Daily Calories Intake to Lose Weight

Question
Hi! I am 47 y/o, 5'2", and currently weigh 166 lbs. I underwent gastric bypass surgery on 8/1/2005 and through my first year anniversary I was able to lose 105lbs. Since 8/2006, I haven't been able to lose any more (significant) weight--I may go down to about 162 and then almost immediately back up to where I am now. It's been driving me crazy. I still want to lose 25-27 lbs to reach my goal of 135-137 lbs. I need help with my caloric intake, I guess. On average, I have been consuming between 1200-1600 calories. This is probably too much. Could you please tell me what my daily intake should be in order to achieve a loss of 1-2 lbs a week? Thank you very much.

Answer
Hi Dolly!   That's great that you have been successful in losing all that weight, and keeping it off over the past 2 yrs!!!!    What you have in front of you is 'child's play' so to speak.   The hard part is behind you, so you just need to trim up and lose that last little bit of weight.    Your calorie intake sounds fine--if you decrease it any more, your metabolism will slow down, and it won't be very realistic to maintain a low calorie intake for the rest of your life.    So instead of reducing your calories, you need to get moving more!   Exercise will boost your metabolism 10x more than dieting alone, so time to join a gym, and you will lose your lasat 20-30 lbs, plus increase your muscle tone, bone density, etc, as well as fend off heart disease, diabetes, cancer, etc.
To lose your goal of 2 lbs per week (very reasonable!), you will have to start exercising a minimum of 3-4 x per week.   Optimum results will be achieved with 4-5, but you might want to start with 3x per week for the first couple of weeks, and let your body get used to it, then add 1 day per week for the next few weeks, until you work your way up to 5 days per week.   You need to be doing BOTH cardiovascular (stairmaster, treadmill) 30 min  AND resistance training (weights) for 30-60 min.   If you do this 5 days per week, and keep your calories at the range you are eating now, I guarantee that you will see dramatic results in 3-4 months and will lose the remaining weight.
Since you had your gastric bypass, you will not be able to eat the same amts & types of foods as someone who has not had this surgery......however, the good news is that the typical post-bypass diet is very close to a "clean fitness diet" that I would eat.    Your amts of food per sitting would be alot less however, but types of food would be similar.    For example, you could eat a tiny chicken & spinach salad with baked potato:  your salad portion would only be 1/2 cup- 1 cup (varies in individuals), the chicken would be 2-3 oz, and the potato would only be 50-60 g (size of a golf ball).    As long as you keep the portion sizes small and frequent feedings (as instructed by your surgeon/post-op health care provider), a diet high in protein, complex carbohydrates and fibrous vegetables will be the best thing for you!     Please go to www.oxygenmag.com   and look at their fabulous diet plans!    In your case, you would eat only 1/3 or 1/2 of the portion sizes at one time (as I indicated in the example above), but the idea is the same--lean meats/protein/low-fat dairy, veggies and complex carbs (oatmeal, potatoes, corn, whole wheat, bran cereal, legumes, etc).    If you consume your tiny portions about 6-8 times throughout the day, weight loss is inevitable!!!!!!!   
Please mail me back and tell me what you are currently eating right now.  

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