What's a carb to you? In the context of "avoiding carbs" or "low-carb" as a bariatric patient?

• Fries, pizza, ice cream, cookies, etc. - of course (although most of those foods are actually 50%+ fat so it seems weird to call them carbs).
• Bread? White bread seems obvious, but what about whole wheat? What about the gross, "healthy" kind with all the seeds and grains?
• Pasta? Again, refined white pasta seems clear enough, but how about the kinda gritty "meh" whole grain version?
• Potatoes?
• Beans?
• Oatmeal, rice, quinoa, corn... all whole grains, so which ones do you avoid?

Thanks for any discussion you can provide! I'm just curious about how real life post-op folks make their decisions about what's acceptable to eat when it comes to carbs.

On 05/27/2018 at 11:39, Sleeved36 said:

Jess9395 and Creekimp13:

When did you add carbs post-op? Was it a gradual thing according to meeting your goals? Or were healthy carbs always part of it?

I am 2.5 weeks post-op and struggling to feel full with liquids and protien. Had a plain veggie burger yesterday, 5g of protien and 25% of daily Fiber. It was amazing! Finally felt full for a long time.

I will let Creek answer for herself but I know our answers are very different.

I didn’t add them back until I was at goal and in maintenance. And then it was very gradual. I also stayed very low calorie for the whole loss period before adding calories back and her path has been very different there too.

There are many paths to the same goal.

I will ask you, though, if you are on an acid reducer like a proton pump inhibitor. Acid can mimic hunger and I felt hungry until I was on the right dose of a proton pump inhibitor.

On 05/27/2018 at 07:19, Tealael said:

Can you please give us a sample of your diet while you were still losing?

Are you asking me?

I have always eaten 4-6 or so small meals per day because my restriction is right.

Examples of a meal during loss phase—

Protein shake
No sugar added Greek yogurt
Roll ups—deli meat w/ultra thin sliced cheese or a laughing cow wedge or a pickle spear or smear of avocado
Grilled chicken dipped in mustard (I have six types in my fridge always!)
Homemade turkey chili
Half a lean burger patty with thin cheese and mustard/mayo
Scrambled egg with salsa maybe with cheese, green onions, mushrooms, onions
Jerky
Cottage or ricotta cheese sometimes with pasta sauce
Tuna or chicken salad with mayo, celery or green onions
Salad with chicken or other meat and goat cheese and a vinaigrette

16 hours ago, Yo-yo girl said:

The nutritional label of anything carbohydrate such as bread, Cereal, oatmeal you name it.. may come with 200% Iron, Calcium and all the Vitamins in the world + 15 years more of life and it’s still a no for me! a few grams of this or that which may be excellent for our health is simply not worth it if it comes with 18 carbs or 15. Ideally I like to stay under 20 because that’s my magic number to remain in ketosis (I use test strips).

Interesting. I don't restrict my carbs. But I remain in ketosis. I'm consuming so few calories, my body has no option but to pull energy from fat.

1 hour ago, Sleeved36 said:

Jess9395 and Creekimp13:

When did you add carbs post-op? Was it a gradual thing according to meeting your goals? Or were healthy carbs always part of it?

I am 2.5 weeks post-op and struggling to feel full with liquids and protien. Had a plain veggie burger yesterday, 5g of protien and 25% of daily Fiber. It was amazing! Finally felt full for a long time.

Like Jess said....post surgical diets are incredibly different. I think Jess's version is more common among American bariatric centers.... and all of her food is stuff I'd eat in a heartbeat...looks delicious. Biggest difference, is that I do a lot of fuit and low glycemic carbs and more plant based protein.

I've always done healthy carbs. Right after protein drinks I transitioned to thin cream of wheat and oatmeal per my approved plan. Mashed potatoes and vegetarian refried beans were on my soft food approved list, too. Didn't do whole grain breads until later, they were tough for a while.

I know a lot of folks do something closer to keto. My clinic serves a lot of international clients and lots of them are vegan and vegetarian culturally, so my nutritionist was delighted when I said I'd been doing Mayo Clinic Diet. She was like...Awesome, I can work with that!

Here's a sample menu from early on: We're only required to do 60g of protein per day, but it's not unusual for me to hit 80-100.

The big things that make my diet work (I think), are fixed calories under 1200 per day, little to no refined sugar, healthy fats, fiber, steady blood sugar, lean protein and plant based protein. I don't do much animal fat. Also, my clinic stresses exercise and writes our recommendations on a prescription pad.

I think with our restricted ability to eat a crap-ton of food, we all persist in a state of ketosis. I limited my diet to whole foods, mainly protein, veges, fruit and dairy. As much as I love bread and pasta, the nutritional payback (weighed against bulk) is sort of low (IMO). Today my carbs are from lentils, cottage cheese, mangoes, strawberries, and miscellaneous veges. Proportionally, carbs today are 20% of my calories, so I am technically a low carber!! My protein is from lentils cottage cheese, turkey, swiss cheese, and half of a PP -- and I barely cleared my goal of 60 grams. Oh, ETA, I love nuts and seeds, and regularly add them to my diet, but not today, and I feel as though they are best consumed raw as a snack (so I can enjoy them more!!!).

Edited May 27, 20188 yr by Apple203

duplicate....

Edited May 27, 20188 yr by Apple203

20 hours ago, Creekimp13 said:

I eat a metric fuque ton of carbs.

No you don't. I bet you are eating less than 150 grams a day, which is waaaay less than a "normal" american diet -- and in the range of 25% of a 2,400 calorie normal diet. So, you are, in fact, a low carber!!

Edited May 27, 20188 yr by Apple203

14 minutes ago, Apple203 said:

No you don't. I bet you are eating less than 150 grams a day, which is waaaay less than a "normal" american diet -- and in the range of 25% of a 2,400 calorie normal diet. So, you are, in fact, a low carber!!

150 grams is 600 calories a day and Creekimp eats fewer than 1200 calories. So her carbs are over 50% of her diet which makes her... decidedly not a low-carber.

47 minutes ago, Little Green said:

150 grams is 600 calories a day and Creekimp eats fewer than 1200 calories. So her carbs are over 50% of her diet which makes her... decidedly not a low-carber.

Um, wrong. CreekImp BURNS 2,400 calories a day (probably more -- that is what I burn a day at about the same weight and height, but she is able to exercise more than me). So, in terms of her caloric energy demand, her carb consumption is definitely on the low end of her energy demand. A typical person in maintenance at our weight/height would likely eat AT LEAST 1,200 calories of carbohydrates. A person eating a "fuque ton" of carbohydrates would likely be in a gaining scenario, or eating a very unhealthy, processed diet. CreekImp eats 600 calories of carbohydrates (probably).

And here I thought my thermodynamics classes were a waste of time, LOL!

Edited May 27, 20188 yr by Apple203

1 minute ago, Apple203 said:

Um, wrong. CreekImp BURNS 2,400 calories a day (probably more -- that is what I burn a day at about the same weight and height, but she is able to exercise more than me). So, in terms of her caloric energy demand, her carb consumption is definitely on the low end of her energy demand. A typical person in maintenance at our weight/height would likely eat AT LEAST 1,200 calories of carbohydrates. A person eating a "fuque ton" of carbohydrates would likely be in a gaining scenario, and eating more than that. CreekImp eats 600 calories of carboydrates (probably). Math don't lie (in my world <-- engineer, LOL).

Oh, pardon me. I didn't realize we were talking about energy expenditure; I assumed we were discussing energy consumption. It seems really strange to call a diet made up of over 50% carbs "low-carb" in an effort to include the person eating that diet in a category containing people who, by contrast, avoid grains, legumes, fruit, etc. But by all means, carry on!

Oh, well then by all means, pardon ME, because I thought we were talking about energy balance and weight loss!

Just now, Apple203 said:

Oh, well then by all means, pardon ME, because I thought we were talking about energy balance and weight loss!

There's no need for the attitude I politely disagreed with your assessment of Creekimp's diet as low-carb. That's all. I appreciate your responses on this thread!

3 hours ago, jess9395 said:

Are you asking me?

I have always eaten 4-6 or so small meals per day because my restriction is right.

Examples of a meal during loss phase—

Protein shake
No sugar added Greek yogurt
Roll ups—deli meat w/ultra thin sliced cheese or a laughing cow wedge or a pickle spear or smear of avocado
Grilled chicken dipped in mustard (I have six types in my fridge always!)
Homemade turkey chili
Half a lean burger patty with thin cheese and mustard/mayo
Scrambled egg with salsa maybe with cheese, green onions, mushrooms, onions
Jerky
Cottage or ricotta cheese sometimes with Pasta sauce
Tuna or chicken salad with mayo, celery or green onions
Salad with chicken or other meat and goat cheese and a vinaigrette

Yes i tried to tag you idk why it didnt work

Thank you so much !

Edited May 27, 20188 yr by Tealael

17 minutes ago, Little Green said:

There's no need for the attitude I politely disagreed with your assessment of Creekimp's diet as low-carb. That's all. I appreciate your responses on this thread!

You may politely disagree, but the facts are nevertheless the facts. If your carbs are so low that your body goes into ketosis, your diet is defacto low carb -- there isn't much room for disagreement.

Edited May 27, 20188 yr by Apple203

1 hour ago, Apple203 said:

No you don't. I bet you are eating less than 150 grams a day, which is waaaay less than a "normal" american diet -- and in the range of 25% of a 2,400 calorie normal diet. So, you are, in fact, a low carber!!

Edited 1 hour ago by Apple203

Wrong. I eat a ton of low fat dairy (carbs), fruit(carbs), whole grains(carbs), lower glycemic breads(carbs), brown rice(carbs), potatoes(carbs), beans (carbs), nuts and seeds(carbs), etc. I eat a massive amount of carbs. I just don't eat sugar, high glycemic carbs or processed foods. I eat very little animal fat.

On average, a full 50%+ of the calories I eat come from carb based foods.