Post-op only allowed 500 calories a day???? Why

[SoulGardener 101]

The pre-op diet allowed 4 Protein Shakes a day..... but now I am only allowed 3 maximum??? 140 x 3 = 440 calories... Why is it necessary to go that low? Won’t that damage my metabolism?? I asked the nurse about it; all she said was, “they want you to lose weight.”. Seems like 800 calories would still cause weight loss.

Can anyone explain this to me?

[lizonaplane 1,612]

Your stomach is much smaller now, so you shouldn't have much hunger and your metabolism has been "reset" so it shouldn't set your metabolism into starvation mode. That's the whole point of the surgery; it resets your metabolism so you can have a lower set point and feel full on fewer calories.

Edited May 10, 2021 by lizonaplane

[Recidivist 1,141]

Trust me, you will struggle to get a full 500 calories for a while. I had no appetite at all for a few months after surgery and had to force myself to eat enough Protein.

[Highly_Undermedicated 55]

2 hours ago, SoulGardener said:

The pre-op diet allowed 4 Protein Shakes a day..... but now I am only allowed 3 maximum??? 140 x 3 = 440 calories... Why is it necessary to go that low? Won’t that damage my metabolism?? I asked the nurse about it; all she said was, “they want you to lose weight.”. Seems like 800 calories would still cause weight loss.

Can anyone explain this to me?

What shakes are you drinking at 140 calories ? Just curious.

[SoulGardener 101]

A combination of Pure Protein & Fairlife.

[WanderingHeart 141]

1 hour ago, Highly_Undermedicated said:

What shakes are you drinking at 140 calories ? Just curious.

Mine are also 140 - iconic

[SoulGardener 101]

How has the surgery reset our metabolism?

[Betty1971 386]

2 hours ago, SoulGardener said:

How has the surgery reset our metabolism?

If you really want the science of it all its here

:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6761298/

in my program we had to go through a class that talked about it. I am not going to slaughter the spellings of the hormones and Proteins that are disrupted after weight loss surgery but your body has a new norm or "reset" that changes the way you burn your carbs and fats. The Ghrehlin (hunger hormone) is decreased a great deal with the VSG and ultimately you do not eat as much but the WAY your body is actually seeing and burning the calories you do ingest is being looked at differently as well.

The science is actually super interesting.....

[Jaelzion 1,127]

4 hours ago, Highly_Undermedicated said:

What shakes are you drinking at 140 calories ? Just curious.

I drink Evolve shakes and they are also 140 calories:

[catwoman7 11,212]

that's only temporary - and you're not doing it long enough to damage your metabolism. And like an above commenter said, surgery supposedly "resets" your metabolism anyway...

[Arabesque 7,257]

The main reason is you’ve just had surgery to alter your tummy. The staged diet & reduced portions are to reintroduce foods back to your digestive system slowly so as not to aggravate or derail your healing. All because you can’t see it, you have wounds inside which need to be treated gently. Think how you would treat a long incision down your thigh or arm. You don’t want to eat too much or eat coarse foods that are harder to digest & put pressure on those stitches & staples.

I was lucky if I was eating 300 calories in the weeks after surgery. I wasn’t interested in food or hungry at all.

Good luck with your surgery.

[muppet _74 4]

I'm at day ... 5 going into 6 tmr and I only got in one Premier Protein shake, and one Gatorade Zero with a sugar free freezie. I mean I was tempted to eat a piece of string cheese but nope. I didn't. So that's less than 300 calories right there...