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Carbs?

I

Intelligentslug

Member
My dietitians have told me not to have any carbs for the first year after surgery I am seeing in many posts and vlogs that people are consuming mash potatoes and cream of wheat in the soft food stage. My personal opinion is moderation is best and that no carbs for a year seems extreme. If you are less than a year out and have incorporated some carbs into your diet can you please share your experience.
 
Hi, I was told to have a low carb diet, not a no carb diet. I was given a list of food items to eat at different phases of the recovery, and I ate mashed potatoes (a few spoonfuls) and oatmeal early in my recovery, meaning around weeks 3-5. I am 4 months out from my sleeve surgery and I do on occasion have a slice of bread/toast, oatmeal, but overall I do eat high protein, low carb.
 
I had/have no problems with digesting oatmeal or bread. However, I do not eat bread every day. There was a week where I ate bread/scones 3 days in a row and my stomach felt "heavy" and "uncomfortable". I ate a lot of carbs prior to surgery-meaning pretzels, chips and crackers. I do add some crackers to soups now and don't have any problems digesting them, but I haven't tried eating chips and pretzels because my idea of surgery was also part of a lifestyle change - to eat healthier than I was. Keep in mind that there are plenty of people on this site who have expressed problems eating bread, so it might be an individual thing. For example some people had no problems at all with chicken, but I have had some problems with chicken, which surprised my dieticians. Yet I can eat bread and experience no issues.....
 
Keep in mind your stomach is reduced with surgery, so you really can't eat as much as prior to surgery. I eat now to ensure I'm getting sufficient proteins and getting the right nutrients. If I feel like eating chips, I first reach for a slice of cheese or fruits. If I feel like eating ice cream, I reach for a high protein yogurt. That way, I know I'm eating the right things and getting "the best bang/value" for my nutritional needs.
 
My best advice is to pace yourself-don't eat oatmeal and mashed potatoes on the same day, first try. And you can test out tiny portions and see how your stomach responds. Remember you cannot eat all that much, even at 4 months out. I tried eating half a chicken sandwich from costco from last night-I could not finish half a sandwich. I ate about 1/2 of the 1/2 and then felt too full. Yesterday, I had 1 high protein yogurt, a banana, and 1/4 of a sandwich and that was more than enough for me.
 
Of course! Support is what this site is all about. It seems awfully extreme to have zero carbs. This is a major surgery though so I would reintroduce food items slowly. I am a carb lover at heart so it's been a good thing for me to reduce my carbs, but a little carbs should be part of a balanced diet (in my mind). Everyone is different, though. I was told to try my best to get 60 grams of protein daily, 64 ounces of water, and from there, add in healthy carbs. In my mind, carbs from fruits and veggies are only good carbs, why avoid them if my stomach has room for them?
 
I agree about the balanced diet. Plus it is important to still enjoy food. In my opinion I feel that alot of dietitians have no idea what emotional eating is. My “thing” was junk food in the way that a dieticians “thing” is healthy eating. Of course I want to be healthy and change my lifestyle. I would not have had this surgery if I planned on staying the same but I want to enjoy a treat here and there and I want to honor my body with proteins first but I do not plan to become a fanatic. I do not think that is healthy either.
 
I agree, of course you want to enjoy special treats. I just got back home from a birthday dinner with my family. We ordered nachos, calamari and bacon wrapped scallops as appetizers, and i ordered fish tacos for dinner. I sampled the appetizers, managed to eat 1 fish taco, and then I was so full, I could not even have a bite of dessert (my family brought a carrot cake). A balanced diet with some treats sounds like a healthy approach to me, but again, double check with your dieticians about the no carb vs low carbs. There may be a specific reason pertinent to you that they told you no carb. The dieticians I work with have always told me low carb is fine. I wish you well with your recovery. I feel completely satisfied with what I ate tonight. I ate 4 nacho chips from the nacho plate and that was sufficient.
 
I actually got a list of foods and some recipes from my dietician. The most important thing I learned was to make Magic Milk (recipe is within the posts here). So I had strained cream of mushroom soup made with MM, cream of wheat/MM, pudding/MM, etc. But my portion size was the important thing. I only consumed 2 Tablespoons of each food, very very slowly. We all get different advice. That advice worked for me.

One more thing: oftentimes the portion of the stomach that's removed is the area that secretes gastric juices. Without gastric juices, food is VERY hard and slow to digest. Ask your doctor/nutritionist for precise details as to whether yours was removed.

And of course I followed a staged diet. Liquids for two weeks, soft foods for two weeks. Firmer soft foods for two weeks. No solids for a month.

So I lost 35 pounds my first month and 25 my second by obeying my dietician. After that it was 15 pounds a month and then a long stall, until I lost my total 115 pounds at 14 months.

Your dietician/nutritionist should be your best friend. I think mine, at Virginia Mason in Seattle, was exceptional. Plus, I was enrolled in a 7-year study before surgery, though there were no guidelines, just dozens of tests to track my progress. And vials and vials of blood were taken over that period so I was actually someone's medical project at the UW Hospital.

I'm going to write something in caps because it's important. Whatever they tell you, ASK WHY. Keep asking why until you feel comfortable. I hate to say this but once WLS became a thing, a lot of people got into it strictly for the weight loss, not to stave off diabetes and other obesity-related ailments. There are a lot of quacks and near-quacks who are in it for the money--$20k per surgery.

Best of luck to you. Oh, and I ate carbs in the form of cereal and even soft breads as soon as I could tolerate them. If you can tolerate them you'll be introduced to the unholy terror of dumping, and you do NOT want to do that. Every single food you eat post-op is different than it was before surgery, and you adjust to it. I'm 16 years out now and eat anything I want.
 
Intelligentslug said:
My dietitians have told me not to have any carbs for the first year after surgery I am seeing in many posts and vlogs that people are consuming mash potatoes and cream of wheat in the soft food stage. My personal opinion is moderation is best and that no carbs for a year seems extreme. If you are less than a year out and have incorporated some carbs into your diet can you please share your experience.
Click to expand...
The diet industry has a way of making a certain food group bad, only to find that science will later prove many of these theories wrong. Carbs are not the enemy. Carbs are in fruit, vegetables, whole grains, and many healthy foods. Remeber when fat was the enemy? Low fat diets made us fatter in the end. What is unhealthy? Cakes, cookies, fatty chips, deep fried foods, meats with fats and chemicals, fake cheeses, PROTIEN FOODS AND DRINKS are not real food!
I don't understand why this no carb lifestyle is still being pushed. I can't believe the amount of protien bars, breads, shakes, even chips and candies are sold and people are paying 3 times the price for this stuff that tastes like total crap because they have bought into this unreasonable belief that they can't have carbs. Just eat real food, with a healthy balance, and keep the treats to a minimum. Also, mashed potatoes are now a staple for me since the settle well, and go good with a lot of foods :)
 
dianeseattle said:
I actually got a list of foods and some recipes from my dietician. The most important thing I learned was to make Magic Milk (recipe is within the posts here). So I had strained cream of mushroom soup made with MM, cream of wheat/MM, pudding/MM, etc. But my portion size was the important thing. I only consumed 2 Tablespoons of each food, very very slowly. We all get different advice. That advice worked for me.

One more thing: oftentimes the portion of the stomach that's removed is the area that secretes gastric juices. Without gastric juices, food is VERY hard and slow to digest. Ask your doctor/nutritionist for precise details as to whether yours was removed.

And of course I followed a staged diet. Liquids for two weeks, soft foods for two weeks. Firmer soft foods for two weeks. No solids for a month.

So I lost 35 pounds my first month and 25 my second by obeying my dietician. After that it was 15 pounds a month and then a long stall, until I lost my total 115 pounds at 14 months.

Your dietician/nutritionist should be your best friend. I think mine, at Virginia Mason in Seattle, was exceptional. Plus, I was enrolled in a 7-year study before surgery, though there were no guidelines, just dozens of tests to track my progress. And vials and vials of blood were taken over that period so I was actually someone's medical project at the UW Hospital.

I'm going to write something in caps because it's important. Whatever they tell you, ASK WHY. Keep asking why until you feel comfortable. I hate to say this but once WLS became a thing, a lot of people got into it strictly for the weight loss, not to stave off diabetes and other obesity-related ailments. There are a lot of quacks and near-quacks who are in it for the money--$20k per surgery.

Best of luck to you. Oh, and I ate carbs in the form of cereal and even soft breads as soon as I could tolerate them. If you can tolerate them you'll be introduced to the unholy terror of dumping, and you do NOT want to do that. Every single food you eat post-op is different than it was before surgery, and you adjust to it. I'm 16 years out now and eat anything I want.
Click to expand...
A wealth of valuable information!
 
Mimi K said:
The diet industry has a way of making a certain food group bad, only to find that science will later prove many of these theories wrong. Carbs are not the enemy. Carbs are in fruit, vegetables, whole grains, and many healthy foods. Remeber when fat was the enemy? Low fat diets made us fatter in the end. What is unhealthy? Cakes, cookies, fatty chips, deep fried foods, meats with fats and chemicals, fake cheeses, PROTIEN FOODS AND DRINKS are not real food!
I don't understand why this no carb lifestyle is still being pushed. I can't believe the amount of protien bars, breads, shakes, even chips and candies are sold and people are paying 3 times the price for this stuff that tastes like total crap because they have bought into this unreasonable belief that they can't have carbs. Just eat real food, with a healthy balance, and keep the treats to a minimum. Also, mashed potatoes are now a staple for me since the settle well, and go good with a lot of foods :)
Click to expand...
I couldn't agree more.
 
I'm 90 days post surgery gastric bypass. You have to concentrate on eating protein first in your diet sheet surgery. Which leads to a low carb diet because you can barely eat anything. The problem is almost all protein makes me either feel like I'm gonna throw up or wishing that I could.
You can eat carbs but won't get your protein
 
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