Grazing?
stephanywester
Posts: 1
Hello, I had my surgery almost 6 months ago. I am worried about my pouch getting bigger. Although I still stay within my calories, I am eating every two hours during the day at work. My weight loss has slowed down, which I assume is normal this far out. Do a lot of you feel like your eating ALL day?
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Hello stephanyweste,
I feel like it's a daily struggle for me. I chastise myself all day to make good choices, am I really hungry or just thirsty or bored. I try to assess the current state I'm in based on those questions. I really do understand though. I will be 6mo post op VSG as of 7/22. Hang in there and continue to make great choices! :flowerforyou:0 -
The NP at my bariatric clinic wants me to decrease to 3 meals per day with no snacking or grazing. I've gotten down to 4 but am not yet ready to decrease to 3. Truth be told, I'd rather graze and have 5-6 small meals a day but was firmly told that can be a path to problems. I'll be at 6 months on 08/12.0
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I take grazing as randomly having a bite or two of somthing at less once or twice an hour. Not having several scheduled small meals a day with spaces of no eating between.
I am 2 years out from VSG and eat 5-6 small meals a day 7am(protein coffee) 9am(breakfast) noon(lunch) 3:30pm(PM snack) 6:30pm(dinner) and 8-9pm(post workout snack/shake) Granted 2 of these "meals" are primarily liquid so I don't follow a wait 30 min before eating or drinking before/after them.
There is no way I could eat enough food in just 3 meals a day to get the calories and amount of protien needed. Currently I am on a 1500-1600 calorie diet ~100g each of carbs and protein. Even right after surgery when I stayed closer to 600-800calories I was still eating several small meals following the same plan as above.
Good Luck0 -
At 6 months out I was eating 3 meals and 3 snacks per my NUT. Really they were all about the same amount of food, so to me it was 6 meals. I was told at that point to start elminating the snacks one by one. They wanted me to cut back to just 3 meals, no snacks. There was no way I could get all that food/protein in with just 3 meals, so I kept doing one protein shake in addition to my 3 meals for a long time. I'm 3 years out now and at 1,000 calories with 70-80 grams of protein a day and I can get the protein in 3 meals, but there's no way I can eat healthy and get 1,000 calories. In fact, even with an evening snack, I'm still below calories most days. I get that most of us grazed our way to obesity and that's why we are discouraged from snacking. It's easy to turn snacking into grazing. If you really can't get it all in without a snack or two, talk to your doctor or NUT. They know how to help you get what you need without overeating.0
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I'll be 6 months out on August 5th and am still eating 5-6 small meals a day. There are a lot of days that I feel like my life revolves around my eating/drinking schedule and in a lot of ways that's true. I think it's because I have to work around my water intake (30 minutes before/after eating) so it feels like I'm always doing something. As long as I stick to my eating schedule, get my water and protein in for the day, measure/weigh my portions and stay within the suggested range I don't have any concern over my pouch stretching out.
From what you commented, you're doing everything your were instructed to do and I don't think there is any chance of your pouch stretching. I'll be interested to find out if my Team wants me to do anything different or set different goals at my 6-month follow-up on August 15th.
You're doing GREAT!!!!! I'm at a little bit of a stall myself, but I know the weight will start coming off again. I already have a big pile of clothes I should no longer wear as they are way too big and I look ridiculous in them. My step-mom is going to help me alter some of them as I don't have money for a whole new wardrobe every few months. So even though I'm not losing weight at the moment, I have toned up considerably and continue to do so through exercise. I'm very focused on upper arms (bat wings), thighs and lower abs.0 -
It is heavily warned against by my nut and surgeon. I already did it once and immediately stopped losing wt. 3 meals and one snack is working for me. Tho I guess you could say the low cal (60 cal/cup) skim milk I drink in my coffee throughout the morning is a type of grazing. I actually treat my gummy vitamins and viactive as a morning snack so I kind of feel like I get 2 snacks0
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First up; your pouch is going to get bigger over the first year until you are completely healed and settled in. The final size is different for everyone but most likely will be in the 8-10oz range. In order to stretch it to unhealthy levels you would need to consistantly over stuff during consecutive meals. If you weigh and measure and avoid over stuffing you will be fine.
I tend to fall more in line with Laste's type of eating plan though I need significantly more daily calories to maintain the goal weight I have achieved (at 10 months out). WIth exercise factored in I need around 2,500-3,000 to maintain 187 pounds.
I eat a protein bar when I leave the house at 5:30 am then have a coffee about 2 hours later. Some days I have eggs/cheese/bacon around 8:30 but whatever I choose I classify everything from wake-up to 10am as Breakfast. Lunch is around noon with a Protein bar around 3:30, often I have an afternoon coffee. Dinner is around 7pm.
If I have a heavy exercise day (FitBit steps) I add protein bars as needed to increase calories for fuel. I count these (along wth any adult beverages) as snacks. I actively track my calorie burn, weigh all my food, and make sure I do not go over the earned daily calories.
I would suggest that you examine what you choose to snack on and avoid carb based snacks.0
