Hello fellow sleevers! My surgery was on 11/3 and according to my plan, I have finally passed all of the phases, and now i'm on normal foods. Up until now I've been super focused on eating Protein rich soft foods. I will continue to work on the daily protein requirement, but I'm no longer restricted to "soft foods." Over the weekend I had a small wrap with egg, ham, and cheese. It took me some time to eat it and I couldn't eat the whole thing, but it was delicious. I have to say though, I felt a bit naughty enjoying the wrap. My question is for sleevers who have gone through all the phases and are now eating "normal food", -- what kind of carbs are you allowing in your diet plan? Thank You!

You'll get all sorts of responses to this. Most people on this board seem to be doing low or very low carb plans. I personally get very ill on a ketogenic diet so I try to keep my carbs generally below 100g/day and stay away from refined/simple carbs and get them from complex carbs and fruits. And of course get my Protein in first.

The biggest question is, what does your surgeon/team recommend/require? My surgeon doesn't require or push a low-carb plan (but will work with patients who want to do it) but recommends restricting simple/refined carbs. I don't recommend working against your surgery team's plans unless you have no option. One reason I went with my surgeon is because she is flexible on the post-surgical diet plans.

My Dr allows 3 fruits a day and whole grain carbs 2-3X a week MAX. I will be 7 weeks out tomorrow. I haven't really ventured into carb-land yet (I'm scared) but I'm going to try to add more fruit this week. My Protein count is 65 a day so if I don't add some fruit, my calorie count is going to be very low and I'll stay hungry. I asked my surgeon last week what my protein RANGE was, as I thought 65g was my lowest. She told me NOT to go over 70g!!! With a Protein shake taking 27-30g of that every day (which my surgeon requires), I don't feel like that leaves me much for food. I have to mix it up a little. Again, just nervous to add those carbs.

When I was on weight loss mode I got my carbs from dairy, fruit, green veggies, and beans. I did not have any grains, sweets, or high carb veggies (potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, peas, lima beans).

You'll get all sorts of responses to this. Most people on this board seem to be doing low or very low carb plans. I personally get very ill on a ketogenic diet so I try to keep my carbs generally below 100g/day and stay away from refined/simple carbs and get them from complex carbs and fruits. And of course get my Protein in first.

The biggest question is, what does your surgeon/team recommend/require? My surgeon doesn't require or push a low-carb plan (but will work with patients who want to do it) but recommends restricting simple/refined carbs. I don't recommend working against your surgery team's plans unless you have no option. One reason I went with my surgeon is because she is flexible on the post-surgical diet plans.

What is refined carbs and what's ketogenic diet?

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Simple/Complex Carbs:

http://www.nutritionmd.org/nutrition_tips/nutrition_tips_understand_foods/carbs_versus.html

Though some people will place white potatoes and white rice in the simple carbs category. I don't get too fussy about it, but new potatoes or sweet potatoes are often more nutritionally dense than large white potatoes and long grain rice or brown rice is generally better than white rice.

Ketogenic diet:

https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/keto

Hope this helps!

Thank you for your replies. I've been eating nothing but canned chicken and tuna, soft boiled eggs, mozzarella cheese string, Soups, and drinking Protein shakes for so long, just the thought of eating normal food including "good carbs" is kind of daunting. I'll make sure to stick to the bariatric plate guidelines my dietitian laid out for me.

For me, I am finding that low carb works to keep cravings away. I eat vegetables, fruit and Beans as my carb sources.

When I eat this way, I am easily able to ignore foods that once would have consumed my every waking thought until I ate them and then ran out to the store for more.

I will be 6 weeks post op this week and so far I have limited my carbs to resemble the Paleo way of eating (maybe closer to Keto at this point). Carbs are what got me in trouble to begin with and I have no plans of eating that way again. Sweet potato and apple sauce (organic, nothing added) are just a few things I allow myself to eat.

I asked my surgeon last week what my Protein RANGE was, as I thought 65g was my lowest. She told me NOT to go over 70g!!!

That seems VERY odd. 65g is generally the MINIMUM protein requirement for ANY post WLS patient. As a nurse, it was stressed in our nutrition classes that protein is the primary building block for healing, and is absolutely critical for building muscle which is important for maintaining a healthy metabolism. The requirements from my surgeon are 65g to 80g a day. The trainer at my gym wants me getting 120g a day. My daughter who is in a kinesiology program (sports exercise) in college says her formulas work out to 90g a day for me.

Now if you have any sort of kidney issues, protein is problematic. And if you actually have any degree of kidney failure, you actually need a level of protein restriction. But within reasonable limits, adults with healthy kidneys can eat quite a bit of protein a day, and those recovering from surgery or trying to lose weight and build muscle should eat more.

I don't often advise to question a doctor's recommendations, but I would definitely question this one - assuming you have no kidney issues. I would ask her to explain her reasoning and provide evidence for her limit, because there's quite a bit of evidence for optimal ranges higher than that and safe ingestion of quite a bit more. And in the meantime certainly be sure to eat the 65-70g a day she allows that still meets the minimum for most other programs.

^{This came from the dietician and my surgeon. Someone in my prep class asked how they determined the protein level needs and they said it was based on gender, age and something else: It wasn't starting weight. There were a few of us at the 65g level. At this time, I'll just do as instructed, as we have seen everybody's post-op diet seems to be different. I'll see if I can get more info on how they determine my protein needs.}

@theantichick.com -- I love your blog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Speaking of required proteing -- I have not figured out how to get the required amount of protein in without a 30gram shake a day. I've tried to skip the shakes, but I fall low on my protein needs. I am so sick of the shakes though.

@theantichick.com -- I love your blog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks! I'm trying to get in the habit of writing and posting more often. I have dreams of being a published author someday, but I'll have to write a LOT more regularly and get better at the mechanics of it.

^{This came from the dietician and my surgeon. Someone in my prep class asked how they determined the protein level needs and they said it was based on gender, age and something else: It wasn't starting weight. There were a few of us at the 65g level. At this time, I'll just do as instructed, as we have seen everybody's post-op diet seems to be different. I'll see if I can get more info on how they determine my protein needs.}

I'm just very curious as to their reasoning and sources because it's significantly different from all of my research, and I've spent quite a bit of time looking into this specifically because I have been given recommendations of minimums between 65g and 150g which is *quite* a spread, and have settled on a daily goal of 90g based on my sources.

And just in case I was unclear, I would never recommend someone violate their physician's order. This is one of the few times I would even recommend hard questioning.