Chunkysoup

Except my blood labs are data supporting the patches working.
And it's Reebok.

Apples are incredibly good for you. They're delicious. They provide and feed some wonderful gut microbiota and they're chock full of phytonutrients you need to prevent illness.
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/10-health-benefits-of-apples#section6

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC442131/#idm140507075898624title

The trick is to pick carbs that have lots of nutrients and fiber... and less refined empty crap. Apples are a stellar choice!
If my body is craving the hell out of carbs...I don't put myself in the position where I lose my mind and go completely off the reservation and eat something stupid. I have some fruit or beans. I have a whole grain snack...some oatmeal or whole grain toast. I beat the carb cravings into submission and outsmart them by giving them some good carbs that are rich and in plant protein, fiber, or both. You want carbs, body? Ok, you can have plenty...but I get to pick good ones.
I eat a lot of fruit. I love fruit now. I very honestly would prefer fruit to candy and donuts these days....which I would never have believed a year ago. My favorite "comfort food" is watermelon now. I would rather have a slab of watermelon with candles on it than a birthday cake. LOL:)
And you know what? I feel better. I don't feel edgy or like I'm in a war with food. I don't feel like I must banish things forever or punish and deny myself. I trust myself to stop at a couple of bites on special things on special occasions....because I truly love my regular forever diet.
Because of my high fiber diet....staying in my calorie limit is incredibly easy. When I'm not eating fruit and whole grains, I'm munching on side salads, carrots in hummus, bowls of veggie soup, cans of mushrooms,
There are 15 calories in a little can of mushrooms. For 15 calories...you get 2 grams of protein and 3 grams of fiber. Mushrooms are a nutritional powerhouse and I'm glad I love them.
Hungry people with cravings make bad choices. I don't go there anymore. I eat. A lot. But really mindfully.

Glad to hear there are lots of ways to be healthy!
I think there are many good diets (look at traditional cultures all over the world!) And pretty much ONE way to Unhealthy:
Refined, processed, artificial food (including sugar and refined flour)
I think once you get the junk out, weather you eat chicken or beans or apples is sort of down to individual lifestyle, preferences, and goals.
While I think it is definitely true that (provided unlimited amounts of iron clad will power) you will weigh less if you live on only green vegetables and avoid all carbs, meats, and fats, it is not nessesarily a diet I would be able to force myself to live on forever.
I would sooner give myself permission to eat apples in moderation then to fall into a box of Twinkies when my will power breaks.

Im with you on this. Im about 1.5 years out. I eat pretty much whatever i want, Ijust dont eat a lot of it. And I usually have some kind of dense protein at the center of most meals. But its not unusual for me to have potatoes, or a slice of pizza every now and then.
Ive found that as long as i am excercising i can keep my weight steady now by just eating multiple small meals - even if i have some cheat foods in there. Or even GASP BEER!

Seriously, this post is like beating a dead horse. Is there a way I can stop getting notifications for it? Someone simply said what worked for them, and after rereading it, I see nothing that tells me that she was telling anyone else that what they were doing was wrong. This is exactly why at 6 months post vsg, I am ready to say good riddance to BariaticPal. It has become nothing but people arguing over the most trivial things.

Sent from my SM-G960U using BariatricPal mobile app

Apparently Miz failed to open the link and follow the links to the studies.

It never fails. You mention you eat carbs...or more than 500 calories a day...and the jealous starvation hangry patrol comes out with torches...frothing and calling for your head.
Well....ya'll enjoy that. I got bigger fish to air fry. With a baked potato:)

Says the woman who "liked" a post of someone rolling their eyes at my perfectly polite post about why I choose to eat carbs.
If you want to preach tolerance, perhaps you should show some and not be a hypocrite? Just sayin...
Would it have hurt you to just ignore a post about eating carbs? Don't people have a right to read it and decide for themselves without you policing it and interjecting your defensiveness about your own diet?
As shocking as this might be....the OP was not about YOU:)
I promise if you want to add to the million other posts here about eating gross quantities of animal protein...I won't say a word. Your diet...your thread....your thing.
Live and let live. You'll live longer.

True, I've been at maintenance since July...not long at all. Touche. You're right.
And I'm also having a hell of a time keeping my weight up. I'd like to be 170...today the scale says 162.
I have been actively trying to stop my weight loss for three month. Most days I eat 1600 calories, but I try for 1700-1800. That's a LOT of food when you eat mostly fruits and veggies and complex carbs. I'm not a big 'fats' eater and I limit animal proteins to 3 servings or so a week. I do get 60g of protein a day....mostly from carbs/plant sources. I also get at least 25g of dietary fiber a day. I avoid dairy. Am currently trying to eat more nuts.
While I want to weigh 170, my team says my body might have other ideas....and to trust my body. This is probably really good advice.
But yeah...part of my focus lately has been arresting my weight loss. My posts probably reflect that.
Believe it or not....there are others who are coping with this issue.
There are a lot of DIFFERENT experiences represented on this board:)

What I think is awful....is how people here are continually encouraged to do what doesn't work.
How many hundreds of posts have we read that go like this:
"I lost all this weight by self denial and will power and eating a very restricted diet....and I'm so sad and disgusted with myself that I put half of it back on. HELP!"
And what do these people routinely get told here?
Go back on your diet that was unsustainable...and didn't work. Try harder. Deny more.

It's crazy. And it's unhealthy to yo-yo.
There is no harm in illustrating a DIFFERENT path supported by science. No one is forcing anyone to do anything.
There are and always will be a variety of options and opinions.

I think people get confused by good carbs and bad carbs. Nothing you listed above seems unhealthy to me.

My drs advice after surgery was that as long as I get in 60 grams of protein there was no restrictions on my diet.

Healthy carbs are good and fiber is good too. Without it I get very stopped up

My medical provider is 100% on board with my diet. My medical provider is also a leading university teaching hospital. If your medical provider does not agree with my medical provider, there's nothing I can do about that.
We've known about the dangers of low carb diets for along time. Here's an American Harvard study of 120,000 people.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2989112/

https://www.rd.com/health/conditions/this-diet-could-stop-cancer-from-spreading/
Whole grains, beans and fruits important for preventing cancer.

Yep, I eat them all. Love them. They're a daily part of my diet. Sometimes multiple times a day.
OMG, they're carbs!
Yep, they are. But they're not refined, over-processed, or bad.
And you know what else they are?
Excellent sources of plant based protein and fiber.
A baked potato has 160 calories. By itself, it has 4g of protein. Throw some vegetarian chili on there and you're in the high teens. Awesome lunch!
Brown rice...half a cup has around 100 calories and 3g of protein. Add some bean or peas and you've got complete amino acids...tons of protein... and a crazy awesome amount of fiber.
Why is dietary fiber important? To grow good gut bugs. Your microbiota and the health of your gut (and metabolism) depend on happy little bacteria. The strains of gut bugs that live in the guts of skinny people....have a favorite food: dietary fiber. Feed your good bugs good things and they'll be good to you.
They like to eat fruit, veggies, beans, whole wheat bread...
Whole wheat bread? I eat this A LOT:)
For instance.....A lite Thomas English wheat muffin has 5g of protein for 100 calories. This dietary powerhouse has 8g of dietary fiber! Smear that sucker with your favorite nut butter or fruit preserves, and you're in business.
One of my favorite go-to dinners these days...... is fresh homemade wheat bread with 16 veggie soup...and fruit for dessert.
I eat about four servings of fruit a day...and that's not even counting the watermelon I huddle over in the car while hissing "My Precious...." LOL:)
A banana is not "a candy bar" A banana is a wonderful healthy food. I eat lots of them. Hell, I have a Yonanas that makes them into ice cream. They're terrific.


Normal weight does not HAVE to mean giving up carbs. It means being carb smart, balancing, and making mindful choices.
More than one way to do this whole thing.
Weight loss success does not mean ONLY eating meat for the rest of your life with broccoli on the side. That's great once in a while, though!
Not trying to tell anyone they're doing it wrong.....just sayin'....there's more than one way to do it right:)

Extreme thinking, extreme dieting, extreme self denial....is not sustainable.
Work on a forever diet you can live with.
Be mindful, be accountable....but be kind to yourself.

One year out! 157 pounds lost.
I (generally) consume about 1400 calories. It does vary, but I wouldn’t have gone under 1100 in several months.
I am pretty tall - 5 foot 9, but I do very little exercise. Like a bit of yoga and barre. I’m in my thirties.
This is something that you have to play around with. During a stall, I freak out and drop to 1200. Then I might go up again.
Ive has an excellent month (down about 10 pounds, which is great for me at this stage of the journey). Even so, I do think about dropping my calories down to speed things up but there’s no guarantee it would work. I also eat fruit as a snack and I would have to stop doing that. Also, I want to be able to maintain my weight. I can’t live forever eating only 500 calories a day.
Its not just about calories though in my experience (I’ll brace for some people to respond with the usual calories in vs calories out arguement). It really is about what you eat. I avoid bread, pasta, too much processed food, high sugar food, milk chocolate. I do eat dark chocolate every single day. So although it’s a high calorie diet, I generally follow a pretty moderate Mediterranean diet. I have messed around with the Keto diet, but I like eating fruit. My body feels healthier.
The bottom line is that you have to talk to your nutritionist and come up with something you can comply with.

I’m only two weeks out and already ending up around 450-550 most days. It makes me a little nervous that I’m already that high even though I’m still on liquids (basically Clear Liquids plus strained soups). It’s probably normal but I have a lot of nerves about when I make the leap to puréed foods (8/20) and then to real food (9/3).

There’s no calorie goal stated for this stage of my program, and while I’ve emailed my NUT to ask I am guessing I’ll get the customary as long as you’re eating what’s on the list and nothing else type answer.

Sometimes I feel like surgery was a long time ago and then I snap out of it and remember that it’s been literally only 14 days and I need to stop getting ahead of myself and worrying...if only anxiety were rational!

In the beginning I would use protein shakes to supplement, but I don't anymore. On a regular day, I get 100% of protein by food. I'm lucky that I like protein rich snacks like Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, hard boiled eggs, ect.
I've also been on a 1,000 calorie diet since about 8 weeks post op. Goes to show, different strokes for different folks.

Premier is good, maybe adding ice to it, anyway to get a lot more water in. 72oz is ok but you may need more... Let us know what your NUT thinks! I lose slow AF but researching helped me to understand it a little better. Especially what I could do to improve my chances, but ultimately my body will dictate where i land

Do you log your food? You lose weight in the kitchen, not in the gym, the saying goes....

Is your diet intended to "shrink the liver" or are you assuming that it is based upon what some others have to do?Many docs don't need their patients on that kind of diet but may impose some other diet for some other purpose, or often, nothing at all.
Classically, a low carb diet of some kind, liquid, solid or a hybird, is what is specified if improved liver condition is intended, but some may just want to move their patients in the right direction toward a healthier overall diet for the long term, so one with some fruit or other complex carbohydrates in it would be appropriate.

Follow your plans as close as possible and don't move your calories up unless explicitly told to. Your body will adjust and dip back into weight loss so don't worry about starvation mode
As seen in the actual starving masses, if you don't eat ,or don't eat enough, you will lose weight. That's is why these surgeries work (along with other metabolic changes that occur). To get you to the point where you cross beyond starvation mode and actually start consuming fat stores. It takes time and work so be patient
Google ketosis, lipolysis and the mechanisms of weight loss when you have any doubts.
Safe Journey!

I just talked to the nurse practitioner at my doctor's office who said she thinks my body is in starvation mode because I'm not eating enough calories. She said I should have around 800/day and I've been around 500. I have been trying to be so good and stick to no carbs, high protein, and low calorie that I guess I'm not getting enough. I don't know if that's the problem but she suggested I bump up my calories intake and I should start losing again. I thought I would share and hopefully it will work.

4.5 months out 1200 calories a day. Down 85lbs.

I'm 3 months and I eat about 1200 - 1400 a day, no problems.

1200 calories per day since week three after surgery. Will be upping calories to 1400-1600 for maintenance.