Post VSG calorie intake

[pinklyfe]

I've been reading on other forums, that members say that post their VSG surgery, they keep their cal. intake anywhere from 700-900 cal/ day. Most diets reccommend 1000-12000 cal/ day. Recently one person explained that because the stomach is so small VSG people dont need more cal. then that. That doesn't make sense to me. Why would your body need less calories because your stomach is smaller? The intestines haven't been rerouted. The stomachs role is to break down the food so nutrients can get extracted in the intestines. Can anyone explain why VSGrs have such low cal. Intake post surgery?

[Avonlea]

You don't really feel like eating. It's not a chore for me, but I can forget eating until 2:00 pm if I don't watch out.

[pinklyfe]

Ok. Thanks. That reasoning i can understand and appreciate. Its not that your body needs less cal because you have a smaller stomach as that member said.

[Brandilynn]

I followed a 600 to 800 less than 20 carbs a day until I was through with the weight loss part and shifted to body composition.

Its really not worth arguing about but I will say this about that. Its MUCH easier to ADD food to your diet than it is to take it away if the higher caloric values arre not getting you where you want to be. *And please hear me, when I say its not worth arguing over, I am not being dismissive of anyone else's choice, I am only saying experience is going to show you what works for you, arguing about it seems a waste of time and energy and is not going to change anyone's mind about anything*

Again, everybody's body (AND MIND!!) works differently. I NEEDED to get my ass to goal THIS TIME. Everyone gets to figure out how to STAY where you want to be.. not everyone GETS where they originally wanted to be (for a myriad of reasons). I am distracted by shiny objects and cannot hold a laser focus for a very very very long time. Some folks can, and for them to go slower and get to where they want to be can work for them, but that was not true about me before, and to think it was true about me after was just shitting myself. I used preop diet and post op progression and the skeleton basics of my loss period to, essentially, bootcamp learn myself new habits, tricks, and to learn to have different conversations with myself instead of behaving the same way that ended up in my needing wls. Perhaps for some folks this really is just a volume issue, but for me, the reasons I got heavy, could not maintain any loss for an extended period of time, got heavy again, et cetera, had a lot to do with not ONLY that insane hunger of mine, and my huge capacity for foods, but the behaviors that had become habit BECAUSE of my being a bit retarded about how to go about conversing with myself about stress and compulsions, because I never had a chance with the screaming hunger and huge capacity I had.

Just to reiterate, also, not everyone does not feel like eating, not everyone does not like to eat anymore, not everyone never is hungry again, not everyone finds eating a chore (I was one of those not everyones). I never was not hungry, I have not had food aversions, I did not have any issues with eating or drinking.

But here is another thing, learning to manipulate my calories without manipulating my volume has been helpful, say when I ripped my calf muscle, the same amount of food can be hundreds of calories more or less, depending on what I need, and those are things I learned to do with previous diets, but definitely honed on the lower calorie diet.

Anyway, I guess I figure you should pay attention to the plan that was given you, but know if its not working like in the brochure, that there are always folks who can help you tweak things.

To each their own, and all! There are a zillion folks and we have half zillion body types, we are all the same in clumps and different in clumps, and we need to find what works for us! Hooray for things that work!

**edit to add, unless people are VERY petite AND sedentary, they do not keep those calorie counts during maintenance. My maintenance calories are from 2000 to nearly 3000 depending on the activities of my day. YMMV

[redbabe08]

i fall into the category that i'm not often hungry & when i do eat - i'm 2/3 bites in and completely full.

i'm 3+months out & can't imagine eating 600 calories just yet - i think this is the case of YMMV.

BL gave a good write up.

[Happy966]

I do not have to work very hard to "only" eat 700-800 calories. This seems to be a good amount of food for me, post surgery. I agree that it is always easier (for me) to add food than subtract it. I doubt I will stay this low for long, but while it is easy, I'll take it.

I do not have the world's smallest sleeve, and I can eat more than many at 5 months out. BUT, I would have to really set my mind to it to consistently eat 1200 calories a day right now - I couldn't do it easily with the normal foods I eat - I would have to add more concentrated calories - more fats, more carbs.

[Deleted]

calories needed are really going to vary and not because of your surgery - but your age, gender, level of activity, and entire past history of eating: the sum total of your metabolism.

I am one of the few people who didn't need to track - I started post-op and was getting in about 400 calories for the first few months. I now eat a TON more - but I never measure. best guess is it varies a lot but averages around 1500 a day or so.

[Deleted]

Feb 12, 2012 0:28:15 GMT -5 pinklyfe said:

Ok. Thanks. That reasoning i can understand and appreciate. Its not that your body needs less cal because you have a smaller stomach as that member said.

when I was only getting in 400 calories it was because that was all I COULD get in and still be getting the fluid and protein I needed.

[jillybean720]

I don't bother counting calories. I eat the kinds of foods I know I should be eating (focus on protein first) and stop before I'm feeling "stuffed." When I do track my food intake, I find I consume around 1800 calories a day while losing (I would estimate I reached this level at 6+ months out from surgery). I personally believe the quality and macronutrient composition of your diet is more important than the number of calories. If I ate more carbs, I would have to eat fewer calories to be able to maintain or lose. By eating low in carbs and high in fat, I can eat more total calories and still maintain or lose.

[countof3]

I'm 7 months out yesterday. I don't always track but i check. I think my sleeve is average. I get around 1000 average but I do eat a small amount of carbs. I'm not hungry, I often go far under that just due to being busy. I mostly eat protein so that's very filling. Those of us who got morbidly obese do not require an "average diet". Out bodies are extremely food efficient. We waste nothing so we only need at maintenance maybe 1300 tops with average exercise level.

[Carolyn H.]

I did 600-800 during my main weightloss phase. I'm up to 1200 or so as I go into maintenance, but I'm still losing. My surgeon's program includes metabolic testing. My testing suggests my Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) is about 1,800 calories a day and I will need 2000 or more calories a day to maintain my weight. I do cardio 5-7 days a week and strength train 2-3x weekly. A lot will depend on the level of exercise you do.

At some point, you may want to spend $75-$100 to see an exercise physiologist and have your RMR tested.

[muffinsmom]

It's not so much that the body doesn't need that amount of calories, it's just that we CAN'T eat much more than that, depending on the composition of the foods we eat as Jillybean said. Our stored-up fat makes up the difference, and amazingly just about the time we no longer have much in the way of stored energy, our capacity increases, just a bit, so that we can meet our energy needs through intake alone, and the weight loss stops. Pretty cool how that works.

I was 600-800 calories during most of my weight loss phase, and now average around 1400. I track my food diligently, I'm a little OCD that way I think.

[ilex]

Curious about when would be a good time to test RMR? At 3 months out? 6 months?

I have only gone over 700 calories a few times to far. Most days I'm right at that, or a bit under. I had a spell of 5-6 days that I ran more like 500.

It varies a lot by what I can eat. Today has been a good eating day. I've gotten in my protein drink, an ounce of cheese, a decaf skinny latte, some nuts, and 2 ounces of tuna by 2 PM. I find that on days that I'm out running errands and such in the morning I never really catch up.

[roseselene]

I don't specifically count calories, but I keep a mental note of what I've eaten throughout the day and I probably range anywhere from 800-1000 calories depending on the day. Perhaps slightly more on the weekends because I'm a bit off schedule on the weekends. I'm still losing at that rate, but very slowly. Like only 1 pound every 10 days to 2 weeks which is totally fine with me. I'm 2 pounds away from goal, so I'm ok with the slowed weight loss. I actually think that maintanance sounds scarier than weight loss at this point in time. I'm nervous about adding too many more calories and going in the wrong direction. For right now, its not too hard for me because what I'm eating currently is sufficient for me and I don't feel hungry or deprived at all.
That being said, I'm only 8 months out, I know things will change as time goes on.
Amy

[glennbarr]

I'm curious about this subject...I'm a tall/big guy (6'4"/320 lbs) and online BMR calculators give me results of around 2600 calories to maintain weight without extra exercise. I'm set to get a VSG in 80 days (hating the wait!) and have bit a little worried that I'll end up loosing TOO much weight, as I won't be able to eat enough calories. Is this just unfounded worry? I'm also thinking of ways to avoid crazy loose skin syndrome...is slow weight loss more effective at preventing loose skin? Thoughts?

[nandmsmom]

Again, it's very variable. I'm someone who can eat a bit more. My calories at 2 months out are in the 800-1000 range. I have no desire to get them lower. My priorities are to get the protein I need and the nutrients that I need. There isn't any room for anything else at this point. All my calories are from food and no protein shakes. If I used shakes to get my protein in, my calories would be lower.

It's really very individual. I wouldn't worry too much about your calories per se. When you're post op, you'll figure out what will work for you. Unless you're eating cake and cookies, your calories are going to be low and you'll lose the weight. There just simply isn't enough room if you're eating protein first.

[Deleted]

Mar 17, 2012 18:58:30 GMT -5 glennbarr said:

I'm curious about this subject...I'm a tall/big guy (6'4"/320 lbs) and online BMR calculators give me results of around 2600 calories to maintain weight without extra exercise. I'm set to get a VSG in 80 days (hating the wait!) and have bit a little worried that I'll end up loosing TOO much weight, as I won't be able to eat enough calories. Is this just unfounded worry? I'm also thinking of ways to avoid crazy loose skin syndrome...is slow weight loss more effective at preventing loose skin? Thoughts?

Online calculators are notoriously off, don't go by those in the slightest.. we are MO people, our RMR/BMR is likely lower than a normal person (same goes with those exercise calculators, they are very inaccurate.) I have not heard of anyone losing too much weight with the VSG, big or petite, athletic or no. Even at 700 cal a day +/- 50 a day, my losses have slowed.. as you shrink, you need even less, so don't fret about that.. you will be able to eat enough to sustain yourself nutritionally, and even gain if you choose foods that are not the best for your particular needs.

As far as the skin.. no, if you are going to have it, it will be there - the speed of loss has nothing to do with the end result. I have lost it all by myself in the past, had hanging skin.. I have it again. No way to avoid it when it's damaged from being stretched, it just won't snap back no matter what we wish. Just save for plastics if it's going to be an issue

[countof3]

I'm all over the board... I mostly have to consciously think to eat. I have to plan ahead, pack things, etc. Because I won't eat crap it makes me feel horrible now so I can go hours without eating since I'm not hungry.

But on occasion I have days where I am hungry all day. I've decided this is ok because I'm actually getting some sort of feedback, not like growling hunger pains but more like this body awareness of "you need more" and I stick to my protein, maybe some veggies/fruit on those days.

I'd worry if it was everyday but right now it's like once every couple of months and lasts a couple days and then ends. I just had one day this past week and it was right before I got the flu!! Guess my body was thinking "attack! fuel up people" LOL.

I'm not worried yet but I'll talk to my surgeon if I get there. Oh for numbers, I think I average 800, some days are less, some are more, I rarely get more than 1200 even on a super snacky hungry day. More often I think I'm between 600 and 900.

[glennbarr]

Thanks for the great replys to my questions. Good info. Counting the minutes until my surgery date...haven't wanted something so much in a loooooong time.

[Carolyn H.]

I stayed in the 600-800 calorie, 40g carb range for the entirety of my weightloss phase. I also worked out pretty extensively (run, bike, weight train). I'm now in the 1300-1500 calorie a day range, still losing slowly, and working up to 2000 calories a day to maintain.

Where I made my mistake was that I tried to stay at that level while training once I had my body fat down.. I should have upped my calories about a month before I did as I had a kind of metabolic crash and burn. Part of it is related to my autoimmune disorder, but I also developed symptoms of "Female Athelet Triad" including losing my period. I go in for a bone density scan on monday. From my experience and discussions with the various 'ologists' I've been too over the last month, once you become a 'normie' (i.e., BMI less than 25), you have to eat like an athlete if you're going to train like an athlete. Large energy deficits (calories burned less than consumed whether intentional or not) without large fat stores t burn as energy take a toll on the female body.