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Hey! Thanks for your reply. I had a consultation with the surgeon who just gave me info on both surgeries and the dangers of being obese but no nutritional information. He said I have an eating disorder and need to get that treated before we can proceed with surgery but he didn't recommend me any services, just said to meet with a dietician twice a month until October and get a Psych evaluation. I'm already in therapy and psychiatry for depression and eating behaviors. They only mentioned it'd be a lot of protein shakes since I'm a vegetarian anyway. I've been on a 1500-2000 cal diet for the past 3 weeks and have lost 10 lbs but it's just calorie deficit and exercise, cutting out most sugary things but still eating carbohydrates. Wondering how different the diet will be even though I'm not getting surgery anytime soon. I'm super nervous for some reason and I hate all the unknown factors. It makes me so anxious not knowing what's expected of me. But i know I'll learn more tomorrow. Just checking what the diet is like and how restrictive it is in terms of macro nutrients. Sent from my SM-G975U using BariatricPal mobile app

Consider following a low carb/keto lifestyle https://www.everydayhealth.com/ketogenic-diet/diet/vegetarian-keto-diet-day-sample-menu-benefits-risks-more/ https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/keto/vegetarian

i'm lacto ovo vegetarian - and good thing i am because once i hit restriction i found that dairy (yogurt, low fat string cheese, etc.) all go down easier than the soy fake meats which from my understanding get stuck the same as real meat.

The food is made to get you hooked. Our tasted & pleasure section of the brain has been hijacked by "Fat, Salt & Sugar". It is not our fault. The gave rats sugar & cocaine. Saw both light up the same section of the brain. Then gave them a choice & each time they picked sugar. Sugar is in 95% of the food in our stores. Here is my story: I have posted it in a other sections; I was sleeved almost 5 years ago. I love it. But I my weight was climbing back up. I was up to 203 from 172. I was having nightmares about my weight coming back. I notice some people would look at my belly before making eye contact, like before. Well my wife came back from her check up in Feb and was told her cholesterol was 345. Her Cardiologist ( from India ) told her she was a heart beat away from a heart attack or stroke & needed to go on a vegetarian diet. Well our daughter told us to watch "FORKS over KNIVES" made in 2011. It saved her friends life. So we watched it on Netflix. We were stunned. First thing you think of is "why is this information not getting out to us?" You are taught If you put good stuff in your body, the body will fix itself. The problem was we did not know what the good stuff was. My wife got up & we cleaned everything bad out of our kitchen & went to the store. ( No gimmicks to buy.) We went back to the Cardiologist 2 months later. He told my wife was in STAGE #2 of Heart disease. We told him we were following the Forks over Knives way of eating. He stated this, "THERE IS NOTHING I COULD DO BETTER THAN WHAT YOU ARE DOING. YOU WILL CURE YOURSELF." Then he wanted to take blood work to see the changes. RESULTS: Wife Numbers WAS 345 New 171 Cholesterol, Her BAD cholesterol was 233 New 71, Lost 25 pounds. Mine: 190 old New 134 weight was 203 now 175. If your cholesterol is below 150 you are heart attack & stroke proof. The doctor took my wife off her meds! Two friends are doing this after I gave them the movie to watch. The are losing weight & both were taken off there diabetic meds. IT CURED THERE DIABETIC PROBLEM. There blood work will be done this month. This is a healthy lifestyle to eat. You eat all you want. No counting. No worrying about anything. Just eat the healthy stuff as much as you want. ​There is a second DVD on Netflix "PlantPure Nation". The doctors go to a town in NC and put volunteers on the Whole Plant Base food for 20 days. The results of blood work in 20 days will surprise you. The body fixes itself fast. This is information that should be taught in school.

I'm 6 weeks post op and here are something's I eat: Vegetarian chili Blackbeans Greek yogurt Canned chicken with Greek yogurt and seasons Tuna Salmon Shrimp cheese Cottage cheese Tomatoe Soup made with milk Refried Beans Toasted half English muffin with pizza sauce and cheese to make a mini pizza

It does sound like your surgeon is vegetarian. My plan is Protein first also, which in this case would be Beans. My surgeon is adamant that I get at least 100 grams of protein, starting the day after surgery. Protein and fluids are critical for healing and weight loss. Beans do have protein, just not as much as some other sources of protein. As to "feeling full", I go for "satisfied" instead of full.

I posted a comment on another members topic on Vitamins and have been receiving a lot of emails on what vitamins I use, and how to test your vitamins. Most people do not realize the type of Vitamin we take is very important. NOT ALL VITAMINS ARE CREATED EQUAL! Our stomach acids are suppose to dissolve the vitamins and our body needs to absorb it. Thats how our bodies receive its nutrients. If your vitamins are not working for you, then you are just swallowing a pill for no reason!!!! It doesnt matter how much they cost, it only matter if our body is absorbing the nutrition of the vitamin. This is important because for many reasons like skin, hair, bones, teeth, nail, endurance, sleep, weight loss, etc... Here is a video on how to test your vitamins. PLEASE DO THIS ASAP! Doesnt matter if your vitamins are only $10, if its not working for you then its a waste of $10. By the way, I use It Works vitamins which are, 100% NATURAL, WHOLE food COMPLEX & 100% ABSORBANT. Since I haven't had a fill in 2 years because I watch what I eat and now am a vegetarian, I can swallow the pills whole. (Do not recommend swallowing whole for other banders, crushing in the blender with your Protein shake is better) Good luck! Hope this helps! Please let me know how the test worked for you.

It's best to stick with liquids the first two weeks of your Post Op. You're almost at the 14 day mark where you will then have two weeks of pureed foods where you will have more of a variety of choices. The first two weeks I was allowed: Garden tomato organic Soup Cream strained Soups 2 % milk chicken, Beef and Veggie broth V-8 juice sugar free Jello Greek Yogurt Protein shakes G2 Gatorade Water water water You move onto pureed foods in just four days and will have more of a variety. I found that i could chew soft foods well enough to where i didn't puree them. Such as scrambled egg w/ organic salsa unsweetened apple sauce w/ dash of cinnamon Low fat cottage cheese vegetarian refried Beans canned white beans Hope that helps

Fullprice, I was banded a week ago and feel like i am also going to fast. i have been sticking to soft foods but not necessarily pureed. It is hard for me to eat pureed meats. Because i was raised a vegetarian. I hope all works out for you.

Some do it & swear by it but then you can find someone who swears by any diet and many for whom they didn’t work. No one diet works for everyone because we have different needs. In maintenance you need to find, not a diet, but a way of eating that works for you. One that is sustainable (this is life long & many diets are short term only), provides your body with what it needs & complements your life & how you want to live it. It may incorporate aspects of many styles of eating. For example I’ve included aspects of keto & Atkins, occasionally include vegetarian meals, usually fast for about 13hrs overnight, etc. I only fast 13+/- hrs because if I eat breakfast too early my tummy doesn’t like it & it sits heavily or I feel blah. And I eat the high protein of keto/Atkins because I don’t absorb protein well. So I included these aspects just to keep my body happy & functioning well. So, sure give intermittent fasting a go & see if it works for you.

I can NOT believe I have made it this far and my surgery is at 11:30 tomorrow. It has been a long journey (a longer story for another time). I am weak and hungry as h*ll....really...the family fish look good at this point...and I am a vegetarian so that is a strong urge! :-) But all that said...I am beyond excited to start my new life.

Hi, I am trying to find any vegetarian support group on this website? Can't find one. If you are vegetarian please let me know what you eat in a day? I am not losing weight and part of the problem is being vegetarian because I can't find foods which are not slider and keep me full. I eat rice, lentils and bread mainly. I do protein shakes daily. Please, share your ideas, menus, successes, failures and recipes here to help me with my plateu.

you need to experiment with different kinds of beans; black Beans, pinto beans, navy beans, garbanzo beans(what they make hummus with), etc, beans are going to stick with you and when combined with a rice like brown rice, it is a complete Protein. All the carbs you are eating are causing you to crash, blood sugar wise which are naturally going to make your insulin spike and cause hunger. If you were linking your carbs with protein (a 30:15 ratio is usually recommended), your insulin would spike less and you would stay full often. Beans should also not be getting stuck to bad. What about tofu? I like it and I am not even a vegetarian. You need to check out your whole foods market. Are you one of those vegetarians that eat a little bit of chicken or fish? Dairy also has protein in it and Greek yogurt is the highest, or some cheese and nuts are also good protein Snacks.

There are a lot of threads on here for pureed foods. Today is my last day on purees. I ate pureed beef stew, vegetarian chili, regular chili, chicken salad, cheese and broccoli soup, yogurt...and that was the extent of it. I never got more creative than that because I had soooo much leftovers from the stew and chili I made.

Do you make it or buy it? I am a vegetarian, so this definitely sounds like an option for me!

Hi Everyone, I was wondering if there are any practicing vegetarians in the group? During my pre-surgery exams, I was diagnosis with cancer. I was told adopting a vegetarian would be the best for my health. I know that eating a plant based diet is healthy but was not sure if you could eat enough plant-base to meet Protein requirements. Are you easily meeting the protein requirements the by-pass needs? Do you use extra supplements? Any issues you experience in doing this? Thank you.

There is no need to go "keto" or "low carb" after WLS even though many users on this board are eating this way. You need to figure out what works for you. You might want to check out the vegetarian threads on this board.

ricotta cheese with some tomato sauce, grated cheese, and mushed up vegetarian "meat" balls (miniscule amounts of everything of course)! and refried beans with cheese. And pureed vegan bean soup. I forget which one I had first, but those were all within the first few days!

I do fine as a vegetarian, but I think after all restrictions are lifted I may want to transition to a vegan diet excluding milk and egg products. Which is primarily where I get my protein sources from (whey, eggs) now.

I think we are responsible for eating a certain amount of good Protein daily but it will not hurt to add in other things to give variety. Bariwise hot cocoa for example is made with these ingredients: first Calcium caseinate then hydrolyzed Gelatin etc etc this is what WIKI says about calcium caseinate "Calcium caseinate is a protein produced from casein in skim milk. At neutral or acid pH, casein is relatively insoluble in Water, and is easily separated from other milk Proteins, sugars and minerals. After their removal, the casein is solubilized at a high pH with calcium hydroxide; the solution is then dried (usually spray dried). Calcium caseinate contains about 17% glutamic acid. Its main food uses are for powders requiring rapid dispersion into water, such as coffee creamers & instant cream soups. It is also used as a dietary supplement by bodybuilders and other athletes who ingest it before bed, with Breakfast, or as meal after working out as it breaks down at a slower rate than whey protein, thus supplying the body with a sustained amino acid release.[1] Mead Johnson introduced a product in the early 1920s named Casec to ease gastrointestinal disorders and infant digestive problems that was the cause of death in children.[2] Calcium caseinate is soluble and does not clot in the stomach. It is believed to neutralize capsaicin, the active (hot) ingredient of peppers, jalapeños, habaneros, and other chili peppers." Hydrolyzed gelatin. is made of collagen and not good source of your protein daily but as a second ingredient to a milk product it is not bad for you. I'm using these products in conjunction with whey and better proteins. However gelatin has been proven to strengthen hair, nails and even joints. So just be smart about it's use. Gelatin is made from animals and therefore some people who are vegetarian don't eat it and the WHO and FDA acknowledges that they are not sure if gelatin is a carrier for Bovine Spongiform encephalopathy ( also known as mad cow disease). So far in the USA we appear to not have a problem with BSE but it really is not known. I take the chance because you would have to have the genetic make up and be exposed to catch BSI which in humans is called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or CJD. I am very involved with the community of doctors and scientists who are the watch dog in the US for this devasting fatal illness. From diagnosis to death in only 2-4 months with no treatment. You can find out more about this at The CJD Foundation. I lost my brother in law who was 29 years old to this disease but it was a sporadic type that just happens in some people and we don't know why. His was not from animal products. Anyway I use gelatin products and feel safe with it but I know many Doctors and Scientists from abroad that wont eat beef in the USA because of our lenient laws that allow animal products and animals to get past the inspection point. This is probably more than anyone wanted to know but as a lobbyist for better safer food choices in the USA I have a responsibility to educate people and give them something to think about and then they can make their own educated decision. Thanks for putting up with my long explanations!

As a vegetarian how is your weight loss going I'm worried mine will be slower. I've been vegetarian since I was 13 and gained so much cause I became a carb junkie.

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/slow-cooker-vegetarian-chili-with-sweet-potatoes#close I love this recipe and it is made in the crock pot. I add extra Beans to increase the Fiber and Protein. Sent from my SCH-I545 using the BariatricPal App

Hi all- anyone struggling with high cholesterol? I'm 37 and 2 years ago my cholesterol went absolutely wacky, high. It's always been healthy and low, low prior. It was one of the reasons I did LBS. I'll give it some time. But, it's unnerving. Now, the docs don't think it's food related, maybe genetic or something wrong... I feel great otherwize. I'm 2+ months post op now and my cholesterol went higher. Trigs high too. LDL,HDL sucks? Some of the shakes I've been doing are supposed to help LOWER it? I added in the oatmeal too. I'm a vegetarian so I have been doing up dairy for protein. I'm starting a statin today to see if once I get it lowered in 6 weeks and retest, maybe it will stay low. Hopefully I don't get all the icky side effects from the script. I loathe meds. I couldn't find a Red Yeast Rice tablet that would be small enough to take, or I probably might have done that. It too, comes with complications/ side effects. Exercise, check Whole Grains, check, check Vegetables, Fruit, check No greasy, fried foods, red meat, check Dumbfounded, check.

Genepha, Our story is almost the same. I had surgery on Jan 18th, and the first two weeks I lost 23 lbs... I have been on a plateau, gaining 2 or losing 2 or staying the same for 4 weeks (28 days) so far. I am eating between 6-800 cals a day. I just added back regular exercise this week, walking and dance classes. (I was walking before as well) I just can't believe the scales are not moving! I guess I can try and go up to 1000, kind of makes me nervous, but not losing any weight makes me nervous too! I eat round 4 small meals a day, with maybe a Protein Drink snack. I know I cant stay at this weight forever, Im just not taking in that many calories. Before surgery I was eating between 1600-1800cal a day and losing very slowly, but losing. I a m a vegetarian, and most of my Proteins have some carbs. (40-80 a day) On the bright side, my BP has been good, I have lost 4 inches off my stomach, and people who I haven't told have noticed Just wish I would get off this plateau!

Im a vegetarian but my husband LOVES his meat lol. In our house we eat ALOT of Gardein products. They are by far the best faux meats Ive had. Fieldroast also makes really good hot dogs. Tofurkey makes a Italian sausage that's really good (its in a red pack) but most of their other stuff Im not too fond of. Gardein is in the frozen section and Tofurkey is usually in produce. Hopefully some good tasting faux meats will make plant based a little easier to transition to.