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Exactly as @SpartanMaker & @i bypassedmyphatass said. Diets are for the short term not the long term. The bariatric diet is devised for a specific short term purpose. While it is restrictive in the first weeks to support your healing, it does encourage you to slowly add more nutritional sources as you progress. One of the things you’ll do as you near maintenance is work out how you want to eat for the long term. Not a ‘diet’ but a sustainable way of eating that works for you & meets the needs of your body. I find it amusing when people consider our bariatric post surgery diet is high protein. It really is just focussed on protein first. Most of us are advised to consume 60g of protein while losing. In actuality, this is less than the daily recommended amount - 1g of protein per 0.8kg for our weight at that time. (Though I was told by my dietician as a woman in her 50s I should be having 1g per 1kg of weight.) So at my surgery, when I was about 85kg I should have been eating 68g - 85g of protein. Don’t know about you but before I started this process I never ate any where near the recommended amount of protein I needed. Remember if there was a single diet that worked for everyone, no one would be obese & we’d all eat exactly the same way. Diets are too restrictive to be be sustainable. That’s why we could lose weight on a diet but could never keep it off. I don’t follow a ‘diet’ at all now. I worked out what foods provide the nutrition I need, enable me to maintain without restricting my life & keep my body happy. Like, I aim to eat 70g of protein because of my absorption issue & I avoid bread, pasta, rice & potato because they sit heavily in my tummy. You’ll work out a way of eating that works for you too. Do your own research about nutrition. Start now so as you add new foods back into your diet you are making healthier choices & to see how your body responds to them. Remember any pro diet sites (keto, Atkins, etc.) will only give you biased information about how great & wonderful that diet is. Just ensure you’re eating a range of foods to satisfy your nutritional needs. In the meantime, follow your plan & the advice of your dietician & surgeon & listen to your body.

The macros for post wls diet and keto are different. For post wls surgery, the dominant macro is protein. The moderate macro is fat and minimal macro is carbs. For Keto diet, the dominant macro is fats, the moderate macro is protein and the minimal macro is carbs. You have to stick to the macros in order to stay in ketosis. It can be a slippery slope. I think a lot of people call "low carb" diet keto. They're not the same. You can do a low carb diet, by only changing the amount of carbs. If you do keto, you have to change your protein and fat macros as well. Keto isn't really sustainable, that's why it's often considered a fad diet. It's often used for short periods, not really long term. Keto when done long term can eventually do harm to your metabolism, cause kidney stones and other issues.

When I started trying to make better choices, a lot of times I'd type the name of the restaurant + either "keto" or "eat this not that" into Google and use that as my starting point

I don't think keto is any more a fad diet than is the diet recommended to post surgical bariatric patients. They both have specific purposes and are (or were) very effective for their original purposes. The keto diet was originally developed a long time ago as a specific treatment for severe epilepsy. At the time, before antiepileptic drugs, it worked very well in controlling symptoms. The problem is that it became popular for weight loss and it's probably not the healthiest way to eat long term. That said, I think the same thing is true for the post-surgical bariatric diet. It's a diet developed for a specific purpose and it works well for that, but it's not really a healthy way to eat for the general population. The reason we eat a protein forward diet is for a few reasons: Protein helps preserve as much muscle as possible while eating a low calorie or very low calorie diet. This helps keep your metabolism as high as possible so you burn more calories at rest. A carb forward diet (or even a more balanced diet), would cause your body to burn less fat at any given time because carbs are easily burned for energy, whereas protein is not. Protein (actually the amino acids in protein), are essential to your bodies proper functioning, whereas consumption of fat or carbs is not nearly as important. Protein is even more important when healing, thus it's critical post-surgery. The reason the medical community focuses on protein for bariatric surgery patients is due to the above. It's not because protein is actually "healthier". It's just because we are so restricted in what we can eat, thus tradeoffs must be made. I think most doctors would agree that once a bariatric surgery patient can eat more, they should not eat more protein, but instead should work to add healthy fats and carbs ASAP in the form of more whole foods. The general consensus in the medical community is that the healthiest diet is one that starts with lots of fruits and vegetables, has very little processed food, and a lot less meat than what most American or Western Europeans eat.

Why is keto considered a fad diet but the bariatric diet is considered appropriate to follow? For example, my surgeon said to get 60-80g of protein per day, less than 50 carbs per day, and less than 50 fats per day. Keto is high protein, low carb, and higher healthy fats (think mct oil, avocado, not necessarily eggs and bacon). Both are also low/no sugar and require you to eat at a calorie deficit (they just specify how much since calories are not the main concern for either one). Both also require some exercise, based on your ability. The ONLY difference is the fat content. They are virtually the same otherwise, yet one is considered a fad and the other is acceptable. Why? If one can stick to the bariatric diet, why is it assumed they couldn't stick to keto?

6am I always have my first Calcium chew in the morning. Drink water while getting ready 10oz 7:00am take a stool softener & Bupropion stop drinking water 7:30am Keto Toast with PB2 or yogurt 8:00-9:00am water 10oz 9:00-10:00am Fairlife Shake 10:00-11:30am 12oz water 12:00pm lunch I tend to do the balance breaks cheese & wheat thins 12:30 multi vitamin (I feel sick for an hour after taking but notice when I take around this time after lunch its not near as bad) 1:00-2:30pm 17oz water 2nd Calcium chew 2:30-3:30pm fairlife shake 3:30-5:00pm 17oz water 5:00 take 3rd Calcium chew & Bupropion as I leave work dinner time always varies drink water when I can before bed usually 10 ish 2 iron chews and a vitamin c tablet its became such a habit to check the clock I never set timers

It was a decent alternative, I didn't particularly care for how easy they break but it was a nice alternative. The cool ranch ones are pretty good too. In addition to the original post, I can't help with an overabundance of meals but I do eat a slice of keto bread with PB2 every morning. 7g of protein, 1.5 fat 0 sugars. Quick and easy I'm pretty basic with most of my meals. When I have a sweet tooth I usually cut an apple and coat it with cinnamon and pop it in the oven at 400 for 15-20 min.

I did not have to do Keto. you just need to get good protein, which is not a problem since you can get plant based protein powders.

Thanks! I have to lose 2 more kgs to go below 100. I'm so excited to see the magical 99 KG on the scale. Good luck to you also. Keto worked for me the first round and I lost a considerable weight. Not the second time though.

I'm sorry you have to deal with that on top of surgery as well! My periods have become irregular as I have gotten older, so you are now living my fear. With caffeine I had a headache for 3 days when I gave it up, with my keto diets in the past I never got headaches but I heard the keto flu is common and ranges in duration. Whatever it is though, I hope it passes soon. The diet is bad enough without adding pain to the mix. Oh no!! I'm so sorry! That really is horrible to get that close and have to start over. Hugs!

Could be. "Keto Flu" is pretty common when people start eliminating carbs.

I didn't like them, the taste isn't great and the texture is weird. I would skip it. There are a lot of recipes to make "egg Crepes" and wrap on keto sites. Way better.

just another update… down to 374.4! thats 65 lbs this year so far! it’s been several years since i have seen my weight under 390!! Been doing some really hard emotional work and am pretty used to the keto… think that combo is bringing success

No, they don't clash at all. I think you can put anything in them, and it will be fine. Because they are just eggwhites, they are on the bland side so you have to season them up with whatever goes with what you are putting inside. They were good grilled. They have southwestern, everything bagel and a few other flavors too that I have been meaning to try. I remember stuffing them with cooked veggies, different types of meats, even ground cooked meat, lettuce and cheese. If I were a keto type of person (I am not), I would buy it regularly.

When I was in nursing school in the late 90s, during my pediatric clinicals, I took care of a baby that had hundreds of seizures a day, and they put her on the keto diet to try to help. THAT'S what the keto diet was originally for, but some fad to lose weight. I wouldn't go to any surgeon who recommended ANY type of strict diet to me that left out whole food groups. Now, my surgeon did recommended very low carbs at first, but gradually adding them in. It is a very balanced approach and no food is completely off limits, in moderation, of course. I eat mostly vegetarian so that was important to me. Now, I am not a complete vegetarian and I was willing to eat some chicken and fish to get more protein after my surgery. Anyway. All surgeons are different. If you're not happy with their plan, find another doctor who is more aligned with the way you want to eat. This has to be permanent lifestyle change, and to be successful it's important to find something you can stick with long term. Some of my family does keto and it's always all or nothing with them. One minute they're totally strict, the next minute they're living on processed carbs.. It's a total diet mentality which I don't believe in. I don't want to get on my soapbox here. Just wanted to tell you that not all surgeons are gonna say you have to do keto. Sent from my Pixel 5a using BariatricPal mobile app

do you think that you may not qualify because you haven’t lost weight? do not worry about that. it’s more of a formality that insurance companies put out there. I guess the thought is that overweight people have never tried to loose weight so they should try once before surgery lol have you consulted with a nutritionalist yet? that can help you prepare for the bariatric journey even if it’s not required. do you have an app or journal where you track off of your food intake? for me, this was important to gauge what i was eating and where i needed to adjust. i currently am doing a pre op keto diet and use “Carb Master” to look at all of my nutritional macros (protein/fat/carbs/calories). it helped me actually shed some weight before going down to keto low carb levels (and been fantastic since hitting that level) i will say that it is important to understand your nutritional habits and change unhealthy ones if possible before surgery to avoid issues. knowledge of self is true power in this situation! have you completed the other insurance requirements or still working on them?

worry is completely natural. talk to the doctor openly and honestly about your concerns, issues and fears. A good surgeon should have answers and make you more comfortable with your decision. You CAN do this. You CAN improve your life and have a new and exciting chapter. message me anytime make a list of what you want from life. see how many of them surgery will help you achieve. The liver shrinking diet that i was given is not as bad as I thought (Dr plans vary!) and am already doing it without an exact surgery date. I am not on liquids but low carb (keto) which is doable for the short term. come here for support, ask questions or release your fears. we want tos we you live your best life!

Congratulations! It's a pretty amazing achievement to have lost 46 kilos. I too, am waiting impatiently to get to a double digit number on the scale. I haven't lost as much as you - yet, but I haven't been under 100 kilos since 2007, so for 15 years. I also tried keto but didn't do as well as you did. You can do this. 😁

Hi everyone! I've been a silent reader of these forums and have found a lot of answers and inspiration in here that helped me a lot along my weight loss journey. This is my first post and just wanted to first thank you for sharing your experiences and stories and to share mine as well. Hopefully this will inspire someone to take the decision. I had my surgery on 30 January 2022 and I'm glad I did. I'm going to be 40 in September and I've always been overweight. I've tried several diets, lost and gained a lot of weight. The last diet I've tried was Keto diet back in 2019. I was able to lose 25 Kg. Then Covid-19 came, the lockdowns and having to work from home. I gained all the weight back and some more 😥. Fast forward to January 2022. My sister (who is also overweight) was in Egypt on a business trip. She met one of her classmates in there who lost almost half of her weight and looked unrecognizable. My sister's friend recommended that she consult the same surgeon that did her mini gastric bypass surgery. After visiting that surgeon, my sister decided to have the surgery by mid January 2022. We talked about it and I discussed with the surgeon over Skype and made the arrangements to have mine by end of January 22. I had my surgery on 30 January 22 and stayed in the hospital for two days. I then flew back to Malaysia a week after. My starting weight was 149 Kg and my current is 103 Kg. I'm super happy with my decision and consider that to be my 40th birthday gift to myself. I feel and look amazing and I'm able to do a lot of the things that I've always wanted to do but couldn't because of my weight. I even got myself a mountain bike that I ride every night around my house. I hope I will be down to two-digits weight just in time for my 40th birthday! I'm planning to join a gym next month which will hopefully help with loose skin and speed up the weight loss. I've started a list of all of the things that I've always wanted to do but couldn't and I'm really excited to tick as items much as I can.

My husband of 17 years is just really driving me CRAZY!!!! I've made a lengthy post about some health stuff I have going on right now (reflux, esophagitis, gastritis, esophageal spasms, and esophageal dysmotility which they think is caused by a hernia...waiting for appt for scope) and he's using it as an excuse to just stop working out, stop eating right, stop everything. None of what I have going on is from my surgery. I don't have any leaks, strictures, blockages, nothing. BUT, this started after I did an insanely intense workout, so everyone is thinking that's the cause. ANYWAY, he has a pattern of quitting stuff when he starts, as soon as it gets hard. College, 3 different side businesses, working out, keto, vegan, low/no fat, calorie counting, bariatric surgery (had 1 consult, set up the nutritionist appt and backed out. Did this 3x before they said he couldn't come back), etc etc etc. He's always been like this, but it's gotten worse over the last year or so. He literally follows through on NOTHING. Not one single thing. OH, unless it's involving wrestling or gaming. Oh THEN his follow-through is on point. Can't let his guild down!! Can't let his buddies down!! Can't miss wrestling (he literally watches Mon - Fri, and if there's pay per view on the weekend, he watches that, too). I work full time and pay all the bills. The deal we have is I will work and he is to take care of the house, grocery shopping, etc (I have a much higher earning potential than he does, and I love what i do, and he doesn't like to work, and I hate household stuff, so in theory the deal works) but he's been slacking on that, too. I'm cleaning up behind him, doing chores, grocery shopping. He's sleeping or gaming or whatever. We've argued about it and I told him if I have to take care of the house AND work, then he needs to go get a job too. If I have to work full time, do the cooking and cleaning and shopping then what the heck is he even here for? He's not supportive anymore, we don't do anything together, we argue a lot, and he has NO FOLLOW THROUGH ON ANYTHING. He gets all excited "I'm gonna start a youtube channel" or "I'm gonna start streaming on Twitch" or "I'm going to design websites for a living" or "I'm gonna go to school and get my degree in Early Childhood Education and work as a teacher online" etc. And he ends up doing NOTHING. "I'm gonna work out and get healthy so we can lose weight and have better health together" and "I'm gonna eat right and make sure we have healthy food in the house so neither of us are tempted to cheat" and then he goes to Burger King and buys 2 double whoppers with fries and eats it all. I'm just so sick of it all. I hate even being around him sometimes. He's just so LAZY and has zero motivation for anything at all. It's infuriating!!!

Check out Heavenly fan on youtube. She is vegan based keto.

Most any sensible diet works post op and can be adapted for the immediate post op transition period as well. Vegetarian/vegan is tricky for a while because of the low protein density of most foods and the small amount that can be consumed for a while, but there are some veg protein drinks out there that can be used. Does this surgeon have an RD associated with the practice? They would be the most helpful in tailoring a diet for your needs - most understand that for a diet to be successful, it has to work for the individual. Some surgeons will jump on the latest fad diet, like keto, as a way of "tailoring" their program to the greatest number of potential patients while keeping it "one size fits all". When I went through this, there was a clique of patients on these forums who were all gaga about their surgeon because he was a strict low carb fan and they were all hooked on the low carb fad and many chose him specifically for his diet (Keto wasn't a thing then, more classic Atkins was the then current fad). A great marketing tool for the surgeon, and an OK diet for many patients, but hardly a necessity. Our program was quite flexible, aiming mostly to get maximum tolerance while keeping to the protein levels and textures required early on, Right out of the hospital we could have eggs, oatmeal, cream of wheat, sloppy mashed potatoes, refried beans, yogurt, etc. and it was quite successful for most everyone. So no need to get into any of those fad diets, or put up with docs who do.

Have a look at Dr Matthew Weiner’s Pound of Cure book & his you tube videos. He’s a bariatric surgeon who supports a low animal protein diet. It may not be anything all that new but may make you more comfortable about how to manage your weight loss post surgery. A good dietician should help you devise a way of eating that is best for you, your health requirements & your eating preferences. The biggest ficus post surgery is your prirein intake (& fluids) but I’ve never heard anyone say they were restricted to getting their protein only from animal sources. Plenty of plant based protein shakes & powders, yoghurts, milk, etc. as you know you can eat to meet the goals you’ll be given. Initially after the surgery you will be on a staged return to eating diet. This is support your healing tummy & not put undue stress on your digestive system. There are some foods we’re not advised to eat during this period. But again a good dietician should be able to advise you of alternatives. Mind you many have refried beans on their list of recommended foods during the staged return to eating stages. While I was on keto for my pre surgery diet, I was not encouraged to follow it long term by my dietician: good for kickstarting a diet but not long term she advised. I had my own doubts about it so I was glad. Many of us use the weight loss stage to devise a way of eating that best suits our needs & preferences & don’t follow any specific ‘diet’. I mean if there was a diet that worked for everyone none of us would have been obese & needed surgery. Personally I’m a low fat, low carb (2 serves of whole/multigrain carbs a day), low sugar & high protein (absorption issue). Many vegetarians successfully have surgery so your eating preferences should not be a deterrent to you either once you find a supportive surgeon & dietician.

am starting my pre op eating habits early (no surgery date yet - late sept or early oct) and am trying to do less than 50 total carbs a day (keto) but not strict (been 75 carbs - 2 days and under 50 - 5 days this past week) … and it has worked well this last week! down 6 lbs in one week!! I am now down to 389.8 (8/23/2022)from my high weight last year of 452. (426 in April 2022) woo hoo yay me

It might be helpful to remember what a true keto diet is vs. what diet culture makes it out to be. A TRUE keto diet simply means eating few enough carbohydrates that your body enters ketosis where it is no longer using glucose as its primary fuel source. It is NOT inherently a high fat, meat only diet. That is what diet culture has turned it into. There are lots of vegetarians who follow a healthy, whole foods based ketogenic diet. Additionally, the amount of carbs that allow ketosis will vary WIDELY from person to person so unless you are testing regularly, you won't really even know if you are truly in ketosis or not. Now, that being said, most surgeons will say that WLS patients eat a keto diet simply because your primary focus will be protein and your intake will be so low that by virtue of the volume and type of foods you'll be eating you'll be in ketosis. Immediately post-op, you won't be able to eat enough beans (or anything else for that matter) to get in your full protein requirement, let alone extra grains & veggies on top. That is not, however, a requirement (generally speaking) nor is it permanent. Over time, as you're able to eat more food and a wider variety, you'll very likely see your carbohydrate intake increase. I would say, it may be helpful to revisit the conversation with the surgeon and/or dietitian to ensure they understand your needs as a vegetarian and that they are able to support you and tailor the post-op diet to your needs. If they can't or won't then it may be helpful to consult with another surgeon. Ultimately, being HEALTHY post-op is the primary concern and that requires eating a metric crap ton of protein. Can you do that as a vegetarian? Absolutely! But it will require extra support and possibly some creativity and flexibility on your part. Best of luck to you!