So I was wondering if any of you have been given a range of carbs that is considered healthy or ok for us after bariatric surgery.
do you have a max amount per meal or per day? My doctor and nutritionist keep telling me don’t worry about carbs or calories but instead to focus on getting at least 60 grams of protein a day. Of course, they don’t want me eating foods high in carbs like bread, pasta, and those types of things. But I’m just wondering if anyone has ever been given an actual number of what is “normal”. I’m 3 months post op if that makes a difference.
thanks in advance!

I’m wondering the same thing!

Well there's "good" carbs and "bad" carbs personally I chose to limit ALL carbs for the first month's to increase my weight loss but it may not be realistic for everyone

1 hour ago, Puffy-no-more said:

So I was wondering if any of you have been given a range of carbs that is considered healthy or ok for us after bariatric surgery.
do you have a max amount per meal or per day? My doctor and nutritionist keep telling me don’t worry about carbs or calories but instead to focus on getting at least 60 grams of Protein a day.

Sounds like what we were told with the exception of shying away from bread, pasta etc. - nothing off limits in our diets.

However, there were the patients who craved more "rules" or more "exact rules" and/or "stricter rules" because they wanted to make everything 110% right and were terribly afraid to do anything wrong, some flat out ignoring the advice of the dietician.

Patient A: "Oh, I have to go and buy non-fat milk and low-fat cheese when I come home!"

Patient B: "Yes, me too!!"

Me thinking to myself: "Didn't the dietician tell us about 15 min ago that we shouldn't eat these non-/-low-fat variants of foods and that full-fat cheeses and even full-fat milk would be ok?! Did you even listen to what was recommended?!"

Quote

But I’m just wondering if anyone has ever been given an actual number of what is “normal”.

No. We also were not given a specific calorie amount to eat. Needs vary with gender, age, activity level etc.

There was a guideline to volume for the first few weeks (to long ago to remember tbh) and a protein goal to meet (1 g per kg of normal body weight).

4 hours ago, Puffy-no-more said:

So I was wondering if any of you have been given a range of carbs that is considered healthy or ok for us after bariatric surgery.
do you have a max amount per meal or per day? My doctor and nutritionist keep telling me don’t worry about carbs or calories but instead to focus on getting at least 60 grams of Protein a day. Of course, they don’t want me eating foods high in carbs like bread, Pasta, and those types of things. But I’m just wondering if anyone has ever been given an actual number of what is “normal”. I’m 3 months post op if that makes a difference.
thanks in advance!

I don't have a MAXIMUM amount of carbs I have to eat every meal, but my nutritionist said I have to have a MINIMUM of 15 carbs per meal because of the malabsorptive aspect of my surgery. So I don't know if that counts... My minimum protein is 80 grams a day.

depends on your clinic's plan. Some have their patients on ultra-low-carb diets, some have them on more balanced diets. Fortunately, mine was one of the latter. Some carbs - like rice, bread, pasta - and of course, sweets - take up space in our tiny stomachs and don't offer much in the way of nutrients, so we were told to avoid those while in weight loss mode - but other than that, carbs really weren't off the table for us.

we were also told not to worry about calories the first few months, either. Like you, we were told to focus on getting at least 60 grams of protein and plenty of fluids. You're probably not going to have enough room in your new stomach to get much more than that in until you're a few months out.

I didn't count calories (or carbs) that first year post-op, but because I was tracking everything I ate starting on day 1, I knew that once I was a month or so out, I was eating around 600-800 kcal/day - and I continued to eat about that much for the first several months, if that helps. By a year out I was around 1000-1200 kcal. I don't remember my carb intake early out, but I know for much of the first year I was usually less than 80 and almost never went over 100. But that wasn't because I was limiting them to that - I just couldn't eat more than that once I got in all my protein.

I started counting calories at around the year mark, and I still do, but I've never counted carbs.

I was told not to eat more than 20 g of carbs when I was around 3 months post-op. In my program, I am not supposed to eat bread, rice, potato, pasta, or sweets. I do sometimes eat low carb versions of the things on that list. However, I have never been restricted from vegetables and fruit that can sometimes be high in carbs. At the same time though, I usually can't fit protein and a lot of fruits and vegetables so I usually choose the protein first.

Ok thank you everyone for your input!
I feel like I have so much to learn. Like I didn’t realize that there are good carbs and bad carbs. Of course I know breads, pasta, rice that sort of thing is not the best right now (for me, probably ever cause once I get going on it......you know!) but for the life of me I’ve been trying to figure out why a potato is so bad. It’s a vegetable!!!
but as for right now, and I’m not complaining I really love this aspect of wls, I’m doing good to get my protein in so I don’t have room for much else. I guess I’m more looking ahead as well and I plan on using weight watchers to help maintain my weight and they don’t technically count carbs so then I wonder if that would even work.

anyways, I’m rambling. I just feel like I still have so much to learn and y’all are such a help! Thanks again.

12 hours ago, Puffy-no-more said:

So I was wondering if any of you have been given a range of carbs that is considered healthy or ok for us after bariatric surgery.
do you have a max amount per meal or per day? My doctor and nutritionist keep telling me don’t worry about carbs or calories but instead to focus on getting at least 60 grams of Protein a day. Of course, they don’t want me eating foods high in carbs like bread, Pasta, and those types of things. But I’m just wondering if anyone has ever been given an actual number of what is “normal”. I’m 3 months post op if that makes a difference.
thanks in advance!

I was told 120g when i pressed my NUT for a hard answer

13 minutes ago, Puffy-no-more said:

I don’t have room for much else. I guess I’m more looking ahead as well and I plan on using weight watchers to help maintain my weight and they don’t technically count carbs so then I wonder if that would even work

Actually, i know several people who are many years out who maintain.... and lose regain.... on Weight Watchers. They love the new program (i haven't tried it, but i might at some point)

At the 3 month mark, my NUT gave me percentage instructions: 50% low net carb vegetables, 25% starches, 25% lean protein, aiming to get to 1000-1200 cals a day.

With that said, I chose to do my own thing (and told her so): Try to reach 60-70g protein/day, limit NET carbs to under 20g per day, and let the fat intake fall where it may, aiming to stay below 600-700 a day.

At my follow-ups, my team was not so very concerned with my reported diet, and oohed an ahhed at my progress, given that my labs pretty much showed I was consistently in fine health.

I admit, I was/am one of those that choose stay away from carbs. I found that it was the key to rapid weight loss FOR ME. However: The lack of carbs did tend to make me look haggard and sickly near the end of weight loss phase. Once I was done losing weight and re-introduced some carbs (I probably average around 100g a day now), my face filled out and I didn't look so skeletor-ish.

I still don't eat rice, pasta, bread, white potatoes if I can help it. I did try a couple bites of pasta alfredo a week ago for the first time in 1.5 years, and I hurled. So there's that, lol

Educate yourself and choose what plan will work for YOU (everyone is different!), with the guidance of your team. A lot if it will be trial and error. Though, do keep up with your appts/follow-ups to make sure your health levels are sufficient.

Good Luck!

13 hours ago, Puffy-no-more said:

So I was wondering if any of you have been given a range of carbs that is considered healthy or ok for us after bariatric surgery.
do you have a max amount per meal or per day? My doctor and nutritionist keep telling me don’t worry about carbs or calories but instead to focus on getting at least 60 grams of Protein a day. Of course, they don’t want me eating foods high in carbs like bread, Pasta, and those types of things. But I’m just wondering if anyone has ever been given an actual number of what is “normal”. I’m 3 months post op if that makes a difference.
thanks in advance!

I had the same instructions. I did not worry about calories in the first months. My dietician gave detailed instructions after my third month. Calories, protein, and carbohydrate ratios.

Only my opinion. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Get solid in your dietitian’s weight loss plan first. When in doubt, call your bariatric office. You paid for them.

1 hour ago, Puffy-no-more said:

Ok thank you everyone for your input!
I feel like I have so much to learn. Like I didn’t realize that there are good carbs and bad carbs. Of course I know breads, Pasta, rice that sort of thing is not the best right now (for me, probably ever cause once I get going on it......you know!) but for the life of me I’ve been trying to figure out why a potato is so bad. It’s a vegetable!!!
but as for right now, and I’m not complaining I really love this aspect of wls, I’m doing good to get my Protein in so I don’t have room for much else. I guess I’m more looking ahead as well and I plan on using weight watchers to help maintain my weight and they don’t technically count carbs so then I wonder if that would even work.

anyways, I’m rambling. I just feel like I still have so much to learn and y’all are such a help! Thanks again.

No need to think about maintenance until you hit goal. Your dietitian’s food plan instructions will change to slow/stop weight loss.

I never got guidelines for that. But I was nearly diabetic when I got surgery, and I view the actual surgery as only the start of a process that resets your metabolism - for instance, studies show that the metabolism of WLS patients drops at 6 months, just like any dieter, but rebounds to a metabolism normal for their weight at 1 year out. So I want to be careful to treat my sugar metabolism carefully for the first year so that the surgery works as well as possible.

My choice has been to keep carb grams and protein grams about equal, because that was a diet that worked for controlling my hunger before surgery. Even after the surgery I find that if I eat more carbs than that, I'm hungrier for the next few days.

Y’all are awesome! Thank you!!!!

Im going to stop worrying about it and just make sure I get my protein in first.

I was told no carbs except for those that occurred naturally in the food like in fruit & vegetables but could eat rolled oats. Also had to find the lowest carb options in shakes etc. And a most definite no to rice, pasta & bread.

Once I got to maintenance I was allowed to add a small amount of multigrains to my diet. For me this is multigrain crackers as I can use them to carry other foods like hummus, avocado, eggs, etc. This small addition helped a lot with that weight loss haggard look & also with keeping me regular - lol.

14 hours ago, ms.sss said:

I chose to do my own thing (and told her so): Try to reach 60-70g protein/day, limit NET carbs to under 20g per day, and let the fat intake fall where it may, aiming to stay below 600-700 a day.

I admit, I was/am one of those that choose stay away from carbs. I found that it was the key to rapid weight loss FOR ME. However: The lack of carbs did tend to make me look haggard and sickly near the end of weight loss phase. Once I was done losing weight and re-introduced some carbs (I probably average around 100g a day now), my face filled out and I didn't look so skeletor-ish.

I still don't eat rice, Pasta, bread, white potatoes if I can help it.

All of the above was true for me. I was vigilant about carbs for about the first 7-8 months until I reached goal weight, and I also tried to watch fat as well. (And I had no sugar at all.)

I got to goal weight easily, then kept losing and became rather gaunt. I started adding carbs like bread, rice, etc. and got back "up" to my goal weight--plus about eight pounds. I cut down on the carbs again and went back to goal weight fairly quickly, which is where I've stayed for the the past eight months or so.

I still limit carbs, fat and I consume zero sugar. It's not for everyone, but it works for me.