Protein, carbs, and fat?

Hey everyone,

I am new to this forum and have been reading your posts for the past month. They are great - thank you!

I had my sleeve on 7/11. I have been working hard on high protein, low sugar, low carbs. I was talking to a good friend tonight about the calories, carbs, and protein that I was eating. She is very healthy, fit, marathon runner and a nurse. She said that having such high protein and low carbs and low sugar that you need more fat in your diet....if protein is really high with no fat, it can be bad for you.

Has anyone heard this? I am trying to stay around 600 calories and 60plus grams of protein.

Thanks!

What she is talking about is a keto diet. And while I have increased my fats in maintenance the percentages of fat they want are just too high for me.

Thst being said I think many people on here don't worry about fat. We do need fat in our diet, so adding a little butter to cooking an egg, or having full fat dairy is how many people add it. Also fattier cuts of meat. At this time you are early out and need to maximize weight loss, so yes have fat but still count what you are doing.

I think most who stay low-carb end up tending towards Keto when they are further out from surgery. You are early yet though and your mission is protein for now. True Keto requires 80% of your calories come from fat and I think that's probably hard for a post-WLS person to do because we need more protein than that will allow us.

Now at 6-months out, I don't worry at all about fat. I eat full-fat dairy, I eat fatty cuts of meat, I add butter when sauteeing veggies, etc. I track it all in MFP to make sure my calories are on point. I still only get about 20-30% of my calories from fat at this point, 60% from protein and 10-20% from carbs.

It's sort of mind boggling how much information and misinformation there is out there about nutrition. (I just realized this might sound like I'm saying the above posters are giving you misinformation and that is NOT what I mean. I agree with them. Just saying it's hard to figure out what's right to do because everyone has different claims.)

Fat is an important part of a healthy diet. I eat high protein, low carb, and don't worry about the fat that comes along with the protein. So I don't stick to particularly lean cuts of meat, I eat full fat dairy when I eat dairy, and if I do chicken thighs, I enjoy every bite of that skin :D

She is talking about a phenomenon known as "Rabbit Starvation" which can happen when an already thin person eats only protein long term. For someone with fat to burn and in the early stages of weight loss, keeping carbs and calories low and protein adequate to prevent muscle loss are the three most important goals - and that usually means avoiding some dietary fat. Eventually it will be important for your health and quality of life to not stress about staying low fat.

Thanks everyone for the info....what I am going to do is just focus on high protein - low sugar and low carbs and not worry about fat....one day at a time.

I really appreciate all the answers....thank you!

I always found that if I got my 80 g protein and kept carbs to 30 or less that everything else just sort of fell into place. There is a little fat in even lean meats and I always put half and half in my coffee and cook in olive oil so I would get a little. My surgeon says that studies comparing low fat and low carb diets always showed the low carb people do best. Do what your surgeon says. The end. Diane S

I don't monitor my fat intake at all but with getting in enough protein and only being able to eat 3-4 oz at a time, it really doesn't amount to much fat.

I'm the black sheep here and don't believe low-carb is the right way to go. Having been in treatment for an eating disorder for the last 3 years, my therapist has informed me of tons of research on weight loss and nutrition that shows that your body is honestly going to do whatever the hell it wants no matter what you do. As such, I don't adhere to strict guidelines because I know that if I do that, I just stress myself out, become needlessly obsessive and end up failing in the long run anyway. I stall more than other people here, but I'm still losing, getting closer to my goal and my eating disorder is not out of control.

Since I am 6 months out from surgery, my protein and calorie goals are about 65 grams and a range of 800 to 1200. Also because I've had a lot of constipation issues, I aim for 30 grams of fiber every day as well. When I was at a month out, I didn't have a set goal for calories because I was still focusing on getting in enough protein. Once I got the hang of things and met my goal, I started focusing on the 600 to 800 calorie range.

I'm another black sheep, so we can hang together. :) Ketosis makes me INCREDIBLY ill, so even if I was inclined, I couldn't do low carb. My surgeon doesn't advocate for or against low carb, she personally thinks it's a hard thing to maintain long-term so she supports it if you want to do it, but primarily advocates a balanced macro eating plan with emphasis on protein. I try to focus on complex carbs and stay away from sugar (except what's naturally in fruit) and my loss has been slower than some others (and I've had more stalls as you stated) but I've kept a downward trend.

Long-term, it still is to be seen if I can maintain like the vets who have done low carb of some variety, so I don't speak out against low carb. It seems to work very well for the majority of successful vets. All I try to do is be a voice for other options, with the caveat being that I don't have long-term success to show as evidence. I recognize that I may be shooting myself in the foot by eating balanced macros. We'll see. :)

As far as fat goes, what I do know from my nutrition training in nursing school - which has been echoed by my daughter's nutrition classes in her college kinesiology program and the registered dieticians I've spoken briefly with - is that with the 3 main macros - protein, fat, carbs - if you are seriously reducing 1 of them, the other 2 need to stay normal or elevated. So low carb AND low fat doesn't really work well from a nutritional perspective. Whether fat needs to be seriously increased or stay at a "normal" level is debatable, and you'll find diet programs that go both ways.