Calorie Question

I'm a little confused, prior to WLS I would consume an average of 2,500-3,500 or more calories in a day. If I wanted to lose weight I could drop my calorie intake to 1,200-1,500 and drop weight pretty quickly. Now after WLS I'm consuming apx 600 calories a day and doing great, but as I start introducing new foods my calorie and carb. count will go up. So whats the magic number to sustain goal weight. I've heard numbers like 900-1,000 and if thats true why? If I lost weight in the past at 1,500 with no exercise, why would that number be less with moderate exercise to sustain weight. Is it do to absorption? I appreciate the feed back. C'ya Bob

Hey Rockytop, The thing we don't really factor in is the fact how many calories we were burning in the past lugging around all the excess weight. Got rid of the excess baggage so now it takes fewer calories to git' around. Other than that, shouldn't be that much difference over the long haul although the body goes into starvation mode preserving calories in the first year post-WLS. As your body changes (i..e. more muscle = higher metabolism = more calories burnt or vice versa), required caloric intake will change as well.  Great question, Boner

Makes sense, hell if I carried a hundred pounds of weights around I would be burning up calories. You just don't think of it while it's still attached to your azzzzz!

Bob,

The Overall amounts will depend on your individual Daily Calorie needs.

To get a quick, rough Calorie versus Exercise number for someone your size? Check out- http://www.caloriecontrol.org/calcalsm.html It is a blunt tool, but does give you some guidelines to check how you’re doing. It’s not as involved as Fitday, but it is a quick guide that’s fairly accurate. Best Wishes- Dx

DX, I know you're the go-to man for answers, but I always question the calculators (and I did notice your caveat on "fairly accurate". )  I've been stuck on 261 pounds for over 3 weeks now and can't bust through and I'm not even 4 months out yet.  I'm averaging <1500 cals per day (see my past posts about lack of restriction.  It's like the restriction never really started).  I'm exercising more that I ever had in the past.  Softball, Ice hockey skating with my son, push mowing the grass 2x per week (3+ hours), etc. Just can't seem to break through.  Kind of a mystery considering I should at least be dropping something.  Just venting, not ready to give up yet.  But I am to the point where I may request an upper GI to take a look at the true size of my new stomach.  It seems like newbies STRUGGLE to get in 600-800 cals where I have to "watch" what I eat to stay on track.  Guy

You sure you're not packing on some muscle? Muscle retains a lot of water and is much heavier than fat.

Good thought, but I deliberately gave up lifting and headed for the more cardio type of exercises.  Also, my initial clothes size drop has stopped as well.  I used to be 3x, 48 waist, now I'm XL/2XL and a 42 waist.  But it's been that way for about 3 weeks.  I'm sure it will kick in again, eventually. Everyone always posts about stalls, but a 3 weeker usually doesn't happen until many months into the transition. But thanks for your response and sorry for hijacking the original post. Guy

I hit a stall for about two weeks.  Could not get the scale to budge past 304.  Getting under 300 was a goal of mine from the start.  I was intaking anywhere from 900-1200 calories and nothing was working.  Well, late last week I decided to play the Atkins card and while I didn't go down to the 20g carbs to start out with that he suggested, I did go down to about 75g (I monitor everything I eat on dailyplate.com to help make sure I'm getting the protein I need).  I've lost 5 lbs since then and finally have hit my first milestone!  Maybe it was time for me to break my miniplateau, but I am going to try to not go too carb crazy.

Okay - a couple things here. First of all, I'm almost two years out.  I've been stalled between 270-280 for a couple of months.  Granted I started out at 677 - so it's an amazing success just to get to this point.  But I"m not done yet.  I just had surgery, and once I'm fully recovered, I'm going to start working out with a personal trainer and get my ass moving. At any rate - here's my theory.  Your body is going to do what it's going to do.  Whether you eat 4857218473829037892473 calories a day like some of us used to, and not only that high of calories, but eating crap - you're going to gain weight.  Again, mine was up to nearly 700 lbs. However, if you consume - grabbing a number from thin air - 1500 calories a day, and they're healthy calories (low carb, high protien, low fat and low sugar), your body is going to adapt to that and maintain a healthy weight. Again - almost two years out - I'd have to work HARD to get in more than about 1500 calories.  I hear about some of the guys consuming more than that - and I just can't imagine it.  At this level, I feel like I'm eating all the time. I try to keep my protien up, carbs, sugar, and fat down.  As well as sodium, as high sodium will make you retain water.  Speaking of water, I get in 6 or 7 16.9oz bottles of water a day.  I don't count my coffee as water intake (I drink 6-7 cups a day) - so I probably take in a total of 100+ oz of liquid a day if I include the coffee. So .. to sum this up .. magic number?  I'm not entirely sure there is one.  I think the combination of actiivty and healthy eating is what's going to make us lose weight / maintain - and we have to discover that on our own. I'm with Guy - I don't put a lot of faith in calculators like these online.  (No disrepsect for Dx  at all - I just have a general distrust of those things). *IF* I ever get to the "Ideal weight" that page's calculator gives me for my height (172 lbs), it tells me I need to consume over 2000 calories a day to maintain that. I have no idea how I can ever get that much in. Nor do I think I'll ever see 172 lbs.  I have a goal in mind of getting to the 220-230 range.  I'm 5'11", and once I'm healed from this surgery, I'm going to exercise on a very regular basis (getting exercise in every day - personal trainer on alternating days, riding a bike and / or walking on the others).  I can't see myself ever being that small - and perhaps that's just an image thing.  But you get my point.   I'm probably going to pack on some muscle, so 172 just doesn't seem realistic. I guess I'll just wait and see.  I'm not stressing about any "goal weight" the way some folks do.  I'm more about getting and staying healthy.

I appreciate everyones input I guess its a trial and error process. Hopefully not much error.  But I got to tell you Guy's problem sounds like a problem! lets face it if he has to watch not going over 1,500 calories and feeling no restriction at this early stage of the game something can't be right.  I can't imagine trying to get in that kind of volume.  Guy I would be banging on the surgeons door a stall is one thing but not having no limitations is bull ****  Granted I haven't been here as long as a lot of people but I've only heard one other person say they could eat anything without fear of dumping but even they didn't say they could eat as much as they wanted.  Guy something ain't cool in the GI Zone. No disrespect about the muscle verses weight loss theory but that still wouldn't allow you to eat anything and everything. Guy good luck keep us updated! C'ya Buddy, Bob