Calories
What is the normal calorie intake for 8 months out? I'm fairly active as a nurse, and I run approximately 3.25 miles & do weights three times a week. I do notice that I am tons hungrier on workout days, but I also want to stay within a healthy range of calories. I'm currently using My Fitness Pal to track EVERYTHING I place in my mouth. What are you thoughts or guidelines from your doctor?
One thing that really helped me was I made a follow up appt with my nut about 6 months ago. She hooked me up to a machine that gave her info on my metabolism. It told her how many calories I need to take in to maintain my current weight. I liked that there was some science behind the numbers, instead of just estimating. I found it very helpful.
My doctor didn't give me caloric guidelines, but on any given day I eat between 1100-1400 calories. I'm 145 lbs and do 90 minutes of yoga 6 days a week.
At eight months out I was probably at about 1000-1100 per day and was not exercising with nearly the same frequency or intensity. My dietary focus was on getting adequate protein and eating balanced meals.
I still use a food tracker to make sure I'm getting the nutrition that I need and am not going over what I need to maintain and still provide my body with the energy needed to do the things I enjoy.
Long-term post-ops with regain struggles, click here to see some steps for getting back on track (without the 5-day pouch fad or liquid diet): http://www.obesityhelp.com/member/bananafish711/blog/2013/04/05/don-t-panic--believe-and-you-will-succeed-/
Always cooking at www.neensnotes.com!
Need a pick-me-up? Read this: http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/10/it-will-be-sunny-one-day.html
Do you still have more to lose or are you trying to maintain?? How many calories are you eating now? Are you losing or maintaining eating that amount??? I think we are all so different. I figured out my calorie needs by trial and error.
Laura in Texas
53 years old; 5'7" tall; HW: 339 (BMI=53); GW: 140 CW: 170 (BMI=27)
RNY: 09-17-08 Dr. Garth Davis
brachioplasty: 12-18-09 Dr. Wainwright; lbl/bl: 06-28-11 Dr. LoMonaco
"May your choices reflect your hopes and not your fears."
- These are the rules I followed/follow:
- *Drink 64 ounces Liquids daily (drink up to a meal, wait 60 minutes after a meal) (I add 2 packets sugar free drink mix and 1 teaspoon Benefiber to 2-32 ounce water containers)
- *Must eat at least 60 grams of Protein a day (80 or more grams beginning at 1200 calories a day)
- *Eat dairy products that are no fat/low fat
- *Eat simple (dairy, fruit) and complex (beans, vegetables, whole grains) Carbohydrates (I do not count daily grams)
- *No more than 15 grams of Sugar per meal (more grams if able to tolerate-I allow myself up to 30 grams Sugar per meal from Simple and Complex Carbohydrate sources and also from Dairy products that are no fat/low fat because I do not seem to dump on Sugar)
- *Eat 3 main meals (B, L, D) no further than 5-6 hours apart
- *Eat 1 protein snack at 1200 calories a day at least 2-3 hours from breakfast
- *Eat 4-5 protein snacks at Maintenance calories a day at least 2-3 hours from B, L, D
- *3-6 Months After Surgery: I ate 600-700 calories a day
- *6-9 Months After Surgery: I ate 800-900 calories a day
- *9-12 Months After Surgery: I ate 1000 calories a day
- *12-24 Months After Surgery: eat 1200 calories a day (I ate 1200 calories a day until 15 months when I reached my goal weight)
- *24 Months after surgery (or when goal weight is reached before 24 months): Maintenance calories (BMR/RMR & Activity Level) (Malabsorption of calories lasts approximately 18-24 months) (I eat 1800-2000 calories a day to maintain my weight loss of 200 pounds at a weight of 131 pounds. My height is 5'4")
- * I do not participate in a formal exercise program due to Rheumatoid Arthritis and Osteoarthritis. I do move around a lot more and do a lot more walking.
Thanks everyone for responding.I've lost 95 lbs since 7/3/12 & I'm still trying to lose. I have about 55 more lbs to go. After looking back on my food history for his week, I've averaged anywhere from 1100-1700 calories. I'm still losing about 1 lb every week & a half. I'm super happy with my progress, and try to be diligent about working out & tracking my movements on my Nike Plus bracelet. I meet my goal everyday & double it most days. On a an extremely busy day, I've even tripled it. I do eat 3 meals & 2 snacks a day to keep my glucose levels from dropping, which was extremely scary early out. I'm going to cut back on my calories & shoot for 1100-1200. Thanks again everyone for taking time out of your day to respond.