I can eat so much.

[krissi11 10]

I was sleeved on August 22nd. Everything went great. My only issue is I don't feel any significant restriction. My surgeon says I can eat up to 1300 calories a day as long as it is mostly Protein. That seems like an awful lot. I am averaging 950 calories a day and am still losing. Does this sound right?

[Eclectick 129]

wow, 1300 calories for a new sleeve? That seems like alot... I haven't been sleeved yet..but apparently from what I hear doctors use different size "bogees" which is the size they make your sleeve...could be he used a large one and you are able to eat much more than the average bear...I don't really have an answer..sorry.

[finediva 979]

My frustration is my surgeon refuses to give me a calorie or Protein number. Refuses! She also does not want me to use protein supplements. I am using unflavored in skim milk. She wants me to get what my body needs by burning the stored fat. SMH in confusion. Had my three month visit on Monday and she was disappointed in my weight loss. I don't even want to go back to her in January. Ugh

[GummyTummy 154]

Key words I noticed in your post - He said you CAN eat up to 1300 calories. That means, do not exceed 1300 calories, and I doubt he means on a regular basis. It is however, not that far off from most common goals that doctors set which is anywhere from 1000-1200 calories daily. The reason for this is simple, if you eat less than around a 1000 calories a day, your body starts to go into starvation mode and will refuse to burn fat because it is busy trying to store everything you put in it. The idea behind sleeve is to trick your body into feeling full with less food so that the normal metabolic process can go on burning calories and when it runs out, it pulls from your fat. If however, you body senses you are depriving it by say giving it only 500 calories, it will keep as much of that 500 calories as it can for things like breathing and well... living. If you are working out at least 30 minutes daily, you should be burning an extra 100-200 calories.

950 calories sounds fine if you are losing, but if you hit a stall, sometimes the only way to break it is to up your calories a bit so your body forgives you for partially starving it.

Here is the weight loss formula of your body at its particular weight.

You are currently at 222, I popped in an age of 35 for you because I don't know yours but with your height, scientifically speaking, if you sat there and stared into space and just breathed all day long. You would burn

1,780 calories/day*

Just being alive and being yourself. Add in walking, cooking, standing, laughing, crying, sex, bathing etc.. and you can see you burn over 2,200 calories a day.

To lose a lb, a person has to create a calorie deficit of 3500 calories. Usually, people try and do this by cutting out 500 extra calories a day X7 days in a week. That equals a healthy lb of fat lost for a normal person. You however, at around 1000 calories a day ish, are doubling that deficit and will lose about 2.5 / 3 lbs a week excluding stalls or times where you aren't feeding yourself enough and your body starts latching on to everything.

Our bodies are built to do amazing things. Evil things, like... convert starches to sugar and to even break down our own bones when our blood Calcium levels get to low.

In summation, 1300 is a touch high for what most doctors recommend, unless you have other issues like diabetes or hypoglycemia where you need to regulate some sort of levels in your blood. It is however, only a touch high. If you are having trouble fitting in the calories like I was, my nutritionist and surgeon suggested using full fat / calorie cheeses because it is a healthy fat, or wholesome no sugar added Peanut Butter / nut spreads.

[GummyTummy 154]

Diva, I wouldn't listen to any surgeon telling you to not supplement yourself during healing phase of your surgery. Certainly not one that is disappointed with stellar weight loss like yours. For some of these guys, not all of them, it is a gimmick. Maybe they are used to people like me that had / have over 200lbs to lose at first and who drop it like bodies on the walking dead. Maybe your surgeon wants you to have to get a revision or something by trying to force you to eat everything rather than drink a little Protein. Do what feels right for you. I still supplement my intake with one premade shake a day just to be sure I get that good foundation in the morning hours of 30 grams of Protein. If I didn't, I would have to walk around with a feed bag on all the time to try and cram all of it in the old fashioned way and I don't really feel like going back to past grazing behaviors on the advice of the person that is supposed to be supporting me in my weight loss. Try attending some support meetings away from your doctor to see what other WLS patients are doing. Most of us, at least as early on as we are, still supplement our protein and for good reason.

[gaudjosl 22]

I'm 1 week out and surprised myself on how much I am handling. I have been sipping and so careful but my sleeve doesnt mind anything! Made cream of Potatoe with mushed carrots and cheese yesterday and got 1 cup in me in 30 min. Today I had a great smoothie with whey Protein.

[GummyTummy 154]

CAREFUL! Even though you are in liquid phase and can't do much damage with just fluids, you have little to no feeling in that area right now because all the nerves are severed. So the same queues that used to be there to tell you how full you really are, aren't there right now.

That being said, you really won't feel much restriction at all until you move into later puree or soft foods. Even most purees leave something to be desired and yes, that hunger feeling might sneak back up on you for a few weeks prior to moving over to soft foods.

Just be sure to let yourself heal fully before you test your new tummy too much.

[finediva 979]

@@GummyTummy .Thank you for taking the time to write such a thoughtful response. I picked her because she set up successful bariatric program before coming to the current one and she was fully endorsed by the head of the bariactric program. That being said, I believe she is very skilled surgeon. She spent over five hour on my sleeve due to all the scar tissue I had from previous c-sections. But she seems to be only interested in the number of pounds loss. I feel she sees that number as her success not necessarily mine. I have to continue to supplement with Protein powder. There is no way I can consume that much food. As it is I'm averaging no more that 750 calories a day

[JamieLogical 8,708]

I had my surgery Sept. 1, so not long after you, and I'm up to around 950 calories most days as well. I try to have at least 40% be from Protein and my NUT wants me to aim for 100 grams of protein every day, with a minimum of 85. So far I've been losing slowly, but steadily. I had been doing at least 60 minutes of "brisk walking" every day for a while, but I hurt my foot on Monday, so I haven't been able to get walking in and since then I've cut down to about 750 calories a day until I can start exercising again.

[par1959 470]

You will lose on 1300 calories. As for being able to eat that many, it gets easier over time and also depends greatly on what foods you eat.