I have only lost 3 lbs in 2.5 weeks since surgery. I'm walking 4 miles a day since day 5 and eating 500-600 cals, 65 protein, 30 carbs, 30 fat a day. Can and or Should I add MCT to my premier protein 2x a day to get my cals at a normal level and to Ketosis? (I know MCT can cause stomach issues) I am worried I am hurting my metabolism with such low calories without the benefit of starvation ketosis which would boost my metabolism.

your numbers at this point post op are good try to wait it out

if you feel the need to try something lower the carbs to 20 or less and only eat during a 8 hour window of your choice but just do water for the other 16 hours. half of this is while your asleep so its not as scary as it looks. If that doesn't fire up the fat burning over the next 2 weeks put in a call to your doctor for a blood panel to check everything

Edited June 25, 20188 yr by allwet

I hit my first stall at just about the same place. It’s normal. Hang in there. Over five weeks post-op now, I’m getting protein (shakes/lean meats) water, and supplements in but barely hit 600-700 calories in a day. Losing again. High energy. Great blood tests. Just keep on keeping.

You are doing enough work that you are likely building muscle, losing inches and/or setting your body up for the long haul!

Most people hit a stall at 2-3 weeks, do a search on it and you will find you are in good company! Stay the course with your surgeons plan!

I would give it a couple of years before resorting, or going back to, any of these fad diets. One of the greatest strengths of your WLS is that it works well irrespective the diet that you use, so there is no need to jump into one of these diets to try to "improve" your weight loss. As long as you are getting adequate protein to maintain your muscle mass (which at 65 g for an average to shorter woman, you are), and your caloric intake is low enough to provide the caloric deficit needed for burn your stored fat, you will lose.

Two of the things that have been shown time and again over the decades to torpedo WLS results is consuming empty calories (calories with little or no nutrition tied to it, i.e. junk food) and drinking your calories, both of which you would be doing by adding that junk to your protein drink. You don't want your calories at a "normal" level - you want them at a deficit (though not ridiculously low - where you are at with 5-600 at this stage is just fine as that is very common at this point for successful patients. Keeping your calories "normal" is how we all got here needing WLS.

As noted above, search for "three week stall" as that is very common in these circles no matter what diet is used - it is part of the normal physiological response to the sudden caloric deficit that you now have. That you may not have lost much immediately after surgery is likely just part of the normal water weight fluctuations that occur around surgery time, and if you lost a fair amount of weight before surgery, then you already have lost that big slug of water weight that we all lose when we start one of these programs - particularly if you were playing keto games then, which only accentuates that water weight loss (only to gain it back when you stop.)

In short, adding empty calories isn't going to "boost your metabolism", but is a good way to inhibit your long term progress.

The best long term results that I have seen over the years is to take this opportunity to learn how to eat a normal, healthy human diet balancing meats, fruits, vegetables and whole grains that that are associated with good long term weight control rather than the diet of the day, which is a good way to help ensure regain once diet fatigue sets in, or it goes out of style and a new latest diet has to be found.

If you eat no more than 30 grams of carbs and 65 grams of proteins every day, you already are in ketosis and you have all the benefits of starvation ketosis.

You just don't use fat from your diet, you use fat from your body.

VLCDs are ketogenic diets, too.

Keto is (was) not a fad diet. It's effective for children and some adults with seizures and other health issues. People assume it is a fad, all the new low carb diets are based on it. My nutritionist said if you wanted to do keto at stage 4 it's fine, but I'm not keen on giving up dairy and I'm growing green beans lol!

11 hours ago, magpie26 said:

Keto is (was) not a fad diet. It's effective for children and some adults with seizures and other health issues. People assume it is a fad, all the new low carb diets are based on it. My nutritionist said if you wanted to do keto at stage 4 it's fine, but I'm not keen on giving up dairy and I'm growing green Beans lol!

Most of the popular fad diets over the years have some therapeutic basis - ketogenic diets are useful for epileptics, Atkins, etc. have long been used for diabetics and the insulin resistant (since long before Atkins, for that matter), gluten free is just the thing for those with Celiac disease (and some forms of non-Celiac gluten intolerance). It is when they cross the line to be promoted as all things to all people, and the latest "must diet" for weight loss that they enter the fad diet domain. So yes, keto is a fad for non-epileptics looking for the next weight loss miracle cure.

The current low carb craze started with Atkins, and as the pendulum moved to greater extremes that not only are carbs bad, but fats are divine and one can't have enough of them. When the diet pendulum was last moving from low fat to low carb, courtesy of Atkins, the full fledged HFLC diets a la Paleo and keto were too extreme to be marketable at that time. From a long term weight loss perspective, these diets are no better than any other that has come and gone before (and will likely return again in time) - there is really nothing new in the weight loss business that hasn't been tried before and found wanting, often multiple times.

In keeping with diet fashions, terminology becomes flexible, as those who need to be seen as doing the latest diet tend to adopt the term for whatever they are doing ("I have eliminated all fats/carbs from my diet - well, not those fats/carbs, those are the good ones....", " I'm doing XYZ diet except...")

Your nutritionist's advice is sound - it is fine if you want to do that type of diet, as it isn't particularly harmful as long as one doesn't go overboard on the calories. That is the big benefit of your WLS - it doesn't care what kind of diet you use with it as it gives you this year of time, give or take, to get your dietary act together and learn what you need to do for the rest of your life. Most who go with the popular diet of the day run into diet fatigue and get lost when they never learned sustainable nutrition, or they jump to the next trendy diet when the current one becomes old. WLS gives one the chance to get off that merry-go-round if one is so inclined.

@RickM everything is a fad it seems. I became interested in keto but I don't jump into things willy nilly. It took me over four years to finally decide on this surgery even though my mother had it almost 13 years ago. The gluten free craze is driving me nuts, but I'm a hypocrite because I've never been tested and I don't do gluten, but when I do eat gluten my arthritis in my hands and jaw KILL me, plus why eat bread or pasta when you only have 3 ounces to work with? I know there's gluten in everything, my sister in law has celiac's. I think people think ketosis is also easier than it is to achieve, it's harder that some may think.

My goal or just way of eating is just high protein, little carbs and mainly only complex carbs, no gluten, very little sugar. Nothing processed anymore. I'm halfway to my bachelors degree, I've decided to switch my major to good science/nutrition which I took some of when I was "young" lol! Maybe I will finish before I'm 50.