What is a "normal" amount to eat at 3-4 months out?

Hi All,

I'm wondering -- what do you think is a "normal" amount to eat for someone who is 3 or 4 months post-op?  What were you able to eat at that point?  Is there a "normal" or is the range just too large to be able to say?

Thanks!

It's not a matter of how much, but of what you are eating. As long as you are eating 90-120 grams of protein a day and keeping your carbs low, eat until you are satisfied.

And, yes, I have noticed that the range varies. Some people are bigger eaters than others. There is no "normal" amount.

It's a struggle to get out of that counting calories mentality, isn't it? But, it's a whole lot more fun than the struggle to restrict calories, that's for sure.

Thanks for the input, Kel.  Yeah, old diet habits die hard, even if I hadn't done them for 20 years before my surgery!  They rush back like riding a bike.

As to the what, I get 100-130 g protein a day, with carbs between 70 and 100 g a day.  Lots and lots of fat, it seems.  It just feels like I'm eating all the time, which is freaking me out a bit.

You have GOT to come to the Sweet Potato Queens weekend, the 3rd weekend in March if for no other reason than to watch LeaAnn eat. (it's a raucous good time and you should come just for that, anyway, too.)

I was with her on the Santa Cruz boardwalk this summer and that woman ate almost EVERYTHING they sold on the boardwalk. Corn dogs, candy apples, roasted corn, caramel popcorn. You name it, she ate it. And then we went back to Diana's house for a chicken dinner. (I'm a light eater and only had one corn dog and some caramel corn on the boardwalk. I lost 4 pounds that weekend, one year out, anyway.)

She DOES handle carbs very well. Your own mileage may vary. But, I think that a large part of her success is due to the fact that she eats a lot and often. Her metabolism is always being fueled. Her body definitely never goes into "starvation mode."

You'll find your balance, what works for you, in time. Probably before your mind has had the time to wrap itself around the idea. But, with the DS, food is a good thing. Grazing and snacking are good things. Get in all of your protein and figure out the amount of carbs that work best for you and you're done worrying about it.

Liberating idea, isn't it? And why we are almost uniformly happy here. You'll get used to being food happy, too.

If you want to know more about the SPQ weekend, here's the official link:
http://www.sweetpotatoqueens.com/

There are also pics from last year on LeaAnn's profile.

We're marching in the parade as the Dark Side Pirate Queens this year just because we want to dress as pirates. It's loads of fun and everyone here is more than welcome to join us!

You are so right about the grazing and snacking thing !  I've recently found out that the days I am able to tolerate food better are the days that I just eat all day instead of trying to have scheduled meals.  It's harder because carbs sneak in easier, but if I'm careful I get much better nutrition.

Carbs don't have to sneak in if you plan ahead.

I always have plenty of different types of cheese on hand. Peanuts, jerky, sliced pepperoni. I crave and eat things now that never would have occured to me pre-DS.

Be protein-ready and you'll be ok.

And, you're right. Start eating first thing in the morning and the habit will be ingrained by lunch time.

Eat.

Even if you don't want to.

And the weight WILL come off.

No clue what is normal but I usually eat 3 meals a day with snacks in between each. At a meal I eat what would be about 4 liquid ounces of food. Mind you it isn't liquid (I eat steak, chicken & seafood) but that is the size of meal I eat.

Some of my favorite foods are:

salmon cooked in butter & herbs
filet or flank steak
shrimp (grilled or sauteed in butter)
cashews
eggs & bacon
pizza topping (meat pizza + extra cheese)
cheese

Are you happy with the rate at which you re losing weight?   I feel it's a matter of tweaking not how much you eat, but what you eat.   I personally feel (and others may disagree) that at 3-4 months out, 70-100 carbs a day is too much.   If you are losing like gangbusters with that many carbs, more power to you, but if you think you need to lose faster, that should be the first thing to go.   Your protein is great though - kudos to you on that!

I eat like a horse, and like LeaAnn, I eat very frequently.   Protein is almost always the first thing I eat, but I do confess to eating potato chips in the car on the way to work very early in the morning!   It's a bad habit I've gotten into of late, but I'm starting to get sick of them, which happens to me a lot since my DS - I'll go all gung-ho on some type of food for a while, then get thorougly sick of it and not be able to eat it for the longest time.

Hi Julie R,

I have no idea how the carbs are going to impact my weight loss.  I lost like gangbusters the first three weeks (57 pounds by 6 weeks, and 80 by 3 months).  It was only after that 3-month mark that I decided to up the carbs (from about 60 **net** grams a day to about 85 **net** grams per day).

I suspect that the pace of my weight loss will slow down.  I think that's only natural -- regardless of the carbs.  Can't always lose at that rate.  But I also think eating this greater amount of carbs will slow down the weight loss.

I think my big fear is that I will stop losing altogether!!!  And, heaven forbid, start gaining!  This might be an irrational fear, ingrained from having dieted and failed from the age of 8 until 20.  Of course I've been told the DS is different, but I was always the fattest kid in diet camp and the kid who lost the slowest.  So it's difficult for me to truly believe (sorry, Tinkerbell).

I'm okay with losing 10 pounds a month.  I'd like to lose 10 pounds a month.  I'm hoping I can lose at that rate steadily, even eating 100g of carb a day.

I guess I'll weigh myself in a few weeks and see what's happening.

Thanks again, Julie R.

You have done great so far, but with a BMI of 72, you've got a long road ahead of you.   You might want to check with some of the gals/guys who started out with higher BMI's to make sure, but I'd hazard a guess that you're going to want to optimize your weight loss window as much as possible for now.    That's going to mean keeping those carbs as low as possible.   I only had a starting BMI of like 43, and I kept my carbs under 50 until I got to a normal BMI, then I went up to 100.     Even still, I had a hard time getting that many carbs in because I was compromising my protein intake.   My advice to you (and I hope I'm not stepping on toes here) is to keep it below fifty for now, then play with your carbs when you get to a more normal BMI.  Unless you want to settle for ending up with a less than optimal BMI, I'd try to keep those carbs as low as possible for as long as possible.