why do I feel guilty eating 1500 calories?

OK I've lost 180 lbs in 10 months.  I look good and I'm happy with where I'm at and I'd be satisfied with slowing down weight loss.

So I was starting to get tired and feeling run down on 1000+/- calories.  According to livestrong I can eat 1480 calories and still loose 2.5 lbs a week, yet I feel guilty suddenly eating twice as much food. But I feel better physically, just not mentally.

I've also plateaued with probably ties into the guilt.

Someone tell me it's OK

Patrick

It's OK. It took me a LONG time to wrap my brain around dealing with maintenance. Even though I knew I was more than thin enough, I still wanted to see a loss when I got on the scale. We have all been so programmed to have to be losing weight, that it takes awhile to get past that. I'm now OK with it after almost a year. I have to eat 2500 to 3000 calories a day to maintain, so you nay find you need to go even higher than 1500 at some point. Just weigh yourself at least a couple of times a week to stay on top of things as you figure it out.
-Wanda

I dunno Patrick, it's pretty hard with RNY; I lived with it for 28 years and always felt like what you're describing because it was like I had to walk a tightrope to keep the weight off. I had to exercise every day and really watch what I ate to maintain; it was really hard. I did it for 15 years, but I got sick and couldn't exercise for a year and that did me in and I ended up gaining it all back.

I wish I had some easy thing to tell you about how to eat and maintain; but with your WLS, I don't think you have much choice. You're on a diet for the rest of your life, I sure hope you can maintain.

Kerry 

Bury the guilt! But it is hard to get our heads around being able to eat so much more once we get to goal!

Kate

You are a man.  Please don't compare your intake to women.  You need at least 1500 calories to be healthy.  Ask yourself why you feel guilty for acting healthy?  Tell yourself as often as necessary that you are a healthy, attractive, successful man and you will quickly believe it.  Also, a plateau is a long time without weight loss or inches lost.  Perhaps your are in a stall.  Loris

Because you're still in that "diet" mentality that we've all had to live with for so long.

Mangia!!!

 I'm 6'-0".  185 is "normal" for my height but i don't have any expectation of ever getting that low.

They say it's good to jack ur calories up one or two days a week anyway. It confuses the system. 

Doctor says, in these early stages,  I should eat at least 1,200 calories a day to prevent metabolism going into starvation mode (slowing down drastically--could be permanently if done too frequently).

I don't want to drop the calories so low I'll never be able to eat normally again, I say this because I've seen many on this forum say they are sticking to 700,800 or 900 calorie days which I think is dangerous for it's long term damage to the metabolism--I've gone that drastic calorie reduction prior to surgery and it really messed up my entire system for 30 years as I got fatter and fatter.

Point being men need for calories, so 1,400-1,500 in the losing phase sounds about right. Nothing to feel bad about.

It is suggested that slower losing allows the mind and body to catch up and helps discourage the weight from creeping back on. Also, hair loss is much less bad with the super slow weight loss.