Any RNY vegans out there?

Recently started my vegan journey and looking for any help, tips or suggestions regarding diet & nutrition.

Have you spoken to your nutritionist or dietician?  

My bff is vegan and she and I talk about our diets a lot. There's no way she could get the amount of protein I need with the size meals I'm supposed to eat. 

IMO it would be VERY difficult unless you plan to supplement for the rest of your life with protein shakes (and the vegan shakes that I have seen don't have very many grams of protein per serving in them).  I could never eat portions large enough in beans, tofu, etc. to get the required amount of protein for a day.

There was a poster on this site several months ago that tried to "get healthy" by going vegan and juicing.  She gained a significant amount of weight back and was warning people who were considering it to think about it.  As a vegan, you will be eating a lot of carbs.  That goes against everything my surgeon told me about maintaining my weight after RNY.  It's all about the protein and staying away from too many carbs.

I found the original post  http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/RNY/5311572/Gained-almost- ALL-the-weight-back-RNY-2010/

It's sad that that person did not stick around.

I hope she's OK.  She had an uphill climb.  

Have you considered becoming a vegetarian rather than a vegan? The vegan lifestyle would be very difficult for a bariatric patient, at least as a vegetarian you'd still be able to eat most protein, just not the kind from beef. 

It is pretty common for the definitions of these terms to get mixed-up. When I was vegetarian or vegan, this is what I learned. Vegetarians do not eat anything that requires an animal to die. This includes not eating fish. Vegans do not eat anything that comes from an animal, including eggs, cheese, milk ect. And they generally will not wear leather, furs ect.  People who eat fish, but will not eat other types of meat are called pescatarian.

This topic gets thrown around from time to time here so most of us here do know the difference. I get a lot of protein from milk, cheese, and eggs so I could be a vegetarian but I could never go vegan. I need a lot of protein to keep my protein levels up.

I'm with you, Laura.  I get 100 (or more) grams of protein daily and my numbers are STILL on the low end of normal. 

I'm pre-op (sleeve), and have gone back and forth from vegatarian  to vegan over the last several years. My nutritionist said that vegan WLS success is challenging but very possible.  She said vegatarian is not a problem at all. My nutritionist said the "protein is your priority" rule still applies, you just have different sourses of that protien. It is very possible, you just need to be very aware of what your eating. As for vegan protein powers.... I like the vega one products. They have 20g of protein, no sugar added, non-GMO and gluten-free.

Here is a list of vegan protein sources I recieved from my nutritionist.

Seitan - 36 g per 1/2 c.

Tofu 20 g. per 1/2 c.

Temph 15g per 1/2 c.

Hemp seeds 10g per 3 tablespoons

chia seeds 5g per 2 tablespoons

edmame 8g per 1/2 c

Quinoa 8g per cup

peas 8g per cup

nuts (varries)

Beans (varries)

Soy Milk 8g per 1/2 cup

Also keep in mind that you'll be eating all of 2 oz per meal for a very long time.  How will you make up for your protein needs?

Vegan would be very hard early on at least... quantity needed to near protein goals and density of most vegan protein sources is something that to me would be a lot of added pressure early on. 

Now vegetarian... not hard at all. Plenty of vegetarian protein sources... milk, cheese (ricotta, cottage), yogurt, soy, eggs, beans, nuts, protein powders, are a big part of almost all of our early post-op diets. I often have entire vegetarian days without even thinking about it.

I'm sure someone on OH has a group started of veggie/vegan members click on community or the search bar to find them. 

Best to you,

There's a bariatric surgeon in my city who supports a vegan diet.  You can find him on Facebook - Dr. Garth Davis.  He posts a lot of good tips and suggestions.  He was not my surgeon, but I like to read his stuff because I am mostly vegetarian.

I can offer you no advice on becoming vegan, only my condolences.

More meat for me.