Daily calorie counts...?

[ShooterInTheSix 138]

I'm now 6 weeks post-op and have the green light to start introducing regular food items after having successfully gone through the liquid and soft phases.

I'm curious what everyone else is consuming daily for calories. I've looked through all of the materials I was provided and the only thing that's stressed is maintaining a minimum of 70g of protein; no mention of calories anywhere. I had my first post-op consult with my bariatric nutritionist two weeks ago and specifically asked her and she said they don't publish calorie targets because....'everyone is different'. I've been working to stay around 900 cal/day and she seemed satisfied with that provided I'm hitting my 70g target.

I've lost just under 45lbs to date, so it's working, but I'm wondering where others are for comparison.

What say you...?

[catwoman7 11,278]

I had my surgery several years ago, but we were told not to count calories, either - just to make sure we were hitting our Protein and Fluid requirements.

that said, I ate around 800 calories/day from about 3-8 months out. Then I was up around 1000 until around the year mark - and maybe 1200 or so after that. Once I hit my goal, I experimented for awhile to figure out what I needed to eat to maintain my weight. That's around 1600 calories for me, unless I'm doing a lot of heavy exercising.

[Arabesque 7,590]

At what point post op do you mean? Your calorie intake increases as you progress with your weight loss.

I was a low calorie consumer and therefore my stats are very different from others but I am different from others too. I was never given calorie goals just portion sizes & wasn’t told to count calories - I did it randomly for my own interest & still do it like this. Was barely eating 300 calories in soft food & I think I was barely at 900 calories by 6 months. I stabilised at about 17 months (about a kilo less than I am now) consuming around 1300. I eat about 1500/1600 to maintain my weight now.

Everyone has different caloric needs. (Metabolic rate, activity levels, age, weight, height, etc. all contribute to what calories you need.) Please check with your dietician as to their recommendations for what caloric goals you need while losing & then maintaining.

[ShooterInTheSix 138]

11 hours ago, Arabesque said:

At what point post op do you mean? Your calorie intake increases as you progress with your weight loss.

I was a low calorie consumer and therefore my stats are very different from others but I am different from others too. I was never given calorie goals just portion sizes & wasn’t told to count calories - I did it randomly for my own interest & still do it like this. Was barely eating 300 calories in soft food & I think I was barely at 900 calories by 6 months. I stabilised at about 17 months (about a kilo less than I am now) consuming around 1300. I eat about 1500/1600 to maintain my weight now.

Everyone has different caloric needs. (Metabolic rate, activity levels, age, weight, height, etc. all contribute to what calories you need.) Please check with your dietician as to their recommendations for what caloric goals you need while losing & then maintaining.

With my now being six weeks post-op, I'm curious what others' calorie intake has been in the early stages of typically rapid weight loss after surgery and am well aware that intake increases and body weight decreases.

I realize everyone is different, and clearly stated in my original post that I have already spoken about this with my dietitian for my own case.

I'm not seeking medical advice from an internet forum on what my target should be; I'm opening a conversation about the topic to see where other bariatric patients have found their own successes with respect to their caloric intake as one metric.

[ms.sss 15,814]

Like mentioned above it depends when exactly post-op you are asking about.

I too was one of those weirdly low volume eaters (which, during weight loss phase, equated to being a super low-cal eater)

According to my logs at week 6, i averaged 423 calories A DAY (vs. weeks 1-2 when I ate less than that for an ENTIRE WEEK)

sloooowwwwwllly worked my way up to about 700-800 cals a day by the time I reached goal (about 7 months post op).

I am 5 years post op and maintain now at about 1800 cals a day.

(5'2", 51 yr old female, 113 lbs this morning).

You will find that the number of calories each of us require to maintain or lose (or gain!) weight varies greatly. The trick is to find out what calories YOU need to lose/maintain/gain, and work that into your eating habits. Note also that this magic caloric number FOR YOU is forever a moving target and will change depending on your health, activity levels, metabolisms, time of year, amount of sleep you get, stress levels, medications, mood, etc., etc., etc.

Good Luck! 😍