Eye Opening Experience.... Think this will be helpful from pre-oppers like me.

The other day, I posted a topic about what I can do now, before pre-op diet and surgery. I received a ton of awesome advice from the vets. If you are pre-op you definitely owe it to yourself to see that post and follow this wonderful advice.

One of the suggestions was to download and use My Fitness Pal. I set my goals and intake at 1800 calories/day.

This weekend, I did a little experiment. I decided to eat like I normally eat just to see exactly what I was eating. No surprise the calorie count was in the upper 3,000's and low 4,000's. It was actually amazing to see what is in this junk I am eating. Not only was I high in calories, but also absurd on sodium (no wonder I have high BP), Was high on carbs, but believe it or not, I wasn't too terrible. I was also absurdly low on potassium. This explains why a little over a year ago, I was admitted to the hospital with signs of a heart attack, but it was found my potassium was dangerously low.

One of the biggest eye openers for me, was eating something I thought was healthy, but was actually worse than eating a Big Mac. I was shocked to see a fried chicken Cesar salad from Zaxby's had 750 calories! I chose this because I thought I would do better with the salad vs chicken wings or tenders. Boy was I wrong! It actually discouraged me yesterday when I was actually trying for my 1800 calorie goal. Every time I ate, I was like watch this be 1000 calories. I was almost wondering if I should even eat at all. I ended up about 400 calories over yesterday, though I did not achieve my goal yesterday, I will today.

This was a true eye-opening experience for me. An experience that has me more determined than ever to make the life changes needed to make my upcoming VSG a true success.

I highly recommend all folks who are pre-op or considering WLS, or those suffering regain after WLS to download and faithfully use My Fitness Pal. It is truly the "shock and awe" experience we all need to motivate us to make the changes necessary to be successful.

Sammy

Wow, sounds like you had a great experience! A lot of people will turn to a salad thinking it's healthy, but fail to take into account the fat-filled dressing. Fat has 9 calories per gram, so the fat grams are an important consideration!  Protein has 6 calories per gram and I think sugar is 6 as well, but I may not be remembering that correctly. 

Good for you for making changes pre-op!  Do as well as you can, but don't beat yourself up if you don't achieve perfection. 

Jen

Great eye-opening experiment!  Keep it up - before long you'll find that you can find the healthier stuff out there. What an excellent way to truly evaluate the "before" and know where to make changes.

Good for you for making this positive change prior to surgery! Tracking EVERYTHING was really helpful to me in losing 107 lbs in six month pre-op.

This is precisely the reason why I sigh every time I see a pre-op person say that they need surgery "not because I eat bad foods... I actually eat healthy foods, just too much of it" - they are kidding themselves. Either they do not know what healthy foods are.... or they are lying to themselves 99.999% of the time!

Great job!

Thanks, I can definitely relate to those others. When I had that salad, it was really depressing. I was thinking if I can't eat a dag gum salad, what can I eat? Fortunately that didn't last long.

A couple guys here at my work were eating hot hamburger plates from a local diner. Out of curiosity, I checked out the calories on that, I was expecting in the neighborhood of 1500+, turned out to be darn near 3000! Good thing I decided to stick to my slim fast today :).

Have you considered the Duodenal Switch? The DS has the very best long-term, maintained weight-loss stats for patients of any size, but especially so for those of us with a BMI greater than 50. The DS has the same stomach as the Sleeve, plus an intestinal bypass that actually permanently changes the way our bodies metabolize food. The Sleeve is a great surgery---IF all you need is portion control. Unfortunately, most of us *****ach a BMI greater than 50 have metabolic problems as well.

I have looked into the DS, but the thought of rerouting the plumbing is just not for me, part of the reason I've stayed away from even considering RNY. I've talked with many high BMI folks that had the VSG with tremendous success. Regardless of the procedure, I know ultimately it is going to have to be my mindset along with what I put in my mouth that will determine my success. Not knocking the DS, just don't like the idea of moving intestines.

Hey, that's cool. Many people are uncomfortable with the idea of malabsorption, but remember---malabsorption is NOT the same as malnutrition. (Interestingly, many MO people are malnourished!)

I think that most people can lose significant amounts of weight with any form of WLS, or even with the traditional 'diet and exercise'. What's really hard is maintaining that loss, long-term, and that's where the DS really shines. I know that for me personally, without the malabsorption of calories that the DS gives me, I would NOT be able to maintain. Hopefully that won't be the case for you, but if you go with the Sleeve, you'll always have the option of adding the 'Switch' later for a full DS, should you need it.

Good luck to you!

I wish I had done this before I started my pre-op diet. I did download MyFitnessPal though and I'm sure I ate a lot of calories before. The problem I find now is getting in enough calories on my pre-op diet. I get anywhere between 1000-1200. Most days on the lower end of that range and it tells me I'm eating too few calories for nutrients.

It's great to hear you're using MFP, to enhance thar experience look in to the UP band by Jawbone, or a Fitbit bracelet..... They are activity trackers and work with MFP, to track your steps and activity and show you how many calories you're burning. You can even take a walk or do a workout to earn back an overage of calories you consumed in a weak moment..... Really helpful lifestyle changing stuff! 😊