbs, nutrients, (fitday) etc., but adjusting for the portion size, too.

I haven't used either since I've been banded because I'm just now starting full liquids/pureed foods but I'll need to start soon.

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I've been using TheDailyPlate.com for the last week and I really like it. I'm going to check out sparkpeople.com today and see how it compares.

4Jin I'll use your referral!

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Lots of good advice here. When I lowcarb, I use fitday.com.

Since being banded, I find that I don't need to track, as long as I stick with clean foods, Proteins and veggies, some/little fruit, some very little oatmeal. I also snack on cashews during the day.

If I am not losing, usually I can blame my lack of exercise and my nut and cheese snacking. I do not drink my calories. I am pretty happy with Water, coffee, milk in my Protein shakes.

Hey, good luck and try not to fret about plateaus. Sometimes, and for some of us they are inevitable.

Cheers

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I write down everything i eat. I pretty much know the calorie count on most foods. I drink no soft drinks and try not to eat junk food. Sometimes i mess up, but not very often. I exercise regulary. Donna

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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.
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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. 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.

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