What does your day of eating look like?

[AmberFL 1,090]

I am now on soft food, I meal prepped some lunches but getting my Protein seems way tougher than just drinking shakes. I have the Isopure lime mango mix in for 20g.

I want to be able to eat food since it’s going to be more sustainable but how did you guys get it all in?

[NickelChip 1,358]

I don't know if this helps, but when I saw the nutritionist last week for my last pre-op appointment, she suggested choosing three regularly spaced meal times, 4 to 6 hours apart. I've decided on 8:30, 1:30, and 6:30 because it works best with my daily work schedule. She said to eat what I could of "real" food at the mealtimes, but not to let myself keep eating beyond 30-40 minutes. My goal is 20-25g Protein at the meal, but let's say I managed to eat 10g for Breakfast. In that case, I would want to supplement 10-15g of Protein Shake at 11am (halfway between breakfast and lunch). If I managed to eat 20g of protein at lunch, then I could skip the supplement between lunch and dinner. But if I only got 5g protein at dinner, I should supplement with 15-20g of protein shake a couple hours after dinner. That way you're trying real food first, but not letting yourself get behind as the day goes on. She said it would take quite some time to ween off protein supplements completely and that was fine. Eventually, she wants me to be at 3 meals and no Snacks with 60-80g protein per day. If you don't want to rely on Protein Shakes but you find you can easily eat something like a Greek yogurt in between meals, you could do that instead. But basically it's just going to take time, and even after you are at a point that you can usually get all 20-25g of protein in a meal, there still may be some days where you can't and you need a supplement.

[ChunkCat 737]

I have to eat every 2-3 hours and have since I was post op, so I eat 5-6 small meals a day. I prefer this because it keeps me from mindless snacking, provides a rhythm to my day, and allows me to get in a variety of flavors and textures. I'm only 3 months post op, there is no way I'd get my daily macros in with just 3 meals a day. My stomach doesn't have that capacity and if I go past 3 hours without eating my energy crashes, I feel light headed, nauseous, shaky, and irritable. Each person's body is different, but by necessity I ascribe to the "eat less more often" method and I'm not alone in that need. My target macros are 120 grams of Protein, 100 grams of fat, 40 grams of total carbs, calories don't matter because I malabsorb a good percentage of fat and a moderate percentage of protein.

8:00 am Premier Protein vanilla shake

9:30 am 3 tablespoons hashbrowns, 4 cherry tomatoes, 1 1/2 scrambled eggs

12:00 Ratio Coconut Keto Yogurt and 2 tablespoons Diabetic Kitchen Granola

3:00 pm Espresso with 1/2 cup Fairlife Whole Milk, Quest Spicy Sweet Chili Protein chips

6:00 pm 1 grilled chicken thigh, no skin, 3 tablespoons green Beans

9:00 pm 14 Wasabi Soy Roasted Almonds, 1 Choxo Dark chocolate Coconut Cup

Total Macros: 116 grams of Protein, 40 total grams of carbs, 78 grams of fat, 1305 calories.

This is pretty typical for me. I don't always eat the protein chips, I was just in a hurry and they are one of my go-to Snacks when I can't have something perishable. Normally they'd be a protein and veggie.

[AmberFL 1,090]

44 minutes ago, NickelChip said:

I don't know if this helps, but when I saw the nutritionist last week for my last pre-op appointment, she suggested choosing three regularly spaced meal times, 4 to 6 hours apart. I've decided on 8:30, 1:30, and 6:30 because it works best with my daily work schedule. She said to eat what I could of "real" food at the mealtimes, but not to let myself keep eating beyond 30-40 minutes. My goal is 20-25g Protein at the meal, but let's say I managed to eat 10g for Breakfast. In that case, I would want to supplement 10-15g of Protein Shake at 11am (halfway between breakfast and lunch). If I managed to eat 20g of Protein at lunch, then I could skip the supplement between lunch and dinner. But if I only got 5g protein at dinner, I should supplement with 15-20g of protein shake a couple hours after dinner. That way you're trying real food first, but not letting yourself get behind as the day goes on. She said it would take quite some time to ween off protein supplements completely and that was fine. Eventually, she wants me to be at 3 meals and no Snacks with 60-80g protein per day. If you don't want to rely on Protein Shakes but you find you can easily eat something like a Greek yogurt in between meals, you could do that instead. But basically it's just going to take time, and even after you are at a point that you can usually get all 20-25g of protein in a meal, there still may be some days where you can't and you need a supplement.

Okay! That’s my booklet says too was 4-6hrs every meal. But this morning I two egg bites for 5g protein so a couple of later I made my protien shake. This makes me feel better I don’t wanna over eat but I don’t want under eat either. This is a science!

[AmberFL 1,090]

23 minutes ago, ChunkCat said:

I have to eat every 2-3 hours and have since I was post op, so I eat 5-6 small meals a day. I prefer this because it keeps me from mindless snacking, provides a rhythm to my day, and allows me to get in a variety of flavors and textures. I'm only 3 months post op, there is no way I'd get my daily macros in with just 3 meals a day. My stomach doesn't have that capacity and if I go past 3 hours without eating my energy crashes, I feel light headed, nauseous, shaky, and irritable. Each person's body is different, but by necessity I ascribe to the "eat less more often" method and I'm not alone in that need. My target macros are 120 grams of Protein, 100 grams of fat, 40 grams of total carbs, calories don't matter because I malabsorb a good percentage of fat and a moderate percentage of Protein.

8:00 am Premier Protein vanilla shake

9:30 am 3 tablespoons hashbrowns, 4 cherry tomatoes, 1 1/2 scrambled eggs

12:00 Ratio Coconut Keto Yogurt and 2 tablespoons Diabetic Kitchen Granola

3:00 pm Espresso with 1/2 cup Fairlife Whole Milk, Quest Spicy Sweet Chili Protein chips

6:00 pm 1 grilled chicken thigh, no skin, 3 tablespoons green Beans

9:00 pm 14 Wasabi Soy Roasted Almonds, 1 Choxo Dark chocolate Coconut Cup

Total Macros: 116 grams of Protein, 40 total grams of carbs, 78 grams of fat, 1305 calories.

This is pretty typical for me. I don't always eat the protein chips, I was just in a hurry and they are one of my go-to Snacks when I can't have something perishable. Normally they'd be a protein and veggie.

This is great! I am up at 430 so I make sure to drink my first 32oz of Water but 7ish I know I need to eat because I can tell I get tired. This is great! Thank you. Just wanted to make sure that I was doing this right! I overthink all the things 😂

[Lily2024 138]

I'm 5 weeks post op RNY, I eat 3 meals of Protein, 2 oz per meal, and add 1 cup of fairlife milk and a Protein Shake. If I'm feeling hungry I'll add 2 oz of greek yogurt or protein pudding for a fourth meal. I usually feel a bit hungrier on days that I swim. I exercise every day and I can tell when I got too into it, I feel tired and hungry.

So far the easiest to digest have been ground turkey, smoked salmon, chicken, tuna, and cottage cheese. I'm still drinking chicken broth when I feel like I need more salt and if I forget that, I crave chips.

I also pretty much eat my weight in sugar free popsicles.

Edited February 8, 2024 by Lily2024
ETA

[AmberFL 1,090]

23 minutes ago, Lily2024 said:

I'm 5 weeks post op RNY, I eat 3 meals of Protein, 2 oz per meal, and add 1 cup of fairlife milk and a Protein Shake. If I'm feeling hungry I'll add 2 oz of greek yogurt or Protein pudding for a fourth meal. I usually feel a bit hungrier on days that I swim. I exercise every day and I can tell when I got too into it, I feel tired and hungry.

So far the easiest to digest have been ground turkey, smoked salmon, chicken, tuna, and cottage cheese. I'm still drinking chicken broth when I feel like I need more salt and if I forget that, I crave chips.

I also pretty much eat my weight in sugar free popsicles.

Okay! It’s nice to know that I’m supposed to eat! Have you tried the Quest chips?

[AmberFL 1,090]

23 minutes ago, Lily2024 said:

I'm 5 weeks post op RNY, I eat 3 meals of Protein, 2 oz per meal, and add 1 cup of fairlife milk and a Protein Shake. If I'm feeling hungry I'll add 2 oz of greek yogurt or Protein pudding for a fourth meal. I usually feel a bit hungrier on days that I swim. I exercise every day and I can tell when I got too into it, I feel tired and hungry.

So far the easiest to digest have been ground turkey, smoked salmon, chicken, tuna, and cottage cheese. I'm still drinking chicken broth when I feel like I need more salt and if I forget that, I crave chips.

I also pretty much eat my weight in sugar free popsicles.

Okay! It’s nice to know that I’m supposed to eat! Have you tried the Quest chips?

[AmberFL 1,090]

23 minutes ago, Lily2024 said:

I'm 5 weeks post op RNY, I eat 3 meals of Protein, 2 oz per meal, and add 1 cup of fairlife milk and a Protein Shake. If I'm feeling hungry I'll add 2 oz of greek yogurt or Protein pudding for a fourth meal. I usually feel a bit hungrier on days that I swim. I exercise every day and I can tell when I got too into it, I feel tired and hungry.

So far the easiest to digest have been ground turkey, smoked salmon, chicken, tuna, and cottage cheese. I'm still drinking chicken broth when I feel like I need more salt and if I forget that, I crave chips.

I also pretty much eat my weight in sugar free popsicles.

Okay! It’s nice to know that I’m supposed to eat! Have you tried the Quest chips?

[Arabesque 7,604]

It was a while ago now but I remember I still wasn’t hitting my Protein goal. I wanted to do real food only too & plus I found the shakes disgusting & never touched one after liquids. For breakfast I scrambled eggs with extra milk & took three days to eat them or ate rolled oats again made totally on milk & took three days to eat a serve. lunch & dinner were often just protein (maybe 2 ozs) & nothing else or with just a green bean or two or a small cauliflower floret with dinner. And yes I’d take a while to eat that - 45 mins +/-. After a week or two on soft food I added a high protein yoghurt or yoghurt drink as an afternoon snack to burst my protein.

I wasn’t hungry or really interested in eating. I simply couldn’t eat more than I was but I was following my surgeon’s portion size recommendation of 1/4 - 1/3 cup from purée slowly increasing to a cup by 6 months

If you are worried by getting your protein in try protein Water. You’ll get about 16oz liquid, 15g protein & about 70 calories. So fewer calories (if you count calories) than a shake (which is really a meal) but not as many nutrients. Just watch those with added sugar or sugar substitutes or artificial sweeteners.

[AmberFL 1,090]

10 minutes ago, Arabesque said:

It was a while ago now but I remember I still wasn’t hitting my Protein goal. I wanted to do real food only too & plus I found the shakes disgusting & never touched one after liquids. For Breakfast I scrambled eggs with extra milk & took three days to eat them or ate rolled oats again made totally on milk & took three days to eat a serve. lunch & dinner were often just Protein (maybe 2 ozs) & nothing else or with just a green bean or two or a small cauliflower floret with dinner. And yes I’d take a while to eat that - 45 mins +/-. After a week or two on soft food I added a high protein yoghurt or yoghurt drink as an afternoon snack to burst my protein.

I wasn’t hungry or really interested in eating. I simply couldn’t eat more than I was but I was following my surgeon’s portion size recommendation of 1/4 - 1/3 cup from purée slowly increasing to a cup by 6 months

If you are worried by getting your protein in try protein Water. You’ll get about 16oz liquid, 15g protein & about 70 calories. So fewer calories (if you count calories) than a shake (which is really a meal) but not as many nutrients. Just watch those with added sugar or sugar substitutes or artificial sweeteners.

This was my day today;

2 mini ham frittatas, I made a Protein Shake, had Isopure Protein Powder in my Water, 1/2 of a ricotta bake and dinner I had .5oz of pot roast meat, one baby carrot and a bite 1/4 of baby potato.

macros: 662 cal 40g carbs, 89g protein 16g fat

Am I doing this right? Lol I really don’t know. I’m terrified of gaining weight

[Arabesque 7,604]

It seems okay but it might be best to sit down with your dietician. Were you given any targets? I wasn’t given any other targets than 60g Protein & 2L fluids & a nebulous low fat, low sugar, low carbs & given no calorie guidance. Others are given very detailed macros they’re to meet & there are differences in those too. But then we are different & have different needs & our surgeon & dieticians have different requirements.

Oh & don’t worry you won’t gain weight eating less than 700 calories.

[AmberFL 1,090]

So my targets are 60-80g of Protien Less than 40g carbs and less than 15g of fat. So I think I need to re-evaluate my food choices. It’s a learning curve lol

[NickelChip 1,358]

10 hours ago, AmberFL said:

So my targets are 60-80g of Protien Less than 40g carbs and less than 15g of fat. So I think I need to re-evaluate my food choices. It’s a learning curve lol

Your figures from the other day seem spot on, just 1g over on fat. From what I understand, being over the Protein goal is fine. But you might check your protein supplement and compare if you have more than one. For example, I discovered that one of the brands I have has 5g more carb in it than the other one, which adds up when you're having them 3x a day for a liquid diet. And even with the same brand, the chocolate flavor has more carb than the other flavors. But otherwise, I'd say you're doing really well with hitting the targets you were given.

[Lily2024 138]

I have tried the Quest Protein chips, and the Atkins protein chips, the bags are the same calories, carbs and protein in comparison. I like the Atkins chips much more than the Quest.