I am really confused.....

[Megg40 0]

Ok, So I am one month post op and have been following my Surgeons diet about 90% of the time...getting anywhere between 500 and 800 calories and 70 to 90 grams of Protein...I have had no fill yet and my weight loss has been stalled a lot. I know this is normal since I don't have restriction.....Here's my confusion....2 times in the last week, I have eaten some things I probably shouldn't have.....1 time I had the meat and cheese from a McDonalds double cheeseburger and last night I had the toppings off a few slices of pizza. Now evrey time I do this I lose weight. I have lost 4 pounds this week already....What is the deal here.....With the pizza toppings and cheese yesterday I got in like 1200 calories....and I lost 2 pounds:confused:. I am exercising most days in the pool for 20 -30 minutes and drinking a lot of Water....I just don't get the weight loss with higher calorie content...

Any suggestions....

Meg

[kimaly 57]

I think we should always follow the Doctors plan but I would ask him why he has you on such a low calorie count. They have me mutiply my weight by 7 and that's my calorie count, It goes down as I lose weight because the less you weigh the less you need. With that being said if you are going to increase your count I think you should increase it with better food choices, try to remember those are the foods that got you here in the first place. This is a lifestyle change, so with that you must change your lifestyle to include healthy food choices and exercise. Some people beleave if you let your calorie count get to low your body will go into stavation mode and maybe that is true for some but I know of others that do 800 to 900 calories aday and have done quite well. That's why I say talk to your Doctor. Good luck on your journey.

[BetsyB 9]

Ordinarily, I'd say that it's a mistake to interpret losing after indulgence as confirmation that eating more results in loss. Our bodies are fickle, and weight loss is rarely a steady downward progression. Usually, an unexpected loss after a "cheat" (I hate thinking of eating as cheating!) is just coincidence.

That said, 500 -800 calories/day is very, very low---and I do wonder whether, if you veer toward the low end, eating a bit more did "tell" your body, "It's okay to let go of that fat!" (Are you sure your doctor wants you ~500 calories?)

Our bodies can get kind of stubborn and complacent, and little "jolts" now and then sometimes do seem to help get things moving. That may be what happened with you---or it may just have been coincidence.

I suspect that if you were to plot your weight loss, over time, on a graph (fitday.com can do this for you), you would notice that your loss follows sort of a pattern---and that it does so regardless of indulgences such as those you've described. For example, my graph has a lose-lose-lose-lose-tiny upward bump-stall pattern. It happens over and over. When I'm stalled, I contemplate shaking things up---then look at the graph and see that, no matter what I do, the pattern just repeats. It's just a matter of riding it out.

One thing I've figured out is that sometimes, it's just not something I can figure out! It should be a simple calories in/calories out thing, but sometimes the body plays tricks we don't understand.