Eating with a DS: A Day in the Life (pics!)

I thought it would be fun to do a little project to illustrate how DS malabsorption works. There seems to be a lot of confusion about this, particularly around fat and calorie absorption. The confusion is understandable; it took me a while to wrap my brain around it too.

Below are photos of everything I ate today, followed by regular nutritional totals, revised nutritional totals for me as a DSer and an explanation. I'd like to preface this with a disclaimer, though.

What this is: An attempt to provide a concrete example of how the DS works and convey my newfound enjoyment of food since having the DS. This is just a snapshot of my life as an 8-month post-op DSer. 

My intended audience: Foodies, pre-ops, those researching surgery, other DSers and anyone else interested. On the other hand, if you find discussions or pictures of food triggering, you may not want to read further.

What this is not: I do not claim to speak for any other DSers about what they eat. Nor am I trying to suggest that other DSers should eat the way I do. I sincerely don't want to this to come across as "bragging", an attempt to make anyone feel badly, or a put down of other surgery types. 

So, with that out of the way...

Breakfast: 8 slices crisp bacon, 2 eggs fried in bacon drippings, 3 fresh strawberries and an iced caramel latte (made with espresso, heavy cream and DaVinci SF caramel syrup). 

 
Mid-morning snack: 2 ounces of Cinnamon Brown Sugar Roasted Almonds
 
Lunch: 4 pieces tuna sashimi, 4 pieces salmon sashimi with sliced cucumbers, wasabi, pickled ginger and soy sauce.






Mid-afternoon snack: 5 ounce wedge of creamy Port Salut cheese, 5 whole wheat crackers (Keebler Toasteds). 
   
Dinner: 4 ounce filet mignon topped with melted gorgonzola butter, 3/4 cup veggies (zucchini, squash, bell peppers, asparagus, carrots and shallots) roasted in extra virgin olive oil.
   
Dessert: Single-serving mini-cup of Ben & Jerry's mint chocolate cookie ice cream. (Note: I do not want to give the impression that eat ice cream every day, but I do allow myself to splurge on it a few times per month. When I do, these mini-cups are just perfect.) 
   

I found it to be a very tasty and satisfying day. Now it's time to calculate the nutritional impact! 

For a normal person, the food I ate today would total:
Calories: 3,171
Fat: 258 grams
Carbs: 68 grams
Sugars: 33 grams
Fiber: 11 grams
Protein: 154 grams

But with my DS, I do not absorb about 80% of the calories from fat, 50% of the calories from protein, and 40% of the calories from complex carbs. Those calories travel right on through, they do not pass go, they do not collect $200.

For the purposes of these calculations, and because simple vs. complex carbs can be difficult to separate out, I am going to be conservative and estimate that all my carbs (minus fiber) were absorbed. 

So, with my DS anatomy, the food I ate today totaled approximately: 
Calories: 1001
Fat: 51.6 grams
Carbs (net): 57 grams
Protein: 77 grams

This is one of the many reasons why I love my DS! 

I hope this was helpful and informative to someone out there. Feel free to ask any questions about what I've posted. 

Jenna
 

mmm .. Bacon ... I want a D.S .. Can I get one at Wal-Mart? ... lol

Just want to say Congrats on all your success you have done great

 Thank you! Congrats on your recent sleeve. Looks like you are already rocking it.

Haha I don't even remember replying to this thread. Isn't it funny I posted in the exact same spot and the same thing in both threads. I must really love bacon

LOL! I didn't realize either. That is too funny. 

Girl, I was thinking the same thing!!!  =)

You seriously ate ALL of this in one day???   This might have been how I would have eated prior to surgery...

I seriously did! I can only eat about 6-8 ounces per meal (depending on the density of what I'm eating) so I try to make them count in terms of fat/protein content.

Pre-op, I could have easily eaten 5 times as much in volume, though my choices back then were much lower fat and higher carb.

Can you take pics of what you eat every day? I think I want to eat through you until my DS tummy heals and I lose enough weight and then I can join you :-)
I love food pics!

 Princess, glad you enjoyed. My entire family thought I was cray-cray snapping pics of all my food, so I'd better not make it an every day thing. But I may do it again sometime.