The entire visit with the Psychologist was, to me, a bunch of bullshit. We talked for about 40 minutes before the 700 question test, yes, 700 questions! and he basically just went over the same stuff the dietician went over. Exercise and food intake. But, he told me something that really bugged me. He told me that for me to be this weight that I must consume 4500 calories a day. I told him that I didn't agree and that I know I didn't consume that. He did that stupid thing doctors do when they dismiss you... and I knew at that point that he probably thought I was some lieing fat person who really consumes more than what they say they do, but I'm not.

After leaving I immediately decided to keep track of what I eat. I wasn't going to change a single thing either. I'm going to eat just how I normally eat as not to change the results at all, because I wanted to see the truth.

So far after three days, I average between 2,000 and 2,600 calories a day. Yesterday was a big calorie day with the 2600, because I had that stupid chinese buffet, but again, I didn't want to not eat what I would normally eat simply because I knew I was writing it all down. I even put the stupid mayo pack I used on my chic-fil-a sandwhich! and the cup of hot coco I drank.. can you believe that was 150 calories?? yep!, but I put that down too.

I still have 4 more days left to go, but I have a feeling they will all be about this amount, because this is what I eat on a normal basis.

When I'm done with this, I'm going to show him and say "see, not all morbidly obese people sit around pigging out all day eating 4-5 thousand calories a day". I'm so sick of people having this impression of obese people!! I sit right next to a vending machine at work and have never even gotten anything out of it! But, I'm sure people just assume that.

My biggest worry is, if I'm 294 pounds and consume 2,000-2600 calories a day, will I lose much taking that down to 1200-1500 a day with the lap band? And, what if my metabolism is just big time slow?? and that's causing it... what can speed the metabolism back up...?

Hi,

Breathe.

Yeah, that mayo packet gave you 100 calories.

You very well may have a slow matabolism which isn't unusual for MO people. The upside is yes, the band will help you lose wieght and you can impact your matabolism. How? By exercise and eating small meals through out the day.

Don't let the process get your down. All the bullshit is worth it in the end.

Good Luck.

I have a non-existant metabolism too! I've done very little exercising and still have lost 90 pounds. When I was counting calories (which I haven't done since the Holidays started!!) I was usually between 1000-1200 and still lost the weight so....yes it is possible!

I am not a Dr. but I have heard that

A) Eating frequent 5/6 small meals will kick your system into working to digest the food again. Thus, speeding it back up.

I am not a Dr. but I have heard that

A) Eating frequent 5/6 small meals will kick your system into working to digest the food again. Thus, speeding it back up.

The more muscle mass you have, the more oxygen your body uses, and the faster your metab. will be.

C) When exercising, speed up then slow down repeatedly so your body is constantly having to change.

NOW, I am not a Dr. and do not know which of these is "true." However, it is what I have been told. So, please, don't do any without consent!

Hope your process goes well!

I probably was eating the range of calories your doc suggested. The problem is (for a lot of us, not necessarily you), it's not that we're eating 24/7, but the things we DO eat are SO high in calorie, that we never even noticed.

The chicken fingers meal at Chili's is something like 1,200 calories. I would eat that for lunch. LUNCH. And sometimes paired with a McDonald's b'fast of a mcmuffin (or two) and a hashbrowns. I'm not going to look it up now, but that's probably another 8-900 calories at least. So I'd be up to 2,100 calories (and an 'average' person should have 2,000 in a day) before noon!

Then I'd have a snack.. of some chips maybe.. 150 calories roughly..well, that's bandster size.. I'd say I'd maybe eat 300 calories of chips at once. And some dip sometimes, another 60 calories.

Then dinner.. which can range all over the place. I ate a lot of fast food, so Steak & shake.. small shake, large fry, and double burger.. About 2,000 calories.

So for the day, that's nearly 5,000 calories. And I wasn't stuffing my face everywhere I went. And that's not a day where I went to a restaurant and had an appetizer, Soup, meal, and dessert!

Just an example, of where maybe they don't mean you're eating all the time.. it's just that calories are hidden all over the place!

The Ruby Tuesday Bella TURKEY BURGER is 1,145 calories. Not including fries or drink. So you could be thinking, hey I'm getting a turkey burger, that's healthy right? Wrong.

Thanks for all the support and info there!!

Writing out these calories does help me to see what I'm eating, especially i didn't know that the chicken sandwhich from Chic-Fil-A was 410 calories and the waffle fries were 300, but, in the end, I still don't eat what he says I eat. I have a feeling he tells all his patients that. He had some calculator in his hand and I just think its wrong to throw everybody into one mold and say "you have to consume ______ calories or else you wouldnt' be this fat".

I don't eat hamburgers anymore after eating a McDonald's burger one time made me grossly ill, just the thought of eating a burger makes me want to hurl, so I stick with chicken and pork mostly... and I rarely eat sweets as those make me sick too...