Hey all,

I have been banded for three weeks now. I lost 10lbs the first week, 3 the second, and none the third. I am not particularly upset by the lack of loss this week - my body is healing, but I journaled my calories most of this week now that I am on mushies and found that I am only getting between 500 and 600 calories in a day. That seems awfully low. I want to avoid my body going into starvation mode and hording calories.

I was wondering what calorie goals successful bandsters live by. It seems difficult to me to get in too many calories (from healthy food of course) on the portions we should be eating, but I am wondering if maybe I need to add a protien shake or a fourth "meal" to my diet to be doing the healthy thing. I DO feel tired a lot, but I don't honestly know if that is lack of fuel or the fact that my body is still healing.

So....any input guys? Do you have a number of calories you try to stay around for your daily intake?

Thanks in advance for your help!

sj

Hey all,

I have been banded for three weeks now. I lost 10lbs the first week, 3 the second, and none the third. I am not particularly upset by the lack of loss this week - my body is healing, but I journaled my calories most of this week now that I am on mushies and found that I am only getting between 500 and 600 calories in a day. That seems awfully low. I want to avoid my body going into starvation mode and hording calories.

I was wondering what calorie goals successful bandsters live by. It seems difficult to me to get in too many calories (from healthy food of course) on the portions we should be eating, but I am wondering if maybe I need to add a protien shake or a fourth "meal" to my diet to be doing the healthy thing. I DO feel tired a lot, but I don't honestly know if that is lack of fuel or the fact that my body is still healing.

So....any input guys? Do you have a number of calories you try to stay around for your daily intake?

Thanks in advance for your help!

sj

I am only a little over a month out from my surgery and just had my first fill on Monday of this week and I asked my doctor then about the amount of calories he recommended and his response was "you didn't pay $15,000 for this surgery to count calories" he went on to say that if I ate only one cup total of food per meal that he guaranteed I would successfully lose weight at the rate he was comfortable with...6-12 lbs a month. It seems as if he is more of a Portion Control type of guy rather than a calorie counter which is fine by me, but you will get lots of different answers on here as everyones DR. is different. So I would ask your doctor what his guidelines are and follow them as closely as possible. Since my fill, I am eating only about 1/2 cup total and am completely satisfied with that amount, but prior to my fill I was purposely stopping myself at one cup regardless of being satisfied or not and most times I was not even satisfied much less full but I was listening to my DRs orders and now I seem to have a tiny bit of restriction which feels great. Best of luck to you!!!

Gosh you give me hope. I cold eat tons more, but also stop at 1 cup. I've sort of plateaued too. But am having my first fill in less than 2 weeks. I'm stoked to have SOME restriction again.

Well, the portions are only a guideline - personally I've never ever needed to drop calories that low or eat that little. I lost all of my weight on 1500 calories a day or so - not that I count, that's more a rough estimate. And you know how it is when you estimate, I probably ate more.

My doc's literature has the half cup advice too but he pointed out to me that if you're losing on more its totally irrelevant. I just dont worry about it, I ate what my appetite guided me to ate and when that was too much to lose, I had a fill and ate a little less.

Eat sensibly. If you plateau for more than a week, journal what you eat to see if you are snacking in between meals or getting liquid calories you weren't considering. I never counted calories throughout my whole journey. I make conscious GOOD choices about what I eat. BUT, I DO NOT kick myself if I choose something that is considered 'bad' by dieters. I got the band because I didn't want to diet anymore. And it has been a wonderful tool for me...