DS surgery 1 Mth ago...am I eating too much?

Hello everyone!!  I am a newbie!  I had a lap-DS on 12/18/12 and am doing great!  I have lost 30 lbs, no nausea/vomiting, tolerating food well, all incision sites fully healed and no pain....I even went back to work 2 weeks after surgery!!  Energy a little lacking...but I expected that since I've been reading through the site...plus I have 2 kids ages 2 & 3 that tire me out...yikes!! 

I am just concerned if I am eating too much at only 1 month out.  Based on my Dr. recommendations, I am in 'Phase 3' of my food journey...with Phase 4 being my last and 'forever' diet...which will start on Jan 26th.  I am suppose to stick to 'soft', thick pureed type foods.  This is a typical day:

B-  Greek yogurt (5 oz)

S-  Cheese stick (low fat)

L-  3-4 oz tuna fish salad (low fat mayo)

S- 4 oz protein shake

D- 4 oz Turkey chili

There have been 2-3 times that my fork to mouth was faster than my brain & I felt like I ate a Thanksgiving dinner.  I just don't want to 'hurt' myself or stretch my stomach.  I am really trying to slow my eating down & listen to my stomach so that does not happen again.  What do you think?

I don't know yet how to get one of those cute 'tickers' at the bottom of my post, but here are my stats:

HW 242, SW 231, CW, 201, GW 130

 

My surgery was on Dec 13th and I eat a similar volume. The foods you are eating are not very dense. Something more dense like solid meat only 2 ounces is doable. Also, no need for lowfat with the DS. With this surgey we have to take care to ensure we eat enough of it since we malabsorb so much of it.

You will find that the further you are out and adding the vitamins you need, that you need to ditch the "low fat" nonsense, esp since low fat means higher sugar in things like mayo.

Get away from the LOW FAT mentality...as a DS'er you only absorb 20% of the fat you eat, which means if a normal person needs 30 grams of fat to be healthy, you will need 5 (FIVE) TIMES THAT MUCH JUST TO GET THE 30 GRAMS.

I get severely constipated if I don't get enough fat. I add fat to everything and full fat is my friend.

First major change.  Forget low fat.  You need full fat everything.  You don't absorb fat so it is like free food for you.  Next you really aren't getting enough protein.  You need to eat more and probably add another shake.  How many gr of protein are in that 4 oz shake you already drink?  Also what supplements are you taking?

Usually people who have been told low fat have also been given wrong information on supplements as well.  For 1 month post, you are doing fine.  Now you just need to make sure you get on the right track for protein and supplements.  I hope, hope, hope you weren't told to take Flintstones!

I am not familiar with your doc.  How many DS surgeries has he done?  How long is your CC?

Thanks for the response.  I bought 'lowfat' stuff because that was recommended by my surgeon/dietician, but I can see here through other posts that that will not be necessary...I'm just eating through what I bought already.  My BMs are OK, so I am afraid if I eat too much fat I'll have diarrhea.  Do any of you experience that.....?

I am getting about 70-75g of protein a day, eating the foods I indicated.  My protein shake has 30g of protein in it.  My dietician indicated I would need 81g/day...so I am getting closer....

As for my supplements I am taking Celebrate chewables - 1500 mg of Calcium Plus (Citrate), Multi Vites with fat soluble ADEK, B12, & Iron + C.  I guess my labs will tell the story if these are adequate.  I have also been tooling around the Vitalady website.  I would never take Flinstones...I know my surgery requires really good/quality vitamins.

My surgeon just started doing DS...I was his 2nd patient for this procedure....I know kinda scary.  But I had & have the utmost confidence in his abilities...he has been doing WLS for almost 10 years.  He and his team are REALLY great & walked me through everything with complete professionalism.  I did not ask about my CC length at my 1st post-op visit, but I am seeing him again on Jan 23rd & will ask.  We talked about it before the surgery and he indicated he would make it a little longer because my BMI was low (41) at the time of surgery.

I realize you are still early out and you are doing great with protein for someone this early, but don't limit yourself to JUST 81 grams a day...aim for 100 or more. Esp as a lightweight! Some of us have to have 150 grams a day or more.

I eat LOTS of butter, full fat cheese, etc and only time I had diarrhea was early on...now I need lots of fat to not get constipated.

As for my supplements I am taking Celebrate chewables - 1500 mg of Calcium Plus (Citrate), Multi Vites with fat soluble ADEK, B12, & Iron + C.

FAT soluble any type of vitamins will just go right thru you. You need the dry versions and make them separate from the multi as you will need to be able to tweak them later on. I needed twice as much D and NO extra A when my labs came back the first couple of times.

A standard multi (like Centrum or the Kirkland multi) is all you need as far as a multi but you have to take at least 2 per day.

Make sure you are taking the right iron...I have to supplement with proferrin ES as the others do not work for me.

 

Just be glad you survived surgery and stop listening to their idiotic and wrong advice about everything from  protein to vitamins.  Even the best most experienced surgeons don't know crap about what it takes to be healthy post DS.  My "dietician" told me I needed 70 grams of protein.  Yeah, uh huh.  She also told me not to drink with meals, to eat low fat, and a bunch of other complete nonsense some of which was DANGEROUSLY bad advice.

VitaLady knows her ****  Seriously.

~Becky

Hi karamay, thanks for sharing. Hang in there you are doing fab!

Can anyone tell me what cc length is?  

CC Length (Cc stands for Common Channel).

From DSFacts:

The intestines are switched so that food from the stomach and the digestive juices travel separate paths and don't mix until they meet up towards the end of the small intestine.

The alimentary limb carries the food.
The biliopancreatic limb carries the bile and digestive juices.

The common channel, also known as the common tract or common limb, is the point from where the alimentary and biliopancreatic limbs meet in the small intestine to where they move into the large intestine. The common channel is where a DS patient's food, bile and digestive juices mix and nutrients are absorbed. Since the common channel makes up such a small portion of the small intestine dietary starches, fats and complex carbohydrates are not fully absorbed.

In many of us, it's 100 cc's, mine is longer as it's the only way I could get my surgeon to give the DS to a lightweight. Mine is 175 cc's.

The 80gr a day was last decades news.  Almost everyone has found they need 100 or more per day.