Hi there,

A bit of history, I had gastric bypass 10 years ago, and went from 348 pounds to 220 and kept it off. I am now getting rid of this last 70 pounds and could use some advice.

I just started my diet about two weeks ago. I am tracking my calories on livestrong.com along with my exercise. Everyday, it tells me that I am under my calorie intake by at least 500-800 calories. I am concerned that my body will not lose weight. The problem is that I am not hungry and do not have the desire to eat anymore then I already do.

I was an AVID Mt Dew lover and I gave that up cold turkey with no problems at all... not even a craving. I am satisfied with what I eat. I have been doing Leslie Sansone's walk on ondemand, 2 miles in the morning and 2 miles in the evening.

Is it ok for me to be under calories like this? Will my body go into starvation mode, or should I just not worry about being that much under?

I appreciate your support!

It sounds like you're off to a great start. Congrats on keeping the weight off all of those years!! My question to you is, how many calories are you eating/day? I don't factor in my exercise when figuring out calories (although some calorie counters do), but I do know that calculators like the one on livestrong tend to overestimate calories burned. Anyway, it's hard to answer whether or not you are consuming enough calories without knowing how many it actually is.

Thank you for responding.

Today I had 1132 calories and I am done eating for the day.

The problem with eating so few calories is that when you plateau, you'll have nowhere to go. If you lose slowly with a smaller deficit (ie 1800-2000 calories), you can drop further when the plateau hits.

In addition, at less than 1200 calories (and TBH, less than even 1800-2000), you will be losing muscle in addition to fat, which is not optimal at all.

I'm sure that people will offer differing opinions about this. When I started losing weight at 255 pounds, I went right to 1200 calories. I made sure that they were good quality, filling calories. I've been eating 1200 ever since. For me, it was enough. I was never tired or hungry and never had any negative side effects. Some days I fell short of 1200, as you have today, and it was no biggie for me.

In my opinion, as long as you feel well and satisfied, there is no reason to make yourself eat more if you have a low day occasionally. The general 'line in the sand' is 1200 calories, so as long as you keep it around that number, and don't make low days too common; you should be fine.

Of course if you feel deprived, groggy, or just not healthy, you can find ways to up those calories slightly in a healthy way by adding some healthy higher calorie foods throughout the day. A handful of nuts would do it.

Anyway, as I've said, I ate 1200 calories at 255 pounds, exercising 1 hr everyday and have suffered no ill effects that I'm aware of. But you should do what feels right to you.

Good luck!!

I have no idea how many calories you need to eat, especially since you have had gastric bypass. I'd suggest you ask your doctor. He or she is probably the best person to advise you on this, or direct you to someone who can.

Good luck!
Jay

Just wanted to second what jkinboston said... I think livestrong WAY overestimates calories burned in exercise, so if that's what you go by, your deficit may not be so high.

^- Sorry, I totally missed the bypass info!

Thanks guys... I feel much better now!

I think if you would like to increase you calories by a bit, without eating more, would be to add a bit more healthy fat into your equation, add some olive oil to salad dressing, take a salmon oil supplement, etc. that way you don't have to eat more, but can get a few more calories in, so that you can go down if needed later.

I have been having the same problem. It might be the mindset that I want to be under more than over. I can fix under but cannot fix over. I also know that I might miss something in the calorie count during the day as I do not count condiments and I also tend to have a low cal snack bag on my desk that I munch on during the day. This is something i also struggle with and thanks for posting. Great job BTW with your goals so far.