Carbs and Calories OH MY the confusion

  OH Friends,

Ok so I am a little confused. When having foods is it that you want to have less carbs as possible to no carbs or less calories and somewhat carbs? I spoke to a nutritionist and she said you need to have carbs in your daily intake. I did mention that I was having the RNY done and she said I still would need to have carbs. So that is where I am confused. Maybe she is not away of the RNY or something. She was not able to give me all the details of the amounts as it was over the phone and she was leaving her office for the day. She said to make an apt with her.

Please help shed some light on this issue I am having. I know that most foods must be low in sodium as well as Sugar and saturated fats also must be low. 

P.S. I never paid attention to this before as I was a take out drive through kind of gal.

JUST CONFUSED 

Thank you,

Betty Jo

Not all carbs are created equally.  What you want to avoid are simple carbs (white flour, sugar, rice, pasta, bread, starchy veggies like potatoes).  What you want to HAVE are complex carbs, found in beans, legumes, vegetables, etc.  Do a quick Google search for "complex carbs" - those are the ones your body needs.

 Great thank you Karen that clears up alot. I understand now I was not sure before.

It's a good idea to start journalling your food now and see where you're at.  Then you can work on how to change things.  If you use an online journal, it will calculate carbs etc. for you.

For Rny - the biggest thing you'll want to avoid is sugar - because you might dump on that.  But I agree with Karen - avoiding those other kinds of "white" carbs is important too - mostly for weight loss.  

It would be pretty impossible to eliminate ALL carbs from your diet.  It would mean eating meat only pretty much.  Fruits and veggies are carbs.  BUT they are the kind of carbs that are very low calorie.  You can get a LOT of lettuce and cucumber for 100 calories.  But only about 1/4c of potatoes.  

Check out the "what are you eating" thread for ideas of what people eat post-op.  Not always 100% following the "rules" there - but most people, most of the time, do follow them.  

Good luck!

Hijack:  Erica, great to see you back!  Though I'm sure you'd rather still be in Hawaii. lol

Man - you're telling me.  I'm going to post a before and after (last Hawaii trip and this one) later ;0)

Hi, would you mind explaining the upgrade to fleur de lis TT and brachioplasty?  I'm on my 6th day of Optifast and have my surgery on August 8th so still a lot to learn! 

They are plastics.

I got OHIP approval for a panniulectomy (sp?) -which is basically just "lopping" off the fold of skin that hangs over your pubic area when you lose weight (or have kids, or both).  That was based on me having rashes etc.

I selfp-paid to upgrade to a full Fleur de lis Tummy Tuck.  A regular TT is similar to a panni except that the plastic surgeon puts your belly button back where it should be (it can be REALLY low or even cut off with the excess skin in a panni) and fixing of the stomach muscles (tying them back together in the middle - overweight woman and woman who have had kids often have a seperation between these muscles).  A Fleur de lis does all that and gives you a verticle incision (mine goes almost to my bra line) where they pull the skin from each side as well as down.  I had a "muffin top" roll as well - and it was totally gone with this.

Brachioplasty is an arm lift -basically a bat wing removal.  I have a few pics of both on my profile I think!

Good luck with your surgery!  I'm having surgery (breast lift and a scar revision) on Tuesday!

ill be thinking of you on Tuesday!!! you,ll do amazing !!! take care
jeanete

 Thank you very much for replying. Right now I am still doing optifast for anothe 11 days then surgery august 10th. I want to know everything there is to know before I get to the food stage which is a while from now.