Post Op Menu's What are you eating?
It is really hard to find information when you are over a year post op. I am struggling with my head-my brain wants to restrict food because I need/want to lose 25 pounds. My dietitian says I look great and really shouldn't lose any more weight but I am 5'3 with a weight of 163. I am currently a size 12. Most say I look great well I do compared to what I did weight but I am still listed as being overweight and that truly bothers me.
My problem is not trying to find how much I should be eating now 2 years post op with some weight left to lose? Anyone out there be here done this that can help?
I have been doing really well about staying away from sugar but have to admit those darn crackers can be more than a girl can handle. I have been know to finish of a roll of Ritz when I shouldn't have. What does your meals look like? What does your exercise look like.
I know all of us have a fear of regain and some of us have already started the scary road. Let us/me know what is working for you. What have you done know that hunger is showing his ugly face again?
Brenda from iowa
I'm 6 years out and I've learned plenty of tricks to "out eat" my surgery. I could probably eat 3000 calories a day if I wanted to. I bet I did once or twice.
Follow your pouch rules. No drinking with meals (and wait 30 minutes to an hour after them) and eat your protein first. About 50% of my calories are from protein and I eat between 50 and 80 grams of carbs a day. I tried low carb like Atkins, but I had no energy. I do need some, but they don't come from bread or pasta. I eat some low glycemic fruit or root vegetable like sweet potatoes. Despite the name, they don't have the effect on blood sugar that regular potatoes do.
If you can remember back to surgery, we were told not to have bread or to have it only occasionally. Because of what it does to blood sugar and how that contributes to not only how I feel but also to metabolic syndrome and weight gain, I don't eat bread. I follow a paleo diet because it so closely resembles our post op diets and there's alot of support for it and science behind it.
Anyway, even though I could eat 3,000 calories a day I live on 1200 a day unless I exercise, and then my calorie level is proportional to the calories burned (and I have a hard time even reaching those calorie levels eating lean protein and vegetables all day!). Being off breads and sugars, I have almost no hunger except real hunger. I am an addict and I will always drool when I see a donut, but following this diet I know a craving from real hunger. Real hunger is rare unless I forget to eat. Head hunger, as we know, can rage all day and all night even after eating. That's not hunger.
Exercise is so beneficial. I do strength training and for two reasons: It burns more calories than aerobic workouts and lean muscle mass is a calorie burning engine I can "install" in my body through strength training. You raise your metabolism and the amount of calories you can eat everyday. Some guys that are muscular with 5% body fat eat 4,000 calories a day to maintain that muscle! Some of them believe in "carb refeeds" and they don't do it cleanly, either -- they eat pizza and burgers and ice cream and junk once a week for their carb load. Can you imagine?!
Building lean muscle is important, and there's some research that too much aerobic exercise does more harm than good. When I say too much, it generally refers to running for more than an hour everyday. Three days a week for 45 minutes or less is fine. I hike and take long walks. In the winter, I use the treadmill at the rec center for interval training. That's also a good tool where you walk slowly for a bit and then continually increase the speed and then jack it way up to your maximum for 20 or 30 seconds and then bring it back down for a few minutes and repeat. It's fun. Paleo folks refer to it as running from the tiger or the bear. Short bursts of extreme energy were necessary for humans back then and the philosophy goes that we're still genetically engineered for it and it activates those genes. But interval training has been used long before the Paleo thing got popular.
I feel so much better when I exercise. I can start out grumbling, feeling like I don't have much energy and 20 minutes later I'm suddenly a pro athlete ready to run to the moon and back. Endorphins feel better than a sugar high ANY day and doesn't crash your metabolism, either. 
In short: Pouch rules and exercise. There's just no magical formula other than that. You get to tweak it to your needs, that's the only magic of it. I've had to do that many times and you'll have to do it repeatedly too. We all do as we age and our needs change.
For my story, I had a major health crisis and gained some flab this winter because when you're anemic, working out is nearly impossible. Everything feels so exhausting. Lost muscle mass (worst thing ever) and replaced it with a little ab, hip and thigh fat (to the tune of an extra inch in each place -- but NO gain on the scale! See how useless that thing can be?!) and now that my levels are better I'm on the war path to correct that and not only correct that, KEEP GOING and end up alot better at the end of the year than the beginning. I am extremely pear shaped and my collar bones are already sticking out more -- but dammit, that's not where I want the weight to come from! I wear a size 10 on top and 14 on bottom. Sheesh! I can't fight genetics, though. Belly fat is generally considered "metabolically active" and that means its burned off more easily. Being a pear, it usually does come off easier. FAR easier than fat in my hips and thighs. I noticed a difference in my body after a week and I'm 6 years out. I have little restriction (if I choose not to have it, that is) and no more malabsorption and weight loss is as hard for me as it is for everyone else.
Speaking of malabsorption, how's your vitamins? That impacts your body too. If you're deficient in something important, your body will want to hold onto weight. I bet if my iron were better, I'd lose a little easier. To your body, deficiency is the same thing as starvation and it'll hold its fat stores, or thinking there must be a famine, add even more.
Wow, I like what the previous person posted - totally agree with it all! I haven't gone paleo with my diet, but I do try to focus on lean proteins, veggies and limit fruits that are high in sugar, limit carbs, sugar and even dairy (some can be high in carbs) a bit as well. I still have bites here or there of breads and such, and I still have my sweet tooth. I just try my best to track every bite on my phone (I use the LoseIt app) and exercise 5-6 times a week. I have also been trying to increase my fiber with rough veggies and such. The calories I consume vary each day, ranging form 900 - 1300.
I go to a personal trainer 3 times a week and workout on my own (elliptical, hike, walk, swim, etc) another 3-4 times a week right now in order to drop back down some of my regained weight. My surgery was 5 years ago, and in the past year or so, I regained 20, plus the initial 10 when I had my bounce-back, totaling 30 regained. I'm now back down 20 and want to keep it up until I'm about as toned down as I can be - considering my loose skin or areas that will simply never snap back to where it was when I was a teen.
Kudos for staying away from sugar! That's probably my greatest weakness... along with a monthly craving for heavy carbs, like pasta or breads.
Let's see: what did I eat yesterday:
Breakfast (375 calories, 23g protein)
Greek Yogurt Smoothie: 1cup Greek Yogurt (130 cals, 23g protein), Banana (105 cals), frozen fruit (140 cals)
Lunch (525 calories, 33g protein)
6oz Cottage Cheese (90 cals, 12 g protein), 1/4 cup apple sauce (25 cals), Greek Yogurt (100 cals, 21g protein), Granola (310 cals)
Supper (620 cals, 23g protein))
6" Subway Club (310 cals, 23g protein), Cheetos (310 cals)
Total: 1520 calories, 79g protein
Excercise: 5K jog
Hi my name is deanne, I am considering going to the us or mexico for vertical sleeve gastrectomy surgery. I have been told about the pre op diet and have found the opti fast very expensive and the other supplements too. Also I have researched and found a supplement company with great whey protien and vitamin supplements that dont require alot of liquid to get down, with your post op question your problem may be your supplements or lack of supplements that are creating your cravings to return, go back to the original post op diet and add good supplements, I ones i am trying have been able to fill me up for about 4 and half hours and small amounts, i have to get used to. you can email me at [email protected] if you have questions. Where did you have your surgery done?
I follow the Bariatric Diet and the Pouch Rules, and the principals of the real food movement, Paleo/Primal, and Weston A. Price Foundation. Click thru the linked text for in-depth information on each.
I do not eat processed or factory-farmed foods, red meat, refined sugar, or grains. As much as possible, I eat organic, locally-grown, in-season produce, poultry and eggs raised on pasture without hormones or antibiotics, wild caught fish, raw and/or organic dairy, and healthy fats (almonds, coconut, avocado, olives) and natural sugars (stevia, honey, maple syrup).
Upon the recommendation of my bariatric nutritionist, I eat 100g or more of protein balanced with 50 g carbs (2:1 ratio at every meal), 80-100oz of water (spring, mineral, coconut), and keep calories to ~1300 daily.
I take a lot of nutritional supplements.
That said, I am not perfect 100% of the time.
Here is a current running list. It changes based upon my needs.
Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey Gold French Vanilla
Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey Gold Mocha Cappuccino
I like the short-duration, high-intensity program that Mark Sisson outlines in his Primal Blueprint 21-Day Total Body Transformation. His philosophy is that less is more – and I can tell you that I lost weight almost effortlessly with his plan versus no weight with Body for Life 1-hr daily workouts. My favorite exercises are planks and sprints.
I enjoy being active. Activities like walking to my local shops, walking or sprinting with my dog, walking around downtown, paddle boating on the reservoir, peddling a surrey bike, hiking easy to moderate trails are activities I’ve done recently. I am looking forward to trying biking, jogging, and rowing later this season.
Living larger than ever,
My Bariatric Life
