food intake- way different for men?

eslmn1 · 11-01-2009, 08:14 PM

Please bare with me as this might be a longer post. I belive thiss belongs in the men's form because I cant relate to how people are eating when I read other posts...by women. I am looking for input from people more experience than me. I have been banded since sep 3rd. Including 2 weeks on the preopp diet I have lost 55 LBS. I got a fill about 2 weeks ago of 2CCs (obviously 1st fill).

It seems like my daily caloric intake is a whole lot higher than others that I have heard of with the band. I started to track calories on my other LAP-BAND® site. I see that I am taking in about 1860 calories a day(tracking for 3 days). I am about 6-6'1'' and now about 267LBS. From what I am learning, I can take in about 2670 calories based on a realativly sedantary(sp?) life stile while I am this weight. I have been beeting myself up about eating too much but, I see that I am still at an 790 calorie per day calorie deficit. This deficit should mean weight loss of 1.6 Lbs per week (one LB = 3500 Calories).

At times, I am eating very large meals (tonight I believe I took in 10-12 oz of turkey breast). These meals are not large compared to what they used to be (pre band)and they are filled with low fat/ low carb/ high protien calrories. (Turkey breast is my weekeness)

I have two questions
1) Is there a flaw in thinking that this "high" caloric intake should be OK in the long run? (OK because it still should equal weight loss)
2) Am I running the risk of hurting myself in other ways? Stretching my band/ Getting used to larger meals/ slowing my metabolism down

Input, especially if I am heading in the wrong direction, is appreciated.

Eric

**Jack** · 11-01-2009, 10:10 PM

Eric:

First, congratulations on your progress!!!

Second, the answer to both your questions is yes, and yes.

You are making a tactical error regarding how much you eat IMHO.

From hints in your post that really weren't the point of your question, I think you should clarify the point of WHY we eat.

I too eat a *ton* less than I used to. Despite that absolute fact I have charted my meals regularly over the past 4 years, using at times two different programs, they both show 90% of my daily intake has been below their 'norm' regarding the metabolic base calorie burn.

By their charting method, I should have been in calorie deficit over that time frame, I should weigh about 35 pounds.

Obviously some kind of experimental error has crept in; I do not believe I am consistently entering too small a food intake number. Personally after initial great loss, I have been at the same plateau for most of the past 4 years despite closely monitoring with those programs.

That you continue to lose is great; be aware that can and does change suddenly, provoking in some of us all kinds of doubt, anxiety, stress and agitation. Turkey breast is a pretty good 'weakness' to have for a food intake. 10-12 oz at at time this soon post op seems a bit much to me, especially if other foods with portions above spoon size are added.

I continue to eat with the idea of what I *want* to weigh, rather than based on what I *used* to eat....which was a horrid amount. Still, early in my postOp period I was losing over a pound a day with ease. So I thought.

There are many unexpected bends and lessons in our journey; your trip is just beginning.

If you are especially active physically, you will burn more calories. And men seem to have better burn rates than women, in general, from what I've seen reported on LBT.

cheers in your journey!!!

PNWal · 11-02-2009, 10:31 AM

Eric,
Congrats, you're doing great! To be losing weight under basically little or no restriction is awesome! At this point in your progress most of your loss is from dieting, not the band.

As your band continues to get filled you will start to feel restriction which will be an aid to control the quantity of your food consumption. If you keep choosing turkey breast, or other low fat options, your consumption decrease will continue to help your weight loss.

Exercise seems to be missing, as you described yourself as realativly sedantary(sp?) lifestyle". My suggestion is to start exercising, a little everyday. You will build strength from ANY regular activity (just a 15 min walk around the block, will help). If you are physically able to exercise, you need to do it.

I spent the first 6 months very active and lost 70 pounds. Then I got a job and have not been as consistently active with exercise as I was before (darn work getting in the way of my weight loss job!). I've now started up again and I'm losing weight.

Eric, keep doing what you're doing and realize that this is a journey and you just left the station. Keep up the great work!

pnwAl

eslmn1 · 11-02-2009, 09:17 PM

Thanks to you both...great input.

btrieger · 11-18-2009, 11:10 PM

Get a Bodybugg!

It measures your calorie output and you enter everything you eat into the web page.

It calculate the difference for you.

It is working great for me and I am not even banded yet.

I am eating about 2,000 calories a day and burning about 4,000 by just walking an hour a day. I am dropping 3 to 4 pounds a week.

Counting how many calories I was eating never made sense because I had no clear idea of how many I was burning.

Besides that, the Bodybugg is a gadget and as men, we love gadgets. :)

Jachut · 11-19-2009, 01:19 AM

I think as long as you're losing, then your calorie intake is fine and you leave your band loose enough to cope with it. You will only damage your band if you consistenly eat more than it can cope with and your pouch can handle - and that depends on restriction.

A lot of people seem to need to eat barely anything to lose, who knows why? I lost easily and steadily at about 1500 calories a day - give or take becuase I never logged. I didnt question why, I was just glad I was able to eat enough to nourish myself properly and to keep my metabolism firing.

Howwever, I now maintain on about 1800 a day. The charts all say I should be able to eat about 2,600 at my height and level of activity - there's no WAY I can. I got obese eating that many calories a day! So ignore the charts, your body will display the evidence of whether what you're doing is right, if you're losing then there's no reason in the world to eat less. The more you can eat, the better, for a variety of reasons.

I also think women have that diet mentality that we have all internalised and most of us get some kind of unhealthy thrill to be 'starving ourselves'. We love that we can only eat 800 calories a day even though in reality and intake that low is unhealthy, cannot possible nourish you in the long term and if you eat that little long term, you're virtually ensuring you'll have to eat hardly anything to maintain. But we love it becuase it makes us "good".

Be thankful you're not female, we're all pretty messed up over weight, appearance and dieting.

**Jack** · 11-19-2009, 11:28 AM

Agree with Jachut regarding the evidence of "How much" is demonstrated by what our body shows us.

In theory, "theory and practice of healthy life style" should be the same.

In practice, they are often different, and for reasons we can not clearly discern.

The science, art and philosophy of health care, while conducted in regards to the same individual, has considerable differences:

The Science of Healing is "WHAT" we do;
The Art of Healing is "HOW" we do it;

The Philosophy of Healing is "WHY" do we do those things.

KartMan · 11-19-2009, 07:35 PM

I think there is a flaw in what the charts say what we can consume in a “normal” day and not gain weight. I too am 6’ tall and will usually gain weight if I consume over 2000 calories in a day. I have been rigorously counting calories since I was banded 2/18/09. Before I started working out, I consumed 1200-1500 calories a day and lost 2-4 pounds per week. Now that I work out regularly (4-6 days a week) I consume about 1800 - 2000 calories a day and am relatively flat with weight loss, maybe still losing about .5 lbs a week. This is fine with me because I am actually under my goal weight. But I know I can’t go by what the charts say and eat over 2000 a day and still maintain.

As for stretching the pouch, I worry about that one too. Sometimes the food is just really good or the social setting is such that I want to keep eating. It is really a chore to fight the urge to eat (even though I am clearly not hungry). It’s only happened a few times to me, but when I push past my limit I always worry that I have damaged my pouch.