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there are lots of yummy keto cookie recipes out there! might introduce people to a healthy alternative treat

I am a Keto diet veteran (for my sins lol) and have an electronic blood sugar meter at home. And I eat carbs pre and post op and I'm still in ketosis. Reality is, on a VLC diet you're likely to be in liver shrinking ketosis no matter how much of your diet is composed of carbs. A bottle of that Kellogg's stuff is 41g carbs of which 15g sugars. I mean the second ingredient is glucose Syrup so I wouldn't make it a lifestyle choice but even so, you'll still shrink your liver with 2 of those a day.

I'm 39 & a mom of 4 amazing boys (21, 17, 13, & 7) & I've been obese or morbidly ones since I was pregnant with my first son 21 years ago. I've tried Keto, Adkins, WW, etc etc & although I lose weight it never stays gone. As soon as I LOOK at a piece of bread, I gain a pound. I've long since cut out sugars & sodas. I like bread but I don't have to have it. I live in Northeast Louisiana & don't know where to begin. My doctor & I have tried medications, but she's anti- weight loss surgery, so talking to her get me no where. I've researched the different types of surgeries, but I don't know which would be best for me (probably because I'm not a doctor or nurse). I just know I'm tired of being 220+ pounds & I want to get down to 140-150 & there's no amount of dieting, exercise, or medication that gets me past 195. I know my insurance won't pay for it so I'll have to finance, which is fine, I just don't know where to start & I'm beginning to get depressed about the whole ideal. My boyfriend is amazing & tells me I don't need surgery but also understands my mental health & how this affects me. Can anyone help me?

I don't think there's any real need to pay for a bariatric keto program unless you specifically need the hand holding. Low carb keto principles are all over the web. But for most of us, the higher fat levels don't work either keeping us from losing fully or making us nauseated. I just keep my macros very simple. Let's say for instance, that most people who are consistently losing are keeping calories in the 800-1000cal range. So the macros for 1000cals on a female of normal construction (ie not a body lifter, not large framed 6foot. I'm talking average 5'4" female): 30% Protein (75g protein); 60% Fat (67g fat); 10% Carbs (25g carbs--from low glycemic veggies, nuts, seeds, dairy, and low glycemic berries in small amounts). There are NO required carbs. None. Cuz the liver can make every spec of glucose needed for those few cells that require glucose and that can't run on ketones. Otherwise, fat from your body (and a tiny bit from your diet) supplies the ketones needed for fuel for your body. (For me, I have to keep fats lower cuz it makes me nauseated. So my most recent macros are more like: 30% Protein (75g prot); 50% Fat (56g); 20% Carbs (50g carbs)--My carbs usually around 30-40g whole per day and once you subtract out fiber, they are closer to 25-30g. I am def. in ketosis. But honestly most days I don't make 1000 cals either. I do get my protein range from my RD of 60-75g protein though. It's pretty simple. Lean meats/proteins, limit cheese and processed meats a "tiny" bit. Lots of leafy greens and low glycemic veg and a tiny bit of low carb berries if desired. Nuts/seeds/avocado/healthy fats. Healthy dairy if carbs and cals allow. And stay away from legumes, grains, sugar and as much sugar alcohols as possible. Eat cleanly and shop from the outer isles. Drink 100oz of water a day or a little more. Exercise (walk at the very least).

Adding my info! 1. Pre op weight, BMI or measurements 249-250 lbs BMI of 44 2. Surgery type VSG in 2017 then RNY in 2019 3. Lowest post op weight, BMI or measurements and when it occurred 150lbs BMI 27 around 1 year post op 4. Maintenance weight, BMI or measurements and when it occurred 155 lbs BMI 27 around 18 months post op 5. Bounces (up or down) in weight, BMI or measurements and when they occurred I can bounce up and down 5-10 lbs depending on the season but my lowest was a 20 lb drop during an E.Coli infection 6. Methods used to maintain and what has/has not worked What works for me: Weighing daily/weekly, spot checking calories, low cal/keto substitutes, 90% disciplined eating and 10% debauchery. What does not work for me: gym membership as motivation, unsustainable diets and GLP-1 meds (as of now) 7. How your life has changed (losing vs maintaining perspective) During the losing phase I was very rigid almost never went off plan, now everything I want can be worked into my plan and I’m more relaxed. 8. Words of wisdom/cautionary tales/stories of beating the odds Cautionary tale: Don’t suffer in silence with reflux, push for answers and relief. Absolutely never compare yourself to anyone else. Don’t guilt spiral after a little weight gain, try to correct it as soon as you notice. A small gain is very likely in our population after reaching your absolute lowest weight. I remember when I first joined there was a some chatter about being absolutely perfect or you’ll gain it all back and it made me really anxious. Don’t be afraid to ask for help and other tools from your team. We are not quite the same as the never obese population so our bodies may play by different rules. Word of wisdom: Document your journey if you can. I don’t really remember what it was like to be in my obese body anymore, I only vaguely remember feeling bigger. Have other goals apart from losing weight. Once the newness of WLS wears off you may want to continue the momentum of achievement. If you want plastics (and there are no obstacles beside fear) definitely go for it. The recovery can be tough but it completed the journey for me and others I know.

I haven't had my surgery yet, but I've been doing keto for 2 months. I have dropped 25 lbs so far and I feel great. I definitely plan to keep doing it after vsg. Check out the Fitmissbliss blog, she's a VSGer who does keto now too.

I haven't told my family about surgery, instead I told them about the post op lifestyle changes like that I stopped eating bread, pasta, grains (true) ,I eat keto style to lose weight (true when it was happening), I exercise and joined a gym (true), I walk everywhere I can (true)

For me so far I found that if I stay below or at 900 calories per day I lose quicker at 1000 ~ 1200 I will stall. That just means my body has adjusted and stores all that it can. I am going to start switching to a Paleo and Keto diet every other Month or so to keep my body confused. But I still have to make sure I that my exercise and food intake ends up to be 900 calories per day.

I’m 8 1/2 years out and I’ve gained and lost about 20-25 lbs every two years or so. It DOES take will power and realizing we are losing like NORMAL peeps now. Keep it in check before it snowballs. I’ve always lost FAST. Not so much now and only thing that works for me is low carb/Keto. In process of losing that same regain now and have lost about 12 pounds doing Keto/low carb and not eating after 8pm til about 11am. Easy because I am a meat eater. You CAN do it. Just focus on NO GRAZING, snacking and basics!

Im hitting 5 years this may and I've also gained about 30 lbs back from my lowest weight this year I'm determined to loose it by starting a keto diet and start tracking my meals with MYFITNESSPAL app Sent from my SM-G960U using BariatricPal mobile app

Also just about 5 years post op, had some regain too and lost it all with keto. Still trying to get the final push so I can have skin surgery. Keto worked 100% for me for the regain

I can relate to this post. 4 years out from VSG and after 144 pound loss I have allowed myself to gain 60 pounds. I am ashamed of myself even typing that. I'm so embarrassed that for about 6 months I just did nothing. I'm through the woe is me part of this slip up and I am back to fighting. 9 days ago I started Keto. I am 4 pounds down and I can feel the inches melting. This is reminiscent of when I lost weight right after my VSG surgery. I am excited because Keto food is really good and I don't feel l like I am missing out on anything. This time I plan to exceed my prior weight loss and get to my goal weight. Thank you lark60 for sharing this post. It is encouraging to me to see that I am not the only one in this situation and with some perseverance and determination I can do it. We all can just one day at a time. Hugs to you all!

I made myself some eggs and sausage for dinner tonight. 😋 Out of impulse, I grabbed the sriracha sauce out of the fridge and poured some over my meal. Looked at the bottle to check the nutrition and saw that it was loaded with carbs (which I am trying to avoid while doing the keto diet) and was pretty sad about it. Does anyone here love sriracha? Have you found a low-carb alternative? If so, do you have a recommendation (bonus points if I can get it over in the EU)?

have you hear go Keto? https://www.reddit.com/r/keto/

I honestly can’t be of help for future since I’m only one week post op but I can tell you this if you are reading this. The food restrictions how we overthink them aren’t really all that I know we think we will never eat certain foods but there are so many options for those of those that love food. Health is number one but if you google, Pinterest or even just ask there are so many good recipes and substitutes for meals that you can still enjoy the same. Yes we are eating less and not binge eating but it shouldn’t be like that regardless first week has been hard for me but I have spent the time I have no work planning out and researching basically a lifetime of changes. I follow people on social media that have been 1,2,3,4 even 10 years post op and they have their journeys up and what they eat and how they feel and it made me feel great. Even BariatricPal has items that resemble the real thing but are tailored to us. I know it’s not the post you all want to see it is more tailored to the part in your post were you might think you will suffer over food. Honestly I love penne vodka and pasta and I know I can’t eat a whole plate how I used to but I found ways to replicate good recipes with low carb keto or no sugar items. Hope you make the decision that feels good for you and that helps you. Just remember don’t rush it.

So, saying that the way these folks are living and eating will lead them to failure? My diet, during the most weight I've lost phase wasn't on point at all. I ate whatever I wanted when I was reintroduced to solid foods. I've had ice cream, candy, etc in very small portions and have lost 115 pounds in October, 90 of that since Feb when I had my surgery. I do think commenting on how other people work their sleeve and saying they'll fail is a bit over board. Just like now, I cyclical keto diet, meaning I have 12 days of minimal carbs, and then 36 hours of 2 days I eat high GI carbs, which 90% of you on here would freak out and say I'm going to fail. I do what works for me, and that's all anyone can and should do. There's no cookie cutter program. I think over analyzing the diet aspect and freaking out over macro's leads to eventual failure, especially as a larger person who has struggled with weight loss all of their lives. The way I see if, there are 2 boats, both going to the same place. One is the strict, I only eat wholesome healthy foods, and the other is the I don't want to "diet" my entire life and I'm going to still enjoy food but on a much smaller scale. Now, every once in a while, some do jump over board and swim back to the shore which can and has lead to failure, sure it happens, but not everyone who enjoys food from time to time is going to fail on this journey. Many people had dealt with judgement their entire lives. And someone who's been sleeved coming in saying "I'm concerned" is the same as judgement to them, regardless of how you saw it or what you were trying to do. It could have gone either way. You could have been more sensitive to their diet and feelings, or they could have just understood that you're concerned for their general health and only want what's best for them, and they should know what works for them and let it slide. I know what I eat isn't always the cleanest most best thing for me out there, but no major stalls, bodyfat% has dropped every month (not BMI, but DEXA scanned), and each week when I step on the scale I see a lower number.

Hi guys I've now bought some ketone test strips and I'm definitely in ketosis... the reading is up around 8 ... but, I'm losing the plot... will this help with losing the right kind of fat? rather than eat away at the good stuff? When I did Atkins 7 years ago (successfully) I didn't really worry about ketosis as I was down to about 5% carbs so it was a given...and it suited me very well. I was blissfully ignorant as it was so easy - I just ate meat, fish, eggs, bacon, ham, heavy cream and cheese. so simple. Now, the more I read up on stuff the more I feel confused... and to be honest, I didn't think I'd need to go back to this kind of eating so soon after surgery. When I followed the nutritionist's plan in month 2 and 3 my weight loss reduced to 7lbs a month (which I know is great but at such an early stage after surgery the surgeon said I was too slow). So I removed most of the carbs and reduced from 800-900cals a day (as recommended by nutritionist) to my current calorie level of between 550-700. So for month 4 and 5 the weight loss has increased to 10lbs for month 4 and 13.2lbs for month 5. I've started to freak out again as April has been a slow start... I'm seriously thinking about a fasting day just to see what that does (I need to chose the day carefully as sometimes I'm so starving that it would be the wrong day to try). When I make one wrong change to my eating plan it can have disastrous and long term results - ie my pickle meal last month increased my weight by nearly 5lbs and took a week to come back down. And last weekend I introduced a few veg into my turkey mince and gained 1.5lbs which took a few days to get rid of. So I'm freaking out... my head witch must think I'm a complete nutter. She would prefer me to be more relaxed about it and said that one of her other clients who got sleeved 2 months ago had been eating some chocolate... Anyway... sorry to go on about this... the more YouTube I watch on insulin, hormones, autophagy, IF etc, keto... the more I'm confused ... 🤯

Oh ! Makes me realise how darn slow everything happens in NZ! I spoke to my GP last August, it took him 2 weeks to even write the referral letter (I had to get referred even though I am self funding). I waited until December to see the surgeon, then i had to have two psych appointments and a dietician appointment, then they all got together yesterday and agreed I can have the surgery 😁 I have another final appointment with the surgeon beginning of March where he will schedule the actual date…..am elated and terrified at the same time! So it will be near 9 months. Though I did actually talk to another GP in the practice about surgery over a year ago, she was negative and told me that keto might work…it did but I have since put nearly all the weight back on again.

Ok. My surgeon keeps trying to keep me at 600 calories but it's hard to do with keto. I'm losing plenty, I just wanted to know if anyone else was doing it.

I know this is an older post but hoping someone can help i had RNY 4 mo ths a and have been using Keto diet for 6 weeks and feel good on it But I eat 1200 cal a day and exercise 5 days a week, yet stalled for 4 weeks well only lost 1 lb and clothes not getting any looser. i still have 50 lbs to loose and cannot seem to get weight to drop again 1200 cal 100 gr protein 15 gr carb 80 gr fat aerobics for 45 min per day thanks

Thank you so much. I searched keto nut nothing came up. I'll try it again

I do and I use this calculator. http://keto-calculator.ankerl.com/ I had my resting metabolic rate tested recently so that is accurate and I changed mine from the default, but the default was close, within 100 calories. I had a DEXA scan so I also know my exact fat percentage. If you don't know you can let it guess for you. I use the lowest fat goal allowed. I don't always meet it. My goal is to meet my Protein goal and to not go over my carb goal. My carb goal is net carbs. I easily stay under the carb goal even not using net carbs. Before someone comes in talking about net carbs are BS, net carbs are the standard in Europe, the US is behind on everything because of lobbyists, but that is a different topic. Some days I go over 750 calories, I try to stay under 850.

EASY VERSION: As a general rule, as long you get your proteins and keep track of your calories, you're fine. In simple terms, aim for 1 gram of protein per 2 lb / 1 kg you weigh. If you're a 200 lb dude, you're going to want 100g of protein. And so on. Find your calorie sweet spot depending on where you are on your journey. No, nobody has a sweet spot of 400, and almost nobody at 4,000. Somewhere in between. INTERMEDIATE VERSION: There's no doubt super quick sugars are not the best idea, but the idea that carbs are the enemy is utterly ridiculous. Remember all the people you know on keto who've been on keto for 20 years? Yeah, neither do I. Because they never exist. It's not a natural way to eat (no, really). Bottom line: if you're not doing ultra-low carbs, you don't need to worry. I've lost 169 lbs without thinking one time about carbs. I do tend to make conscious choices about how much super quick sugar I want. Americans, check your bread. The sugar factory dropped 6x as much in there as we get in Europe (yes, literally).

I'm only halfway through the six months of visits I need before a request can even be sent to insurance, but I decided I wanted to tell my story so far anyway. I'll update here as things go on. I just want to give a bit of a warning, however. For those of you with triggers, there is talk of mental health and suicide. On with the show, I suppose. I've been heavy since I was a little girl. Big boned, yes, but also more than my fair share of baby fat. But at the time, it was nothing too concerning. "It'll disappear when she gets older," people would tell my parents. If only that were true. By the time I was about 12, that baby fat had turned into even more fat. My mom, who had also gotten heavy after the birth of my younger brother, decided it was time for a change. She and I started Atkins. But that didn't last long. Sure, we both lost a little, but a long stall coupled with cravings made us stop. As a teenage girl, I became a lot more conscious about my weight. I started trying everything. Weight Watchers, counting calories, Atkins again, even starving myself. But nothing worked. I would lose a little, then regain it and more. It was rough being a 200+ lb girl, especially one that ended up gaining three big issues. The first issue was that I became a boredom eater. The second was that I had become a binge eater. This compared with the first was a problem meant when I got bored, I would binge. But there was yet another problem under all of this. I wanted to die. Failures in my weight and other unrelated areas of my life such as school, caused me to spiral into a deep depression. I slept most of the day and had almost no friends. Not even the voice in my head was a friend of mine. Whenever I started a binge, I would hear it. "Yes. Eat, little piggy. You're so fat and ugly, and a failure. You deserve nothing, not even love. No one likes you, so just eat yourself to death." I wanted to commit suicide not by any normal method, but by slowly destroying my body. Eating until I was so big I died of any number of issues. I knew a few people cared about me, my parents and at least one person at school. That was another reason for trying to die slowly. I wanted them to become so disgusted with me, that they wouldn't care if I died. This carried on into my first two years of college. And then I had a psychological breakdown. I won't go into what happened, but I ended up seeing both a psychologist and a psychiatrist. Together we started to work through my issues, silencing the voice in my head, dealing with my depression, treating anxiety, getting me to be a functional part of society. I was seeing an OBGYN during this time as well, and I was diagnosed with PCOS and the insulin resistance that came with it. That seemed to be a lot of the reason why I couldn't lose weight. But what was left for me to try? Another diet? I felt like nothing worked. I tried Nutrisystem, but the food was gross and I was unhappy. But due to the psychological help and a name to what's been plaguing my weight (and the love of my fiancee, who I met after receiving help), I no longer wanted to die. I wanted to live. I wanted to see 30. So two years ago I turned to weight loss surgery. I planned to have the bypass done, but right off the bat, I wasn't too fond of my surgical team. I felt like a number to them. My surgeon I would only see for maybe a minute each appointment if I saw him at all. But still, I stuck with it until my sixth appointment got canceled. It was late December. He had gone on vacation. My PCP, who I had been able to see for some of the check-ins, had a full schedule so I couldn't see her. No one would do the check-in. I had to start all over again. It was at this point that my mom suggested I try Keto. It worked for my Uncle. It was working relatively well for her. I decided why not. The reason why I shouldn't have was because I gained an obsession with numbers. In Keto (at least the way I understood it), the general maximum grams of carbs per day is 20. I felt guilty if I went over 5. In a sense, it worked. I lost about 30 pounds. But at this time, I also started to abuse laxatives because I wanted to keep seeing that number on the scale go down. Still, much like everything else I had tried before, I hit a stall then started to regain. Frustrated, I gave up. I went back to my old ways, figuring that I had screwed my body up too badly to be recovered. Then, three months and a change in insurance ago, I got curious. Would my new insurance cover bariatric surgery? I checked and saw that it would. That day, I made a decision. I would get on the path to surgery again. And this time, I would complete it no matter what. I found a new surgeon with a new group. It's one that actually specializes in obesity medicine. Half of my six appointments are actually with the surgeon, and he explains things in more detail than I got before. The other half is with a nutritionist who is actually knowledgeable about the dietary needs of bariatric patients. I feel like a person, not a number. I feel actually informed. I feel more ready for this surgery. In October, a week after I get married, I will be having my last check-in with my surgeon. Then everything will go to insurance. I'm ready.

Eat more. Get a new scale. I know "eat more" sounds like crazy advice when you're stuck in a stall, but our bodies have an amazing set of defenses...thousands of years of evolution to survive bad harvests and hunting seasons. When we drastically cut calories and move a lot more than we used to....our biology interperates this as OMG, we're starving to death and must be moving more because we're desperately searching for hard to find food!...then your endocrine system goes....Must hit this body with every hormone and defense mechanism possible to STOP weight loss! (there are also a whole bunch of little hormonal changes that can bite you in the ass after a long period of severely restricted calories to "make up" for weight lost and encourage gain...which is why most people have some regain issues eventually) If it were me.....I'd add calories. Something with fiber. Black beans, potato, a smoothie with some spinach and low fat greek yogurt. All of these have protien, but they also boost your gut microbiota and stop the keto that your body might be interpereting as starvation. Crazy internet lady advice....take what you like and leave the rest. All of our bodies work a little different. Find what's best for you.