I have been pretty faithful to my doctors diet. I went to my 6 week follow up. I thought I would get praised on my decent weight loss and adherence to the plan but instead I got that I need to eat 1200 calories a day by the physician's assistant. strange that it even came up. I am getting the protein, etc in and following "their diet" I eat around 350 to 450 calories a day. I only know that because I use my fitness pal I didn't even think we "had" to track calories. I also email the nutritionist at this practice regularly and she seems okay with my diet. I sort of protested to this lady and she said my weight loss would be more...

I thought it was irresponsible of her to suggest it. Had I been a less stronger willed woman I would have been tempted to go eat French Fries right after my appointment. The good news is I'm doing okay I feel good and getting my 80 grams of protein in but even before surgery I would have never eaten 1200 calories. Anything over 800 made me gain. If i was at maintenance phase I would understand but at 6 weeks? She said if I didn't eat more I would ruin my metabolism. Very frustrating to hear.

1200cals is a lot and more than most bariatics patients would eat at the point you are at, but perhaps you do need to a little more than 350 to 450 calories a day. Do you exercise at all? If you do you definitely need to eat some more than you are.

Edited November 17, 20196 yr by Hop_Scotch

I was eating about 500 cal/day at 6 weeks. Felt fine. I didn't even get close to 1000/day until around 6 months. Listen to your body. If you are getting your fluid, protein, and vitamins in, you are doing well. Maybe try to up it a bit more, though.

That's weird. I just had my 6 week check up with blood draw and I specifically asked about calories because they never mentioned it and only focused on protein and water. I told them I eat 400-600 calories a day and they said that was great and typical for someone 6 weeks post op. I'm 8 weeks post op now and still eating same amount. Blood work returned and everything looked great with no malabsorption.

I guess we all have different Drs with different training and individually we all have different needs.

2 hours ago, Dances with Carbs said:

I guess we all have different Drs with different training and individually we all have different needs.

That's right. We are all different, and I have a hard time with a bariatric specialist not realizing that each of us is different. One person cannot handle what another can. We have to listen to our own bodies in this journey and if our body can only handle 500 calories, that's what it is. I just feel bad that pressure is put on patients to eat more than they can handle at any given time,

That's right. We are all different, and I have a hard time with a bariatric specialist not realizing that each of us is different. One person cannot handle what another can. We have to listen to our own bodies in this journey and if our body can only handle 500 calories, that's what it is. I just feel bad that pressure is put on patients to eat more than they can handle at any given time,

Seems counterproductive to me for a professional to want to force that much food in a small pouch that was made just 6 weeks ago to prevent overeating. (Forehead +palm)

1200 seems super high. My bariatric nutritionist said 1300 - I am at 10 weeks and i was like, "are you insane... " I cant eat that much but also why would i need to? I took this "advice" to my surgeon and he was like 'No way that's wrong. You should be 600-ish on average meaning anywhere from 500-800.' So all this goes to say is that they can be wrong. That said, i got into a stall and I increased my calories a bit and my CARB intake and the weight started coming off again... So i cycled up to 1000 on my highest day but I only did that for one day and it was an all day chore getting in that many calories. You're doing amazing with weightloss so stick with what you are doing. Listen to your body.

Oh and what i also meant to say is increasing your calories a bit might help the scale move more but are you in a stall or is the scale moving? I was in a stall so I took a chance to shake things up. If my calories go too low my body got sinto lockdown and i won't lose. Plus I workout so once I upped my cals by cycling them and had more carbs the weightless kicked in a bit more. I think for me if my cals are too low and my carbs are too low- my body stalls and holds on... im trying to still figure it out... day by day. lol.

My program didn't have specific calorie goals, which I really appreciated. But after I was further along, one of the easiest way to break a stall was to eat 100 or so more calories than usual in one meal.

I had a stall but I broke it by upping my liquid. THANK YOU ALL for replying. Not saying she's wrong, but I just don't think they look at us as individuals, just numbers or data points sometimes. Going to listen to my body and stay the course...as long as my energy levels and labs turn out okay I think I'll be fine. The last two days I did up it a bit and got to 550 calories and I still seem to be losing, but......don't want to overeat...thats what started this crazy cycle to begin with!!! ahhhh Head games......

I'm 4 weeks tomorrow and I struggle to stay under 650-700. I still can't seem to corrolate anything with the days I lose vs the days I stay the same. Not water, carbs, protein, cals, exercise.

WLS has quite a lot of interesting effects not only on the body but also on the mind. One of them seems to be losing perspective on what constitutes "a high calorie diet". *shrug*