I would love advice on how to get the protein and calories in.

I was able to start on food yesterday (2 wks post op) - the pureed ones anyway. The info from my NUT says 3 meals and that's it. No protein drinks, no snacks, nada. So, trying to be a "good girl" I followed her advice and ended up eating 257 calories, 20grams of protein yesterday. (I should add that I wasn't able to get up to 1/2 cup on any of the meals...) Clearly that's not enough. I mean there is no way to do this without sensible protein drinks. (Strike one for NUT there...)

Here are my questions:
How do you space your meals and protein drinks throughout the day?

How do you eat the 1/2 cup that you're supposed to? A few bites in and I feel too full. Should I wait 5-10 min and then try to eat more? Can I eat my meal over an hour or should I just call it good after trying to eat for half an hour.

How many calories should I aim for? I've seen under 1000 here. (NUT told me I don't need to keep track of calories or grams of protein... Strike 2 for NUT...)

This may be a stupid question, but should I measure then puree my food or puree then measure?

I would love advice on how to sneak in extra protein into my meals.

Here's a sample of what I've been eating:

pureed black bean soup
refried beans with shredded cheese
avacado
pureed/chopped tuna with light miracle whip
cheesestick (not pureed, but my NUT told me this was okay at this stage)

Thank you!!!

OK, your nut is a nut.

You need to keep track of protein.  Calories, maybe not.  If you are getting enough protein, chances are you'll get enough calories right now.

I can't imagine how you could get enough protein with no shakes and only eating three times a day.  I still eat six times most days in order to get enough protein and calories.

Personally, I would eat as many times as you need to in order to get enough protein in you.  And I would use the shakes as long as you need them in order to get enough protein.  Look for ones not super high in calories and low in sugar.

I would puree, then measure.  If you can't eat 1/2 cup at a time right now, eat 1/4 cup and have six meals instead of three.

You can add protein powder to pureed foods to up the protein.  Start by adding just a little bit though - add a whole scoop of powder to 1/2 cup of pureed beans and it will probably not taste good at all.  But you can sneak a little in almost anything.

Well first I think it's important to remember that it takes time to get to where you need to be in terms of how much you can eat. My NUT told me that I should take no longer than 30 minutes to eat. Whatever I could eat in 30 minutes is what I eat.

I thought that was crazy, but you know what? After a while I began to be able to finish my portion. And then I began to be able to eat even more than that. Scared the Dickens out of me too!

So far as your eating strategy, yours looks great. Seek to get protein in wherever you can. Replace part of the mayo you'd use in tuna or egg salad with Greek yogurt (only part, not all). Add protein powder to things like pudding or make yourself protein popsicles out of pudding or Crystal Light and freeze them in popsicle molds.

Start paying attention to the amount of protein per volume that foods have. For instance 8 oz. of milk has 8g protein. The same amount of cottage cheese has 28. You can't eat that much, of course, but when you're thinking on the micro level, 4 oz. of cottage cheese is going to give you 14g of protein. 2 oz. will give you 7. Etc., etc.

I ate a LOT of tuna early out. It was soft and I could eat 2-3 oz. of it where chicken breast and beef did not work. So figuring out how to get the most protein "bang" for your volume "buck."

Also, read the "what are you eating today?" thread. Folks post their meals, tips and tricks there. Pay attention to folks you think eat well and pick what you like about their meal plans.

And I would be remiss not to point out there are great WLS food blogs out there. Mine, www.bariatricfoodie.com and www.theworldaccordingtoeggface.com are great places to start poking around. Eggface has hundreds of recipes and so do I!

Hope all that helps.

My plan is similar to yours.  No snacking, only 3 meals and no protein shakes.  On the blended phase, I ate almost 100% tuna, salmon and canned chicken.  My plan doesn't allow beans at all.  I did eat some carbmasters yogurt and some greek yogurt.  You should plan for at least 20g of protein per meal.  That usually ends up being about 3oz of fish/chicken and at that stage probably all you can eat.  I was so glad to eat something I didn't mind the tuna even though I don't really like it.  It sucks and it might not taste the best but this stage doesn't last too long.  I was getting in about 400-500 cal this way. 

Now because I want more than 60g of protein in a day and I LIKE veggies, I have a protein shake for breakfast to start my day off with 50g of protein.  Then my other two meals are normal with usually 3oz of meat (fish/chicken/turkey) and 1/2 cup veggies.  I usually get about 90g of protein a day and between 600 and 700 calories. 

Everybody's plan is different.  This just what I did and am doing. 

what Kelly said.  Your nut is a nut.

Early out it would take me 45 minutes to eat my meals of small amounts.  But I could get in my food I needed.

I do snacks, but they have to be protein based.  So a greek yogurt, string cheese or a hard boiled egg are my basic stand by snacks.  I go with the theory that everything that goes in my mouth has to count for something.

Don't forget that milk has protein too.  I am supposed to get in 2 8oz servings a day of that.

I would be more worried with protein grams (and fluids) than calorie counting.

Sarah

I kind of felt like I should add that I am not a registered dietician and have no formal training in nutrition.  I am self taught and I think I know a lot about it, but I really mean to post the information I have found and what has worked for me so that people can consider the information, become better informed, and then decide what will work best for them.  So I guess I'm not actually saying you should not follow your nut's advice, but I'm saying I wouldn't follow it and it does not seem sensible or realistic to me.  Everyone needs to figure out what works for them, though.

I am 3 1/2 weeks out of surgery and am finally starting to get creative with my protein. I have found that plain greek yogurt is a GREAT source of protein and that I hate protein shakes!!!! I will give them a try some other time and don't feel that they are necessary as long as I am able to get in my protein through other sources and quite frankly - why hate the food that goes in your mouth if you can still get what you need in other ways. I do drink no sugar added carnation instant breakfasts for breakfast. They are delicious and have 13 grams of protein. My kids love them too.

To help with protein I have started making shakes with

1/4 cup fruit (I find that raspberries are to seedy)
1/2 cup skim milk (4.5 grams of protein)
2 slenda packets
3 tbls plain greek yogurt (each tbls is 2.75 grams of protein)
ice
I mix this all up in my magic bullet and yum. It also counts as your liquid. (I am drinking a blueberry shake as I type).

I also eat 1/4 cup refried beans and dip them into 1 tbls of greek yogurt to bring up the protein intake.

I am finally TODAY allowed to have meats. I think this will help a lot with my protein intake. I already have a recipe ready. Talapia tonight!!!!

I JOURNAL JOURNAL JOURNAL everything I eat. I write breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack. During dinners I am supposed to eat a 1/2 cup (which is hard and sometimes I do not finish) and for my snacks I stick to a BABY BEL or a slice of cheese or something else that is small or a 1/4 cup. My new motto is protein first!!!! Someone else posted it and that, I think, is some of the best advice.

Good luck on your journey.

I would also like to add that you can add protein powder to think to boost the protein as well.

Measure everything. Use one of the online logging apps like LiveStrong  you can enter what you eat and the amounts it will then give you the nutritional breakdown and you can see what your prtein intake is. 

You really shouldn't worry about the calories and focus on just getting in the protein.

Thanks for the tips everyone! I can't wait to try that shake recipe. I use sparkpeople to keep track of everything. I like that I can save my favorites so I don't have to type them in each time. I am definitely going to make sure that every bite counts. I've tried greek yogurt in the past and didn't care for it, but I think I'll try it again. Even if I don't like it out of the carton, I can mix it in with other things! Protein, protein, protein!

THANK YOU!