Low Fat or Low Carbs?

[BryBro63 410]

Which of the two are more important to reduce? When looking at so many labels to reduce these, it seems sometimes you have to give up one for the other! So is it more important for us for post-VSG to reduce the fats in your diet or the carbs? Both would be ideal, but which is more important???

[BigGirlPanties 957]

my doctor said to be careful of "low fat" because they up the sugar! low carb is better as far as my doc is concerned... check with yours for clarification of what they want you to do ...but you do consume both

good luck!

Edited April 15, 2014 by BigGirlPanties

[LilMissDiva Irene 3,281]

Hello Bry, as someone who prefers well balanced meals it's the kind of fats and carbs rather than complete avoidance of either that should be looked into. Fats should not be saturated or trans, and be higher in Omega 3 which is a heart healthy fat. Animal fats are the worst, so if you eat meat be sure to trim the fat off and cook with extra virgin olive oil or something similar.

Carbs are not evil, it's the type of carb that is bad. Obviously vegetables and fruits offer our bodies natural Vitamins and antioxidants that we need. It's always better to consume them naturally on top of any supplements that we take. I would never suggest to anyone to avoid these types of carbs to lower the carb count at the end of the day. Whole grains are good too and provide a lot of Fiber which majority of Americans lack even with a normal stomach. Although we can live without grains and some people are allergic to them, but I do enjoy whole grains myself and it was never a contributor to weight gain or a hindrance to my weight loss. The carbs we should avoid are anything with refined sugar and any foods with this additive, and it goes by a long list of names. You would do yourself a great favor by learning them all. They are also known as "white carbs".

It all boils down to calories in and calories out, while making the healthiest choices for our bodies. If you ever get the chance take a course on Nutrition. I have taken several and I will be forever grateful that I did. I personally think it should be a requirement of any living human being, we learn how to do our jobs, but we don't learn how to take care of our Vessels.

[PdxMan 4,292]

I don't do either ... the restriction my sleeve gives me restricts my intake of these, so I don't really worry about it. Of course, I'm not eating crappy foods, so, I'm sure that has a lot to do with it. I cook with real butter and use real sugar in my cooking. But I am the person who, if feeling depraved, go overboard in the wrong direction, so that is why the sleeve was such a good decision for me. It gives me the balance I couldn't do for myself.

[Teachamy 1,042]

I agree with Irene. Her answer is very thorough. For myself, I try to avoid grains when I can, as I have Celiac and I find most gluten-free products have refined (and fattening) flour. I eat a lot of vegetarian Protein, tofu, hummus, fish and dairy. And I am beginning to find fruits and vegetables that work for me, now that I am 4 months out. My nutritionist recommends under 50 grams of carb per day, which usually is doable.

[Water Nazi 61]

Low carbs

[JeanZ_RN 378]

My experience, just for me, is that I can lose weight either of 2 ways - very low carb (Atkins diet) or low calorie.

On the initial phase of the Atkins diet one can have unlimited amounts of Protein and fat, but no carbs. Once weight loss is going well you add a few carbs back in, then a few more, until you stop losing weight - then you back off the carbs a bit until you're losing at a rate that suits you. This is an over-simplification of it, but you get the idea. Some of the initial weight loss is Water weight, but that's true of many diet plans. This is the only diet I know of where calories don't matter. Research has shown that this diet does NOT result in higher cholesterol or triglycerides for most people.

With low calorie you can have a more balanced diet, but you cannot have unlimited amounts of any solid food, except maybe lettuce / celery. Foods that are high in fat are also high in calories, which is going to limit the amount of fat you can include.

I just read a very interesting post elsewhere on this site:

A study found that you were more satiated if you thought you were eating something indulgent than if you thought you were eating something low cal. The study participants' ghrelin levels and metabolism reacted differently just based on what they thought they were consuming, even though they all were actually consuming the same thing.

Here's a link to the article: http://www.npr.org/b...ontent=03032014

There's an audio version and a text version - the audio version has more info in it, and a few of the numbers are not the same as in the text version.

As someone else said - it's a good idea to consult with your surgeon and/or your nutritionist. Best wishes!