I love carbs!

I've noticed a lot of people putting down carbs on this site, and it kind of upsets me. Yes, carbs were the enemy before the surgery, but afterwards, I'm eating a healthy amount of carbs on a daily basis. They're part of a well balanced diet. I know some people gain weight like crazy with carbs, and I understand those people having to give them up, but I feel that many people who could tolerate a normal amount of carbs are giving them up out of fear of weight gain or less than rapid weight loss.

I guess this rant is just my way of saying it seems high protein/low carb is a pretty big fad on OH, and I want people to realize that's not the only way to eat. You can still eat carbs and be healthy! Don't deprive yourself! Please, newbies, try integrating carbs in your diet. If it doesn't work for you, then cut them out, but at least you tried. I just hate the bad rap carbs get.

What is different about carbs before surgery to carbs after surgery for you?

Of course everyone is different but if eating a healthy or normal amount (which is what BTW?) of healthy carbs was impossible before surgery then I would venture to bet it is or will be the same after surgery too. Carbs are sliders mostly. So restriction doesn't usually help with them. I also love carbs and healthy ones like buckwheet, quinoa, whole grains, wild rice etc but I have had to relegate them to very occasional status while banning all white or processed ones.

You are very lucky if you manage to integrate healthy amounts of certain carbs into your post op diet and not go down that slippery slope that we all know only too well...

What's the difference?  I can't speak for the poster and maybe it was the baked potato i had pre-surgery, or maybe it was the 16oz steak i had with that.  I've never eaten processed food and the only white thing in my diet was potato and cauliflower and i still gained.  And as for what is a healthy amount? Well amounts are what we trade in with tiny stomachs, so less than protein. But what is the fear of healthy carbs.  Outside of Atkins Induction, i don't see a lot of healthy eating with a fear of plant life.

Now i eat carbs (not processed) and they are not sliders for me.  15 years ago i lost 100lbs and kept it off for 12 years, i ate what is called a balanced diet, with starches and grains.  I never had a problem, my weight loss with low carb has been slow and frustrating and i do believe my body liked my pre wls habits, however once on a path, one gets scared to switch, especially with slow weight loss.  Sure i gained the weight after 12 years (not all of it) but i still had 11 years more under my belt than i have now and certainly in terms of sleevers, I'm pretty sure i beat there time in too, so I'll have to reserve judgment.

 

I do feel if i hadn't started off with 600-800 carbs and 30-40 carb i would have had steps down to take and these last pounds would have been gone long ago. As i see it now after 18 months at these low numbers, this is it.  this is what maintenance will look like, so yes i feel like i wrecked my metabolism, since a glass of wine or a latte is an increase of a lb.  the 3500 cal = one pound just does not apply when your body is used to such deficit over a long period of time. So yeah i wish i had of taken another path.

 

Bottom line is there is no one diet that suits everyone.  We used to have quite a few people on here who got to goal not counting carbs.  The idea that there is just one path is what gets to folks.

 

The poster said she loved carbs, not tortilla chips. i fail to see how for some reading it it was the same thing.

Hey...I love carbs too...and I never ate the crappy ones before either...potatoes, good market fresh rye bread, quinoa, buckwheet, brown or wild rice...etc... Believe me if there was a way to do this while eating healthy amounts of healthy carbs, I would be the first one lining up for that. When you say you wish you had chosen a different path, which one would you have chosen in terms of numbers? I don't think I am following the 6-800 cals, 40 carb thing. I log my food and it falls within that most of the time but I don't aim for that per se. I do focus on protein and vegetables and I do eat fruit and have had the occasional grain/starch and even a ravioli or two while in Italy last week. My weight loss is still slow and I get what you are saying about a wrecked metabolism. I think mine is also. I think I eat pretty well balanced now and definitely all whole clean foods prepared at home and all bio from my local farmer's market.

i don't know how old you are, but from what I understand a person's metabolism changes as one ages.  My metabolism now at age 54 sure ain't what it was when I was 30 and lost 113.5 pounds in a year by eating well and exercising. 

One person's wrecked metabolism is perhaps another person's aging metabolism.

"One person's wrecked metabolism is perhaps another person's aging metabolism."

^^^This.

I'm "only" 37 but man... it's MUCH more work now than it was when I lost weight 15 years ago! *laughing* BUT I've always had to cut carbs to lose weight. I suspect it's the diabetes that runs in my family and just a sensitivity. You gotta find what works for you. It's not a fight. It's not a contest. It's your own body make up that matters. Too many carbs stall me, as does peanut butter and a few other things. I also have foods I cannot control myself around that I avoid.

I eat more carbs that many on here (no white bread, rice or pasta though). Carbs are not a trigger food at all for me. My issue was portion sizes and skipping meals and this isn't an issue anymore. My guide is my total calories, and if I happened to have had a high calorie lunch (because its had more carbs), then I eat lower calories at dinner. At this stage, the volumes I eat are so small, even a high calorie meal is barely over 200 calories.

At the end of the day, weight loss is a simple calculation of energy in versus energy out. As long as that is on track and you are eating a properly balanced diet of good foods, I don't prescribe to the notion that any one food type is especially evil. My lifestyle doesn't work if Im the difficult fusspot who won't eat this, that and the next thing as many of my meals are catered. I just east really small amounts and feel completely satisfied.

It doesn't seem to have effected my weight loss at all. 50kgs/110lbs in 4 months are pretty good stats as far as Im concerned. Could that have been 55kgs if I didn't eat carbs? Maybe, but Im not upset about it. Im bloody thrilled with where I am at and more importantly, I feel normal.

Im not a weirdo that obsesses about everything I eat and can't be social. I was worried about before surgery as socialising a big part of my career and lifestyle. But I just have a new version of social called "eats a baby bird portion of pretty much the same food as other people do and doesn't drink anything"...lol

As I have said before, there are always different roads to the same destination.

I don't see why it would upset you. If you're happy with the way you are eating and it is working for you, that's great. If your surgeon's plan includes a "healthy amount" of carbs that is what you should follow. Some surgeon's plans have pretty strict limitations on carbs. But in the end, everyone chooses his own path.

I had been an advocate of carbs for many years. Heck, I remember the whole phase during the 80's when everything was low fat, high carb. Remember that Susan Powder woman and her damned baked potatoes? LOL!!!!! But what my truth was is that I could always lose weight, but I'd always put it back on. I didn't get fat eating lean protein and vegetables, either. It was the fat and carb combination that did me in every time. Still, I couldn't imagine my life without at least the healthy carbs (or what I thought was healthy).

Getting ready for WLS I started doing a lot of research on carbs and protein because I was a big carb advocate. The more research I did, the more I came to understand how my body didn't really need carbs to function. I pretty much de-carbed during my pre op diet from September to December. When I got sleeved I followed my surgeon's plan, which was a lower carb plan. While he didn't give me a number to follow, his philosophy on eating carbs said it all, "If you eat the protein first and then the green vegetables, you won't have room for anything else for quite a while." So that's what I did.

I eventually added a few carbs back into my diet, especially once in maintenance. I have learned that I still need to regulate my carbs and must be very careful about letting refined and sugar carbs back in my diet. They are still a problem for me as they were before WLS. At 6 weeks out carbs weren't a problem at all. The farther out I got, the more I realized that carbs were a problematic element in my diet.

I would urge you to be very careful about your carb intake. You are very early out and the carb creep happens. It is sneaky, but it does happen, even to the most well intentioned people. I have a couple of friends who have yet to make their goal weight because they can't get back off the carbs and struggle with cravings. Hell, I had a little carb trouble in maintenance and had to go cold turkey off the carbs very recently. I can't tell you how much better I feel for doing it, too. I do eat carbs, but most of my carbs come from milk, yogurt, and occasionally cheese. The rest come from veggies and the occasional starch - sweet potatoes are now one of my favorites! In maintenance I find limiting my carbs to 80 - 100 grams works very well. If I ever need to drop a pound or two, I just lower the carbs and the calories, leave my protein the same and the weight comes off.

I am in no way flaming you or your statement, but I do want newbies to know that many successful VSGers have been successful following the low carb model. For those VSGers that have carb sensitivity, how ever that sensitivity may manifest itself - cravings, binging, uncontrolled hunger, etc...- eating a "healthy amount" of carbs may be very problematic.

I think her post was more about the impression often given around here that if you don't do it "XYZ way" you WILL DEFINITELY fail. Perhaps just worded strongly.

I know I found that scary and off-putting before I had surgery as I really believed, based on what I read here, that because I can't physically keep ANY kind of protein powder down, so cant do the XYZ plan, that I couldnt have the surgery and if I did, I was probably going to fail at best, or be very sick at worst. I sat on my couch crying many times about it. Fortunately my NUT and surgeon were far less stressed about it!...lol

Ya know what? I've managed without them, have perfect bloodwork, have lost 110lbs and Im not dying of malnourishment (an excellent bonus I think!). This is why I like seeing an alternative view every now and again. It's reassuring for people who can't do the XYZ thing that there are alternatives and work-arounds without compromising success.

Just my 5 cents there

There are too many factors at play here to list! I can and do get the 70-80 gr of protein in a day and I am not losing faster than you..probably because of a host of other issues. (I am jealous btw!) So its not all clear cut and causality is not so easy to establish. Just beware that deficiencies have a tendency to sneak up on you a year or so down the road when your body has depleted its stocked up stores of vites and if you have not replaced them through food or supplements. It does not happen the day after surgery, not three or four months out. So its important to monitor your blood work a year and later out from surgery.

I have many normie friends who don't get even 40 gr of protein in a day and they are just fine too. This doesn't mean that I will not be dilligent about the protein. And really no one says XYZ way or you will fail for sure. Its just folks sharing what they have experienced themselves and what they witnessed after years of observing WLS patients. We then draw our own conclusions and chart our own path.