500 cal a day

[Guest guest]

> 500 calories per day cannot keep someone at an obese weight.

Sure it can! I even gained weight at only 800 calories, and I know other

women who did gain on 500 cal and lower!

Once your body gets used to that very low level of calories it goes into

starvation mode and holds on to every single calorie you put into it. It

even converts the carbs you eat into glycogen which then converts to fat and

goes into storage instead of burning them up as fuel. After a while the

body will burn muscle for fuel, instead, because it's easier to get to and

save the fat to burn as a last resort, because it'll take energy to convert

it to a burnable form again. The human body is a very efficient machine when

it comes to conserving fuel.

This is why even after you have your WLS and have to live on only 500

calories a day you will eventually regain some weight - around 50% or more -

after the first year or so. Heck, some people never lose on 500 calories,

especially those who had already been on low cal diets for years! Didn't

they cover this in your pre-op counseling? Ask your doc (or whoever) what

the " success " rate is after 2 years? 5 years? How much weight is regained

for the type of surgery you're having done?

Anyway . . .

The only way weight loss is now going to happen if someone is in starvation

mode is to eat *more* food, gain some weight back, and once the body is

assured it's not going to experience another famine - and one meal a day of

only 500 calories is indeed famine conditions - then it will *slowly*

release a few pounds and plateau again a few weeks later. It's not going to

take any chances now. It's been fooled too many times in the past (yo-yo

dieting). The body's caloric requirement is it's current weight times 10 to

maintain normal bodily functions (including its current weight), and to lose

weight, multiply your weight by a bit lower number. Not half or less, just a

*little* bit less, or it'll stay in starvation mode. Some say 8 is a good

number. I forget what number used to make up his chart for

his Foodmover. Remember his says if a person is 250 pounds or over it's 2000

calories plus a starch and protein, 150 calories, for every 50 pounds above

that.

This is now where exercise comes in. Once the body starts to release the

fat, you've got to stoke the furnace to keep the fat burning going. A quick

reading of one of those " calories burned per hour of activity " charts will

show you how much exercise you need to do above and beyond normal daily

activities.

The National Weight Loss registry found that the most successful long term

weight losers - that magical 2 - 3% of the dieting population that has lost

30 or more pounds and kept it off for a mere 2 years - lost their weight on

a low cal, low fat food plan and daily exercise, and maintain that loss on

apx. 1400 calories and enough exercise to burn off an additional 400

calories, at least an hour a day of aerobics, and 3 times a week of

toning/weight work. That's each and every day, or, as says,

you exercise on the days you want to eat. If you want to eat 7 days a week,

then you exercise 7 days a week.

Sue in NJ