I’ve noticed a lot of emphasis on post-op diets. Now don’t get me wrong. I am not a dietician and I am not telling anyone what they should and should not be eating. Instead I am offering my take on sleeve dieting.

Would most agree that we did not become overweight simply because of the type of food we ate, but rather the amount of foods we ate? I was nearly 140lbs overweight when I had my surgery. My problem was quantity. When I ate out I would eat 3 or 4 of everything. Seriously, when I ate out I would eat 10 tacos at Taco Bell, or an entire large pizza from Pizza Hut, or two Whoppers at Burger King or two 12” Subway sandwiches. If my wife made steaks for dinner I would have 3 of them.

I rarely ate breakfast during the work week, but on weekends I would stuff myself with pastries. I would also tend to eat and watch TV until bedtime.

These are the things that got me, and I would suspect most people, into trouble. My new sleeve has changed all that. I physically CAN NOT eat foods in the same quantity as before. Thank the LORD! My meals are much, much smaller. This has required me to learn that breakfast and lunch are just as important as dinner.

As I mentioned in an earlier thread, I have no foods that are off limits. I eat mostly the same kind of foods I enjoyed before surgery. I just have to be smarter about it. The proteins are eaten first in my meals, followed by other nutritionally dense foods. The carb rich stuff like breads is eaten last if my sleeve isn’t already full.

This was my Easter holiday meals:

For breakfast I had a protein shake.

After church my wife wanted to stop at McDonalds on the way home. I didn’t want to overindulge so I opted for a kids “Happy Meal”. It was 4 chicken nuggets, a kid fry and sugar free lemonade. It was less than 300 calories and I still got 10 grams of protein out of this treat.

For dinner I used a rotisserie on my grill and smoked a whole chicken for the holiday. I had a drumstick and a small portion of a breast, about a ¼ cup of mashed potatoes with some gravy, 3 tablespoons of steamed broccoli, and a freshly made wheat roll. The chicken was eaten first followed by the broccoli and potatoes. I only had a nibble off the roll because I was full. This was not my typical meal, but it was a holiday so I intended to enjoy myself while having dinner with my family.

For desert I had a Cadbury egg.

The point I’m trying to make is that moderation is the key. I had a few things yesterday that are not typical for me, but a reward for 30 days post-op and a holiday. This morning I am back to my regular routine. I had a single serving of oatmeal with honey for breakfast and a “Lean Cuisine” 290 calorie entrée for lunch. My wife is making tacos for dinner. I will likely have a taco and ¼ cup of Spanish rice with salsa.

Don’t beat yourselves up by thinking you’ve “ruined” your diet because you ate something that perhaps is contrary to dieting guidelines. You can simply make up for it with a later meal. We are all eating less because of our wonderful new sleeves and hopefully we’re a lot more active than we used to be. These two things alone will encourage weight loss. Don’t get hung up on what you eat. Pay far more attention to how much you’re eating. Try to make the smartest food choices when choosing your main entrée. I’m down nearly 40lbs in the 30 days since my surgery and I eat what I want.

Let the flaming begin.

I don't understand this. Can you explain?

Ok- well, look at the Cadbury egg example (from the OP). One delicious, caramel or chocolate filled cadbury egg in a blue moon might not hurt any. HowEVER..... Before surgery, I could have eaten one after the other. NOt all at once, but let's say, several in a day spread out. That adds up to a LOT. I could never sit down and eat a whole pizza at one time, or any large quantities of food, because my stomach was not that big to begin with, BUT if you nibble here, and have a cream filled donut or two there, a handful of this, a handful of that....HELLO 340 lbs! And you're looking around saying "how the heck did THIS happen?!? I can't even eat that much!"

It's my hope that the lack of Grehlin (hunger hormone) will be my saving grace of this surgery. (of course, the decreased capacity as well..) It scares me because I know exactly what to choose that is delicious and fattening, but small. I do not want to fall into that trap any more.

Dooter, that pretty well describes me too. I wasn't a binge eater, and though my portions were obviously too big, I never was one to eat a whole pizza or multiple burgers at once or anything like that. It is really more like I just consistently ate too much AND often the wrong thing too. I ate alot of healthy foods, but then would have ice cream for dessert like every night.

The sleeve has helped me in two important ways. First, small portions sizes and second, reduced appetite so it easier to make good choices. I still have to make deliberate good choices (protein and veggies and exercise!) but it just isn't the struggle with that "drive to eat". I sure hope this continues!

I agree with you 100%! My question is this: your capacity is more than mine... I can manage about 1/4-1/2 cup food total right now and sometimes that is even too much. It's a pain and I'm hoping my capacity increases a little in time. I'm 3.5 weeks out. Was there a time that you had that level of restriction and then gradually increased capacity? I would rather be able to eat in your quantitys, because it's a struggle to get enough of anything in because I get so full!

Ok- well, look at the Cadbury egg example (from the OP). One delicious, caramel or chocolate filled cadbury egg in a blue moon might not hurt any. HowEVER..... Before surgery, I could have eaten one after the other. NOt all at once, but let's say, several in a day spread out. That adds up to a LOT. I could never sit down and eat a whole pizza at one time, or any large quantities of food, because my stomach was not that big to begin with, BUT if you nibble here, and have a cream filled donut or two there, a handful of this, a handful of that....HELLO 340 lbs! And you're looking around saying "how the heck did THIS happen?!? I can't even eat that much!"

It's my hope that the lack of Grehlin (hunger hormone) will be my saving grace of this surgery. (of course, the decreased capacity as well..) It scares me because I know exactly what to choose that is delicious and fattening, but small. I do not want to fall into that trap any more.

^^^ Well said...

I don't think having a little fun is necessarily a bad thing... but all be warned if you are less than 6 months out you can fart and lose weight. It gets increasingly more difficult at a certain point and one will need to ACTUALLY work to lose the rest of the weight. If that's not true then you are in the minority and consider yourself lucky!

That said and speaking for me here, I have needed to actually deal with my food issues. I didn't need to do this right away, but today I really do have to. There's absolutely NO WAY I will keep this weight off if I don't watch myself every single day. The sleeve is not a miracle, finding it in myself to control what I'm eating as well as how much IS. Also note as time goes on, one will discover that the bad food has no limit. It will then become Man Vs. Food once again. Will one tiny piece of chocolate really satisfy then? I've learned for me the answer is usually no. I have to STILL fight these demons, just like I did pre-surgery.

I'm only saying all of this because for me it's the truth. I've also learned in speaking with others who are out of surgery for more than 6 months, it's their truths as well.

Good luck to everyone! This journey will never end, as far as I'm concerned.

I think that as long as the majority of your food choices are healthy, there is nothing wrong with a treat now and then. As long as you don't sit around eating unhealthy foods all the time. There IS a reason people regain after the sleeve. The farther out you are, the more you can eat. And if you fall back into old eating habits, at least some of that weight will come back. I've seen it happen time and time again.

I am sorry but I have to disagree. Not everyone has amazing metabolism. I have been the same weight (give or take 10 lbs) for 10 years before I got the surgery. I use to cry to my husband all the time because every show about obesity and even the biggest looser people were sharing how they ate a whole pizza with a 2 liter bottle of soda or use to eat a big mac super size and dessert and that wasn't me. I would have easily thrown up if I tried to eat more than 2-3 slices of pizza. Never drank regular soda because it was too sweet and ate a lot of healthy stuff and still couldn't loose weight. Oh and I always ate Breakfast. I love breakfast and even it for dinner many nights of the week, but still couldn't loose weight.

After surgery if I am in between 600-800 calories and less than 30 grams of carbs a day I can loose 2 lbs a week except that less than 30 grams of carbs a day makes me feel like I am going to faint every time I get up and with 2 small kids and a deployed husband and no family around its extremely scary and I didn't want to do that. So I changed up my diet which now consists of :

1 Protein shake in the morning, a string cheese, a lean cusine meal (which I don't even eat all of it) or some tuna with crackers or shrimp with tomatoes, another Protein Shake or a Protein Bar, and dinner is the same as lunch. I only drink diet tea because I can't handle carbonation ever since surgery and I am completely stalled. So while its great that you have this amazing metabolism and can get away with that, not everyone can and they have to be in a "diet" per say and moderation is not the key.

Heck I lost 44 so far with 38 to go and I am at 4 months post op. I have about 2 more months to loose the rest before I am out of this window. So honestly its great for you, but some of us can't indulge and still have to be on a diet.

I was surprised to see the mostly positive responses to my thread. I’d expected a lot more opposition to this take on dieting. There are so many bariatric surgeons and dieticians out there with their own philosophy on what we should/shouldn’t be eating. I think much of it is nothing more than misinformation. Some of the diet guidelines I’ve read are so restrictive that they have a tendency to set us up for failure, particularly from a mental perspective. I mean we are already dealing with the fact that we’ve undergone major surgery because most of us weren’t able to control our appetites. I am one of those individuals. I think there is a negative stigma attached to bariatric surgery that we need to overcome first. Some “outsiders” would consider the surgery as cheating. I don’t see it any differently than a smoker who uses Chantix to stop smoking. Then when a dietician places us on a lifetime diet that strips us of all the foods that we enjoy, this also puts us on the fast track to failure or at least makes the lifetime transition more difficult.

‘Coops’ was right when he said our sleeve is a tool. The sleeve does force us to make better food choices. It’s made me a pickier eater than I used to be. I can still enjoy a slice of pizza or piece of fried chicken without feeling like I gave into the forbidden fruit temptation. Life is meant to be lived to the fullest and I intend to do just that. I’m not going to beat myself up if I decide to have a piece of birthday cake at a family get together. I don’t know about everyone else, but my sleeve gave me a new lease on life. I have much of my old energy back and feel a whole lot better. Hopefully my sleeve has added many more years to my life.

Stop and think for a moment about where our lives were headed had we not intervened and decided to have bariatric surgery. The thought scares the heck out of me. My biggest fear was my wife waking up one morning and finding me lifeless next to her. It could have been amputated limbs due to diabetes or a massive stoke that left me a burden to my loved ones.

Most of those reading this thread have already had the surgery and have so much to be thankful for. For those who are browsing this forum, like many of us did before making the decision, and are at that point in their lives where they know they need to make a life change, please consider bariatric surgery as an option. I’m glad I did.

I was a volume eater for sure. I think I was born with a huge stretchy stomach. As a 99 pound kid I was able to pack away massive amounts of food. As I got older and sedentary that totally backfired. With the sleeve I find that I can break off a 2 cm. square of chocolate and be totally satisfied with it. Before the whole bar would have been gone including anything else nearby.

Now I get about 600-800 calories a day and as long as my Protein is above 70, my carbs are below 40-50 and my fat is below 30-40 I can eat a wide variety of foods. I avoid nutrient devoid foods, fast food and overly processed, packaged foods, white flour and high fructose corn syrup and refined sugar.

Today my co-workers are going for dim sum and I know 1 oz of duck is 95 calories and very fatty and protein rich, 1/4 cup of Chinese broccoli has about 10 calories and 1.2 g of carbs. Juicy pork dumplings have 83 calories, 6 carbs and 3.5 grams of protein. My favorite egg tarts have 80 calories, 3 grams of fat, 13 grams of carbs and 3 grams of protein. The shrimp dumplings only have about 50 calories and almost no fat.

Hey! I can do dim sum if I do it smart! So what is it that I can't have?

No flaming from me either. I was not a strict low-carber. And, McDonalds and similiar fast food restaurants are part of my life and have been since I've been on solid foods.

BUT, I do make smarter choices. Kids Happy Meal (only 1/2 bun so I can fit in the burger), chicken Breast, etc. I also plan for my treats - glass of wine in the evening, small ice cream cone made with lowfat ice cream, etc.

I do believe there are some that must be very strict about their carbs in order to lose weight. Fortunately, I did not. But for others, this is a struggle and I applaud their efforts. We all have to figure out "our path" on this journey.

I don't think having a little fun is necessarily a bad thing... but all be warned if you are less than 6 months out you can fart and lose weight.

well im half way to 6 months so im going to have to try to squeeze out some extra farts

well im half way to 6 months so im going to have to try to squeeze out some extra farts

Maybe I can fart all the way to goal in the next three months! Stand back.