Does this sound right?

Hi all.  This is the first time posted on this forum. I have heard good thing about the support available here! 

I had my sleeve 3 months ago and have been pleased with how everything has gone.  I just had my 3 month appointment with my nutritionist. She wants me to eat 3 oz protein per meal and get up to 1000 calories.  Try as I might I just can't get there.    I feel more more comfortable and "happy" with 2 to 2.5 grams of protein, then I have room to have a little veggie or fruit or maybe a bit of starchy veggie.  I occasionally have oatmeal for breakfast. I usually get 850 to 900 calories.  If I drink 2 glasses of milk, I can meet my protein goals following this plan. 

The other forum I follow (VSG) has a lot of folks who follow strict low carb, but I feel more comfortable with a balanced approach, trying to get fruit and veggies a a bit of carb daily.  I have had no bread, crackers, white rice or pasta and plan to eliminate those during weight loss. My carbs range from 60 to 90 most days. 

I guess my stress is I am not quite following my nut plan, but I am also not following the strict low carb plan preached over on the VSG thread. 

I am also struggling a bit with volume to eat.  finding "satisfied" vs full.  I am trying to be happy with "satisfied"  and not eat till I get that stuffed feeling.  It is really hard.  I think I have figured out that about 1/2 cup is the upper limit right now,  But I still have problems stopping.  I need to only give myself 1/2 cup at each meal  I am certainly a work in process.

Thanks for listening. 

Anne

You are still early out and I say listen to your body.  Don't force yourself to eat more than you're comfortable with.  The volume with come with time. 

I didn't worry so much about whoever's plan I was or wasn't following, as long as I followed the rules.  I had RNY so some of my rules are different than yours, but do what's right for you. And good for you keeping the simple carbs out of your diet!  As long as you're mindful of what you're eating and you're losing weight, then it sounds like you're doing just fine!

Welcome Anne! Congrats!

Sounds like you are doing great. Always listen to your body, if you feel full stop. As time goes by you will be able to eat more.

I am not well versed on the sleeve, had the rny. I know simple carbs are the devil so if you stay away from the refined white flours and sugar you should be fine.

I know we have some sleevers here that will be able to give you some better tips.

~Maria

Welcome to the LW Board Anne.

We are all works in progress. Listen to your body and what it responds to.  I had RNY so my guidelines will be different from yours.  I do much better with feeling satisfied when I do low carbs.  Bad carbs just make me want to eat more. 

I think we all have to find our own way on our journey. 

Good luck.

Linda

Hi Ann and welcome. 

Hopefully some of our sleevers will check in. I had ryn.  However, the folks in my group at the surgeons who had sleeves were all treated the same as us in the beginning.  One rule was to never eat past being full.  If that was 2 bites and you were full, stop. 

If you can do the starches, more power to you.  I do veggies at least 2x a day, often 3x a day but to lose or not gain, I have to stay pretty much away from the starchy veggies and all grains.  I do occasionally eat beans, berries but mostly greens and broccali, califlower, etc.  I try to keep my carbs less than 50 net a day, less than 30 net if I want to lose.  At least with RNY, you can eat the carbs and still lose in the beginning but after the honeymoon period, when our malabsorption lessens, most of us feel like we need to go low carb.  I found around 5 months that my losing slowed way down and I could eat the same number of calories low carb and lose better. 

When I was really low on carbs at the geginning I was dizzy alot of the time.  That was shen I was at 40 or below.  No I am USUALLY between 50 and 75.  which actually is still fairly low.  Since i have increased my protein a little more, I usually only have room for a veggie.  i want to try to get one small fruit in daily.

anne

Sounds like you are doing ok. Every time my NUT has doled out a plan, it's accompanied by "You may not be able to eat this much volume, but it's good practice on how to make your choices".

I started working out hard in January (2 months post-op). I was at 700-800 calories, mostly just getting in protein, hardly any carbs. Once I started working out, I was so exhausted. My trainer wanted me to eat more, and my body wanted me to eat more. I got up to about 1300 calories and lost 10 lbs/month plus added lots of muscle. Seems the first few months of working out so much, I could sort of eat anything. I still made what I thought were decent choices, and more food could go down easier, so I was in heaven for a while. Still measured and tracked everything, but didn't have to be super-particular because I was losing weight, felt great, and working out. That is, until last month when my weight loss stalled. So I took out all the rest of any simple carbs I was eating (the crust on the quiche, the crust on the tiny chicken/pesto pizza slice. That helped for a week or so, but stalled again. Sent MFP log to my nutritionist, who sent back three pages of 1200 cal/day meal and snack samples, all with balanced fat-carb-protein.

So at 1200 calories and at my weight (154lbs) and working out 4x/week and running 4x/week, she has me at: 60g Protein, 150g Carbs, 40 g Fat.

Meals = 30 g carb each meal (x 3 meals)

Snacks = 15-20 carb each (x3 snacks).

I just started this new routine a coupla days ago. So far I am still at the same weight, I have good energy to make it thru my workouts, and I'm using new foods and getting good nutrition. Bummer about my weight but we'll see where that goes. I'm more focused on my body fat % now anyhow, but it IS nice to see the scale move.

I've been sort of freaking out because I've always just hung out in the VSG forum where it's like Anti-Carb. But just now I found this forum, and your post, and yay! I don't eat like they do on VSG, I'm so down in pounds, and need the energy.

As for "stopping when full": Whenever I eat, I measure out the food and put it on my plate. I put all the food away except my plate. Then I eat. I don't have any problems stopping because there's only so much food. In fact I usually can't fini**** all, now that I'm adding a little brown rice and some veggies. In any case, I've done this for eight months and I don't think I'll stop because it seems to protect me from myself :) Keep plugging along........

I have learned alot on the VSG forum, but I have no interest in cutting my carbs below 50.   I WANT to have dairy and maybe even eat some starchy veggies.  I have been losing fairly quickly considering i am at a lower weight even though my carbs range from 60ish to 90ish.  I have had no stalls so far (knock on wood)  I have eaten no simple carbs at all since surgery.  My nut did say it would take me "awhile" to get up to 1000 calories,., I actually saw the doctor this week and she was happy with what I am doing. I was finding it hard to find support on the vsg board because my carbs were a little higher.  I am so glad I found this board.

I did ask my dr if I should increase my carbs, but she said I am ok with what I am doing.  I guess as long as things are going well I just continue.  I did try to eat some carby snacks but I got really hungry, so i went back to protein.

Take care,

Anne

I think forcing ourselves to eat more than our tummies comfortably hold is always a bad idea. It's setting ourselves up for trouble latter when we can eat more. It's certainly not part of mindful eating to force more food in than fits comfortably either and I think mindful eating should be the ultimate goal.

I also have seen in my 5 years on the forums that programs that push more than 800 calories in the losing phase are not as successful on average. Especially for some of us lightweights. Many of us are SHORT. And we will end up maintaining on a small amount of calories. Maybe only 1000-1200. So doing 1000 at 3 months out? Bad idea IMO.

Now maybe later, especially if you are working out intensely and need more protein. More protein is going to bump your calories up IME. I think I was doing 900 a day when I was doing 90 g of protein and then 1200 a day when I was doing 120 g of protein. But I was also working out 6-8 hours a week at that point. And also at a normal BMI.