Question from a new DS'er

Hi. I have a couple of questions please. My surgeon's dietician said that I should stick with a low fat, low carb diet. I had surgery on 8/14/07. I am doing as she suggested. I have started using Fit day. What is the proper amount of fat in my diet that I should aim for. I have the same question about carbs. What should I aim for. I am trying to get between 80-100 grams of protein in each day as well as at least 64 oz of fluids. Is it okay that some of the fluids come from fat free low sodium broth? Thank you very much. Jo 

It wasn't very nice of the dietitian not to be more specific!  I would first have to know the amount of calories you are taking in to give you specifics.  A low fat diet is usually expressed in terms of a percentage of calories from fat.  For instance, the American Heart Assoc. recommends less than 30% of calories from fat, other diets recommend less than 25%. Knowing that a gram of fat has 9 calories, you can work backward. If you are eating a 1200 calorie diet 25-30% of cals from fat would be 33-40 g fat per day Right now your 80-100 g protein are 30-33% of your calories using 1200 cals per day That would leave 40% of calories from carbohydrates.  You should try to eat as much whole, unprocessed fruit, vegetable and grains as you can tolerate. Coincidentally this is a 40-30-30 ("Zone") type of diet.  If you were to reduce the calories from this level, reduce from the carbs & fat first. It's no problem to use that broth as a fluid. Let me know if this helps! Danielle Halewijn RD eNutritioncare.com

Thank you. This was very helpful. I am just getting to 800-900 calories a day. I will keep the ratio you talked about in mind as I choosde my foods. Jo