Search the Community

Id be interested in finding out what my blood sugar is. With the calorie restriction you could be experiencing hypoglycemia.

In my experience, eating carbs contained in processed foods adds calories, little nutritional value, and leads to craving more carbs. I was so close to a Type II Diabetes diagnosis that my PCP sent me to a training at the local hospital to learn how to eat a healthier diet, and the dietitian stressed the importance of limiting carbs in your diet. Even limiting the carbs contained naturally in fruits, vegetables, and dairy products...way beyond cereal and Pasta. Brown rice is not a poor choice, but as a complex carb, I need to limit myself to only 1 - 2oz serving a day. Sweet potatoes are allowed, white potatoes are not. For bariatric purposes, my surgeon has made the distinction between the natural carbs and the added carbs. He advised that we should never eat foods which have sugar added to them. My PCP also recommends a low, natural carb only diet. I have never counted calories, only measured portions, and tried to make a tradition of making healthy choices for meals. If you are insulin resistant, you need to be aware of carb intake so that you can avoid the extreme blood glucose spikes and falls which are typical with a carb loaded diet. These levels of blood glucose can also contribute to an appetite that is out of control and/or contributes to counterproductive cravings. It's been fairly easy for me to limit my carbs, and I don't miss them. When I discovered my husband's stash of potato chips in the trunk of his car recently, I laughed and told him he should not be concerned about tempting me to cheat on my diet as I have lost my craving for them. Everyone is different...and physicians will give their patients varying instructions. For my surgeon, he advises low carbs, and I followed his instructions. You should follow the instructions given to you by your surgeon, and if what you want to do with following your prescribed foods list differs from them, I would have a discussion with them to share your thoughts.

I'm just so curious as to why people, not just directed at OP, believe stalls are a bad thing. Sure, we want to be skinny in 5 days, but that is not how this works. Having your body try to hold on to reserves really is a good thing. Really. As long as you keep doing the right things, your body will respond as it needs to. It just kills me when people think they are doing something wrong when everything happening is absolutely right. You're doing fine. Just keep following the sleeve rules, get some exercise and everything will be fine. Really. There is absolutely no possible way to gain fat when you are running a calorie deficeit. You have to believe this ... right? Celebrate your stall. It means this is one less stall you have on your journey to what you will ultimately be.

This is some of the criteria from my doctor for needing a fill: If you feel like you're able to eat bigger meals then your doctor's recommendation and you're getting hungry in less than a few hours after eating your meals, you might be due a fill. Also, you should be losing 1 - 2 lbs/week. Since you're unsure if you need a fill because you're pretty happy with your restriction now, I'd probably hold off, especially if it's not difficult to schedule a fill with your office. Your calorie intake seems great at this point.

Dill pickles are actually zero calories so they're a great snack! I eat them whenever I need something crunchy. Lemons are great too- you'd have to eat a ton for it actually count for calories. Of course the candy will add up, but otherwise I think if you're going to have a craving, this is a much healthier than one than for sweet or salty.

Hi friends! I am 5 months post-op. I am soooooooo exhausted all the time. All I do is think about napping and sleeping. Probably extremely dehydrated as well because I rarely drink. Should I incorporate caffeine daily? I take my vitamins daily. Eat around 900-1000 calories a day. Just tired of being tired.

I'm also 11 days post-op. I'm under orders from surgeon to continue with the 3 shakes a day and non-calorie liquids until my next appointment on November 9th. I am so dang glad, too. I am not ready to be figuring out the food thing just yet. I like my simple plan for now. I bought a food scale and more sets of measuring cups to help with the process once it is time.

11 Weeks Post OP Weight: 261 Total Weight Lost: -43.9 BMI: 42.3 Let’s just say that last week was a bad week. Personal issues topped off with work issues. Before the surgery I used to deal with stress by eating. I would get a pint of ice cream or stuff myself with whatever fast food restaurant was my obsession at the time. But now that I do not have that option anymore, how do I handle those bad days? Unfortunately I sacrificed my workouts. Instead of going to the gym and working out those frustrations of the week, I went home and hid from the world. By the end of the week I was disappointed in myself for not keeping my momentum going and got back on the exercise track. I feel more accomplished at the end of the day when I have done some sort of workout. Eating is still going good. I am still consuming less than 1000 calories a day. It continues to blow my mind. I don’t feel like I am depriving myself. I have started to notice things are getting easier every day. Walking up the stairs to my apartment. Simple movements that used to be difficult are now slightly easier. It feels good to know that these changes are happening and that it will only continue to get better! The best thing is seeing people that I haven’t seen in a long period of time. I had breakfast with my grandma last week and she was astonished with how I looked. She was amazed. I haven’t seen here since a week post op. I really looking forward to November when I see my parents whom I haven’t seen since last November and my brother whom I haven’t seen since one month post op. Other than that, not much more to report. All is well and moving forward. I am continuing to do my workouts and training. Three month post op follow up in a couple of weeks.

Six weeks out, and starting to seriously TRACK and measure what I eat now, to make sure I get my Protein in, and also that I am not tipping the Calorie scale. I wanted to share this GREAT free resource that I came across for counting and tracking your nutrition each day.... It is the SELF magazine nutrition counting site: food, and it will come back with the most amazing array of data... not just the list of calories and nutrients, but all knids of cool graphics that show where that food falls in the Hypoglycemic scale, and the phytonutrient scale, and the Food Pyramid and all kinds of stuff. Very educational... a great thing to get into for the newly sleeved. Remember what they told us... our sleeve is just a TOOL, we have to do the rest. Cinderella

It sounds to me like it was a win-win. You planned for it, plus you learned from it. You planned for a not-so-healthy treat. Yes, I make some bad choices sometimes, without planning for them. :smile2: AND, you learned that you'd have prefered a healthier choice! To me, after being banded, it isn't cheating--ever. We are no longer on "diets"--we are continually learning and adjusting. We make choices. Some are better than others. Some have more calories than others. Some help us on the way to weight loss, some don't. I think you did great!

I am a type 1 diabetic and 2 months banded, so I've dealt with a number of low bloodsugars while adjusting my insulin intake to match my new eating habits. I just keep a small juicebox in my purse. It has about 17 carbs and is around 70or so calories. I buy the small juicy juice kind. I have a 4 year old so it's easy to keep stocked with juice boxes.

Ebonie, Try going to the store and purchasing you a couple of the 100 calorie snacks and limit yourself to one a day or just when you have a craving, I wouldn't exceed two packs in a day though. You can also try yogurt as that is a snack or make a homemade low cal smoothie. No sugar added popsicles are good to. Try the slim-a-bear and the weight watchers. My Doctor said I can have snacks that a sugar free and don't contain more than 100 calories, but not to exceed 2 in a day.

The article is long because it provides 2 contrary points of view -- one doc is pro exercise and the other is not and they say why. Pro- Exercise: - exercise is beneficial and needed to maintain overall health - exercise helps in weight loss because exercise decreases one's appetite for a time - athletes can burn 5,000 calories in a day Con-Exercise: - exercise does not help weightloss as much as cutting calories - people who exercised over estimate calories burned by an average of 4X - people who ate the number of calories they believed they just burned, over-ate by 440 calories I used to exercise 6-7 days a week, up to 2.5 hours a day (cardio every day + weights) for 3 years. In the first year I lost 65 pounds out of the 80 I had to lose and could only maintain it for about 2 months. The rest of the time, I was between 155-160 pounds (no, muscle does not weight more than fat -- 1 lb = 1lb; muscle takes less space). After I started researching and writing, after exercising I sat at a computer for 12-14 hours a day. I never did reach my goal weight because I could not exercise enough and keep down my hunger at the same time. To burn as many calories as an athlete, one must train like an athlete and I could not. It was less than a year before I gained all the weight back plus another 40 pounds. I needed the sleeve because I could not keep myself from eating. Exercising kept me away from the pantry and the refrigerator for the time I was exercising! :crying: Exercising made me feel great because it made me smaller but not lighter. I could never exercise the amount I needed to, to reach goal weight

Thanks Jack. Good to know that the esophagus can go back down to size. I too endured for quite a few months. I have alread seen my surgeon and will have a 2nd GI in 2 weeks to see if anything changes w/ my slippage and esophagus He didn't mention to me anything about my diet except to watch the calories. I went ahead and put myself on liquids, mushies & puree foods. I think I can mange 6 weeks on this - heck I will if I want things to improve!!

Tonite I took some Swanson Thai Ginger broth. (30 calories/ cup). Very tasty.. Cut it 50% with Water. Heated it and beat an egg into it. Great taste. 75 calories total. 15 g of Protein.

I'm not a Dec. Bandster, but I thought I could help! First of all...do some spring cleaning. Throw it all out. If you have kids or family that still wants them, tell them to put them somewhere you can't find them. If you have to go out and purposefully buy them, you are more likely to have a moment of sanity and put it back. I am going to copy and paste a post that I wrote for someone else. Maybe there is something in there that will help you. Are you ready for some tough love? If you are not ready at this time, that if fine. Put it away in your mind that someone has given you some and come back here when you are ready. By the time I get to post this you will probably have 100 other replies, but I want to take my time and post what I really want to say. Okay...here goes the tough love. And this will be a long post! Nope the Cookies were not a good choice, but you ate them and now you need to move on and NOT do it again. You can't change what you have done but you can make better choices in the future. So the question is HOW IN THE WORLD DO I DO THAT? Well I will tell you that the answer is NOT going to come to you when you have a "cookie" (will now stand for anything that is not healthy for us for the remainder of this conversation) staring at you in the face. You have to have the tools and the mindset BEFORE that temptation ever comes up. We have to be ready to turn around at any particular moment and have a piece of cookie shoved in our face and realize that we are stronger than the calories, fat, sugar and peice of inanimate object that we are looking at. It gets harder as we have lost the weight and become a little more comfortable with our bodies. At first we were hell bent on getting losing, losing, losing. Well the newness has worn off and now we are just stuck with the realization that we will always have to fight the "cookies". Alright I am all about being practical so here are some suggestions that I have. 1. Take a piece of paper (one that you can fold up into your wallet/purse/pocket ) and divide it into sections. You may have to write down everything and then rewrite it to get it to all fit. a. Write down all the reasons that you had MAJOR, LIFE THREATENING SURGERY. Not the reasons that you wanted to just lose weight, but what caused you to make this drastic change in your life. b. Write down where you think you would be health wise in 10 years. What disesases, illness would you have? What meds would you be on. Look at your family for "inspiration". For me my mom died at 53 weighing 350+ pounds and had heart disease, diabetes, sleep apnea and a whole host of other disorders. Within 10 years, I was going to be there. c. Write down why you are more powerful than a cookie (this one is tough!) d. Find some typical foods that you would love to eat (your cookies) and look up the calories and then find out how much time you would have to spend working them off in the gym. e. Write down what about you makes you important enough to overcome your demons. f. Now you are going to want to fit all of this on a piece of paper in bullet form so when you are faced with you cookies you can look at it and allow you to mentally fight the war that has just come up. If you can justify eating that cookie after looking at your paper, then eat it, but have no regrets, and do not dwell on it. Instead you have faced the problem UP FRONT and not looked back on it. 2. Another possible tactic. I know that you are having a tough time getting your calories down. One thing that I have found that helps me is by eating the same foods that I like but with some simple substitutions and by finding ways to remove some unneccessary ingredients. For example. I make this dessert that had 1/2 cup of frozen berries, 2 TBSP of Cream cheese and 1/2 cup of granola. The cream cheese had 60 calories and I thought..."I wonder how this would taste if I didn't put the cream cheese in it". I tried it and guess what, I couldn't even tell that it was missing. Same thing with meatloaf. Instead of eating it with ground beef now I substitute grond chicken. As long as I keep all of my veggies and other healthy fillers in, I can't tell the difference. I really learned this from Subway. I found that if I went in and ordered a foot long sandwich (obviously pre-band) and got all this deli meat and cheese and then pilled it with my favorite veggies that I all I could really taste were the veggies anyways. So first I got rid of the meat and then the cheese, and the taste of the sandwich hardly varied at all. This is what I do all the time now. I will always fix something first and then think what can I do to lower or eliminate the calories without harming the integretity of the dish. 3. This is the one that everyone is going to hate. WE JUST HAVE TO HAVE WILL POWER SOMETIMES. Yep the age ol' dieting nightmare. (And believe me, I REFUSED to diet in my entire journey, so I use that word loosely) Our will power will not always be perfect, but we have to be able to stand up to ourselves and tell ourselves no. Before this surgery I couldn't tell anyone NO, including myself. So when my stupid head told me that I needed to go to Carl's Jr and get 2 big hamburgers and eat them in the 4 minutes it took me to get home so that I could look famished for dinner that was going to be served in 30 minutes...I never said no. NOW, I am comfortable saying no. It has helped me professionally, personally, and mentally. I thought that everyone would hate me if I said no, but now they no longer just expect things out of me. And I don't just give in to all of my brain's wishes. That is making me a better person. 4. Talk about your surgery. I have to honestly say that one of the greatest factors to my success is the fact that I have been open and honest about the surgery. I don't care what other people think about me. Go to 1A of this email and that should show you why there is nothing to be ashamed of. The more you talk about the struggles and successes of your surgery the less likely people are to shove food at you. We have one lady in our science department that brings in treats every week. After the 2nd week of school I told her about my surgery and not ONCE has she come in and offered me the food. She told me, if you ever want it, you may have some, but I don't want to push something on you that you obviously don't want. Yesterday at the staff meeting, the administration gave little food baskets to everyone for all there hard work during scheduling. However instead of a food basket I got a nice card signed by all the administrators, because the know that a food basket is pointless to me. I don't feel singled out, I feel very blessed that these people care enough about me to know what I need. Some people can't make these connections on their own and they need you to school them. Iknow this is tough, but I had to do it with my dad, my BF, and my brother. I asked them if they would offer a beer to a recovering alcholoic. All of them said no, and then I said then why in the hell would you offer me a cookie! If there is any advice in here you don't like. Think about why you don't like it. Is it because it is hard...well guess what CHANGING is hard, but maybe just try part of it. If you don't like it because it goes against all of your moral beliefs, then ignore it. I will never know and it will not hurt my feelings. Even if you came back and said "Salsa you are full of crap and are an idiot" I would think " her loss!" and keep on lovin' ya. This is what friends are for. We have to be here during the good times and the bad. We have to be able to look (or type) at the other person and say "stop being an idiot" If we don't do that as friends, really we are no better than an enemy.

So Im gonna start to actually count my food calories, instead of estimating. So far today: Food___________Serving______ Calories Farina........................3/4 cup.............120 L.C. Chix Philly.............1......................330 Club Crkrs...................4 crackers..........70 Apple Butter................1 Tbls................25 Wendys Grl.Chx Wrap....1......................260 Jr.Vanilla Frosty...........4oz...................150 TOTAL...955 Not great but not too shabby either!

so, i can personally dispute that nutritionist's claims with several personal stories. their were 3 times in my life which i lost a significant amount of weight, and not one of them included me changing my eating habits. 1) summer of 2001 i worked as a camp counselor at a girl scout camp. i walked alot taking the girls to and from activities, and i swam at the lake or pool everyday, but i didn't do anything strenuous. i didn't change my eating habits. i lost 50 lbs in 6 weeks. of course, once camp was over, i gained it right back because my exercise level went back down. 2) the next summer, i was back at camp. lost 30 lbs in 6 weeks. same scenario. 3) the next summer, i went on a 18 day kayaking trip in alaska. now, my eating changed on this trip, but calories probably increased (high cal food for energy). i lost 30 lbs in 18 days. so, anyone who says that exercise won't make you lose weight is nuts. obviously, if your exercise level isn't way up like mine was these summers, then you might need to decrease your calories too if you want to lose alot. but exercising alone will do it.

I'm going to agree w/TulipStar. I had a very difficult time in getting restriction, and I wholeheartedly believe exercise kept me "busy/active" to take my mind off of food while changing the way my body looks. When the scale wasn't moving - inches were falling off / clothing sizes dropped. I didn't start serious weight training till about 3 months ago, and to be honest that's when I started to drop the most weight & inches. I never had Nut appt during my process but my Dr told me to get active as soon as possible (walking immediately) & get a fitness program including weights after 10wks. As of today, I'm probably eating more than I have since getting the Lap Band, because I need the calories to handle the workouts my trainer puts me through - it scared me at first to start adding carbs back into my diet; however the good ones are what I need at the moment. I personally see great benefits to exercise. It definitely can't hurt!! I've gone from a 16 to an 8 in 6 months, and thankfully no plastic surgery is going to be needed...well maybe the eyes when I hit the 4-0:smile:

Getting in more fluids is the only reason I can think of that would justify them saying 3 meals a day. I normally only eat 3 times a day, but I eat a cup of food each time. I also drink a venti caramel mocha almost every day, made with skim milk and only 2 pumps of mocha instead of 5 and sf caramel (total 220 calories 17g protein that are well worth it). So, with the drink I get in more fluids and the calories and protein as well. When I don't drink one, I do eat an extra meal.

March 2 marks my 1st year bandiversary. I thought by now that I would be down at least 80 lbs, but no such luck. I have been plateaued for almost 5 months the weight will not buldge. I take in 1000-1200 calories a day. I do admit since I started school that I do not exercise as much, but even before that with 6 days week exercise no weight loss. I feel bad I have tried everything, logging food with my fitness pal and still nothing. I don't know what to do I have even talked to physician. I did so well in the beginning with the weight loss, but not getting at least the 1 lb a week is very discouraging. Any advice or encouragement is accepted.

I haven't been weighing it out. I did buy a measuring cup to measure out 1/2 a cup. I am hoping once I start dense protein I won't be so hungry all the time and I can keep my calories low. Sent from my SM-G900V using BariatricPal mobile app

This week I had my pre-op appointments. We met classroom style with someone from exercise, as well as the dietician. Exercise talked about why we need to start now, and the steps we will go through. Nutrition was a TON of information, as well as the purchase of the pre-op diet food. For two weeks we have an 800-900 calorie diet we have to follow. Then we talked with the PA about surgery. We're supposed to go back for another appointment the week before surgery, but I can't take any more time off work, so the PA did that exam as well. It was just a basic look over, and then went over all the surgery stuff. She gave me all my paperwork to sign, and the hospital info, everything. I also had to purchase my 2 week post-op food. So, 3 bags of groceries later, I AM READY FOR SURGERY!! Diet starts Monday. Two weeks from Monday my new life begins ! YAHOO!

What on earth could you possibly be consuming to get 2000 calories at 2 weeks postop? Even if you drank 2 quarts of whole milk, that'd only be 1200....

Hi, as you might have read, my name is Carmen. I am a mother of two, a 13 year old daughter, and a 9 year old son. Currently after 15 years working I am taking a break to continue my education. I am an EMT, and I am going to school for cosmetology. I been in the retail industry all my life. When I became and EMT, it was one if my great accomplishments, I was very happy. I started to work for a busy system in the City of Syracuse, and I was doing OK. At the end of my 15 hour days, I was in serious pain, but i got up every morning at 4am to go to work and do it all over again. But the pain got worst, i was barely able to stand on my feet less carry a heavy bag with an oxygen tank. I took a medical leave to address my condition. Resulting that I have arthritis on my back and my knees are deteriorating and I have tendinitis on my wrist. Anyone with arthritis now that pain only gets worst and it never gets better, I started taking medications for the pain that wouldn't allow me to drive the ambulance in the state. So I had to extend my leave indefinitely. My neck started to hurt, along with my ankles, and even so I decided to start going to school for cosmetology more standing up and more wrist work, What was I thinking? I figure I need to continue working on something I like doing but I want to make more for my work, and I want to work when I want to ( when not in pain). Anyways Its been a journey I am half way my journey (http://bbgbeauty.blogspot.com). My brother ended up in the hospital, also my mother. My brother had developed sleepanea, a sleeping disorder mostly on obese people. He weight at almost 600 pounds. He had let himself go. He was in the hospital for many months until he was able to get out he now weights around 550. He can barely walk, or breathe he ended up with a tracheal tube for life or until he gets his weight under control. Now my mother is battling her foot to diabetes in the hospital and they ha to amputate all her toes. I go trough a lot with them and finally get them into my home and they doing a little better. But its far from over, my mom goes again more times to the hospital and still struggling to keep her leg now in top of everything my boyfriend ends up in the emergency room because of his diabetes. I said to my self no more... I decided I am not going to end up like them, to this date I don't have diabetes, I might be in the border of Sleepanea, I might already have it. I don't have high cholesterol but my blood pressure is very high and I take medications for these. I talk to them about loosing weight and that we could do it together, they seem reluctant to the idea of eating less and healthier. I guess I am on my own right now. Each person's health is their own decision. My mom is somewhat supportive, she "tried to keep me under control with sweats" and by trying i mean she waves them in front of me and says resist the temptations! lol . My boyfriend has gone so far to the info group and support groups in the area for me and have allow me to expend a little extra on healthy foods. We all know that healthy food is more expensive... but thats another topic. So I went to the information group to gather information about the Gastric Bypass Surgery, and I have learn a lot. I also went online to research, and I been to support groups in the area. I filled my paperwork and submitted to the surgeons. I am awaiting a date to start the process. It should be this week. They called me last week but I was missing my doctors referral, which hopefully they faxed today. I been on a diet on my own so i can gradually start my transition to better eating. Its been hard. I am limited to 1,400 calories a day, witch is not much compared to what I was eating before. its like torture, to the point that I don't want to leave my room into the world because everything is food, advertised, in commercials, int he internet, on games, in my kitchen, my family and kids, across the street next door, its everywhere, the temptations are all there, its worst than drugs. And for someone that has been big since a child, and never been restricted on what I can eat because my motto was, "I am going to die anyways might as well die happy" Well, i rather die happy but not suffering restricted to a bed or not able to enjoy life. I want to be able to fit in the roller coaster so when my daughter goes in a date I can follow her and get in the same rides as her and her boyfriend. I want to be able to fit on normal clothes and spend $20 less on a shirt. I want to be able to run after my future grand kids, I want to be able to have a snore free sleep, and wake up energized, I don't want to be afraid of a stroke or diabetes. I want to keep all my limbs, I want to be able to work and make money! I want to be able to wash the dishes with less pain on my back and knees, and I want to be able to go back to being a great EMT and live a long healthy life. And more than anything I want to go to my birth country and shove it on their faces that I was able to loose weight and I ams till beautiful as I was before. So this is why I decided to do the gastric bypass. Even thou a lot of people say you can do it without the surgery, I might... but YES i am opting for the easier way, where I will have less chance of failure. Once my stomach is smaller, I will able to be full with less food thus being different from now, that I eat less but i am still hungry. And I don't care if people don't agree with me on doing this surgery, it my decision, and if I am weak for doing it, so be it. Pre-Operation: Currently I weight 280 pounds I lost 3 pounds in 2 weeks. Here are some of my current pics, They are gross, but I want you to have an idea of the real situation and have a visual concept of my progress.