Hi Everyone,

I had my surgery two weeks ago.

I was wondering how many of you, who are old hats at this, stick to a calorie amount - after everything has settled down.

From reading this forum, it seems that alot of you do. What is the most common, and realistic amount?

I'm sure my dietician will tell me , but I don't see her for about 3 weeks.

Take care, Rachel.

I don't count calories, but every so often I will log the food I eat into Fitday to see where it's coming from. Usually I'm between 1400 and 1700 calories a day, without consciously trying. What I'm concerned about it nutrition, and lately I've been trying harder to get less fat in and more Fiber. Fitday is invaluable for tracking that sort of thing.

Conventional wisdom is that anywhere between 1200 - 1600 calories a day is a good range for weight loss. Obviously your personal body type, metabolism, activity level and so on will inform that number for you specifically.

Rachel,

I count, but in my head. I do this regularly at the end of the day. I pretty much know my range for active weight loss. I really never go over 1200 calories unless it is a special occasion or I am going out to lunch with folks etc...

Babs in TX

Technically a nutricionist is going to tell you not to go under a 1200 calorie diet. I count my calories and I am working on not going over 800 at the moment. I am trying to be very strict because my fill has seemed to disappear and I can eat quite a bit again. I have another fill scheduled for 03/04/05. My body is so weird right now. If I go over 1200 calories in a day I gain a pound back. I'm sure I'm not getting all of my nutients, but if I vary a little bit on my eating it takes me a week to catch back up for some reason!

As of today I am counting calories. If Babs can lose over 100 pounds, then so can I, rigth? She counts calories so I want to follow her lead. Babs, you are my guiding light. I don't want to go over 1000 calories a day. However, I don't count vegetables, which will add several hundred calories.

Lisa,

I am so used to eating a certain way that I can go weeks like this and then sustain a big loss and then go on a couple of day binge!!! I love queso and chips and dips, but they are what made me plateau for so long. And lets not forget about drinking. When I come to Vegas next week, I am boozing, so need to drop at least 2 pounds next week to accomodate my three day drinking spree!!! I can live without food, but I do want my booze! I am a cheap date though. Only takes me a few to get toasted.

Babs in TX

334/180/170

-154

6/23/03

Lisa,

I forgot to add that you need to have the Crystal Light and Vodka ready for me. I wish more bars would serve this..... THe cranberry juice has a lot of sugar.....

Babs in TX

So what your saying is that I don't have to start counting calories till after you leave? Woo hoo!

I don't. If I have to track, count, weigh, log, or journal ANYTHING you can kiss it good bye.

Ah, but Blossom, if you do track et. al, you can kiss your butt good bye... (or in my case my tummy.. and chins and stuff...)

I do not count calories..but I do write down everything I eat on a little pad of paper I keep in my purse . I gives me a visual as to what went in my mouth and helps to see why the scale may have not moved..and helps me to eliminate things I do not really need to eat . I find this very helpful

For example today so far I have had 2 eggs whites with spinach, green onions and mushrooms scrambled together with 1 piece of dry wheat toast and 3 pieces of bacon..I did not need that bacon

I do not count calories as a rule, however, I do find it helpful if I find myself getting off track/not losing to go to www.fitday.com and track what I put in my mouth for a few days. I think most of us know when we're eating the wrong things or too much of anything. It should be a given that we just STOP, but if it were that easy we wouldn't be here, right? So, sometimes you have to check yourself and see where you are going wrong. I love that fitday shows Protein, carbs, fat etc so it reinforces to me that even though I may be keeping my 'calories' in check, I'm still over doing the carbs or fat, which is gonna slow my weight loss down - right or wrong.

Also, according to some writings a good rule of thumb that is easy to remember for me is this. If I want to maintain a 120lb body, I do not need over 1200 calories a day. If I want to maintain a 175 lb body, 1750 calories will keep me there. Simple math. How much do you WANT to weigh? If you think you want to weight 140 and you eat 1500-2000 calories a day, it's not gonna happen.

Unless you are an absolute exercise fiend, (like we all are, right) there has to be a balance. Call it counting or call it behavior modification, it has to happen in order to lose the weight. The more closely you watch it, the faster you're going to see results. Maintain the calories needed for the body size you wish to have, exercise at least 30 minutes 3-5 times a week, Water, water, water. Sounds simple. Harder to keep up. And did I mention metabolism?? Some of us can't eat the calories, because we've simply shut our metabolism down, which means I have to eat fish instead of chips, cause the chips are going to be there tomorrow.. Not fair!

I don't count nuffin.

Well, for the most part. Every once in a while I'll log onto fit day and track. I did track all this week to see how I was doing because I've been on a plateau. Turns out I'm UNDER eating. So I've been finding ways to sneak in more calories. It's a good way to do a reality check every now and then.