I don't mean to annoy anyone but my question is ,I am on a 800 calorie diet and I find it very hard to stay on this diet no because I am hungry but because everything now is loaded with calories. So I am puzzled and wondering is 800 calories a day too much or too little. Dietician says anything over 800 will cause weight gain and disrupt the process with my shots versus other doctors are like 800 is nothing.

I am confused.

I would be confused too. How a dietician could say that anything over 800 calories will make you gain weight is just ridiculous. Here in the UK it is guided at 2000 calories a day for an active woman and 500 calories more for a active male per day.

For information - To maintain my weight I need to eat around 1600 calories a day. Anything less and I drop weight. I don't exercise, just walk and apart from one day a week where I volunteer, I am retired. I still have a fair restriction on my sleeve.

So my advice to you would be go back to the dietician, check the facts, ask for a diet sheet and if they want you on 800 calories it must be so you can drop quickly. It does not sound sustainable if you are active.

I could do this diet for a short time because I cook from scratch, log everything religiously and can cook and plan ahead. So this is what my 800 calories would look like -

Breakfast, 2 eggs scrambled in 1 calorie spray oil [ PAM ] and 200mls of full skim milk for my coffee

Lunch, 2 cups of Vegetable soup made without starchy vegetables, so no potatoes

Evening meal, 1 x 6 ounce chicken breast, side salad with calorie free dressing and a 7 ounce jacket potato

I hope this helps

Just checking you had your surgery in May so you’re 8 months out? Mmmm 800 may be a little low for you given your height and gender though that is a conversation to be had with your dietician with consideration of your needs and activity. I’m a lot shorter than you, female, likely older & wasn’t very active when losing and I was eating about 900 at 6 months and at my goal & I kept losing. Even now I maintain at my weight eating about 1600 calories. Though if you’re not hungry do you need more calories at this time?? I do disagree with your dietician saying if you increase your intake you will gain as you will continue to lose weight eating more calories if you’re still in a deficit (i.e. eating fewer calories than your body needs to function). It may slow down your rate of loss though.

Yes, this time of year can be difficult with so much food and so many treats. It really does come down to making the best choices you can when you have little or no control of the food available. Consider portion size. Can you swap out anything? Try to balance your intake across all your meals during the day. Keep focus on your protein first then vegetables. Avoid carbs and limit what sweet treats you may indulge in. And if you’re not hungry you don’t have to eat because everyone else is. If you’re contributing a dish, make something you can eat without compromising your plan. Remember this is not everyday but just this time of the year so don’t beat yourself up if you do go off plan though try to get back to your regular eating style/plan as soon as possible.

I’m 5.6 yrs out and I still follow these guidelines in these types of situations. After four Christmas gatherings with full on meals over a couple of days, food to prepare & leftovers to eat, I am glad to be back in my own home, with my own food choices and my own eating routines. I weighed myself this morning and I only put on 300g (0.6lb) over Christmas & being away a week so the guidelines do help to keep things under control.

PS What are the shots you mentioned?

11 hours ago, Arabesque said:

Just checking you had your surgery in May so you’re 8 months out? Mmmm 800 may be a little low for you given your height and gender though that is a conversation to be had with your dietician with consideration of your needs and activity. I’m a lot shorter than you, female, likely older & wasn’t very active when losing and I was eating about 900 at 6 months and at my goal & I kept losing. Even now I maintain at my weight eating about 1600 calories. Though if you’re not hungry do you need more calories at this time?? I do disagree with your dietician saying if you increase your intake you will gain as you will continue to lose weight eating more calories if you’re still in a deficit (i.e. eating fewer calories than your body needs to function). It may slow down your rate of loss though.

Yes, this time of year can be difficult with so much food and so many treats. It really does come down to making the best choices you can when you have little or no control of the food available. Consider portion size. Can you swap out anything? Try to balance your intake across all your meals during the day. Keep focus on your Protein first then vegetables. Avoid carbs and limit what sweet treats you may indulge in. And if you’re not hungry you don’t have to eat because everyone else is. If you’re contributing a dish, make something you can eat without compromising your plan. Remember this is not everyday but just this time of the year so don’t beat yourself up if you do go off plan though try to get back to your regular eating style/plan as soon as possible.

I’m 5.6 yrs out and I still follow these guidelines in these types of situations. After four Christmas gatherings with full on meals over a couple of days, food to prepare & leftovers to eat, I am glad to be back in my own home, with my own food choices and my own eating routines. I weighed myself this morning and I only put on 300g (0.6lb) over Christmas & being away a week so the guidelines do help to keep things under control.

PS What are the shots you mentioned?

My surgery was in May of 2023 and the shots semaglutide.

The maintenance doses of Semaglutide for chronic weight management are 1.7mg and 2.4 mg.

If you haven’t reached those doses yet, then that’s the goal before you can determine if it’s not working as expected (which for some people it may not work). What is your current dose?

https://www.wegovy.com/taking-wegovy/dosing-schedule.html?showisi=true&&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=wegovy&utm_campaign=1_All_Shared_BR_Wegovy_Core&mkwid=s-dm_pcrid_645689011667_pkw_wegovy_pmt_p_slid__product_&pgrid=148965952281&ptaid=kwd-1296426939242&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAABWNcsk_Vrk4rb9ObcxDKFUu6OZHy&gclid=Cj0KCQiA4L67BhDUARIsADWrl7HM5Z15-B65VZSJkFvcsdpvjEpsfTBEfdP0BJGzjFepWdgBossbMHgaAnCxEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

2 hours ago, GreenTealael said:

The maintenance doses of semaglutide for chronic weight management are 1.7mg and 2.4 mg.

If you haven’t reached those doses yet, then that’s the goal before you can determine if it’s not working as expected (which for some people it may not work). What is your current dose?

https://www.wegovy.com/taking-wegovy/dosing-schedule.html?showisi=true&&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=wegovy&utm_campaign=1_All_Shared_BR_Wegovy_Core&mkwid=s-dm_pcrid_645689011667_pkw_wegovy_pmt_p_slid__product_&pgrid=148965952281&ptaid=kwd-1296426939242&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAABWNcsk_Vrk4rb9ObcxDKFUu6OZHy&gclid=Cj0KCQiA4L67BhDUARIsADWrl7HM5Z15-B65VZSJkFvcsdpvjEpsfTBEfdP0BJGzjFepWdgBossbMHgaAnCxEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

2.4 now. But it's not as they thought, they think I am misleading them

3 minutes ago, T O P said:

2.4 now. But it's not as they thought, they think I am misleading them

How so?

2 hours ago, T O P said:

2.4 now. But it's not as they thought, they think I am misleading them

Hi. I'm sorry I don't completely understand your question! Are you saying that you're having Semaglutide shots to assist with further weight loss after having had a sleeve 18 months ago? I'm presuming you didn't reach your goal weight with the sleeve? How much weight did you lose - please can you share your stats as that would really help us to help you.

It's also not clear when you introduced the GLP-1 addition. Is it that your team is advocating an 800 calorie a day maximum? AND you are sticking to that and not losing weight? AND that you think they aren't believing you when you report your intake? So sorry - so much to unpick here!

Also - what do you mean when you say that 'everything now is loaded with calories'?

While I absolutely do not agree that it’s likely you will GAiN weight on 800 calories, 800 Calories can be a pretty good amount of food depending on what you eat. for example this is 757 calories and it’s 100 g of protein.

breakfast: Caramel “Proffee” made from a premiere protein caramel shake with iced coffee mixed in. (It’s really good and filling with the protein btw).

lunch: three eggs omelette with 2% cheese (1 ounce) and tomatoes and onion (1/2 cup).

dinner: grilled chicken breast (3 ounce) and zucchini and onion (1/2 cup).

snack: oikos triple zero yogurt

I use the Baritastic app and I always have the same breakfast but then before I have lunch I plug in my plan and an idea for dinner to make certain it’s okay macro wise. I do pay some attention to calories but protein, added sugars and fat are more important. I also pay attention to my carbs because on some days my exercise is higher and I actually need to increase them a bit. If your dietician is not asking about your activity and your food choices and inky giving you a cookie cutter plan without real guidance I would be asking more questions. These plans need to be tailored to you specifically.

if you are having a difficult time finding foods you like that meet the criteria you are definitely not alone. I had to do a ton of research and trial and error with recipes to find a couple weeks worth of meals that I enjoy and I was doing 900ish calories. I scoured the web and found low calorie recipes and also ways to cut calories from things I knew I enjoyed. Basically type “healthy” in front of anything you like and you should find ways to make a more bariatric friendly version. Some days you may need to reduce calories further by having two shakes or egg whites instead to budget for a higher calorie dinner.

I don’t love to cook so I make double batches of things and freeze them in individual portions. this has been my lifesaver. For the 800 calories you may have to do a lot of lower calorie lean meat and veggie type dinners unless you cut calories during lunch. For instance instead of 3 eggs you could do five 5 whites and you could even omit the cheese if you need to cut calories further. i would imagine you could still lose on a little higher calorie budget and you have more flexibility in your menu but it may not be as fast as you would like. Either way, check out Baritastic (or another calorie tracking app). It’s very helpful to see exactly what’s in different food and to play around with these meal ideas on an app because you can add and delete and adjust the measurements to figure out how to make things work to fit your plan.

16 hours ago, Spinoza said:

Hi. I'm sorry I don't completely understand your question! Are you saying that you're having semaglutide shots to assist with further weight loss after having had a sleeve 18 months ago? I'm presuming you didn't reach your goal weight with the sleeve? How much weight did you lose - please can you share your stats as that would really help us to help you.

It's also not clear when you introduced the GLP-1 addition. Is it that your team is advocating an 800 calorie a day maximum? AND you are sticking to that and not losing weight? AND that you think they aren't believing you when you report your intake? So sorry - so much to unpick here!

Also - what do you mean when you say that 'everything now is loaded with calories'?

Yes to your first question. I only lost like 60 to 70 lbs. My surgeon staff only wants me on a 800 calorie diet loss weight. Except low cLorie sweet tea I don't eat much food let alone it's hard to eat anything when most foods have above 200 hundred calories.

20 hours ago, GreenTealael said:

How so?

They give me the eye roll and say it's got to be something I am eating or drinking that's causing weight gain.

I have a few questions for you.

The first is, how is your hunger level right now? Are you ravenous, totally uninterested in food, or somewhere in between?

Second, how much preparation of fresh food do you do compared to eating of premade or processed foods? I have some ideas that might help, but a lot depends on how hungry you get and how open you are to preparing your own foods from scratch.

Also, if you could give us an idea of what your current eating routine is, that might help. Like, how often do you eat each day, and what does a typical menu look like for you? Are there any foods you absolutely love or hate?

3 hours ago, NickelChip said:

I have a few questions for you.

The first is, how is your hunger level right now? Are you ravenous, totally uninterested in food, or somewhere in between?

Second, how much preparation of fresh food do you do compared to eating of premade or processed foods? I have some ideas that might help, but a lot depends on how hungry you get and how open you are to preparing your own foods from scratch.

Also, if you could give us an idea of what your current eating routine is, that might help. Like, how often do you eat each day, and what does a typical menu look like for you? Are there any foods you absolutely love or hate?

I usually only get hungry once a day. I currently make a homemade salad or get something from a meat a two place, usually baked chicken and some collards, mashed potatoes. I usually eat one whole meal a day now and two slimfast for the other two meals.

4 hours ago, T O P said:

I usually only get hungry once a day. I currently make a homemade salad or get something from a meat a two place, usually baked chicken and some collards, mashed potatoes. I usually eat one whole meal a day now and two slimfast for the other two meals.

Are you measuring and logging everything that goes into your salad? Not all salads are created equal and it’s not uncommon to underestimate what goes into them. A salad can have over 800 calories pretty easily if you aren’t careful. The usual culprits are the dressing, cheese, crouton's, nuts/granola, avocado, bacon, etc. If you don’t use measuring tools at least for a while it’s pretty difficult to know if you are getting just one serving or more. And if you are getting more than one serving of a few of these things you may as well just have a cheeseburger calorie wise and you may not realize it. I hope this helps.

Edited December 30, 20241 yr by ShoppGirl

Wrong thread. Sorry

Edited December 30, 20241 yr by ShoppGirl

4 hours ago, T O P said:

I usually only get hungry once a day. I currently make a homemade salad or get something from a meat a two place, usually baked chicken and some collards, mashed potatoes. I usually eat one whole meal a day now and two slimfast for the other two meals.

I second the suggestion to track everything you eat or drink. I know it can be annoying to weigh/measure and record everything but it is the best way to ensure your portions are too large or you’re missing hidden calories or underestimating them. For example ate your potatoes mashed with butter, milk & are you counting them? Try to focus more on home made foods too so you can control the ingredients and cooking methods. I’d also suggest eating more regularly aiming for three small meals of real food not two meals of shakes. I was someone who lost their hunger and interest in eating for about a year. I ate to a routine to ensure I was getting in the nutrients I needed. I still eat this way. Even if I’m not all that hungry, I’ll still eat something. At 800 calories, most of your meal would be protein with some vegetables.

Take your record of your tracked eating & drinking to your dietician and ask them to review it and make actual suggestions of what you could eat (add or remove). Demand better advice than an eye roll or general you must be eating something that’s sabotaging your weight loss.