Would appreciate your opinions, please! Protein!

I really didn't have a taste for protein drinks either, but I found a few things that worked. Unjury chicken broth is a high protein soup flavor, if you prefer savory to sweet. Also, I love love love Chike high protein iced coffee protein powder (got it on Amazon) and probably had that shake as a breakfast every day for 1.5 years. If you get 20g of protein from a shake, like Cynthia said, you can easily get 80g of protein in a day because the rest of your meals can be tuna, shrimp, turkey, chicken, steak, etc.

Your honeymoon definitely isn't over, and 49 lbs in 4 months is a great start! I don't see your starting weight or ending weight, but I am 5'4" and I was 351 lbs day of surgery. I made it to 160 about two weeks shy of my one year surgiversary, following my plan to a t.

Keep hydrated too. To this day, four years out, I have a MINIMUM of 100 oz of liquids a day, mostly water.

If the dense protein fills you up greatly, try flaky white fish which always sits better with me than a dense protein like chicken breast. Also try sauces/gravies to make the meat moist.

Good luck and keep it up!

Thanks for the great ideas. I will try those bi am much better with savoury and coffee. You have done great. I will take your advise. Thanks for your response.

Hi all

I am just about 4 months post- op and have lost 49 lbs since surgery. I am 54, 5?9?. Throughput this journey I have been fortunate to have little or no appetite, have followed plan (98%) of the time, working out 2x a week doing weights, and walking each day.

My challenge has been getting in enough protein. I have been about 35-40grams of protein daily, 400-450 calories daily. Water has been a bit shy of the goals.

Only weight loss has slowed to about a pound a week and I am concerned my honeymoon is over already. This week, after some kind advice from Ginny and shirAl, I have tried to up my protein. I am now at about 60-65 grams a day, also adding more water.

My mind is struggling though to be eating more and feeling like I am falling back into old habits. ( I know it is really not more) and I am trying to understand the reason why my body needs more protein to lose more. I am also feeling so full.

Can anyone help me with this. Did you find adding protein increased your weight loss? Did you feel like it was too much? Am I eating enough? How long does the honeymoon last? Will I start losing again?

thank you all, I think I may be panicking. Any advise / words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

more important than weight loss is the fact that if you don?t give your body enough protein , it will start cannibilizing your muscles to get the protein. Your heart, lungs and other organs are muscles. Your body will start to break them down for protein.

This is why kills those suffering from anorexia. The body actually eats itself and heart fails.

get your protein. You don?t have to like it or want to eat, just do it. Make a menu with protein items on it for every meal, cook it and eat it.

Thanks. You are right. I just need to suck it up. Thanks.

I just want to add that you should prioritize your water more. I took a while to build up my intake as well, but I do think I lost more routinely when my water was at 80-100oz. Plus I feel better.

You have not stopped losing-don't worry about the honeymoon period thing. People talk about that because you wreck it if you don't follow your plan and start eating potato chips. Follow your plan and you will lose weight.

I haven't lost in a linear fashion; I just came out of two months of no loss and lost another 7 lbs in a week. Over the past year I typically lost for two weeks, maintained for two weeks and averaged around 10lbs lost per month. There were three months throughout the past year I didn't lose anything.

Don't panic and be nice to yourself, you're going to continue to do great.

Thank you for your response and kind words. It amazes me how easily we skip back into our old dieting way of thinking - panicking that we are slipping backwards. I wish I could remove that price of my mind. I am sitting here drinking a large glass of water.

Thanks for the assistance and reassurance.

I ended up getting a 32 oz Camelback water holder that has a big straw thingy. I make sure to have 3 a day. If I rely on refilling a kitchen glass and remembering how many I have had, I drink less fluids. It might be a good thing to try!

Bonus points if you can get a water bottle in a funky color, or put on a sticker that makes you happy. Anything that makes you more likely to hang onto it is a good thing!

I have a bright purple Nalgene bottle with a sparkly unicorn sticker on it. (Surprise, huh?) :-D

If you are eating 400 calories per day but only getting in 35g protein, what exactly are you eating? Posting a daily menu would help us to troubleshoot.

400 calories of chicken breast, or other lean dense protein, would have you far beyond your protein goals.

Thank you for your message.

My daily meals usually look like this:

B: 1 low fat string cheese or one boiled egg

L: 1.5 ounces chicken, or tuna or whatever meat I had left over from he night before

D: 1.5 ounces meat, or combination of meat and cheese to 2 ounces

S: I don't usually snack but if I do it will normally be a string cheese.

I have been adding this this week protein powder in my coffee but that is just this week.

Thouhts and ir input is so welcome. Thank you