Hello everyone! Any vegetarians on here?

So I started a group to see if I could find some other vegetarian/vegan folks that are on this site. I see there are a few other groups out there with the same focus but they seemed extremely inactive and also started several years ago. If anyone is ou there either living a plant based lifestyle before or after surgery (or even if you are just interested in it) please join. There isn't a lot of info about this with bariatric surgery so I think we can all help each other out. I hope we can make this an active group  

http://www.obesityhelp.com/group/Vegans_Vegetarians/tab,0/page,1/

There used to be a few regular posters who were vegan/vegerarian, but they haven't been active for a while. Some others pop up now and then, but don't stay active for long.

I used to eat a plant-based diet before surgery. Donuts, chips, fries, Little Debbie--plant-based food.

 Haha GrimTraveller but I hate to tell you donuts and little Debbie's aren't plant based. Unfortunately chips and fries are. I'm hoping I can find an active group of plant based people over here. Since we are such unicorns we need to Learn from each. 

You'll want to stay away from the daily menu thread on the RNY board next week, starting tomorrow. It's AMAW week.

What is AMAW? Oh, and btw I'm super glad to have someone talking to me my thread. I was beginning to hear an echo in here!

AMAW = All Meat All Week

I am not a vegan/vegetarian -- I am actually a meatatarian -- but I wanted to welcome you.  We did have a couple vegans who posted quite regularly for a while, but I haven't seen them recently.  Hopefully, one or two may be lurking, will catch your post and respond.

In any case, welcome and I hope this might bump you up to give more opportunity for one to catch your posting.  

Hi. The post op WLS long term maintenance can be really challenging.  Low carb - moderate high protein and fat seams to work best for most successful long term WLS, regardless of what surgery they had. 

Before my RNY I tried all type of diets - type of eating. One of them was vegetarian and vegan.  That's how I discovered that my body does not do well on plant based diet...Too many carbs. Not only I did not lose any weight on that lifestyle but I gained and gained fast.  Even my naturopathic doctor told to forget about vegan diet for my body type.  

I do believe that a lot of us who become so MO that we required surgery to fix us - have severe insulin resistant and react to carbs ...Even complex carbs.  I know some normal skinny people who are vegetarian - but then never had real weight issue and they do great on that type of diet. 

I personally don't know a successful WLS person or formerly MO person who does good on vegetarian- vegan diet long term.  

I personally become a second-hand vegetarian. I eat the things that eats veggies.....They process that for me. 

I still love my veggies, but a lot of them now give me a lot of problems, like gas, pain, indigestion.... 

For a while I used vegan proteins powders - but I quickly developed allergies- sensitivity to them (heavily processed) and I had to learn to rotate them making sure I don't use just one brand of one flavor for more that couple of meals at a time. 

I do hope it works for you... I couldn't be healthy and skinny on vegetarian- vegan diet. 

Hi, Vegbeth,

I'm not a vegetarian or vegan.  But at 2.5 years post-op and maintaining well I am interested in eating more veggies and plants than I do now.  I try to get at least 5 veggies / fruits in a day.  But I'd like to eat more like 9 a day.  

Currently, I eat a lot of chicken, fish and dairy, but I'm wanting to get more plant-based protein through beans/legumes.  I'm also aiming for a greater variety of foods, day to day.  

I think I'll follow your group / discussion.  Thanks for the notice.  

Ann 

P.S.  I do think we have to be very tolerant of what our individual bodies prefer.  I'm one of the lucky ones who isn't particularly carb-sensitive, but I have acquaintances who must eat keto to maintain their weight losses.  I think the trick is to know what our bodies need and to take responsibility for figuring out how to deliver that.  

Fun! I'm a former vegetarian, but I'll check it out! It's good you started this, there have been a few questions asked over the past couple of months about navigating wls while vegan or vegetarian!