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I didn’t read all the replies but 800 calories doesn’t sound like a lot until you break it down and supply your diet with nutrient dense foods over energy dense ones. Here’s what I would do for an 800 calorie day- Breakfast- 6tbsp egg whites, a medium diced tomato, 2 cups of fresh spinach and 1oz reduced fat cheddar with 1/2 cups blueberries Lunch- a tuna packet mixed with 1tbsp light mayo, on one slice 35calorie keto bread with 2 cups salad greens and half a cup sliced cucumber afternoon snack- protein shake dinner- chili made with 1/2 cup canned kidney beans, 1/2 cup tomato sauce, 1/4 cup diced onion, and 1/4 cup diced bell pepper dessert- 1/2 cup nonfat plain greek yogurt mixed with sugar free, fat free pudding mix. Total count- 803 calories, 77g carbs (24.5g fiber), 16g fat, 95g protein

This year was An awesome YEAR ...8 months post op. I went from a full ugly cry at the counter because chicken would not go down right after surgery 😂😂 and grieving all the unhealthy food that I loved, to actually learning how to eat, loving my new body, eating with Intention and loving the the things I actually can eat. I have learned to cook foods that I enjoy and make it bariatric friendly. Who knew our food could taste that good! I had no idea I could continue to enjoy all the foods in a new way! Movement is an activity that I enjoy and aided in my rapid weight loss. I hope to continue to move, I hope to add new movement skills (hot yoga, rucking, boxing). What is your year ends review? What did you learn? Any setbacks? Anything you are looking forward to in the new year?

This year I had so many WINS! It was An awesome YEAR 8 months post op. I went from a full ugly cry at the counter because chicken would not go down right after surgery 😂😂 and grieving all the unhealthy food, to actually learning how to eat, loving my new body, eating with Intention and loving the the things I actually can eat. I have learned to cook foods that I enjoy and make it bariatric friendly. Who knew our food could taste that good! What is your year ends review?

Basically eggs lots of different ways, and soups and stews. I loved adding lentils to lots of dishes at the soft food stage. And yes - loads of minced pork, beef, turkey, again in as many different ways as my family would tolerate. That list above from @AmberFL looks amazing. It ended up lowish carb eating focusing on protein too. And as much home cooking as possible so you really know what you're getting!

I hear you on adding more food. It can definitely be hard, especially at this point of your weight loss journey. While I suggested a few hundred per day, you might honestly need to start with less and work your way up. Even 150 calories of lean protein like chicken or fish would be a good start. That's only around a half cup or so, depending on which food your choose. From there, work your way up to around a cup.

2024 was a great year. I lost a sh*t ton of weight and became HOT and athletic again, landed a dream job, my relationship transformed and its the best its ever been, I am thriving and thankful. 2025: Travel (3 trips booked) Build my booty back Manage my anxiety through guided meditation Read 40 books (read 38 in 2024) Save more (have been so reckless with my spending) Continue eating the way I do, never depriving myself of anything but never going overboard with anything either, taste and put it down if I didn't like it, prioritize protein, nourish my body and continue to be anxiety free regarding food and lifestyle

I second the suggestion to track everything you eat or drink. I know it can be annoying to weigh/measure and record everything but it is the best way to ensure your portions are too large or you’re missing hidden calories or underestimating them. For example ate your potatoes mashed with butter, milk & are you counting them? Try to focus more on home made foods too so you can control the ingredients and cooking methods. I’d also suggest eating more regularly aiming for three small meals of real food not two meals of shakes. I was someone who lost their hunger and interest in eating for about a year. I ate to a routine to ensure I was getting in the nutrients I needed. I still eat this way. Even if I’m not all that hungry, I’ll still eat something. At 800 calories, most of your meal would be protein with some vegetables. Take your record of your tracked eating & drinking to your dietician and ask them to review it and make actual suggestions of what you could eat (add or remove). Demand better advice than an eye roll or general you must be eating something that’s sabotaging your weight loss.

Yep, it is exactly like a growing baby’s stages of eating: liquids, purées, soft food then solids. Most of us are told no pasta (rice or bread) because it swells in the tummy and takes up valuable space which should be dedicated to protein and then vegetables. Plus they are simple carbs with little nutritional value when the nutrient value of what we eat is so important. When you are able to eat carbs look to whole or multi grain complex carbs and then only if you are able to eat them after eating all your protein first, then vegetables, (then fruit if you are able) and finally carbs. You’ll be getting some good carbs in any vegetables & fruit you eat. Some, like me, can never go back to eating pasta, rice and bread. They just sit far too heavily in our tummies. Don’t be worried if you eat a meal that is solely protein either. I often did that but it wasn’t for all my meals or every day but sometimes the protein was all I could eat at a meal. Also yes to high protein yoghurts. Blend them with milk for added protein & to make a smoothie. These were a game changer for me in regards to meeting protein goals. The yoghurt I buy used to have a pre-made yoghurt drink with 34g of protein & I would sip it during the afternoon. But be careful of some pre-made ones as they can have lots of added sugar or artificial sweeteners and not much protein.

I was also allowed scrambled eggs and I made pureed egg salad (that wasn’t bad). My saving grace were refried beans with a little 2% cheese and the ricotta bake. Just be sure your tomato sauce doesn’t have chunks or that you puree it if so. I got a little kitchen aid food processor. Not cheap but cute enough to leave on the counter and I use it now to make pico and guacamole so it wasn’t a waste (they do make much cheaper ones though if you have room to store it I just have a tiny kitchen). I imagine you could use a blender or nutra bullet in retrospect in a pinch but it doesn’t give you as much control over the consistency. The nutra bullet comes in handy to make drinkable yogurts and smoothies later too. The drinkable yogurt you should be able to do during the puree phase as well (i just used yogurt, fruit and almond milk).

I have a few questions for you. The first is, how is your hunger level right now? Are you ravenous, totally uninterested in food, or somewhere in between? Second, how much preparation of fresh food do you do compared to eating of premade or processed foods? I have some ideas that might help, but a lot depends on how hungry you get and how open you are to preparing your own foods from scratch. Also, if you could give us an idea of what your current eating routine is, that might help. Like, how often do you eat each day, and what does a typical menu look like for you? Are there any foods you absolutely love or hate?

Yes to your first question. I only lost like 60 to 70 lbs. My surgeon staff only wants me on a 800 calorie diet loss weight. Except low cLorie sweet tea I don't eat much food let alone it's hard to eat anything when most foods have above 200 hundred calories.

I too skipped the whole pureed stage, continued on thicker liquids (mainly lentil and chicken soup) and protein shakes.

I have this craving for salty, so it's not terrible. I do drink my broths and whatnot, I can eat scrambled eggs, so I'm not entirely liquid. I've been referring to this stage in my diet as the baby led weaning stage, because I'm able to eat soft foods but most of my intake is still liquid. The only thing I have found that my body didn't like was pasta.. I deconstructed my dad's Christmas lasagna, ate a very small piece of pasta, and regretted it. Next day, I was fine with pasta. It was weird.

I hear you about the shakes. I found them sweet too and also very grainy so texturally off putting. I used to dilute the shakes to try to reduce the sweetness and had only one a day. Shakes aren’t your only source of protein if you’re still in the liquid stage. Bone broths, consommés, cream soups can all be eaten/drunk during this stage. I found the bone broths salty so drank cream soups ( just strain them to make sure there are no stray fibres or random chunks). I agree with @summerseeker’s suggestion to make your own shakes with milk, yoghurt, protein powder, skim milk powder and an unsweetened powdered flavour if you wish. You will likely find this sensitivity to certain flavours, textures and even smells continues for a couple of months. Your tummy can be pretty fussy. I described mine as a petulant, temper throwing 2 year old child. You may find you tolerate something one day but not the next. It does pass so don’t think you’ll never be able to eat those foods ever again. Multi vitamins can make you nauseous too. Make sure you take them after you’ve eaten or with the last few sips of your shake, broth, etc. Also if you have to take multiple vitamins spread out across the day when you take them. I’d take one multi in the am and the other in the pm to reduce the effects of the nausea. Also have you tried taking an anti nausea med to get you through this period. Your liquid stage will soon be over and then you’ll be on purées and that can be another interesting experience in finding something you can tolerate eating. It does get better and easier.

While I absolutely do not agree that it’s likely you will GAiN weight on 800 calories, 800 Calories can be a pretty good amount of food depending on what you eat. for example this is 757 calories and it’s 100 g of protein. breakfast: Caramel “Proffee” made from a premiere protein caramel shake with iced coffee mixed in. (It’s really good and filling with the protein btw). lunch: three eggs omelette with 2% cheese (1 ounce) and tomatoes and onion (1/2 cup). dinner: grilled chicken breast (3 ounce) and zucchini and onion (1/2 cup). snack: oikos triple zero yogurt I use the Baritastic app and I always have the same breakfast but then before I have lunch I plug in my plan and an idea for dinner to make certain it’s okay macro wise. I do pay some attention to calories but protein, added sugars and fat are more important. I also pay attention to my carbs because on some days my exercise is higher and I actually need to increase them a bit. If your dietician is not asking about your activity and your food choices and inky giving you a cookie cutter plan without real guidance I would be asking more questions. These plans need to be tailored to you specifically. if you are having a difficult time finding foods you like that meet the criteria you are definitely not alone. I had to do a ton of research and trial and error with recipes to find a couple weeks worth of meals that I enjoy and I was doing 900ish calories. I scoured the web and found low calorie recipes and also ways to cut calories from things I knew I enjoyed. Basically type “healthy” in front of anything you like and you should find ways to make a more bariatric friendly version. Some days you may need to reduce calories further by having two shakes or egg whites instead to budget for a higher calorie dinner. I don’t love to cook so I make double batches of things and freeze them in individual portions. this has been my lifesaver. For the 800 calories you may have to do a lot of lower calorie lean meat and veggie type dinners unless you cut calories during lunch. For instance instead of 3 eggs you could do five 5 whites and you could even omit the cheese if you need to cut calories further. i would imagine you could still lose on a little higher calorie budget and you have more flexibility in your menu but it may not be as fast as you would like. Either way, check out Baritastic (or another calorie tracking app). It’s very helpful to see exactly what’s in different food and to play around with these meal ideas on an app because you can add and delete and adjust the measurements to figure out how to make things work to fit your plan.

That’s a shame. I believe if you contact customer service they guarantee their products if you don’t like them (let you exchange it maybe). . I know they made me pay return shipping though, which I didn’t love and they require you to purchase insurance as well, but I guess you would get the difference back after that at least. I have been satisfied with the quest products and the vitamins I purchased on there but I admit that I haven’t tried many others. I ordered the oatmeal, chili and some other items for purée stage but they were delayed in shipping (not their fault) so by the time I got them I was done with that stage so they ended up at the bottom of the pantry 😢 I suppose some day I may have a craving for oatmeal but it’s not my favorite food so who knows. The chili just sounds gross now that I can make the real deal.

My surgeon and I spoke about my other health diagnosis and food habits at length. I was very adamant about wanting to be able to eat a variety of foods after if possible. Since I didn’t have previous GERD issues, and based on my other health and meds requirements, she suggested the sleeve was the best option. I also in my research saw there were just a few less complications with it so I was comfortable with that.

A few things stood out to me about your post. 1137 calories is oddly specific. Since most people can't be that accurate with their food intake, I'm curious why you used this specific number? Can you elaborate? For example, most food logging software is only accurate within about 10% plus or minus, even if you are really meticulous with weighing everything. Keep in mind as well that if you are eating very many processed foods, Manufacturers are given a pretty wide latitude in terms of the listed calories, so those aren't near as accurate is you might think. Most people drastically underestimate their overall calorie consumption by as much as 20 to 25%, even if they are logging their food. There are a number of reasons, but things like guestimating certain amounts, using "average" calorie amounts for some items, and not counting certain types of foods are common errors. In short, you may actually be eating a lot more than you think. I'm also curious how you came to the conclusion that 1137 calories per day is the proper amount for you to lose weight? It's entirely possible your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), is anywhere between say 900 and 1700 calories per day. While BMR is just one component of your overall calorie burn per day, it's typically the largest single component, even if you are super active. If you are only working out 3 days a week, I'd not put you into the super active category. My point is that while it's not super likely, it is possible that you are actually eating at maintenance right now. Especially if you are eating more than you think. (See points one and two.) Scales are a REALLY terrible way to track success since they don't account for variations in other tissues besides fat. Water, which is a huge component of your overall weight can fluctuate dramatically day-to-day. Ask yourself honestly, are your clothes fitting differently? There is a pretty good chance here that you have been losing fat, but made up for it by retaining water in your muscles. This is super common in people when they work out, especially when they start a new fitness routine. There's also a small possibility you are actually adding some muscle mass, especially if you are new to strength training. Muscle is much more dense than fat, so if you gain muscle and lose fat, your clothes will fit better, but you might weigh about the same. My advice is going to sound counter-intuitive, but I'd suggest adding 200-300 calories per day to your diet. Preferably lean protein. Do this for 4 weeks and then reassess where you're at. If you are really currently eating at maintenance (as you might think from weeks of no loss), then you would be expected to gain a tiny bit in the next 4 weeks. If it's as I suspect and you're actually eating too little right now, eating a little more may actually up your metabolic rate as well as change your hormone balance. This could be just the thing to kickstart some fat loss in the next 4 weeks. Best of luck whatever you decide.

So I’m technically on soft foods now, per their little sheet they gave me. I tolerated purées fine so I was cleared to move to soft foods. I’ve also been…rarely picking at the softer ends of regular foods. Primarily pickles. Not sure why I have been intensely craving pickles, but it’s more intense than when I was pregnant. I have a fear of losing all of my hair and what muscle mass I do have so I’ve been hyper focused on my protein intake, which is absolutely pitiful right now. I did go shopping on the site earlier and ordered some of the protein shots, and then some hot cocoa mix, as well as liquid protein packets. I have always been a “grazer” so it’s hard for me to sit down and focus on a meal, but if I have something healthy to pick at or drink, I’ll drink it. I figure 100ml is easier to down than an entire shake, and I can do that a lot easier three times a day than I can with regular shakes.

This is where it can get tough. I hated the waste of products and money as everything was Blahh. TBH there are still a few things that I can't stomach. How much longer are you on liquids only? Contact your team, If they are in office at this time of year. Tell them your struggles and see if they have alternative, if not improvise if you can't stomach the shakes a day longer. You need the nutrients. Can you drink Full Skimmed milk ? This has a surprisingly a lot of protein. To add more protein add a spoon of yogurt, dried milk powder or I flavored it with PB2 powder and banana. There is also consomme, boullion and bone broths. They don't have as many calories as protein shakes or milk but you need to get food in you. Once you get a little further along it gets easier, I promise. Others who used shakes will give you other pointers but the Fairlife brand does seem to me one they advocate, so fingers crossed for you there.

I ate a lot of minced meat dishes (meat balls with gravy, bolognese sauce, savoury mince), slow cooked stews and soups so the meat and vegetables were very soft and tender. Omelettes, rolled oats, scrambled eggs, sausages (from butcher not mass produced), soft white flesh fish, yoghurt. A lot of it comes down to the flavours and textures your tummy will tolerate & it can be a bit fussy. You may go slowly at first and stick to just a couple of foods to begin gradually adding more as you test out your tummy.

Just checking you had your surgery in May so you’re 8 months out? Mmmm 800 may be a little low for you given your height and gender though that is a conversation to be had with your dietician with consideration of your needs and activity. I’m a lot shorter than you, female, likely older & wasn’t very active when losing and I was eating about 900 at 6 months and at my goal & I kept losing. Even now I maintain at my weight eating about 1600 calories. Though if you’re not hungry do you need more calories at this time?? I do disagree with your dietician saying if you increase your intake you will gain as you will continue to lose weight eating more calories if you’re still in a deficit (i.e. eating fewer calories than your body needs to function). It may slow down your rate of loss though. Yes, this time of year can be difficult with so much food and so many treats. It really does come down to making the best choices you can when you have little or no control of the food available. Consider portion size. Can you swap out anything? Try to balance your intake across all your meals during the day. Keep focus on your protein first then vegetables. Avoid carbs and limit what sweet treats you may indulge in. And if you’re not hungry you don’t have to eat because everyone else is. If you’re contributing a dish, make something you can eat without compromising your plan. Remember this is not everyday but just this time of the year so don’t beat yourself up if you do go off plan though try to get back to your regular eating style/plan as soon as possible. I’m 5.6 yrs out and I still follow these guidelines in these types of situations. After four Christmas gatherings with full on meals over a couple of days, food to prepare & leftovers to eat, I am glad to be back in my own home, with my own food choices and my own eating routines. I weighed myself this morning and I only put on 300g (0.6lb) over Christmas & being away a week so the guidelines do help to keep things under control. PS What are the shots you mentioned?

You are doing super great. The main thing you need to do is follow your teams advice. Every single person on this site had a different regime. In the end if you have followed the advice, you win and you seem to be doing that. The early foods do get repetative but stick in there. You have a huge cut and stitch line on your tummy and just because we can't see it, people forget it. Sugar free popsickles and milk with added sugar free flavours got me through.

both i guess. good cuz my inner fat person is glad that i gave myself a bigger skinny buffer from my happy weight; bad because i didn't do it on purpose and i am actually not entirely happy with how it looks on me (sort of), plus my clothes are effing too big on me and i REFUSE to buy new clothes, because i KNOW i will regain the weight eventually. or hope. (background: i got braces on my teeth back in september, and i discovered that i HATE the feeling of food stuck in my braces, so i have to brush and waterpik my teeth EVERY SINGLE TIME i eat something solid....then i discovered i HATE having to clean my teeth like a gazillion times a day, so i just don't eat. yeah, i know, not the greatest reasoning, but there you go. as a result, i lost like 10 lbs (which is actually alot since i was already 115lbs)....but, since i started adding a morning protein shake and eating higher calorie foods when i DO eat, i seem to have stopped/slowed down the weight loss...so we'll see...) sooo maybe if anyone wants to try, getting braces may be a good weight loss tool for you too. lololololzzzzz.

What soft foods did you eat ?