Designing the right diet

DNDAddict

So here I am, a new member. I’m basically on day one of my journey and in the process of trying to set myself up for success. So in order to do so, I need to get my daily goals under control.

I had my first appointment yesterday for diet and exercise goals for bariatric surgery. I did keto before, but from my understanding I’m not doing keto. Keto is supposed to be short term and I’m doing a lifestyle change. Especially with surgery coming my way.

Here is the parameters they’ve given me:
1. 12-14 hours between dinner and breakfast.
2. Eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, two snacks every day
3. Protein goal: 80-120 grams daily.
4. Carb goal: No more than 130 grams daily.
5. Always eat a protean when you eat a carb.
6. No need to calorie count, but if you want to count you should have between 1500-1800 daily.

Allowed fruits: berries (lowest sugar/carb content), apples, pears, cantaloupe, plums

Vegetables to avoid: potatoes, corn, peas, and lima beans. Sweet potatoes are okay.

Substitute grains.

Avoid commercial meats and processed meats.

Need to be low fat, low carb, high protean in the diet.

Butter and mayo okay at 2 tbsps per item.

Protean shakes and bars are okay as long as iy has more than 20 grams of protean, less than 5g of sugar, and less than 230 calories.

Carbs should only be complex carbs.
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So with all of that out of the way, the issue I’m having is designing my macros to best suit my needs. I can work around all of that, but I am at a loss when it comes to low fat.

I’m not having gastric bypass, I’m having the other surgery where they mold your stomach and remove 90% of it.

Anyone have some tips that have gone through this?

corinasue1143

Sounds like you are setting up a good foundation.
On MFP, if you enter your protein and carb goals, they will be a percentage. You will add a goal for fat to make the total 100%.

My 2 cents is: work on just what they have given you to work with. Work out your timing and try to stick with it a few days.
Make it easy for you. Do you work 8-5? If so, meals at 7, 12, and 7 or before? When will snacks be needed to fill in?
Figure out when you need protein. Personally, I work to get more protein in the morning, and make sure to have a small protein snack at bedtime to stay full. You will probably be different, but when you figure it out, it makes life easier.
How can you add a protein easily when eating a carb? For me, when I reach for an apple, I have trained myself to automatically reach for a turkey jerky (Lower fat and doesn’t have to be refrigerated. Fits in your pocket) at the same time. Think ahead. What small protein that you like is easy to have handy?


Good luck!

Mithridites

The diet makes sense, except for the 2tbs servings of mayo and butter - those will add up fast. I would get a food scale and weigh everything and count the calories. You will learn which foods are ‘worth it’ to you and which carry too many calories for the meagre satisfaction they bring. You can add 2 snack meals to your MFP diary if you are on the computer version, not mobile. Eat lots of fresh and grilled vegetables, lean cuts of meat, avoid drinking your calories. Bet on protein for breakfast, so eggs instead of cereal and minimize the white bread (personally it doesn’t fill me up). By the way, eating this way you can lose weight steadily over the long term, without any surgeries, but your body = your choice. Good luck on your WL journey.

DNDAddict

I’ve gone on and out of diets many times. At this stage, I need the surgery. I’m bipolar, and there are times I have an insatiable hunger trying to fill in some non existent void. It would help making that void 90% smaller.

Mithridites

So looking at the big picture of your health I would say it’s super-important to dial in your bipolar meds as much as possible. This will give you the best prognosis for long-term weight-loss after the surgery and high quality of life.

cmriverside

When I started I just logged the foods I liked to eat, and then learned to change the portion sizes to fit my calories and macros (fat, protein, carb.)

Your list and instructions sound good as a guide.

So I would suggest start logging food BEFORE you eat it - maybe plan out the whole day in the morning.


To hit those goals, grains are going to have to be limited. So I switched to only grains I had to cook. No more crackers or bread or cereals or snacky grain foods. Just oatmeal, cornmeal, rice, pasta (in appropriate portions.)

I would question the, "No potatoes, sweet potatoes are okay?" that doesn't make sense, they are nearly identical in nutrients -but whatever.

HeidiCooksSupper

My one recommendation would be not to make things more complicated than they need to be so you have some chance of sticking to them long term. I have a dear friend who's bipolar and have known and loved her through many cycles. Sometimes it's easy to think things through very clearly, like all your eating rules, and sometimes it's really not. So, bear in mind that the ONLY thing that matters for weight loss is calories. Make that your prime thing to remember at all times.

The rest is good for health but not necessary for weight loss. There may come a day when you feel you must eat crackers or bread or processed snacks and you can while losing weight. You just need to record them and eat to a calorie target. Establish your target and nothing else really matters for weight loss, now or in the future. Healthy eating, as often as you can do it, is a boon but not a way to lose weight.

Don't worry about surgery now. Just pick the one thing. Get your calories under control and work on keeping your bi-polar extremes at bay. That's a lot! Later, you can think about surgery if you still need it. Many don't because they've already found they can lose the weight through calorie reduction.

DNDAddict

Thank you all for the responses and support. I truly appreciate all of it.

jbann70

I'm waiting for my insurance to approve my lap-band surgery. I put myself on a 800-1000 calorie a day diet. I have a Premier Protein shake for breakfast, morning snack, Premier Protein shake for lunch, a Healthy Choice steamer bowl for dinner, and an evening snack. A snack consist of either/or a combination of cheese, almonds, hard boiled egg, or cottage cheese. I been on it for 5 days and lost 10 pounds.My protein is around 90g or above daily.

DNDAddict

I have no idea how you do that. I had 2500 calories today and I’m starving. BUT, that is with no actual diet plan. Tomorrow night I’ll be getting my diet planned foods from the store.

HeidiCooksSupper

@jbann70 DO NOT suddenly put yourself on a VLCD (very low calorie diet) like 800-1000 calories a day without medical supervision. To eat that little in preparation for gastric surgery you need prescribed supplements/vitamins and a medical professional supervising your diet.

@DNDAddict What jbann70 is doing may not be right for you. Go to the Starting Out links that will explain to you how to determine how many calories you need to eat in a day. You do not need to eat any special foods, however you may wish to adapt your diet to a healthy one. To do this, learn about a healthy diet at https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/

As you adapt to eating a healthy diet at a calorie deficit, you will find lots of support here on MFP of people on similar journeys to yours with lots of good suggestions. People use many methods to help them stay on target. Some eat one meal a day (OMAD), some do intermittent fasting (IF), some maintain a ketogenic diet (Keto), some are even volume eaters who carefully choose high-volume-low-calorie foods ...

There are a gazillion different choices but none of them is necessary. If one works for you, fine. If it doesn't try another or develop your own. All that's needed to lose weight is to adapt to eating fewer calories than you are currently eating to maintain your large body.

There are plenty of folks on MFP who have lost over 100, 200 or 300 pounds. They've used a variety of methods. Some have chosen gastric surgery, some not. Surgery, like anything else, is not magic and certainly isn't the "easy way out." You'll find people who are successful with it but others who still managed to gain the weight back and are back to MFP tracking calories. You can make that decision later.

No one, I repeat, NO ONE on MFP will ever chastise you for being heavy or going away and coming back or whatever happens. We are here for each other long term to support each other in controlling our weight and improving our health.

Best wishes to you. We're in this together.

DNDAddict

@HeidiCooksSupper Thank you for the follow up and advice. I think my problem lies with trying to set up my macros too much. I want to make sure I have enough protein and carbs to follow my medical advice given and I should probably just focus on those things instead of complicating it with macros right now. I see a nutritionist on the 31st, so I’ll definitely gain better insight from them.

Also, I know plenty of people that had gastric bypass. I’ve personally seen success stories from it, and I’ve seen not so successful stories from it. But I’ve learned from those that did not succeed and I know that this is a life change that I need. It will be hard work either way. I didn’t reach this weight doing the right thing lol.

Anyway, again, thank you.

HeidiCooksSupper

@DNDAddict Cool. I'm a surgery-phobe, so you know where I'm coming from. Meanwhile, it sounds like you have your head on straight and are starting to sort out what is important from what isn't.

cmriverside

DNDAddict wrote: »

I have no idea how you do that. I had 2500 calories today and I’m starving. BUT, that is with no actual diet plan. Tomorrow night I’ll be getting my diet planned foods from the store.

For me, I had to stop eating foods that increased my hunger.

That would be anything really sweet or any wheat products.


I would say don't cut your fats too much, either. Fat, protein and fiber. Those are my sweet spots. Carbs fall where they fall, I focus on #1. Getting enough protein. #2. Getting 4-7 servings of vegetables (other than potatoes) and/or whole fruit. Not juice.

I have a half portion of fats with every meal, minimum. I tend to eat fairly high fat and lower carbs. On 1500 calories that would be under 150g carbs, for me. Fats and protein are important for proper body functions, carbs are expendable.

ReenieHJ

I have no advice but just wanted to wish you the very best for your journey and health style changes!!

Strudders67

Diabetes UK recommends less than 130g of carbs a day for Type 2 diabetics, so that number doesn't surprise me. Having a protein with carbs helps stop blood sugar spiking, so there's science behind that suggestion. You have a suggestion from your medical team re your protein goal, although you could potentially eat more as it may help you feel fuller. (it's often said on here to aim for 0.8g of protein per 1lb of your body weight)

I'd suggest setting the macro percentages such that the carbs works out to 130g (or as close as you can get it) and the protein is at the higher end of the range you were given (or calculate as per above and use that). The percentage for fat will then be whatever is needed to get your total to 100%.

When planning your meals for a day, enter what you think you might eat, see where the numbers fall then tweak as necessary. To be low fat and also low carb is hard. Keep your carbs under 130g, aim for lower fats as much as you can but look at the protein number as a minimum not a maximum. Of the three, I'd worry about the fat number the least - keep your carbs down and eat enough protein.

If you've never tried it, you can substitute courgetti / zoodles for pasta and grated cauliflower for rice (or mix with the real stuff and go 50/50) to reduce carbs considerably. Nutritionally, brown rice and wholewheat pasta are similar to their white counterparts other than their fibre. I've gradually switched to brown / wholewheat and can't say I've noticed any difference taste-wise.

For breakfast or a snack, Greek or soya yoghurt with berries, nuts and/or seeds will give you protein and fibre whilst minimising carbs. That's pretty much what I have for breakfast most weekdays. If I need more, I'll have one or two hard boiled eggs as well. I can tell you that raspberries are lower carb than strawberries which are lower than blueberries.

My lunches tend to be a large salad with protein, which varies between chicken or tinned fish (tuna, sardines, salmon or mackerel). Dinner is usually a pile of veg, often a big stirfry, plus protein with only a very small portion of pasta, rice, potatoes or noodles (if any). I mostly eat the same foods that I ate before, but in different quantities.

It would definitely be worth looking at the 'Most helpful' posts at the top of the forum as you should get a lot of info from some of those.

DNDAddict

@Strudders67 Thank you for the tips. That definitely clears things up. I’ve been stressing about the fat content in the macros. The hardest part for me is my dislike of greek yogurt and seafood. That takes away a lot of options. But I am doing pretty much the same thing as you. Doing salads with chicken and hard boiled eggs for lunches.

AnnPT77

Don't worry that you need to be exactly exact every single day on the macronutrients (grams or percents), either. Close is fine, especially if one is a little under one day, and another on another day, so that it averages out.

Sometimes people seem to get the idea that the macros are sort of like a magic spell, where if you get them exactly exact, extra-special things happen. If only that were true! 😆

Close is plenty good enough, and you can work your way to consistency gradually. It's a lot to think about, if you try to perfect everything all at once, immediately. Just work at it gradually, and you'll get things tuned to where you want them. That'll be fine.

Best wishes!

jgratopp6

I have found the most success when i have prepared all or most of my food in advance. Not having to think about what to eat at the time of the meal was very helpful. Just grab the meal you prepared and don't think about it.

I will share that eggs are my best friend. Almost everyday for lunch I make a massive breakfast burrito and I never seem to get tired of it. Here is what the basics are. Along with whats listed below, I will usually throw in some onions and bell peppers and top it with a spoonful or two of plain greek yogurt(great sour cream substitute). It makes a chipotle sized burrito that comes in right at 600 calories. 50+ grams of protein, 36 grams carbs, and 27 grams of fat.

Lunch
Egg Large - Egg White, 3 egg white 60 Cal
Large Egg - One Large Egg, 3 each 210 Cal
Mission - Homestyle Tortilla, 1 Tortilla 190 Cal
Hamburger - 90% Lean, 2 oz 100 Cal
Penny's salsa - Salsa, 4 tbs 20 Cal
Total - 580 Cal

Try and find healthy food that you can eat a lot of. My wife can't ever believe the portions I eat, but my meals are almost never more calories than that burrito.

wilson10102018

I had a canned tamale omelet today. Or, was it a crepe? Two scrambled eggs cooked in the whole skillet bottom. Not stirred. Add two canned tamales heated and seasoned with crushed red pepper. Fold over the tamales inside the eggs and pour tamale sauce on top.


I know canned tamales are a really low rent food, but with proper seasoning I like them.