Question:
How do you know how much when your Doctor won't tell you?

Hi, I just passed my 6 week milestone and my doctor authorized me to start on soft foods. When I asked him about carbs and fat, he said that I'm not going to be eating a large enough quantity for me to woory about counting grams of stuff, so I shouldn't bother. He told me to start out on mushy stuff like scrambled eggs and mashed potatoes. This morning, I decided I didn't have enough time to scramble an egg, so I grabbed a Carnation Instant Breakfast, (My first one ever, even from my liquid days) and about 1/4 of the way through I dumped! Bad! I started crying my stomach hurt so bad, then, just as my stomach started to recover, the "other end" started to protest and I was running for the bathroom. Did I dump from the carbs? It said one serving had 37 carbs, but I only made it to 1/4 a serving. Now I'm scared to eat. I want some safe guidelines to follow, but my surgeon doesn't believe in counting carbs. And he suggests I start eating pasta too. Pasta?!? Won't that make me dump? Please, I need to know what a "moderate" intake is for fat and carbs, not Atkins-style. Oh, and i swim every other day for 1/2 hour as my excersize as well as walking whenever my knees allow it. Thanks!    — Karma J. (posted on May 29, 2002)

May 29, 2002
Hi Karma. Was the Carnation Instant Breakfast you drank the "No Sugar Added" kind? Thats what you should be drinking. Carbs don't make us dump. Sugar and fat does. So if the CIB had sugar in it, thats what made you dump...the sugar! Also, you could be lactose intolerant, not dumping. I cant drink anything with milk or milk products in it. I get horrible gas pains, nausea and diarrhea when I do. As for the carbs (pasta), this is my own personal opinion, but theres nothing wrong with eating carbs. The only reason you should concentrate on protein first RIGHT NOW, is because you cant eat very much, and right after surgery is when your body needs protein to heal itself. So try to get the protein in first. I've never been a believer in that "atkins" way of thinking. Our body needs ALL the food groups to be healthy. Again, its just right after a surgery that protein will really help you. But sometimes the pouch wont tolerate meat newly post-op, so just try, thats all you can do!! Good luck, and don't sweat the small stuff! You'll still lose weight!!!!! ***GretcheeGirl***
   — blank first name B.

May 29, 2002
Sounds like you have a lot of questions. Your dr should really be giving you more info if you ask for it. Does your insurance allow you to see a dietician? If so, find one that is experienced with WLS patients. They can give you specific guidance. Just make sure you don't get one that tells you to only eat twice a day. You'll be miserable!<p>I can tell you what worked for me: Eat every 2-3 hours and make sure that you eat protein first and other stuff if you have room. Your dr is partly right in that counting carbs is usually not necessary--although some people do it and more power to them. But if you are eating adequate protein you probably won't have enough ROOM for enough carbs to hurt you. At your stage my dr recommended about 40 g protein a day. As you get further out and have better food tolerance, you should up that amount. I try to, at one year out, get in 100 grams a day. I don't count carbs or fat, just stay away from fried stuff and sugar.<p>As far as the dumping, you will REALLY only dump from sugar. Now that is not to say that other stuff like too much fat or bread won't make you feel BAD! But it's not dumping. Make sure your CIB is the no sugar added in the turquoise box. If it is and you had problems like that, maybe you have developed lactose intolerance. Don't be scared to eat. Take it a little at a time and if something bothers you, take it out of your diet for a month or so and try again. You are probably right to steer clear of pasta for a while--lots of people have trouble with it. Just be careful to learn the difference between "white" or refined sugar and fruit/milk sugars. Don't just look at the sugar grams on the label, look at the ingredients to see if refined sugar was added (corn syrup, sucrose, dextrose, etc.) The refined sugar will make you dump, but the fruit/milk sugars should be okay in moderation. In the beginning you will dump on very small amounts (6 grams of sugar for me) but that will likely increase as you get further out. Hope this helped. Good luck and happy losing!
   — ctyst

May 29, 2002
Did you have the regular Carnation Instant Breakfast (yellow box) or the No Sugar Added variety (blue box)? If you had the regular, it has way too much sugar. However, you may be lactose intolerant also - it could have been the milk. At six weeks, I ate most anything - grilled meats, nuts, salad, baked and grilled fish, tuna salad, eggs, salmon patties, cooked vegetables, crackers and shortly after that I started eating jerky for a snack. I don't toerate pasta well - it makes me ill but pasta sauces are fine. I can't eat chicken unless it is in a sauce - tends to be too dry. Other than that, I can eat most vegetables, fruits, meats and seafoods. I have no trouble with milk products and cheese and cottage cheese are staples. I also eat wheat thins and peanut butter for protein snacks (per my doctor's instructions). Start out slowly with just a couple of bites of something new. If it does ok, they try more the next time. And just because something makes you sick once, it doesn't mean that it always will and the reverse is true too. At first I could eat eggs with no problem and now I can't begin to eat one. Hope this helps you some. You just have to experiment
   — Patty_Butler

May 29, 2002
Hi Karma, I had the same reaction with this. It was sugar free but I had a reaction from the lactose. I was never like this before surgery so I never suspected it would happen. Since then I use vanilla soy milk. When mixed with things it taste pretty good. You could also try Lactaid. Good Luck
   — Tammy B.

May 29, 2002
Hi, it's me, Karma. Thanks for all of your answers. It was the "regular" CIB, not the sugar-free. And I've been drinking milk with no trouble before, so I now know it was the sugar. Thanks again, you guys are the greatest!
   — Karma J.