JenniferP1

Hello, I am a year post-op (gastric sleeve) and would like to start transitioning towards a plant-based diet and eventually become a vegetarian. I am wondering how any vegetarians out there get their full amount of Protein. I have started doing research about what vegetables are high in protein. My concern is that I won't be able to eat enough of them to get my daily requirements. I would love any advice, sample meal plans, etc., from anyone who has this all figured out Thanks!

If you had surgery over a year ago or more... how do you feel about it now? Do you regret it? How do you feel about your new eating habits? Is your weight difficult to maintain? I'm considering surgery and one concern I have is what eating would be like in the future. I have trouble sticking to diets/healthy changes now so I worry I'd fail after surgery.

Please search for and join WLS Vegetarians on Facebook! There are more of us out there...

Hi,
I'm vegetarian too and in the pre op stage of my wls.. Surgery date is March 2, 2016.

Hi Heidi, i am also a vegetarian with limited dairy, no animals at all. I am presurgery, op scheduled for 4 April. I am a bit worried also in case i can't tolerate salad foods. Also initially in pureed and mashed stages how do we get Protein? I have not seen the dietician yet, waiting for appointment. Can anyone recommend a plant based high prot3in, low fat & sugar Protein Powder please? Very nervous, no support, one working agqinst me, but i feel this is the right path after a very long time. Cheers.

Yep. Lots of choices for Veggies. Just keep track and make sure you are eating enough Protein. If you eat eggs and dairy, gluten and soy, you really have a lot of choices. Nuts and Beans too.... As a veggie, you can still eats loads of junk and sliders, so just keep on top of that, and everything should be ok. Make sure you take your B Vitamins.< /p>

Hi, Are there any vegetarians out there who have or planning on having VSG?

6 grams of sugar per cup.

Oh wow thanks. I was a vegetarian for 4 years and I loved it. I'm considering going back and I'm happy to hear that you did well. I will definitely make sure I talk to my doctors and stay hydrated. Yes I would like to join your group I will check it out on Facebook now.

I have one bad kidney (not as serious a situation as yours) and I had similar concerns. I had bad kidney pain in both my kidneys starting about 3-4 days post-surgery for about a week due to de-hydration. Mornings were the worst. I had to set an alarm to wake up during the night in order to drink Water every 1/2 hour or so. I'm happy to report that I'm now 3+ months out and have successfully stayed very hydrated since then, with no kidney pain. I think you'd have to be very careful right after surgery to stay as hydrated as possible, which is challenging at first. I am a vegetarian, so my Protein is plant-based -- which my research says is better than animal-based Protein for folks with kidney issues. You can def be successful at WLS as a vegetarian -- I host a Facebook group for WLS & plant-based diet if you're interested (WLS Vegetarians). Def check with your doctors though!

There are a few vegetarians who post here and there is a vegetarian forum.
Even those people, get their Protein in. Protein is a building block of the body and you can get it from things besides meat.
So what was your start weight? What is your height? What is your current weight? How many calories do you eat a day? What is your protein goal? Do you meet your protein goal? How many carbs do you have a day? What kind of fruit are you eating?

I would also suggest Dr. Weiner's videos. This one especially caught my attention and makes sense to me. Listen to your body and instincts, definitely.
Edit: apparently I can't paste URLs, but check out Dr. Matthew Weiner on YouTube. He has one called "Weight Loss Surgery Patients, Eat your veggies first!!"
See if that makes sense to you.

There are bariatric surgeons that advocate plant based lives. To each their own. What matters is ones health right? People achieve health in different ways. Of course someone would get defensive and act all crazy. Chill people!!

Totally agree! We eat so little now, what we put in our bodies should be super-nutritious, healthy, chemical-free, GMO-free, etc. And we do not have to consume the dead bodies of helpless, slaughtered animals. Please search for "WLS Vegetarians" on Facebook to join a group of like-minded WLS'ers who are following (or interested in following) a plant-based diet.

Totally agree! We eat so little now, what we put in our bodies should be super-nutritious, healthy, chemical-free, GMO-free, etc. And we do not have to consume the dead bodies of helpless, slaughtered animals. Please search for "WLS Vegetarians" on Facebook to join a group of like-minded WLS'ers who are following (or interested in following) a plant-based diet.

Totally agree! We eat so little now, what we put in our bodies should be super-nutritious, healthy, chemical-free, GMO-free, etc. And we do not have to consume the dead bodies of helpless, slaughtered animals. Please search for "WLS Vegetarians" on Facebook to join a group of like-minded WLS'ers who are following (or interested in following) a plant-based diet.

I have long felt that Western medicine simply refuses to learn about food. My surgeons instructions to eat a lot of meat and then only eat vegetables, then fruits, "if there's room," had me feeling sickly within weeks.
I did tell my body was in desperate need of nutrients. Specifically, minimally and unprocessed foods that grow naturally and are not genetically modified. Foods that still had micro nutrients, foods that still had the sunshine living in them.
I started to follow my instincts, and I'm still learning how to listen to my body. I think a lot of our problems come from placing it's already outside of ourselves, on the "other. "
I am eating a lot of cheese, nuts, fruits and vegetables, and have cut back on eating dead animal flesh. Overall, I feel healthier. I'm Losing weight, but I also feel like I'm eating more, but everything I eat has general genuine nutritional value.
I didn't get fat eating fruits and nuts. I got fat eating cakes and Cookies. Eating candy and yodels. I got fat stuff and down my feelings with food like products that were poisonous to my body, and I feel so much better about the way I'm treating my body now-How i'm eating now.
But I don't see much support in forums for anything except high-Protein, very low-carb eating styles, which do not align with what I know about overall wellness and health for the long term. What I see is people reporting other health problems within the first year after surgery, that probably come from this radical in balance and shunning of real food and nutrition, in exchange for creating a chemical environment in which that burns fast, but at the expense of overall well-being. Kidney and gallbladder stones for instance, seem to be very common.
I guess I just wanted to express this, in the hopes that others are also finding what's right for their specific bodies. If you are blazing your own trail i'd love to hear about how you eat and why, and how it is working for you post surgery. I am especially interested in hearing from people who are familiar with this thing called the Mediterranean diet, which seems to be what my body wants.
I think you kindly for your eyes, for your time, and for your comments.

Congratulations, you have done so well but you should know that this next year is probably just as important, maybe more important then year one because this is the year you either really stick with the good habits, or start backsliding.
Then, a year later, for my two year check in he congratulated me on maintaining and said... you should know this next year is really imprtant, because sometimes people start regaining
They change their habits and lose that "feeling of restriction "
On my third year follow up they focused alot on checking if I had reflux or GERD , which I don't (that is about when it starts showing up for some). He again asked me about my feeling of restriction, habits I had kept etc. He asked me about the emotional impacts, if I felt I had grown accustomed to my new normal....then said, thus might be the most important year post op because statistics show people sometimes regain 3-5 years post op.
For my 4 year - I just had blood work done by my primary care doctor, so I had to give myself the speech about how this next year is even more important in terms of maintaining the habits that keep that feeling of restriction, and help maintain.
I was thinking today that he is more than a good surgeon, he is a smart man. Tell me something 3 times and I think I got it. It seems that year after year I must maintain good eating habits and activity level to maintain that feeling of restriction and to maintain a healthy weight.
I probably heard a million times about "lifestyle change " as a preop and although I am sure I nodded with enthusiasm I really didn't know. How can you really know until you experience it?

Huh? Haven't heard that. And I spend WAY too much time on WLS forums.
Maybe you're hanging with people who have terrible dental hygiene?
No problems here with my teeth. And I'm nearly 18 months post-op, have lost all my excess weight, and maintaining at or below goal for the last 9 months.

When did you first have it after surgery? What do you drink? How often? Or did you give it up completely?

Only my BF knows I had the sleeve in 11/2015 (we live together). I'm a very private person and if people notice, I just say I've been dieting (which is true).

I am a vegan, and have been for 2+ years, and haven't had dairy for even longer than that. Going into surgery my nutritionist advised that I'd probably have to use whey sources for Protein because there's no other way I'd be able to get the adequate amount of without exceeding my liquid goal but my body still isn't used to it. Although it's been a little over 3 weeks (pre & post-op), my body is fighting the whey. ????
And post-op I'll definitely have to go veggie for Protein.< /p>

I'm not a fan of many Protein sources myself. I'm not vegetarian, but I have been eating a lot of vegetarian meals lately (I haven't had surgery). Check out A Pound of Cure by Dr. Matthew Weiner. He's a bariatric surgeon who is really into nutrition and is very vegan friendly. You should get some good ideas there about what to eat. Also, his YouTube videos are fantastic.

Only my BF knows I had the sleeve in 11/2015 (we live together). I'm a very private person and if people notice, I just say I've been dieting (which is true).

Starting eating sashimi (raw fish, no rice) at 2 months. Personally, I'm avoiding simple carbs like rice -- I suppose requesting brown rice would be better? Even better, sushi made with no rice at all -- cucumber or seaweed wrap instead.