Nutrition advice

Hello gorgeous friends!

I am almost 5 months out now and just had my 3 month post op visit with the nutritionist. I am a bit confused by the advice I received and wanted to check in with the vets.

The nutritionist advised that I start increasing my caloric intake, including whole grain breads, veggies and fruit. She also said that there were no guidelines in terms of targets for carbs or fat, but that I could gradually move up to 1000 calories a day.

I am still in the losing phase, and based on what I see on here from successful folks, I feel like high carb stuff like bread is a bad idea and that my current 800 calories is probably sufficient.

What do you guys think? I am leaning towards staying the course with protein focus, 800 calories and no breads and only limited fruit/veggies.

Thanks for your advice!

I agree with your own plan. Stay away from grains/breads/rice/pasta/potatoes for as long as you can, and most definitely until you reach goal. Stick with dense protein, non starchy veg (if you have room) and as you mentioned for little fruit - mostly berries.

1000 calories in my opinion is too much at 5 mos out. If you are satisfied with 800 calories stay there. Stay low carb!!! Take advantage of the honeymoon phase.

Thanks Ginnny!! I feel like the advice I've been getting has been based on the old food pyramid approach to eating rather than any new research on obesity - i'm so glad I can reach out to successful folks like you through this forum!

I recently attended the Support Group at St. Joes in Hamilton where they brought in the Nutritionist/Dietician to answer questions about carbs, etc. etc.

It was an interesting discussion.

We discussed carbs for quite a while. The distinction was maybe between good and bad carbs, i.e., complex vs. simple or whole vs. processed. So, complex carbs were encouraged while simple were discouraged. I get it.

The other part of this was that people were confused by how many carbs to have daily and the answer was a bit surprising. The feel is that they want us to be successful and be able to sustain this lifestyle and that everyone is different. Having said that, if you increase your good carbs, continue to lose, are happy and don't feel deprived, carry on. If you can exist on a lower carb count and are happy, don't feel deprived, are losing weight, carry on. It was made VERY clear that these were individual decisions that we all need to make.

Then we talked about how many calories we should be eating for different time periods. Again, the answer was that everyone was different. What works for one person may not work for the other. So individually, we need to figure it out. But the big reason they want to increase calories, maybe sooner than what others have been told a few years ago, is that they have seen where we lose under where we should, and then regain and the regain doesn't necessarily stop. So the thinking is that if we gradually increase our calories to a sustainable count earlier in the process we are less likely to see that bounce back regain and we get back to eating, more or less, normally in a sustainable fashion.

Sustainability for long term success was the message.

Personally, I'm staying low carb for the losing phase but probably not as low carb as others. I work out pretty hard these days and I do eat approx 1,000 to 1,100 calories. I have 30 lbs to lose and I am still losing albeit slower than before but I don't really care at this point. I'm happy, not hungry, getting all my protein, water and vits in and I do not feel deprived. For me, this is sustainable.

My answer to you is to do what works for you and what keeps you happy and losing.

Thank you SweetRide!! That is really helpful - I hadn't considered the impact of regain. I guess since I feel good with my current approach, I will keep with it, but i'll consider expanding into other foods as necessary. Low carb will probably need to be a long term approach for me, just because I was a bread junkie and I really don't want to trigger that again

What a great answer, I'm just 6 weeks behind you and have increased my calories, I try to keep low carb, but I like vegetables, I didn't get to see a nutritionist for my 3 month not until September but I'm also dealing with trying to balance my blood sugar as my weight goes down and a certain amount of carbs are really important for that.

Unfortunately I think we're all looking for a set answer for what to do and it is very individual, you've got to be doing something sustainable, and find a balance that fits your lifestyle I've still got about 38 pounds to go and would be thrilled if it was still falling off like it was at first, but it is still coming off but just slower now.

It's so true! I think I'm so used to doing horrible strict diets my entire life that I want someone to give me precise rules! Listening to my body and eating when hungry, choosing healthy foods all of that is still scary - the fear of failure is always lurking ?

This is possibly the most informative and useful post I have seen on this site in almost 2 years of lurking so thank you Sweetride1!

Guelph had told me to stay in the 650-850 calories per day during the losing phase. I am diabetic, so I stay low carb. Also, I have dumped and felt horrible after eating fruit a couple of times. Now I am very cautious about what carbs and the quantity of carbs I eat. I like vegetables, and try to eat what I consider a healthy diet. I follow the advice of vets to eat dense protein first then if there is any room a little veg. I like salads, but I always have a protein on top of the salad.

My blookwork is done every 3 months because I am diabetic and apart from a few blips it has been good.

CC

Thanks CC! I am really scared of dumping, so I have been really careful...though I think I'm more scared of not dumping. I'm nowhere near ready to deal with the idea that I could physically tolerate sugars again!