600 Calories

So I visited my surgeon for my 6 month visit. A few weeks later, but he said I was right on track. He changed my goal weight- I expressed concern about losing my curves. And he told me that I should be eating 600 calories per day.

I like to get in my protein via mixes and shakes, and eat a high protein dinner. So I was exceeding the 600 calories by maybe 300 or so. Is anybody else eating 600 calories per day? It seems low to me. Of course I am going to follow doctors orders. But I am just wondering what calorie count is everyone else doing.  I actually wasn't counting calories, I just had a general idea, as I thought protein and fluids were the most important things to worry about.

I recently increased my fluids to 120 ounces per day. This has helped with the dryness that I was experiencing on my skin and face. I have posted pictures to my profile and I notice a difference.

I ate 600 calories when I was just starting out until I was about 2 maybe 3 months out but that is it.  That is way too little calories for 6 months out.  It will actually slow down your weight loss and you won't be able to get in enough protein at this point.  By 6 months out, you should be getting atleast 80 grams of protein and most proteins shakes are atleast 200 calories, so if you are only allowed 600 calories, that only leaves you 400 calories for the rest of the day.  I don't see how that is possible.  I think you are doing the right thing by eating around 900 calories and your weight loss is doing really well.  Dont' fool with it by cutting your calories by so much. You will go into starvation mode and your weight loss will slow down.  Everytime I went into a stall, my NUT told me to increase my calories and it always worked. I wasn't eating enough.

Is this your surgeon telling you this or a nutritionist?  The problem is surgeons tell us things and they dont' know much about nutrition. They should stick to cutting.  If you don't have a good nutritionist that specializes in WLS, get one.  My surgeon has nothing to do with what I eat, that is all left to my Nutritionist and the same for my labs.  That is what she specializes in.

I wish you the best.  Did you get 6 month labs?

600 at 6 months is way too low.  You should be averaging 800-1000/day.  In fact, my nutritionist bumped me up to 800-1000 at the 3 month mark and that's where I stayed through about the 1 year post-op mark. 

And just an observation about getting all your protein during the day from shakes.  Shakes are fine as a supplement, not as a replacement for food at most meals. You should be eating real food for breakfast and lunch and dinner and using shakes to SUPPLEMENT your protein needs at snack times.  Once in a while using a shake as a meal is fine, but you need to get your pouch accustom to being filled with dense lean protein food.  Once your hunger returns, you don't want to have to learn this lesson at that time, you want to learn it now. 

Skin dryness is often related to lack of fat in our diets. Try adding fish oil if you're not able to get 25% of your calories from fat in your food.  Drinking too much water can deplete electrolytes if you're not careful. 

One more thing, getting most of your protein from shakes isn't a great thing either. You need to eat 5 or 6 small meals a day.  If you want to use shakes for 2 of them that is fine only eating 1 meal, you are not learning how to eat and you are not getting all the proper nutrient that you get from food.  You need fruits and vegetabls plus meats, fish, chicken etc and yes carbs - not alot of carbs but we do need carbs.  Eating 5 or 6 times per day optimizes your metabolism and keeps your blood sugar level.

600 seems much too low to me.  At six months I was doing about 800, but then I stalled for a whole month and someone pointed out that I probably wasn't eating enough so I increased it to 1000 and started losing again.  Then I saw my dietician and she confirmed that 1000 was a good  number.  It may vary depending on how active you are, but I am not very active.  I would say if you exercise a lot you would need even more than that. 

Protein and fluids are the most important thing to worry about but I just think 600 is much too low.

Kelly

Hi, I just went in for my 6mon check up and was told to eat 900 - 1100 so I aim for 1000. I was eating 600 back a 3 mons and got yelled at that wasn't enough and why I was losing so slow. So I increased it to 800-900 and did much better.
Hope you find what works for you
Tanya

 600 is not reasonable after month 3.  I was at about 1100-1200 at 6 months.  I think 900 sounds perfect.

I was getting anywhere from 800-1400 per day at that poin, with an average 800-1000 per day.
600 is below starvation point for most people - you may lose weight - but you will mess up your metabolizm even beyond what is already messed up.

Thanks you guys for the input. I too thought that 600 was too low. The surgeon said this. I didn't elect to see the nutritionist on this visit. I know when I used to diet, I was at 1000 calories, and 600 is almost half that.
It is not even in the guidelines to eat 600. Another patient of this same doctor said that 600 is what they eat as well.

I had a different experience than most others, apparently, as my dietician had me at 600-700 calories until month 10 or so.  I didn't stall once and lost 205 lbs total in about 13 months.  I was also exercising about 2 hours per day at that point.  And, until my hunger returned, I never felt like 600 calories was too low...in other words, I felt neither deprived nor bad physically.  After my hunger returned, I bumped up to about 900 calories per day until I met goal.

Happy Easter, and take care -

Lori  (-: