I’ve had my surgery last year June and struggling mentally, fear of going back to the way I looked before… I’m constantly wondering if our bodies will gain weight faster then people who haven’t had the surgery do you know what I mean? even if we eat healthy will we gain weight faster or more because we have had the surgery?! Questions: once we have reached our goal weight do we follow a normal ‘healthy lifestyle’ and calorie intake for maintenance that you can set on my fitness pal? Or do I still only consume + - 1000 calories? I’m so confused because I do not want to my old self but I also can not lose more weight because I have gone under. PLEASE HELP.

I am only seven months out so I can’t say from experience but if I were you I would slowly add in healthy fats like avocado, nuts/ nut butters and healthy oils as well as healthy snacks but maybe at 100 calories at a time till I found my maintenance calorie amount. You may lose a little more doing it this way but you can always gain it back if you really want to. Many people have about a ten pound gain after they reach their goal anyways.

Thank you! For sure I can gain but really don’t want to do that in an unhealthy manner which I was so so use to. Thank you

There is likely going to be a bit of a learning curve to figure out what your maintenance calories are.

If you track your food intake, this process can be a little easier.

Step one: figure out what your average daily intake is (by tracking calories) and weigh yourself regularly (to determine how this intake amount affects ur weight)

Step two: if you are gaining or losing over a specific period of time, drop or add some cals, monitor for a while.

Rinse and repeat until u find ur sweet spot.

As u get further out and your activity levels change, you may need to reevaluate again and again.

It took me 2-3 months to figure out my maintenance calories, and i lost a further 10+ lbs in the process. Since then i’ve been happily maintaining my current weight for over 2 years. I decrease cals when I exercise less and increase when there is more. Its an ongoing thing.

Good luck! ❤️

P..S. Full disclosure: i don’t always eat healthily, but i generally always stay within my calorie range (on average).

Edited October 11, 20214 yr by ms.sss

Could you tell me your calorie range as of now maintenance wise??? Im now focused of a healthy lifestyle of course.. counting my calories and weighing daily. I’ve become actually severely obsessed and it’s causing my body to lose weight because of fear. Do you treat your body like ‘normal’? **** man… the struggle is real but thanks so much you are so helpful ❤️

2 hours ago, Dalila Davids said:

Could you tell me your calorie range as of now maintenance wise??? Im now focused of a healthy lifestyle of course.. counting my calories and weighing daily. I’ve become actually severely obsessed and it’s causing my body to lose weight because of fear. Do you treat your body like ‘normal’? **** man… the struggle is real but thanks so much you are so helpful ❤️

Today, at 3 years out, i do about 1800 cals a day with moderate exercise.

But I definitely do not eat healthily all the time….i drink alcohol and eat desserts regularly.

I always say I am not going to make bad choices. Always remember these words joy faith love kind and sound mind. You can do this

As @ms.sss said. It can take time to work out that sweet spot of the number of calories your body needs to function & maintain your weight. It took me about 11 months till I stabilised, worked out how many calories I needed & was physically able to consume enough food to do so. Consequently I lost another 11kgs but have basically maintained there for about 12 months now.

I eat less than @ms.sss - around 1200/1300 calories a day but I’m not very active. Not a runner nor the owner of a gym membership. ? If I was more active I’d need to eat more calorie dense food. If I was happy to maintain at a higher weight I’d also eat more. I eat three meals & 3-4 snacks a day. Generally I follow a healthy eating plan of nutrient rich foods. Prep most of my food myself. Almost every thing I eat contains protein. I eat fruit, vegetables, dairy, two serves of multi or whole grain carbs a day. I don’t have a lot of fat (salad dressing & liverwurst are the main - & worst - sources) & I got rid of a lot of sugar (real, artificial & substitutes) out of my diet.

It also takes time to work out a way of eating that works within your lifestyle so you can still enjoy your life without being limited by restrictive food choices. My choices may not work for you & that’s perfectly ok.

I doubt our bodies would gain weight faster than anybody else unless you’re eating more calories. The surgery gives your metabolism a boost & I’d think it would settle at a rate that is pretty acceptable for someone of your height, weight, activity level, age, gender, etc.

Have a chat with your nutritionalist & discuss what eating options which may work for you.

Thank you so so much for this!

it takes awhile to figure out maintenance. You have to experiment with calorie ranges to find the one that works for you. I can maintain my weight on 1500-1700 calories per day - a bit more if I'm really active. If I go over range too often, my weight starts heading north - if I'm consistently at the low end or below, I'll lose. That figure is going to be different for everyone though. There are some women who can eat 2000 cal/day -- and others who can only eat 1200. It'll depend on a bunch of factors like age, height, how muscular you are, how active you are, etc.

keep in mind that it's very, very common to have a 10-20 lb regain during year 2 or 3. It's just your body settling in to its new, hopefully permanent, weight (and it WILL be permanent as long as you monitor it). I purposely went a little under my goal to account for this, because from everything I'd read, I knew it was likely to happen (it doesn't happen to everyone, but it does for most people)

a lot of us set a drop-dead weight ceiling once we reach maintenance - and if and when we reach that drop-dead weight, it's all hands on deck until our weight is comfortably back in our acceptable range. That's going to differ for people, too. My personal ceiling is 160 lbs. Weight fluctuates all the time - up a pound, down two, maybe up three. But once I hit that ceiling, I really crack down until my weight is back down again. I think that's probably what most of us have to do -or something like that, anyway -- to keep from gaining a bunch of weight back. As long as you keep an eye on what you're eating - at least most of the time - and monitor your weight, and take action when you need to - you should be fine.

4 hours ago, catwoman7 said:

a lot of us set a drop-dead weight ceiling once we reach maintenance - and if and when we reach that drop-dead weight, it's all hands on deck until our weight is comfortably back in our acceptable range. That's going to differ for people, too. My personal ceiling is 160 lbs. Weight fluctuates all the time - up a pound, down two, maybe up three. But once I hit that ceiling, I really crack down until my weight is back down again.

It's funny, I tried to set 130 as my "redline" weight but my mind and emotions had other ideas. When I hit 127, my anxiety level is such that I immediately start working on getting it back down. So my de facto limit is 127, LOL.

15 minutes ago, Jaelzion said:

4 hours ago, catwoman7 said:

a lot of us set a drop-dead weight ceiling once we reach maintenance - and if and when we reach that drop-dead weight, it's all hands on deck until our weight is comfortably back in our acceptable range. That's going to differ for people, too. My personal ceiling is 160 lbs. Weight fluctuates all the time - up a pound, down two, maybe up three. But once I hit that ceiling, I really crack down until my weight is back down again.

It's funny, I tried to set 130 as my "redline" weight but my mind and emotions had other ideas. When I hit 127, my anxiety level is such that I immediately start working on getting it back down. So my de facto limit is 127, LOL.

I was the same way.

My self-imposed "happy weight range" is 115-120. I made a deal with myself that if I ever reach 120 for five days in a row, I have to work to get all the way back to 115. And like you, when I get to like 118, i'm all: Crap! I may as well drop a lb or two now instead of having to lose 5 if/when i reach 120. I've had to do it 3 times in the past 3 years and it gets progressively longer to do (1 wk, then 3 weeks, then 3 months)....so, yeah.

During the 3 month long attempt to get back to 115 (albeit, i didn't try very hard), I was seriously considering upping my happy weight range, though. If it happens again, I just might. We'll see.

Now, on the other side of things, I don't worry too much if i drop below 115, as when I have, it doesn't last very long (except for the couple months after plastics), and it goes back to 115-ish with zero effort.

I too wonder what my maintenance calories are because never in my life have I reached that stage. I am quite short so any sort of weight gain is always apparent , so dont really wanna gain 10 pounds extra down the line when Ive reached my weight goal....

On 10/11/2021 at 2:36 PM, ms.sss said:

Today, at 3 years out, i do about 1800 cals a day with moderate exercise.

But I definitely do not eat healthily all the time….i drink alcohol and eat Desserts regularly.

I'm curious since you're very transparent with your diet: can you tolerate pizza or pasta?

5 hours ago, SparklesE said:

I'm curious since you're very transparent with your diet: can you tolerate pizza or Pasta?

I am about two years post-surgery and have occasionally eaten pizza and pasta, but my own personal rule is to have an extremely small portion of those when I do indulge.