Nutrition goals/full liquids
Less grumpy today. Finally!
I had my one week follow up today and am doing great. Hitting my fluid and activity goals and have lost 8 lbs since surgery. They started me on full liquids today.Obviously I am striving to meet my protein goal (70grams.) But should I be worried about my calorie or carb goal at this point? I started tracking at myfitnesspal and will most definitely surpass a carb goal of 40grams. I am doing my protein shakes, cream of wheat, greek yogurt, creamy soup...
It seems to me that until I can eat dense protein I wont be able to stay under calories/carbs? Am I overthinking this? Should I stop worrying and just focus on healing...? Does anyone have a xanax?
You should be able to stay under 40 grams pretty easily. I am thinking that you should stop with the cream of wheat as I know that you are getting a lot of carbs from that. Also when you say you are getting over 40 carbs is that net carbs or total carbs? I always subtracted my fiber from my total carbs and that was the number I used. Some on here are very strict and go by 40 grams total carbs while others like me use net carbs.
Just so you know, doing that I was able to drop 95 pounds in a little over 5 months. That being said I also never did the oatmeal or cream of wheat because of the carbs.
I suspect that your creamy soups are also a source of carbs. I would just be a little careful. The carbs from the creamy soups can be coming from the vegetables in the soups which isn't too bad. Usually the soups have a certain amount of fiber that you can subtract to get to the net carbs.
As for calories you should be going for about 600-800 calories while staying below 40 carbs and perhaps even trying to go for a little more protein ... although you are at a pretty good level. If you could get about 10 more grams of protein in a day that would help a little bit more ... especially when it comes to avoiding some hair loss and keeping your muscles in shape.
I am also wondering if you are getting a lot of carbs from your protein shakes. Perhaps this is another spot where you can save on some carbs. If you switch from using milk and instead use almond milk you can save a lot of carbs there as well. Usually a cup of unsweetened almond milk is only 1 carb.
Also I am wondering about your protein mix. In general the guidelines I was given for a protein mix are as follows ...
1) Whey Protein Isolate (don't use Whey Protein Concentrate or Blends as they don't break down as well and usually have more carbs)
2) 5 grams or less of fat per serving
3) 5 grams or less of carbs per serving
4) About 24 grams of protein per serving give or take a couple.
Hopefully some of these thoughts will help out some.
Isn’t it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do their “practice”? - George Carlin
Now that I look at my protein powder it is a concentrate. Which brand do you recommend for an isolate? Also, I have to strain the vegetables out of my soup since I can't have anything solid yet.
Thanks for all of the tips! I probably won't cut out the cream of wheat yet since it is the only thing remotely "food" like I can eat right now. Once I can move into pureed solids I will drop it.
-Alycia-
A lot of people have different ideas on what they like in a protein powder. My favorite so far is the About Time brand. It is 100% all natural and made from only 4 ingredients. These are ingredients that we all know and can pronounce and understand.
1) 100% Whey Protein Isolate
2) Stevia (sweetener made from a plant)
3) Natural Flavors
4) Xanthan Gum (thickener used in lots of things)
They have a ton of flavors. I will say that what most people that are new to the Whey Protein Isolates discover is that the flavors tend to me subtle. Don't expect a chocolate flavor to taste like Hershey's syrup. Hershey's has a bunch of artificial junk in it to make it taste the way it does. That being said I would start thinking about things you can add to the shake that will help flavor it. There are sugar free syrups that work well for this. After you get to a certain point you can add fresh fruits to flavor the shake. I love adding frozen strawberries as they are not that bad by the numbers.
I always have an issue with finances so I try to look online for the best value on About Time mixes. The place that seems the best is gnc.com. Some local stores may carry them but it isn't likely. My experience is that if your local store is a corporate store it won't have the About Time. If the store is a franchised location, then it may have About Time. Of course the odd thing is that in a store they will charge $45 for a 2 pound container whereas online it is $35. Right now if you buy something more than $10 they will give you a membership card good for 1 year (normal cost $15) that will get you up to 50% off products every day.
Sometimes as I mentioned finances are tough so I go to Walmart and buy Body Fortress brand. This uses Splenda as it's sweetener which I don't mind as it is made from removing molecules from normal sugar and then adding in some molecules. The only issue with this brand is there is only one flavor (Vanilla Creme) that I have seen at my local Walmart. Just like GNC some Walmart locations carry it and some don't. The only other thing I need to mention is that Walmarts carry 2 Body Fortress products. One says Whey Protein on the front and is the concentrate and sells for about $15. The other one that you want does say Whey Protein Isolate on the front and has a cost of about $22. That alone should tell you something. You pay a little more for a product that has the same weight. The isolate is a better product and therefore costs a little more. The Body fortress per serving is 130 calories, 1 g carb, 0 fiber, 0 fat, and 30 grams of protein. One shake gets you almost half way to your daily goal. The only thing I would caution is that you don't use milk but instead go to almond milk. The reason is that your body can only process a certain amount of protein at a time. This is why my nutritionist says about 24 grams of protein per serving. With 30 grams in the mix alone the extra protein in the milk would likely be of no benefit to you. So you are adding carbs with the milk and not getting the benefit of the protein.
Whether you get the About Time or the Body Fortress each of these containers has about 28 servings so you are around $1 per serving give or take a little.
Another product that you can find online as well as at GNC is Isopure. They are also very good. They tend to be more expensive but you need to be careful when you look at there label. They will tell you that there is about 14 servings. Then you need to notice that a serving is 2 scoops and has 60 grams of protein. You only want to do 1 scoop for 30 grams of carbs so that brings the container's serving count to about 28 servings as is the case with About Time and Body Fortress.
Many people on this forum also like the Syntrax shakes. They do have a wide variety of flavors like the About Time, even more than the About Time possibly. I think that people usually get those from Amazon.com. As long as it has the 4 things I mentioned above with no more than 5 grams of carbs or fat with Whey Protein Isolate and about 24 grams of protein per serving I would say that it is as good as any other.
As for flavoring your protein shakes what I have done other than sugar free syrups is adding in Hershey's Special Dark Unsweetened cocoa and then I add in Stevia or Splenda depending on what I have available to sweeten to my tastes. The amazing thing about the Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa is that 1 tbsp is 10 calories, 3 grams carbs, 2 grams fiber, 1 gram fat, 1 gram protein. That is only 1 net carb and you are getting in 1 extra gram of protein with very few calories. With Stevia or Splenda to sweeten it you can have a chocolate flavored protein drink. By the way the Special Dark is a mix between Dutch Cocoa and regular cocoa. Dutch Cocoa simply means with alkalizing agents which makes the cocoa less acidic and therefore smoother to the taste.
I hope that some of this will help you find something that works better and gets you closer to your daily goals.
Isn’t it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do their “practice”? - George Carlin
I was told don't worry about calories or carbs at the beginning, just get in your protein and water. Now, at 2 mos, I am on dense proteins, and don't do the cream of wheat anymore...no problem keeping carb count down at all!! dense proteins has, well, lots of protein, and none or barely any carbs depending on how you make it, so the carb count will naturally decrease.
for example, if you ditch the cream of wheat for an egg, you just saved yourself from 19 carbs!
best of luck to you!!
Sophie
HW 275 SW 246 CW 162.5 GW 150 ( 5'1" Over 1 1/2 inch lost in the last few yrs! LOL) lost 50 lbs on my own, stable for 3 yrs, gained back 21 during year b4 surgery.
ignore the calories and carbs for the first 2 weeks at least IMO. protein and hydration are of utmost importance.
like dont go guzzling milkshakes or anything, but dotn worry about it. lol. If you are really concerned, you can try cutting some carbs and calories by using almond milk or soy milk instead of regular stuff. that's if you like them!
My doctor said NOT to count calories and carbs until I got to regular foods. During the post op clear liquids, full liquids, puree and soft stages I only counted protein and fluids. Those are hard enough to get in and if you get all those in with a few bites of other stuff here and there you'll still be fine. I stuck to everything on my diet I was given such as light yogurt with no fruit pieces, strained cream soups (made with skim milk), sf pudding and sf popsicles, etc. Those items alone keep your calories and carbs low, especially since you can't eat much in the beginning. I ate things like scrambled eggs and roast beef or corned beef hash during the puree stage (you can mash up the little potatoes) but just a few bites filled me up and a can would last me 3 days - lol.
Gale Age: 55, Height: 5' 5.5", HW: 236, SW: 210, 1st GW: 150. Surgery BMI: 39.3 Extremely HBP, High Cholesterol & borderline diabetic.
