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After weight loss surgery, you need to plan your meals ahead of time. You always want a high-protein, low-calorie option to be available at meal time. You might find yourself carrying your own prepared food with you to be sure that you have the food you need. Sandwiches are good “go-to” option, but not just any old sandwich will do! This article can help you build sandwiches that are good fits for your meal plan.


What is Wrong with the Sandwiches You Used to Eat?
A typical workday might have started off with a trip through the drive-through for a breakfast burrito or sandwich, or a bagel and cream cheese sandwich at work. Lunch could have been a brown bag peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a trip to a nearby restaurant for a sandwich, burrito, or burger. Where might these options leave you?
Sausage, egg, and cheese croissant or biscuit from a drive-through (600 calories with 42 grams of fat)
Bagel with cream cheese (500 calories with 70 grams of carbohydrates)
Peanut butter and jelly sandwich (600 calories and 40 grams of sugar)
Club sandwich (1,000 calories and 2,500 milligrams of sodium)
Chicken patty sandwich (60 grams of carbohydrates and 1,100 milligrams of sodium)
Beef, bean, and cheese burrito (900 calories and 40 grams of fat)

Your breakfast and lunch sandwiches could have added up to over 1,500 calories. Add in beverages, sides (hash browns, fries or chips, anyone?), and snacks, and you could have been at 3,000 calories by lunchtime!
These Choices Don’t Work After Weight Loss Surgery!
Needless to say, these options do not fit into your weight loss surgery diet.

First, some of those sandwiches have more calories than you are supposed to be eating in a day, not to mention that some also contain more saturated fat, sodium, and sugar than you should have in a day.
Second, those sandwiches emphasize starchy breads and fatty condiments, not the lean proteins and nutritious vegetables you need to stay full and nourished after weight loss surgery.
Third, they can cause complications. Doughy bagels and fried chicken, for example, can cause obstructions in lap-band patients; fatty sausage and sugary jelly can cause dumping syndrome in gastric bypass patients; and these low-nutrient foods can fill you up and cause malnutrition.

Luckily, this does not mean that you need to give up the convenience of sandwiches and the pleasure you get from biting into one. There are plenty of ways to make sandwiches that are weight loss surgery-friendly: low-calorie, high-protein, convenient, and delicious!
Protein Fillings for WLS Sandwiches
Start by choosing a lean source of protein, just like you do when you plan all of your meals. These are some healthier options compared to what you might have chosen before weight loss surgery. Don’t forget to measure your portions if you are making your own sandwich, or eyeball your portions if you are ordering in a restaurant.
2 scrambled egg whites (30 calories)
2 ounces of canned light tuna (60 calories)
2 ounces of chicken breast, lean ham, turkey breast (80 calories)
2 ounces of fat-free cheese (90 calories)
½ cup cooked beans or 1 vegetarian burger (120 calories)
2 ounces of turkey or vegetarian bacon or breakfast sausage (130 calories)

Load up on Vegetables and Fruit
Vegetables and fruit are the next food groups to add to your meals. Vegetables especially are low-calorie, so add more if you want a bigger sandwich. Try classic combinations, or get creative. You can also experiment with herbs such as fresh cilantro, basil, and dill. These are some ideas.
Lettuce and tomatoes with meat and cheese
Grilled eggplant, zucchini, and/or bell peppers with beans
Cucumbers and sprouts with fat-free feta cheese
Diced celery, carrots, onions, and water chestnuts with tuna
Spinach and mushrooms with egg whites
Pear or apple with fat-free cheddar cheese
Cantaloupe with ham and/or fat-free cheese
Blueberries with egg whites

Breads and Alternatives
Most bread is high in carbohydrates and low in protein – clearly not what you need for your nutritious weight loss surgery diet. Besides adding calories and carbs, bread can cause obstructions in lap-band patients and make gastric bypass patients sick or overly full. When possible, skip the regular bread.
Bagels
Tortillas
Subs
Croissants
Biscuits
Regular sliced bread

Instead, choose whole-grain, high-fiber, low-calorie breads, and consider open-faced sandwiches, with the filling on 1 slice of bread, instead of regular 2-slice sandwiches. These are some good options.
Reduced-calorie bread (45 or fewer calories per slice)
Light English muffin (50 calories per half)
Mini whole grain bagel (60 calories per half)
Low-carb tortilla (50 calories per small tortilla)
High-fiber, light wrap (90 calories per wrap)
Also, look for creative, non-bread alternatives.
Lettuce leaves to make lettuce wraps or cups
Egg roll or wonton wrappers
Sheets of dried seaweed
Grilled eggplant
Your fork (skip the bread and just eat the filling)

Keeping Condiments Under Control
The condiments that you add can make or break your sandwich, both in terms of nutrition and taste. Skip the full-fat mayonnaise, dressings, dips, sour cream, and butter, and be wary of high-sugar jam, barbecue sauce, and honey mustard. Instead, consider the following condiments.
Salsa
Fat-free mayo, dressing, dip, or sour cream
Regular mustard
Plain, non-fat Greek yogurt
Hot sauce
Shredded fat-free parmesan cheese
Reduced-calorie, trans fat-free margarine

Some Breakfast Sandwich Ideas to Start Your Day Off Right
Egg whites scrambled with spinach, mushrooms, and fat-free feta cheese on ½ English muffin
Cottage cheese and strawberries wrapped in lettuce leaves
Shredded fat-free cheese and lean ham toasted on a slice of reduced-calorie, whole-wheat bread and topped with salsa and tomatoes
Egg whites cooked with turkey bacon and broccoli in a small, high-fiber wrap
½ whole-grain mini bagel spread with fat-free cream cheese and topped with canned salmon with diced celery and water chestnuts

Lunch Sandwiches
Lettuce wrap filled with diced chicken breast, bean sprouts, mushrooms, and bell peppers, and soy sauce or light Asian dressing
Dried seaweed sheet rolled around tuna salad made with fat-free mayo, chives, and celery
Pinwheels made by layering slices of turkey breast, lean ham, and fat-free cheese slices, spreading them with mustard, and rolling them
Bean burrito with black beans, fat-free cheddar cheese, salsa, and fat-free sour cream on a small, high-fiber tortilla
Chicken breast with sliced apple and light vinaigrette between slices of grilled eggplant
Tomato sauce, fat-free mozzarella cheese, and mushrooms on a light English muffin
Toasted Rueben sandwich with low-fat Swiss cheese, shredded cabbage or sauerkraut, lean corned beef, and fat-free Thousand Island dressing on a light English muffin

Are You Ready for Some Sandwiches?
You can eat these sandwiches at home, or make them ahead of time and carry them with you in a reusable container. As a weight loss surgery patient, you should own plenty of reusable containers with tight-fitting lids. If you do not already have some, they are worth the investment so that you can carry healthy foods with you wherever you go.
We hope that you enjoy these sandwich ideas and that you are inspired to make some of your own healthy, high-protein sandwiches!

Remember this?
“I’m strong to the finish ‘cause I eats me spinach. I’m Popeye the sailor man!”


Growing up, I watched Popeye guzzle cans of spinach to instantly restore and increase his legendary strength as he battled his enemies and courted the thin, homely Olive Oyl. I didn’t identify much with Popeye or Olive Oyl – I was more like the portly J. Wellington Wimpy, who would gladly pay you Thursday for a hamburger today. But like millions of other children, I did get the message that spinach was good for me. Magically good! And if eating spinach could help me prevail in the endless fights I had with my brother, it was worth a try.
I never did win a battle with my brother, but I ate my spinach and actually liked it. Not canned spinach like Popeye’s (the very sight of canned spinach is revolting), but frozen chopped spinach, boiled, drained, and covered with melted Velveeta cheese. When asked if he liked spinach, Popeye replied, “I hates it.” He might have liked my favorite cheesy spinach better, but clearly he was taking his spinach like medicine at a time in history when medicine always tasted terrible. The worse the taste, the more potent it was.
Spinach didn’t give me bulging Popeye muscles (or, thankfully, his speech impediment), and since I hated gym class and avoided exercise as much as possible, I didn’t develop any more than minimal strength and endurance. When I reached puberty in the 1960’s, women’s liberation and the concept of a strong, independent woman were still quite new. My macho first boyfriend thought women shouldn’t be allowed to drive a car, never mind lift something heavy. As I wrote in Bandwagon, my parents scorned President Kennedy’s physical fitness advocacy and encouraged intellectual rather than physical strength. The exercise programs and studios I tried in the 1970’s and 80’s prescribed exercise for weight loss and toning; the dance classes I took taught me about form, agility and flexibility; but never did I hear any messages about strength. Perhaps I wasn’t listening very well. I thought that weight lifting would turn me into a muscle-bound freak like the ones I occasionally saw on television.
As an adult married woman, I’ve had a tall, strong husband to open jars, change flat tires, take out the garbage, and reach things stored on high shelves (he claims that’s why I married him, when in fact it was his dog, not his brawn that captured my heart). That allowed me to reserve all my meager strength for the herculean task of moving my obese body from my arm chair to the kitchen and back.
It wasn’t until I had weight loss surgery at age 54 that I learned about the value of muscle during weight loss. That was the first time ever that I heard that muscle burns calories faster, and takes up less room, than fat. The theory sounded good, but for my first post-op year I focused on cardio exercise because an online calculator showed that I could burn almost three times more calories doing an aerobic dance class than the same time spent weight training. I worked out faithfully, walking and doing a variety of cardio classes, and reached my weight goal, but I was still a weakling… a scrawny weakling instead of an obese one, a weakling who could wear a size 10 but struggled to pick up a 10-pound bag of dog kibble. Here at the 9 Dogs Howling ranch, that’s a serious deficit indeed!
Eventually I got bored with my workout routine. To add more variety and challenge to my exercise, I began working with a personal trainer when I was 20 months post-op. My trainer taught me lots of moves with free weights and weight machines, some of which I grew to hate, but after about three months of our weekly sessions, I began to notice some muscle definition in my flabby arms. Nothing like Popeye, but there before me was proof, visible to the naked eye, that I actually had some muscles underneath that sagging skin.
Even after I stopped working with my personal trainer, I kept working at strength training, hoping to see more and more muscles. All that effort was in the service of my vanity, you understand. I just wanted to look “ripped” and it didn’t occur to me that strongly-defined muscles could be pressed into service at home (lifting dogs as well as dog food bags) and at work (lifting boxes, shifting heavy display fixtures, climbing stock room ladders).
Gradually I came to realize that I was getting physically stronger. I could no longer claim to be a “delicate flower of womanhood” like Scarlett O’Hara. That turned out to be no terrible loss. It turned out that being strong(er) was as good for my insides as my outsides. Not only was strength training helping make my bones and muscles stronger, it was making my mind and heart stronger. Instead of being afraid to try something new, I just went ahead and did it, and even if I brought absolutely no skill to the task, I had enough strength of mind and body to tough it out.
Early in 2010 I joined a new fitness studio, one with Stott Pilates machines instead of weight machines. At first I worried that I would lose muscle definition without weight machines as part of my workouts, but in fact my muscle definition improved all over my body and especially in my legs. In late summer 2010, I did some personal training with the owner of the studio. Her first step was to give me a fitness evaluation. I had to do push ups, step ups, toe touches, and other moves to evaluate my strength, agility, flexibility and cardio fitness. Much to my (happy) surprise, I scored above average for my age in most of those areas. Just the process of being tested was a revelation, because each time Caroline instructed me to do a new move, I did it without any anxiety or hesitation about whether or not I’d be able to do it.
Since then, I’ve thought many times about the importance of fitness and strength to an average, everyday woman like me. Not an Olympic athlete, not a dancer, not a ditch digger, not a materials handler, just Mrs. Middle Aged American. Although I admire my late mother and aspire to be like her in many ways, I don’t want to end up the way she did after a lifetime of avoiding exercise. She was only in her early 70’s when she began to struggle with little tasks that most of us take for granted. Dressing herself, picking a pen off the floor, getting out of a chair, walking from her apartment to the elevator, opening a door, all of that was too hard for her. She had never claimed to be a delicate flower of womanhood, either. She was one of the most capable and energetic people I’ve ever known, but she never took care of her body and in the end, her body failed her. I’ve vowed that I won’t let that happen to me. I’m going to keep this body moving, or die trying, and that’s got to be a better way to go than lying helpless in bed while an attendant maneuvers a straw into my mouth. I hope that in 20 years when I’m 78, I’ll enjoy sitting in a rocking chair beside my husband for a while, and then getting up to kick ass in an exercise class.