Hi guys... I'm just over 6 weeks out and have lost about 16kg since surgery and about 27kg since October 2013

This may sound like an odd request but do any of you have prepared meal plans that you could please maybe share?

I'm stuck as to how I'm meant to be structuring my day and what I should be eating (I'm on normal foods but have been told I'm not eating enough some I barely reach 200-500cals I think, and to make it worse I've stalled/ plateaued at around 100kg for the past week or 2)... The hunger is there I just try to ignore it or have liquids, but today I gave in and had 2 oat Cookies, some grapes, and a few rice crackers! I feel guilty... Which is silly I know.

Any help or guidance would be appreciated. I think I'm having hard time mentally adjusting to this way of eating... I'm hoping a regimen or plan will help me.

I can feel my eating disorders returning mainly in the form of restriction... The scales are evil. I wish I never bought them... I'm thinking of destroying them "by accident"...

It's a mental roller coaster and I've been a major bi*ch to those around me. I haven't been able to see a therapist yet as apparently the paperwork isn't ready...? Weird

Anyway sorry for the crazy post. I just wanted some meal plans please?

Phil

Hi Phil

I discussed my meal plan in "How I Survived Bariatric Surgery" and even included some recipes. I am 11 months out and this approach worked for me. You can find the article at http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery.pdf

Jim

Hi Phil

I discussed my meal plan in "How I Survived Bariatric Surgery" and even included some recipes. I am 11 months out and this approach worked for me. You can find the article at http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery.pdf

Jim

Hi James I skimmed through the document and it's fantastic! Well done on taking the time and effort to put it together. Especially to help others!

I will be honest tho. I'm worried with the Soups that I will be consuming too much... Liquids go down and sit really easily for me... For example I can down almost 1.5L of Fluid (not Water as it still hurts my stomach) I'm half an hour (with some effort)... This might not be the best thing to do but it's the only way I feel I can get enough in during the day!

On another note... I'm not actually sure of how much my stomach can now hold... Is there a test for this? And if so... Are liquids the best indicator as they seem to just pass through the system?

I wonder tho if low calorie soups are the best option for me... Any other meal plans out there that involve solids?

Hi Phil

I discussed my meal plan in "How I Survived Bariatric Surgery" and even included some recipes. I am 11 months out and this approach worked for me. You can find the article at http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery.pdf

Jim

I'll check out ur site soon as well... It's just I'm about to fall asleep! So will do it tomorrow

Edited April 18, 201412 yr by phil2912

I am assuming that you are probably communicating from Australia perhaps. Due to the use of metrics and the fact that you are about to fall asleep. So maybe the regiment on Bariatric Surgery might be somewhat different there. Here in the States, they provide us with a document that provides a basic meal plan. The document describes the volume of food to be consumed at each meal based on the stage after surgery (first 4 weeks, weeks 5-8, weeks 9-15, months 4-6, months 7-9, months 10-12, months 12-18 and months 18 and beyond). It delineates each meal by ounces of Protein, starch, fruit, and vegetables). Then it defines which items (such as yogurt, Beans, rice etc.) are approved in each category at any given time after surgery. This meal plan is very complicated and regimented. When you went through surgery, did you receive the same type of document.

james can you post your website again when i click on it , it won't open

Thanks

Pattiann

This is the web address. Just type it into your browser window.

http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery.pdf

The program is automatically truncating the address. Let's try

www. (then type) breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery.pdf

I am assuming that you are probably communicating from Australia perhaps. Due to the use of metrics and the fact that you are about to fall asleep. So maybe the regiment on Bariatric Surgery might be somewhat different there. Here in the States, they provide us with a document that provides a basic meal plan. The document describes the volume of food to be consumed at each meal based on the stage after surgery (first 4 weeks, weeks 5-8, weeks 9-15, months 4-6, months 7-9, months 10-12, months 12-18 and months 18 and beyond). It delineates each meal by ounces of Protein, starch, fruit, and vegetables). Then it defines which items (such as yogurt, Beans, rice etc.) are approved in each category at any given time after surgery. This meal plan is very complicated and regimented. When you went through surgery, did you receive the same type of document.

Hi James,

Yep I am in Australia.

I did receive a book but it doesn't seem as detailed as what you're describing. I'll go through the information I have been given again and see if I can draw some useful meaning from it.

I guess what I'm after is a set structure and a plan that's tells me what to eat and when.

Phil

Let's see! At Week 5-8 after surgery, the meal plan recommended to me was:

Breakfast: one ounce of Protein + 1 ounce of fruit

Lunch: one ounce of protein + 1 ounce of vegetables

Dinner: one ounce of protein + 1 ounce of starch

All of this food should be pureed. One ounce is equal to 2 tablespoons or 1/8th of a cup or 28 grams or 28 milliliters. This is a microscopically small amount of food. At this stage, you are essentially surviving on Protein shakes, Water and Vitamins. They recommend your daily protein intake should be between 75-90 grams of protein per day. This is important. Also you need to drink 64-80 ounces of low calorie fluids daily. That would be 1.8 - 2.3 liters per day. You move to solid foods at Week 9.

Let's see! At Week 5-8 after surgery, the meal plan recommended to me was:

Breakfast: one ounce of Protein + 1 ounce of fruit

Lunch: one ounce of protein + 1 ounce of vegetables

Dinner: one ounce of protein + 1 ounce of starch

All of this food should be pureed. One ounce is equal to 2 tablespoons or 1/8th of a cup or 28 grams or 28 milliliters. This is a microscopically small amount of food. At this stage, you are essentially surviving on Protein shakes, Water and Vitamins. They recommend your daily protein intake should be between 75-90 grams of protein per day. This is important. Also you need to drink 64-80 ounces of low calorie fluids daily. That would be 1.8 - 2.3 liters per day. You move to solid foods at Week 9.

Thanks so much James.

I'm on soft/ normal foods and can easily have maybe 3/4 of a cup... But as I said I'm having food/ anxiety issues.

I went to dinner tonight with a friend and although I probably only had a cup of food (a few spoons of rice as well as some Ho fun) I am worried I ate too much. Granted I was feeling quite full/ tight but that only fueled the anxiety. I hate eating with others (especially those unaware of my surgery) but got caught in the situation unexpectedly...

Hmmm Gah!

Sorry for the randomness/ranting/venting...

A cup of food per meal at your stage (6 weeks after surgery) will probably bring your weight loss to a grinding halt. But let me switch to another subject - Vitamins. What vitamins are you taking? Perhaps if they did not prepare you for the surgery by giving you a meal plan, they may have also been remiss in defining Vitamin requirements.

In a gastric bypass operation. They cut your stomach in two. Your normal stomach which processes your food is now very, very small. One of the functions of a stomach is to provide your body with nutrients. Some of these nutrients are vitamins. Without certain vitamins, you will develop serious medical problems. Therefore there is a regiment of vitamins that you need to be taking in order to avoid a trip to the emergency room. Your body no longer synthesizes these. What vitamins were you directed to take?

A cup of food per meal at your stage (6 weeks after surgery) will probably bring your weight loss to a grinding halt. But let me switch to another subject - Vitamins. What vitamins are you taking? Perhaps if they did not prepare you for the surgery by giving you a meal plan, they may have also been remiss in defining Vitamin requirements.

In a gastric bypass operation. They cut your stomach in two. Your normal stomach which processes your food is now very, very small. One of the functions of a stomach is to provide your body with nutrients. Some of these nutrients are vitamins. Without certain vitamins, you will develop serious medical problems. Therefore there is a regiment of vitamins that you need to be taking in order to avoid a trip to the emergency room. Your body no longer synthesizes these. What vitamins were you directed to take?

Sorry I should have said a cup of some foods (not all/many) other things I can only have 1/4-1/2 cup. Or can't tolerate them at all.

As for the vitamins. I was told to take one mini Multivitamin a day. It's so gross! Sometimes I forgo it all together because of the horrid taste but I try my best to take it everyday.

Phil

Wow! There is a world of difference in the Vitamin regime between the U.S. and Australia for individuals that undergo Gastric Bypass Surgery. I am not saying who is right and who is wrong, but if you begin to experience major health issues, the problem may lie in your vitamin intake.

The following is the regime that I have been directed to take.

1. Three Flintstone's Chewable Multivitamins daily. (These contain my Iron requirement and I am taking these late at night to provide a 2 hour separation between my Calcium intake.)

2. 1500 to 1800 milligrams of calcium citrate. (This is my calcium requirement. I take Citracal. These are large pills and at the beginning I had to smash these pills because I couldn't swallow them whole. For best absorptions, I take these in 3 doses of approximately 500 mg spaced two hours apart.

3. 5,000 I.U. of Vitamin D3 daily.

4. 500 to 1,000 micrograms sublingual B12 daily or injection once monthly or Nascobol nasal spray once weekly. (I do the B12 injections once per month and my wife gives me these.)

5. 100 milligrams vitamin B1 also known as Thiamine daily. (At the 6 month mark, my doctor reduced the dose down to one vitamin per week.)

That's a massive difference....

Bringing up Protein again, I was told 60g (ish - as it was a rough guide given to me when I asked) which is a huge difference to the 75-90g/day I've seen others talk about...

Curious... Where you told you are allowed to have diet flattened pop drinks? Because I was given the ok for these...?

The daily Protein requirement is a combination of the protein that is eaten in meals combined with the protein obtained through protein supplements (for example protein shake). At the beginning because the meal volume is so small, you will be consuming very little protein in meals but as time goes on this will increase and become important. I tried to stay within the 75-90 g/day range. When I hit a plateau early and my weight loss leveled out too soon, I reduced my protein intake slightly. I went from 3 protein shakes per day to 2 per day. I reasoned that since I was dissolving fat cells, I had a buffer. But today at 11 months out, and because I have reached my bottom weight, I try to meet this protein requirement. Around half of my Proteins come from meals and the other half from protein supplements.

One of the things that I didn't understand at first about the process was that the meal plan requirements was a separate category from the protein requirements. So even though the volume is very limited on the meal side of the equation. It is not on the protein side. Volume doesn't count on the protein side. At the beginning after I had surgery, I was focused on very concentrated forms of protein supplements. These are generally called protein shakes. But now since I have reached bottom, I can change focus and look at making this work for me. I hate the taste of most protein shakes. So because I am at the bottom and because I can afford to consume more calories now, I choose to take one of my protein supplements at night in the form of a berry smoothie. This is almost as good as having a large milk shake each night. It has a large amount of fruits topped off with good tasting Greek Yogurt blended together, no sugar, great nutrition. It is the equivalent of 3 cups of food but doesn't count against my meal plan. It gives me 14 grams of protein which isn't a lot but at my stage, I am pulling in half of my protein requirements from meals. Did I mention this taste really good. It contains 300 calories but at my stage, I can afford it because I am focused on maintaining weight not losing more weight. Keeping me in a happy state.