Am I doing this wrong?

I am new to calorie counting (I started last Thursday).  In 2000 I had the gastric bypass.  I was 356 and lost 150 pounds.  Since then I have had 2 more children (4 total) and have gained back 100 of the weight.  I still get full very fast but I graze all day and don't exercise and I was drinking 1-2 bottles of redwine 4 nights a week.

So now I am 307, 5ft 4 inches and 35 years old. My blood pressure is high (I am on new medication that regulates it). I have quit drinking red wine and most alcohol (I count the light beer in my calories if I have a few).  This counter says my calorie goal is 2350 in order to lose weight.  I have only been eating 1200-1300 calories a day and I have exercised 3 times this week.  I have only lost 2 pounds.  I know it is a loss but I really thought it would be more.

My doctor says it is ok to stick with the 1200 calories. But should I follow what my calories on here say? 2350 seems like a lot to me.  I have done really well for a week and a half, I am not hungry in fact a few times I have had to drink slim fast in the evening just so I can reach the 1200 mark to be healthy.

My question, should I eat the 2350, is that what is stopping me from losing?  Then gradually decrease to 1200 once I start losing, or should I stick to the 1200. I thought for sure without the wine and the exercise and basically a large cal deficit I would have more success. Or am I just impatient? (that's what my husband says:))

I am on this site religiously, I enter everything I eat as soon as I eat it as well as my activity.

Thanks!

1 -- yes, you are being too impatient.  But most of us are.

2 -- eat what the site suggest, that is -- eat the 2350.  Try that for a month or so before deciding that it is wrong.

If, in the event you were to lose weight on 1200-1300, but then stop losing weight you will have nowhere to lower your calories to.  Eat as much as you can while still losing weight -- that is a lifestyle you can stick with, and a lifestyle you can adjust from.  In this case, it is also probably a lifestyle that will fit in with the rest of your family's food plans.

You are a big "girl" -- and burn many calories just sitting around -- don't send your body into shock by starving it.  Continue to exercise, eat all your calories (front load with a great breakfast, add more calorie dense snacks such as nuts, avocado, etc), drink your water (crystal light, non-caffeinated drink of choice, etc), keep your fiber level high, and you should see the weight come off. 

You will have to recalculate your calories after every 20lb loss or so -- you will burn less, the less you weigh

Sounds like you must have a pretty large calorie deficit. In general, anything over 1000 is not good--too likely to trigger the "conservation mode" (aka "starvation mode") where your body cuts down on some functions and the metabolism slows down to accommodate the famine it percieves. For really large people, however, as I understand it, the deficit may be larger for a time. The deficit is the difference between what you burn and what you eat.

The Burn tool here says you burn about 2500 if you are sedentary which, with kids, you probably are not. So add in some light daily activity and some regular exercise, and  you could easily be burning 3000-3500 on a regular basis (depends on the type and duration of exercise).

1200 sounds too low, given all this. A good compromise would be to up that--maybe to 2000, but see what others here suggest--and see how it goes. You might lose better if you eat more.

Good luck.

I think too often doctors say to eat 1200 as sort of a knee-jerk response. I think it is way too little for people our size, and not sustainable in the long-term. Anything that is not sustainable in the long-term is not even worth messing with when it will take many months if not years to lose all the weight!

My stats are very similar to yours. I started at 343 pounds and I am 5'2", 35 years old. I almost always eat at least 2000 calories a day and it was more like 2200 when I was over 300. At around 260 I  still eat 2000 calories or more but I do a lot of exercise to keep my deficit around 1000. There are some on here who have been very successful on 1500 calories/day at our size, which is what I would eat if I did not exercise as much as I do, so the exercise can be a major factor. Regardless I think you should start out targeting 2000-2300 calories and keep stepping up the exercise as you are able. See where that takes you and adjust accordingly.. but do be patient. This takes time and persistence but you can do it.

hi ya there and welcome.  You will love this site!!!!

I would say give it a lil more time and I also believe 2300 calories is a lot.

I would suggest only weighing yourself once a week at most.  Damn scale can get you down when indeed you are losing fat.

Isn't it hard to not drink wine?  I personally LOVE beer and cut it out for 3 months in the beginning of my weight loss.  Water was my best friend lol

Give it more time and you'll see results. 

~H~

Thanks for replying...it is hard not to drink wine, but I had a really bad experience about a month ago, I drank wine while taking Paxil for anxiety and it made me suicidal, I swallowed 10 Ambian pils and I ended up with a pumped stomach and in the psych ward for 12 hours.  Now I associate wine with that whole trauma, and have stopped taking any medications.  So don't drink and take meds....heed the warning on the bottle about alcohol.

I am upping my calories like everyone suggested. I am at 1900 today, but I went to a block party and ate 2 hotdogs and I made beef ribs for dinner and had 2 of those...