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So, I am almost 2 months post-op, and I am due to have my 8 week check-in with a bariatric nurse. My friend also had the same surgery as me, just the day prior, and she has had this check-in already. She was told that at the current stage we are in post-op, we should be eating 900-1000 calories a day!! 🫠🤯 I genuinely don't think my body is capable! I think I eat around 400-500 on a good day, and I mean a REALLY good day (which is rare), and around 300 on a normal day. Maybe I need to have more protein shakes? I don't know. The prospect of eating that much seems so daunting, and I really get full on what I am already eating!

Hello! I had the sleeve gastrectomy 9.5 months ago. I've been working on exercising and eating right, but I've been in a bit of a stall these past 5 weeks. I went down from 290 to 170 pounds, but I've been stuck at 170 for 5 weeks. I've been eating 1200-1500 calories a day and still not losing weight. I've done some research, and apparently, your body adjusts to low calories after a while of eating at that rate. At the beginning of my post-op phase, there were some complications on my end. I didn't eat ANYTHING for two months straight, not even protein shakes, and I was only hitting about 20oz of water daily (which landed me in the ER, but I'm fine now lol). I've looked online, and it says for my height, age, and weight, a good maintenance level would be 2100 calories. I'm eating well under that in a deficit and heavy weight lifting, so I don't know why my body won't drop anything. I'm worried that my body adjusted to the 0-calorie few months I had, then the 500-1000 calories three months after that. I've only started hitting my 1200-1500 calories in March when I joined the gym. I know the stall is not due to "muscle gain" because I'm not eating in a surplus, and I'm only eating 65-80 grams of protein in hopes of simply maintaining while I drop fat. I also read online that apparently people who go through rapid weight loss have even lower calorie maintenance than the average person, and that makes sense, but surely it cannot be under 1200, right? The majority of bodies need 1500 to operate. I'm so confused! When I ask my surgeon about calories, he says not to worry about them and eat healthy, which I'm doing. It's just frustrating because I want to work on building muscle, but I want to lose some more fat before that. I guess my question is, does anyone know anything about calories after surgery, and/or how many calories are you eating after surgery to help lose weight?

Hi all, I am 3 weeks post-op, and I don’t have any calorie guides from my nutritionist. She only focuses on protein intake and low carb options. In the past I have used calories as my main indicator and am struggling a little with diet conceptions now and after the transition periods without them. I have a goal of 60 g of protein a day and 1-1.5 l of liquids for hydration. I was just wondering if anyone has daily calorie guidelines that they can share?? Tia!

Hi can someone please help me . I have 1 stone 4lbs to lose still and I am 1 year post op (gastric sleeve ) how many calories should I be having and anyone else in the same boat ? When I put my details on a calculator to get to goal I need to eat 1200 per day which I find too less 😔 any tips and advice will be apperciated. Thank you x

How many calories should I be eating 3.5month post op gastric sleeve? Keep seeing different amounts online. Had surgery abroad so the after care isn’t the best either. Also macros? I don’t know weather I’m eating too much or too little I’m a slow loser and have stalled for 4 weeks.

Hi all! I am not scheduled for VSG yet, as I am still waiting to get my mental health clearance. That’s the last thing I need before getting the surgical team approval and insurance approval. I met with my dietician recently and she’s encouraging me to start immediately on 1200-1300 calories a day. My surgery could be MONTHS away (who knows because there’s pieces to fall into place before that?) I’m already on 1500-1700 calories a day, which is fine and works ok. However I feel very nervous about going to 1200 calories and being able to function properly at work (my job is semi physically demanding), and being able to maintain a vigorous exercise schedule. I asked the dietitian if I can eat a little more on days when I work out and was emphatically told “no”. With no idea when I’m going to have surgery, it feels risky to my body that I could hurt myself if I’m not eating enough. I understand after surgery that I will have to take time off from exercise. For reference, I am hoping to participate in a four hour swim event on January 1, 2025 and have been training for it. Does anyone have thoughts on my concerns? Is this normal to go this low on calories without surgery even being scheduled yet? I could be waiting for several months.

Hi Team! I realize that stalls are inevitable, but I am having some trouble determining if I am in a stall that I need to just wait out, or if I need to change something up. Background: I just hit 8 months post-op. Stats are in my info box. I have been sitting at 174 pounds for three weeks. I had been losing a pound or more per week at around 900 calories per day, Protein at 100G and carbs under 100 g. That is around the time I hired a personal trainer, upped my weight training (free weights now and four days a week), my steps, and my calories (1200 or so per day). The increase in calories was at the recommendation of the trainer, who also recommended increasing carbs to 138 (most days I don't get above 110). I know the level weight is not due to increase in muscle mass---too soon. So....what are your thoughts? Stick with calories or go back down to 900-1000? Thank you in advance for any reassurance or guidance. (And I emailed my surgery team three days ago...waiting to hear back).

Anyone else told their stall was probably caused by not eating enough calories I am 6 months out from bypass and eat about 700 calories a day. Have been in a stall for 3 weeks. My surgeon said I needed to start eating more not sure how I can barely eat what I do now

Has anyone done a low calorie diet and not lost weight, but had success losing all the weight with VSG? I’m curious how it works if eating low calorie didn’t work out. Even though I’m getting VSG, I’m scared it won’t work since I have not lost weight with the low calorie diet.

I had VSG (2015) to RNY revision on January 18th due to GERD. I also had regained almost 70 pounds from my VSG post-op low weight. I've so far lost about 20 pounds since the pre-op diet & surgery. I need to lose another 20 pounds (for normal BMI) to 50 pounds (for calculated ideal body weight). I'm now on unrestricted food textures, and per my program's dietician, I'm supposed to be on my "maintenance" diet now. However, they refuse to discuss any calorie goals or macros other than protein. I'm someone who needs very clear goals and guidelines (thanks, long-undiagnosed ADHD), and I'm feeling very lost about what my diet should look like moving forward. The lifelong guidelines for my program, as I understand them: 60-80g protein per day Up to 4 oz. (1/2 cup) per meal, consisting of: Up to 3 oz. protein per meal Up to 1 oz. (total) veg, fruit, or starch per meal 3 meals per day 1 snack per day (the program guide I was given says 1-2, but per my surgeon I'm only allowed to have 1 snack per day and it has to be between lunch and dinner) - I have no guidelines for the amount I'm allowed for the snack. I assume it's not supposed to be as much food as the meals, but I don't know. Protein shakes/powders are frowned upon The only sample menu provided in my program guide is as follows: Breakfast: Egg omelet with sautéed peppers & onions Snack: Protein shake OR Greek yogurt with berries [removed per my surgeon's instructions] Lunch: Lettuce wrap with turkey and avocado/cheese [it is not clear to me if the / means avocado OR cheese, or avocado AND cheese, but I assume the former] Snack: Apple slices with 2 tablespoons nut butter OR carrots with hummus Dinner: Pesto chicken with spaghetti squash, sautéed spinach, and cherry tomatoes I plugged this menu into the Baritastic app to try and get a sense of what the calories and macros are supposed to look like. The sample menu gave no amounts other than the nut butter, so I used the 3 oz. protein + 1 oz. veg/fruit/starch rule. With the carrots & hummus snack option, here are the macros for the day: 593 calories 62g protein 32g fat 17g carbs (13g net carbs) 4g sugar 4g fiber And here are the apple & nut butter (I used natural peanut butter) macros for the day: 739 calories 67g protein 43g fat 21g carbs (16g net carbs) 8g sugar 5g fiber So from that, I'm extrapolating that I should be aiming for the following daily: 600-750 calories 60-80g protein 30-40g fat less than 25g carbs less than 10g sugar I have a few concerns... I have already been going well over those amounts at just over a month post-op. I've typically getting around 800-900 calories per day. It seems like a real struggle to get to the upper range of protein daily while sticking to the allowed amounts and without using any shakes or protein supplements. Even then, 80g seems low for a protein goal. I have never been a big meat eater (I was vegetarian through most of my teens and 20s), and I absolutely cannot stand any fish or seafood. I do eat a lot of dairy, eggs, and beans, but it seems like that's not going to do it. The standard daily fiber goal I've always heard is 25g per day. I've been getting about 12-15g per day right now, but knowing that I'm overeating and already having too many carbs means even that's not sustainable. I've struggled with post-op constipation... I have gotten to a much better place recently, but if I need to cut back to 4-5g of fiber per day to be within my other limits, I'm afraid of going backwards. That I'm limited to 1/2 cup of food per meal for the rest of my life came as a shock to me, as a revision patient. I knew that my pouch would be smaller than my sleeve, and like with my original surgery, the amount I'd be able to eat at one time would be very small initially. But with my sleeve (which was done by a different surgeon in a different program), there was definitely not the expectation that the amount I could/should eat at 1 month post-op would be the same as what I could/should be eating at 6 months or 1 year out. My bypass surgeon also told me that she left my pouch a little larger than normal so that I wouldn't lose too much additional weight, so my pouch is already larger than a regular bypass patient's. Do these amounts seem in line with other people's experiences? Or am I way off-base?

I am a little over 6 months post op, how many calories are you eating now? I am getting about 900-1000 calories, 80g of protein, 50g of carbs. Anyone else have a starting weight at 360ish at 5'9", how much did you lose at 6 months? My surgeon doesn't offer an aftercare support team and the nutritionist (had to get a referral from my primary) that I am seeing doesn't like giving numbers. I also don't feel I can ask him as he will just refer to the paperwork he gave me at the start, which just says under 1200 calories and 60-80g of protein. I am very happy with the weight that I have lost so far, 100lbs since surgery, but it has been very slow the last 2 months or so. I still feel that I should be losing at a faster rate than I am which is only about 1-2lbs a week. Is this just an average weight loss when I weigh 263lbs at 5' 9", haven't been down to this weight in over 15 years.

How many calories are you eating wondering if I am eating too little.I am eating on average 400 a day. I am 3 months out from gastric bypass.

I'm now 6 weeks post-op and have the green light to start introducing regular food items after having successfully gone through the liquid and soft phases. I'm curious what everyone else is consuming daily for calories. I've looked through all of the materials I was provided and the only thing that's stressed is maintaining a minimum of 70g of protein; no mention of calories anywhere. I had my first post-op consult with my bariatric nutritionist two weeks ago and specifically asked her and she said they don't publish calorie targets because....'everyone is different'. I've been working to stay around 900 cal/day and she seemed satisfied with that provided I'm hitting my 70g target. I've lost just under 45lbs to date, so it's working, but I'm wondering where others are for comparison. What say you...?

I'm a year out from my surgery and at my last dietitian meeting we discussed maintenance calories which I have been looking forward to that discussion for forever but I was really shocked and I can't believe I didn't know this after all of my research before and after surgery. He said my calorie goals for life should be between 1300 and 1500 and I had no idea that was going to be so low. I honestly went into surgery thinking that the average calories a person eats is 2000 so I must be eating 3000 or more to be so over weight and I just needed to get back to normal. I thought that I would be able to use the surgery and lack of hunger to eat super low calories and lose the weight and since month 3 I've been at 1000 a day. My hunger is back and 1000 is a struggle now and I'm using all my years of diet experience to fill up on low calorie food as well as hitting all my protein and water goals. I thought that soon I'll be able to eat more so it's just a temporary situation, but now I'm worried about long term success. If I'm hungry at 1000, I don't think 300 more calories is really going make a huge difference. So now I'm wondering if the reason why so many people gain the weight back after surgery is because to keep it off we have to keep our calories so low forever? Also, why do we have to keep our calories so low? Why is the average calories 2000 but for bariatric patients 1300 to 1500 is the goal? I always thought that anything under 1500 wasn't a safe number but when I asked my dietitian all of these questions he didn't know. He just knew that to maintain the weight loss, that's the normal goal and that if I wanted to eat more I could exercise more. So did everyone else know that the calories after surgery were going to be low for life and I just somehow missed this important fact? Anyone know why our average doesn't match the so called normal average? I was really excited to be close to goal but now I'm scared because I can see now how easily it can all go away.

Hey guys! I'm currently nearing the end of my first week of the pureed stage and I was wondering how many calories I'm supposed to be consuming? My doctor never really talked about it. Any suggestions from your surgeons? Thanks!

I've done good doing both ...eons ago I lost 40 pounds counting calories and the year before surgery I've lost 30 pounds counting carbs. I gained back the weight counting calories , but not counting carbs. My team always stresses calorie counts .... and when I mentioned I count carbs,they kinda looked at me like I have 2 heads and went on talking about calories. LOL It's so hard to count calories,especially if there's an item with alot of ingredients in it . Ex; Broccoli salad " broccoli,sunflower seeds,cherry tomatoes,green onions,green peppers etc. " Dietician said weigh every ingredient ,add up calories and divide by servings. No thank you . I don't want to feel like I'm back in math class LOL. What do you count ? Have you done either and lost doing it ? I want to count carbs and protein ,but they have me questioning my choice.

Im using myfitnesspal to see my macros but wondering how much calories should i consume veryday at this stage (8 weeks) my drs paper doesnt say anything clear about it. Please some help.

If you are still losing what is the calorie range for someone who’s one year post op?

Hi all. I’m 1 week out from having gastric sleeve surgery. The procedure went well, but I had a good amount of pain for the first few days (where I couldn’t really consume anything other than water, Gatorade Zero and broth). Since about day 4, I’ve been trying to consume somewhere close to my protein goals (60 grams). I just can’t get there, or really be anywhere close. I’ve never loved protein shakes, and can only have 2 ounces at a time. I’m lucky if I consume 1 shake/day. I add in chicken bone broth, and a little bit of nonfat yogurt/cottage cheese (which my surgeon allows), but I just can’t seem to consume more than 250 calories/day (at best 40-50 grams of protein). And it is a constant struggle (since I have been good about my fluids). It is wearing me out a bit, trying to consume protein, and it impacts my ability / endurance to get outside and walk. Any suggestions?

I had my VSG on Monday (5 days post op now) and on full liquids. I was given protein and fluid goals, but nothing else. Did you have calorie goals/restrictions during each phase (clear, full, purée, soft)?

I am 1 month post-op today and I’m down about 18 lbs. I healed quickly, I’ve been back on the treadmill since week 2 and am walking 2+ miles a day. I had very little pain post surgery and I have had NO problems with any foods. To the point where I feel like I SHOULD be having more difficulty. I have lost little if any weight since January 25th. A girlfriend thinks I’m consuming too many calories. I am eating between 800-1000 calories a day, but burning between 400-500 on the treadmill daily. I’m tall. 5’8” and my SW was 290. CW is 272. I started the pre-op diet at 303.2. Am I eating too many calories? Should I feel ok that my NET calories daily are closer to 500-600 calories a day? I feel like my mind is slipping into that dark space where I feel like this surgery is gonna be a failure. Like…. The weight just isn’t going to come off. I know this “stall” was to be expected…. But I would feel better with more directions aside from meet your protein and fluids (which I’m doing). Would love to hear your thoughts.

How did you know it was time to up your calories? I am 3 months post op and averaging about 750-850 calories a day. I am hitting my recommended protein and fluid goals. I recently started working out regularly and burn about 250-400 calories a day from exercise (according to my Apple Watch). I am starting to wonder if I am not eating enough and it is hindering my weight loss. I am still losing, just slowly, and it is more of a yo yo type loss. I am worried about not properly fueling myself and wrecking my metabolism. I am not feeling overly hungry or deprived. My dietitian/surgeon won't give out calorie goals. They take the approach that if you follow the protein/fluid/serving size guidelines, everything else will fall into place naturally. They want us to track what we eat, but only focus on protein. It's hard, because on MFP all the other numbers are right in your face (calories/macros). Just curious what your calorie intake looked like around 3-4 months post op and how you knew it was time to adjust your calorie goals as you progressed. Thanks!

How many calories should we be taking in. I think I am eating too many, about 1100.

There was a recipe I used to make pre-op that I loved. Homemade beef and broccoli. I have been wanting it, so I made a crock pot of it yesterday to have for lunches this week. Well, this is the first time I entered the ingredients and added up calories and WHOA! I was a bit shocked. There really isn't much to it other than BEEF (top round) and BROCCOLI! I mean, in all actuality the calories aren't bad, just more than I eat now for a meal. The random little things added up quick! 340 calories and 28 g protein per serving. I was just a bit shocked that they added up to that! Next time I will try to tweak the recipe to get it a little lighter and see how it tastes. Sticker shock, if you will! I am eating it anyway because like I said, not horrible but not my typical meal. But I am not just going to waste it all so I will enjoy it this week and go from there!

Like the title says. I’ve lost 110 pounds and have another 20 to go to be a ‘normal’ BMI. 14 months post op. However my calorie intake has shot up as I’m hungry again. Now eating between 1300 to 1500 a day. I’m tall (5ft 9). I guess I’m panicking that the days of 1200 calories and lower are gone and from here on in it’s about slow weight loss and/or maintenance. I feel like I’m heating so much at 1500 calories but logically I know I’m not. But it’s frightening. I work out two to three times a week and walk loads. Am I eating too much now? Did anyone else panic as more calories came into your eating habits.