Hi everyone,

This may seem like a stupid question but for those of you in maintenance, what foods and how many calories do you consume each day to maintain? I’m asking because my doctor told me to stop losing and go into maintenance a few kilos ago but I’m finding that I can’t eat enough at the moment to get to maintenance. If I try eating foods that are too high in calories and fat, it seems to flush out even more and more quickly.

I don’t digest breads and pasta well so just cranking up on those carbs won’t work.

I would love to hear about your tips and tricks or meal plans to stay healthy and maintain your weight. Any help would be appreciated as my doctor isn’t very helpful in that area and I don’t have a nutritionist.

Thanks in advance

No stupid questions here. It’s the same way for all of us - just slowly up your calories until your weight loss stops with some fluctuation. It can take time to stop losing. I added snacks (combinations of yoghurt, protein bar, cheese sticks, hummus, chia pudding, multi or whole grain crackers, nuts, fruit,) still tried to keep low fat (except for salad dressing - damn you Mr Newman), low sugar, only a few good complex carbs & everything, bar fruit, with protein. I don’t eat as many snacks now as I can physically eat more in a meal. And yes, I did feel like I was eating all day. I was also s still seeing my dietician for the first 5 months of maintenance (stopped with COVID) so she was checking what I was adding & made a couple of suggestions.

The calories I need to maintain will be different to what you need. I consume about 1200 - 1300 calories (I’m shorter than you, have a small frame, am in my mid 50s, not very active & maintain at a lower weight). Others can consume a lot more. My surgeon & GP initially told me to put on a couple of kgs but I weigh less now & they’re both happy with my weight.

Edited November 11, 20214 yr by Arabesque

Thanks @Arabesque, I appreciate your advice.
I definitely don’t have a small frame, I’m 4cms wider than the wide range for females lol! I’m up around the 1500 to 1600 calories now and still losing but am struggling to eat more than that in a day at the moment.
It’s so strange to have this problem when it’s been the opposite my whole life!!
I’ll take your advice and go shopping tomorrow to find some higher calorie protein bars and healthy snacks to introduce throughout the day.

Mr Newman dressings are the best!!

Thanks again

DS patients malabsorb a lot more calories than other patients - so you'll likely be able to eat a lot more than your current 1500-1600. I'm not a DS patient and there aren't too many of them around, but I know a lot of them seem to eat a lot of fat - that would certainly bump up your calories pretty significantly...

are you still in touch with your clinic? Maybe a dietitian could help with this? Or else check on one of the DS threads if they're still active and see what others who've had that surgery have done.

Has your Dr. discussed Creon with you?

On 11/12/2021 at 10:06 AM, Postop said:

Has your Dr. discussed Creon with you?

No I have never heard of that before. Thanks, I’ll have to look it up.

They’re a pancreatic enzyme supplement & assist in the digestion of food & consequently improve the absorption of nutrients. I take them now as since my gall removal I don’t absorb protein as well. I’ve been on them for almost three months. Blood test tomorrow so fingers crossed they’re helping.

Hi @Arabesque, hope the results were all great. I had my gallbladder removed about 15 years ago so also have trouble breaking down and digesting certain foods. I also just got blood test results a few days ago and unfortunately I’ve become anemic. My doctor is going to give me two iron infusions two weeks apart and then put me on tablets to maintain my iron levels do hopefully that should sort that part out.

So I’ll definitely mention creon to her as it sounds like it might really help, thank you!!

Hopefully this is helpful for you. To up my calories I have added in low sugar trail mix which is mainly just a mix of healthy nuts. I have also added in two extra snacks a day to also help add in calories. I also found higher calorie but still low sugar protein bars that I take as an added meal.

Thank you @mswillis5, I’ll get some trail mix ASAP

I seem to have the opposite problem but it's my own doing. I started regular exercise quite soon after my surgery... I'd say about 2 months post op. I'm now one year in and I go 6x a week. I drink at least 3 protein shakes a day in addition to a normal-ish diet and too many not_very_health_snacks if I'm being honest. I had my one year check up and the one good thing is ... even though the number on the scale did not move in the last 3 months, my muscle mass went up and overall body fat went down. I'm having a hard time with the mental aspect now and I'm trying my hardest to stop the old habits from creeping back. I'm around 106kgs and 182cm (i had to google convert, not going to lie)