HOW many calories?!?!

[marfar7 1,533]

I guess you guys would cringe at my maintenance diet. First off, I've never weighed, measured or tracked my food. I know I'm getting 30-40g Protein in my smoothie everyday and I mentally keep track of my liquids so I know I'm getting at least 64oz. Other than that I simply eat when I'm hungry and just until satisfied, not full. I have no idea how many calories or carbs I consume. I simply try to eat a healthy, balanced diet of Protein, veggies, fruit and whole grains. Never limited fat and have had all of the "bad" stuff IN MODERATION..... Alcohol, chips, ice cream, cake, bread, Pasta, etc. in fact, I had a pancake with butter and maple Syrup and sausage for Breakfast this morning. And a 1/4 pound bacon-Swiss burger with guacamole and mayo and fries last week (of course it took me 3 days to finish)

I didn't have surgery to be on a diet the rest of my life. If I wanted to keep track of everything and restrict what I can and can't eat I could have stayed on weight watchers. I read a lot of threads on here about people stressing over numbers....number of calories, grams of carbs, losses/gains on the scale, minutes at the gym, etc. Postop life really doesn't have to be that complicated.

I coulda have written this post. But anytime I discuss my disdain for dieting, I get smart comments like "I didn't pay $$$ to continue eating like I ate pre sleeve". "Ur gunna gain back every oz you've lost" I never said I ate the same as pre sleeve. I said I don't diet. Meaning counting or measuring anything. If I wanted to do that, I coulda saved the $$ and continued on counting, measuring - nd gaining weight. For the fun of it, I count my calories about once a month. I rarely go over 1200. And I drink a glass of wine almost everynite, I et burgers (maybe 1/3 of 1 - haven't finished a burger since beingbanded in 2009), tacos (1 small), pizza ( 1 sm pc thin crust) and fries (maybe 4-6).

While I understand the need for some people to keep constant track of what goes into their mouths, I would like people to understand that there r others out there that solely rely on their small stomachs to let them know when they've had enuf. Yep, some days I can eat more. Some days I eat less. When my sleeve ceases to let me know when I've had enuf (like when I can actually finish 1/2 a burger), maybe I will cave and count calories.

Until then, however, I plan on eating the way that I do. It seems to be working I'm about 9 lbs from goal. Oh, and btw, I'm 15 mths out...

Edited September 30, 2014 by marfar7

[butterfyeffect 257]

I'd say I got the greatest "sticker shock" from seeing the number of calories in a salad from Panera, I can't remember which one, it was years ago. But the kicker was, if you read the fine print, the "serving size" was supposedly half the salad. Which meant whatever the calories/fat/etc it listed (it was 600 or so calories) you could go ahead and double it if you were planning on eating the whole thing (and I already had).

Fortunately for me, these days I can't even finish a half salad from Panera. I got a half of a BBQ chicken salad from there a couple of weeks ago, and ended up mostly just eating the chicken. Like Kindle and Marfar I don't track calories anymore, I just keep a mental tally of Protein grams and Water.

[Kindle 8,667]

So to answer the OP's question, I thought I'd look at what I normally eat to see if there were any surprises. I guess I'd have to say the Protein smoothies I make. One of my favorites is a Premier chocolate, 10oz 1% milk, 1/2 banana, 1 scoop GOL Raw Fiber, and enough ice to bring it to 24oz. Total 465 calories and 49g Protein.< /p>

I actually made a whopper of a smoothie today.....1 scoop Muscle Milk cake batter, 1/2 scoop Syntrax nectar apple, 1 scoop GOL Raw Fiber, 16oz 1% milk and enough ice to bring it to 24oz. Total 560 calories and 51g protein. And tasted like apple streusel.....mmmmmm.

The biggest surprise component is the fiber supplement I use...120 calories per scoop! All those seeds and sprouts sure add up it sure works, though. But since I have been drinking these every day for the last 9 months and am 11 pounds under goal, I'm not about to stop just because I all of a sudden know the calorie count.

Edited October 1, 2014 by Kindle

[Water Nazi 61]

This post gets my vote!

"We gave up eating out completely. I don't usually count calories at home. There is a difference between the good and the bad calories/fat. I eat part of an avocado just about every day. They are really good for you, even though it is high in fat. But, it is the kind of fat you are putting into your body. On my 6 month supervised diet, I switched completely to eating a Paleo style diet. With the sleeve, it has made it incredibly easy to stick to it and eat the healthy foods that I need to keep my body healthy and lose the weight that I need to. Cut out the processed stuff."

I do a Paleo style also (read as: I've eliminated all high carb foods). I also have avocado daily to keep my fats up. I buy my fish and chicken at the grocery store, I don't hunt it down. 3 meals/day come in at about 800-900 calories. I went from 200 to 133 in 7 months. Probably about an average weight loss. Once I get to goal I may add in a carb or two but, do what works for you. If you choose to eat out and/or take away food, personally I don't see that as a healthy choice, but to each his own. Cheers to all! Thanks for the great post Jody!

[thesuse2000 698]

I flew yesterday and got one of those little bags of nuts - it's 250 calories! Mostly fat. I threw it in my bag as an emergency meal/snack.

Almonds was the most surprising to me. I knew nuts in general were high, but for some reason I had been tricked into thinking Almonds weren't that bad.

After seeing that each one is 7 calories (that is of course the raw, unflavored ones), my jaw hit the floor.

Luckily I noticed after eating 3 of them, but even if you were to get the little tiny airplane size bag those have to be getting close to 300 calories. Yikes.

[snowblue 50]

@@terrydumont46 I was wondering where you lived that you get to eat fresh caught salmon! jealous!

[terrydumont46 1,954]

I live in the northwest. north of seattle on camano island. the salmon are spawning right now

@@terrydumont46 I was wondering where you lived that you get to eat fresh caught salmon! jealous!

[parisshel 1,892]

There's a new restaurant down the street from me called BJ's Brewhouse. I went there the other day just to see who they are, what they have, etc. I checked all the things that looked tasty as a method of narrowing down what I wanted to eat... the lowest calorie count item in virtually the whole menu was the Bison Burger... which believe it or not was not filling enough (I didn't eat the bun) so I ordered the Tomato bisque Soup thinking it would be fairly straightforward and healthy. The burger was 580 and then the Soup came in at 633 and I was like... thank god I went for an hour and not just a half hour of laps in the pool today. their salads were all over 1k calories.

I ate several times at BJs Brewhouse when in California recently. I chose either the shrimp lettuce wraps (a starter) or a lite flatbread pizza. Either of those was under 500 calories. BJs does a lite menu...you just have to look deeply into their huge book of a menu to find it.

[Rogofulm 2,440]

Longhorn Steak House makes great salads with grilled salmon, chicken, or steak! I can't eat them anymore, but I used to love them – especially with Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing. I ate them for years thinking that I was being soooo healthy. And then one day I looked closely at the nutritional info for the dressings. That wonderful Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing has 270 calories for a 1.5 gram serving. By comparison, their Honey Mustard has 260 calories, and the Bleu cheese dressing has only 160. Yikes! Who knew that Bleu cheese dressing could actually be a "healthier" choice?

[BellaLuce4 261]

No I posted this here on purpose. All discussion is welcome, and I have a big curiosity about what other WLS patients eat.

I just assumed that sleevers and RNY patients also kept track of calories, but maybe that's not true. At any rate I'm still in weight-loss stage, so I am tracking because I was advised by my surgeon to keep my calories to a certain number.

And most of the time, I do check MyFitnessPal before I eat something. But sometimes, I think something is going to be "healthy", only to find out later that it had more calories than a Whopper!

I was sleeved 9/16, I track everything I eat and drink in My Fitness Pal right now. I'm on a mission to lose weight and not tracking simply will not work for me, at least not right now . I use MFP to look up foods and their nutrition content before I choose to eat it many times. After seeing the content of certain thing, I will change my menu for a healthier choice.

As I get close to goal one day I would like to loosen up and not track, but that is a pipe dream away right now... Lol

[gowalking 10,790]

I was sleeved 9/16, I track everything I eat and drink in My Fitness Pal right now. I'm on a mission to lose weight and not tracking simply will not work for me, at least not right now . I use MFP to look up foods and their nutrition content before I choose to eat it many times. After seeing the content of certain thing, I will change my menu for a healthier choice.

As I get close to goal one day I would like to loosen up and not track, but that is a pipe dream away right now... Lol

It's not a pipe dream Bella. You'll get there. I tracked everything I put in my mouth and also realized only with MFP, how bad some foods were both in terms of calories, and especially sodium. I tracked for about a year and haven't bothered since because I know fairly well, what foods are OK and which ones to avoid. You can do the same in time. Good luck!

[BellaLuce4 261]

@@gowalking thank you for the hope!!! I dream about a year from now ???? lol