Calories after the DS

At what point after surgery do you start counting calories? How much is recommended at...

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Im kinda an all or nothing kinda person and I learned the hard way that I need a guide to follow. Otherwise I'll either eat way too little, or too much.

You need to do some more studying. We don't count calories. Our basic diet is LCHF(low carb high fat). We have malabsorbtion so calorie counting doesn't work for us.

Most of us get to look at protein and fat as free foods. Always eat protein first and aim for in the neighborhood of 100gr per day. Don't worry about fat. Eat real butter and mayo, not the fake crap!

What you want to avoid is everything with grains and sugar. And there are a few high carb veggies like potatoes, peas, and corn. Fruit is loaded with sugar. While you are losing, the only 'good' carb is one you don't eat. In an ideal world, once you get to about 10% below goal, you can start experimenting to see how many carbs you can eat and not gain. And things change over time. I know I gain much easier at 15 years postop than I could at 2 years out.

Thank you Patty for writing a concise plan to follow. I am able to have a ds surgery and you have no idea how many posts I've read trying to figure all of this out.

Wow 15 years? That's great, it's nice that your still on the forums to give advice. I appreciate the wisdom!

I've seen alot of articles talking of "DS MATH". Explaining how the absorption works and how to calculate calories with it. I guess I just assumed if there was specific math to it, then there was a guidance of how many calories to eat.

Do you stay under a certain amount of carbs? I'm a little concerned about the carbs. When I had my sleeve my surgeons paperwork said to stay under 30g of carbs. I did this for the first year and It made me really sick. When I mentioned it to him he was shocked and said I should be eating alot more carbs. So I'm so confused. I wanna lose weight, but I want to be healthy while doing it.

I appreciate any guidance u can give.

I'm 11+ years out and never count calories. DS math is way different than the simple 'calories in-calories out' because of our malabsorption. I count protein.

That would be nice. I would love to one day not count calories. Did you count them during weight loss phase?

What Patty said.

I never counted calories. I limited net carbs (not total carbs). I tried to keep my carbs as low as possible until I hit goal.

11 years later, when I want to drop weight, I cut carbs....I don't have to do low carb-but lower carb.

Scott

That's great to know, thanks. How many net carbs did you stick to during weight loss? Do u find u gain weight easily if u don't count them now?

Don't need to count anything except gr of protein to make sure you get enough. And just don't eat carbs.

Here's how you do it. Always eat protein first. Then if you have room for anything else, it's just a couple bites. It is work in the beginning to get in @100 gr protein. You won't have room for much else. Hungry? Eat protein. If you want a pound of bacon, fine! 4 eggs fried in butter, fine! Tuna with mayo, fine!

Following is a sample food plan for a day. You will not be able to eat this much at first!

Breakfast 2 eggs with cheese and 6 strips of bacon.

Snack handful of nuts.

Lunch tuna salad on lettuce.

Snack cheese cubes and pepperoni

Dinner steak and green beans.

Snack SF popsicle and a low carb full fat greek yogurt.

The meal plan above is VERY low carb. The wonder of the DS is there is always something you can eat.

Thanks for the example!! Is this how u eat all the time or just during the weight loss phase?