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Not really. I just don't care. Maybe it's from years of being the lone vegetarian in the crowd so often, I simply don't care.

I didn't totally go back in and reboot the stages, I just added things back in from previous stages like adding protein powder or shake to hit chocolate or oatmeal. I'm still doing shakes every day and this may remain forever in my routine (I'm only three months out btw) I was able to commit to creamer or half and half forever so it's a nice trade And by using it in coffee I easily reach Protein goals by lunch where as before I was struggling at 9pm trying to get more in. And now I maybe able to return to my previous vegetarian lifestyle (ovo lacto) in about 2 months when see my surgeon again which is my first goal now Sent from my N817 using BariatricPal mobile app

You don’t have to get all your Protein from meats. There are lots of people who are vegetarians and they get these surgeries done. It just means you have to work harder to get your protein in other ways. I can’t stand meat alone. Make a curry or stew version and cut the meat in to the sauce in shreds. Add lots of vegetables and other stuff to your meal. The first six months after surgery I used to eat lean meat and I pretty much hated life by the end.

I've been a vegetarian for more than 8 years, but after surgery, to meet my protein reqmts, I have started eating fish and chicken. Fish has become my fav source of protein.

There is a site called bariatricfoodie.com or also there's a free bariatric cookbook from Georgetown... You can just search it and it should come up. I use a lot of vegetarian recipes and then add in tofu or veggie crumble. I'm a big van of spaghetti squash... And I also I do each some legumes... Occasionally chick peas or whatnot.

I'm vegetarian, but the only thing that worked for me was eating as clean as possible. I watch white carbs, but I use sugar, raw honey and occasionally maple syrup.

I do. ANd as soon as I did (yesterday) solids with protien (soy protien as I am a vegetarian) I found myself not as hungry as I was on mushies and soft foods. But yes, i was hungry an hour after eating.

@@Terry Lincoln - I'm not a veteran so take this with a grain of salt. I am a long time MFP user. (Milaxx) MFP is not set up for baritraic diets and probably will never have that type of setting. However I don't worry about % as much as I look at types of foods and when those food are eaten. I am a vegetarian and since most of my protein is plant based my carbs tend to be a lot higher than a lot of people would be comfortable with. I also vary my calories consumed based on how active of a day I have. Complex carbs don't slow my weight loss and neither does natural sugar. Too much sodium and processed foods do. So what I did was manual set thing for how my body works. As long as I meet my protein goal, keep my calories low and manage to stay under the other macro nutrients I am fine.

It's okay to like yourself and want to be better. I didn't have high blood pressure or diabetes. I always thought I was cute. I agree with @@Babbs this is a lifestyle change. Make sure you are ready to commit. Okay so I'm home now. Let me just say I don't eat low cal food ever. However, like @islandsneezer I am a vegetarian with multiple food and medicine allergies. Mine are: Foods: seafood, stevia, most artificial sweeteners, MSG, food dyes, especially red dye. Medicine: toviaz, percocit, gabapantin, iodine, and latex. I always had an active life style. Plenty of friends, traveled the world, and I love fashion. I have a bunch of minor, but chronic health issues. Now all of these issues individually or in a smaller sized body are completely manageable and tolerable. However the weight made them worse. To the point that I was unable to work. I was told that WLS might make them more manageable. Guess what? I've had 1 very minor episode of swollen lips since my surgery. I no longer get up all night peeing. Back to low cal, restricted diet. I don't do that. One of the things I had to when trying to manage my allergies was keep a food diary. I started eating "clean" Basically no processed foods. I cook most things from scratch. Other than the Protein shakes I still do that. So I never went on a diet. I just started being more mindful of what I ate. I gave up sodas and only drink Water and occasionally fruit juices. As I mentioned before the excess issue is an issue I'll deal with when/if it happens. A good friend of mine had bypass surgery. She lost 60% of her body weight and has no excess skin. All I know is I was 51 and I plan to live another 40/50 years so I wanted to be able to enjoy it.

I am a march 2013 sleeved. I had neck surgery Nov.2012 and the sleeve four months later. I could not work out becuase I am still recovering from the neck surgery. Then two weeks ago I began to fall and found out that my lower spine had a cyst and I needed surgery again. Two weeks post op and now on a walker. I feel that I am not losing weight because I cannot work out. My pre- op weight was 293. I am now 243 lbs. I don't know if that is normal. I can't work out and I am a vegetarian. I can't find a protein powder that I like. I am only getting about 20 grams of protein in. Any suggestions?

Well, in all honestly, I wouldnt call myself a "whole foodist" and I'm certainly not vegan or even vegetarian but my personal view on nutrition tends very strongly in that direction. I guess really I'm a "clean eater" more than anything. I try to avoid processed foods and I make things from scratch and definitely dont eat stuff like artificial sweetener or Lean Cuisines. Most certainly I dont consider things like shakes and bars clean eating and I avoid that sort of stuff as well as things like artificially sweetened flavoured Water (WHY? it tastes fine plain) etc. I buy a lot of organic food, and all our produce and meat is organic. But I do like a glass of wine, and today I had a real craving for a pie and a Big M (a pie is an Australian delicacy of pastry and meat, topped with tomato sauce (ketchup) and a Big M is a chocolate milk) so I would never claim to be virtuous - like anything its moderation nmore than anything. I just try to eat well most of the time and to make sure my body gets a good variety of nutritious non processed foods every day and occasionally something a bit more naughty sneaks in. In answer to your question, I think you can certainly lose weight on any sort of diet at all - its all down to calories in the end, but you do it the whole foods way it'll taste better and be much better for you than if your daily intake is a couple of Protein shakes and a lean cuisine!

How are all you "60 and Olders" doing? There hasn't been much activity here lately - just wondering how ya'll are? I am getting closer to my date (2/28) and am getting very excited. Even tho I read a lot of negative stories about people with bands who aren't having great sucess - I still believe I can make this work to my advantage. I believe I mentioned before that this is not the surgery I initially wanted - I wanted a gastric sleeve, based mainly on my Dr's recommendation due to some other issues I have, and truthfully if my insurance covered it that is what I would be doing. But I can only get the lapband covered with the insurance I have and I am not in a position to self-pay, so this is it for me. I plan to keep a positive attitude and work my band for all it's worth. Someone here mentioned having the date of their banding tattooed on their hand - I am considering the same (altho not on my hand!) because that date is going to be the beginning of a profound change in my life. I am also going to turn 60 exactly one month after my surgery and I like it that I am starting a whole new decade of my life with a whole new outlook and approach and a tool to help me achieve my goals. The most important goal I have going forward, aside from losing weight, is that I have been working my way to becoming vegan (have been a vegetarian for awhile now) and when I have my surgery, from that day forth that is the way I intend to live. I found a very good site that I visit daily for inpiration - it's www.bandedliving.com The two women who run the site have had great sucess with their bands and they are truly an inspiration to me. I believe that is what we need to do as we start/continue our journey with our bands - stay positive and inspired. Don't get me wrong - educating yourself about all aspects of the band is important - I have spent 7 months researching this and looking at it from all angles, the positive and the negative - but now that I know the negative I prefer to move on and surround myself with positive and inspirational people and stories to keep me going. I personally know a couple of people I work with who have had the band and not had much sucess with it - but I also see them raiding the candy jar in one of our co-worker's office, eating large amounts and eating & drinking things they shouldn't. So it's no wonder they are not having sucess. It's so important to remember that this is not a magic pill to cure our obesity but rather a tool to help us - but we must put forth the work and effort to make this work. Yes, there are some banders out there who want to go from the band to a bypass - but there are also by-passers who are now getting "banded over bypass" because their bypasses failed them! As I said, I wanted a sleeve and would go that route if I had the choice, but on the other hand, altho the band may make us have to work harder to lose than sleevers or bypassers, on another level you actually learn to control and discipline yourself in ways you don't have to do with the other surgeries. I can't help but think that's a GOOD thing! And we don't have those crazy side effects to deal with like hair loss and dumping syndrome. All I know is I am going ahead with my band surgery and I plan to give this my very best effort. If I happen to end up one of those people who don't get results despite my best efforts, I'll face that when/if it happens but atleast I'll know I gave it my best effort. Hope everyone of you out there are doing well - have a wonderful coming week!

Lol I just looked in my freezer - it's called Seitan - it's a meat substitute, but it is gluten so if you have issues with that it might be a problem. 100 grams of Seitan is 21 grams of protein! I am not a vegetarian, but I really do like this, because when you stir fry it or cook with it just like you would any meat it reeealllly picks up good flavor.

@ - I'm on coupon clippers but I never buy coupons. They are too easy to get for free. You can even email or write manufacturers and many of them will send you coupons. Hip2Save and YesWeCoupon post sales and coupons all the time. Naturally Savvy is another one I use but it's more organic and vegetarian friendly. I get many of my coupons to use at Whole Foods from them.

Find the Proteinoholics thread on this site. Lots of vegetarians and vegans!

Hey! I’m currently 2 and a half months Post-op and I’m a vegetarian. My nutritionist says it’s a bad time to become vegan because I need the “protein” from meat. I’m 67lbs down from my highest weight and 47lbs down from my surgery weight. What are your opinions ? Any WLS vegetarians/ vegans?

I still wear it but I do not log my food. I like to see how many steps I take and how many calories i burn. I am probably going to use it through the summer since I am interested in knowing how many calories I burn during my running and cycling trips. My skin is very loose and it blows. I will definitely need a tummy puck and would prefer a lower body lift. My arms suck too. Food wise I am having problems with staying full. I will eat maybe 1/2 cup max and be very satisfied yet I will be hungry 2 hours later. I can't have another fill because I have enough restriction and I still want to be able to eat. I think it boils down to the vegetarian thing and not eating like solid protien such as meat. I jsut ahve to learn to deal with it and add healthy Snacks just as i have been.

Im with you. I was hungry all the time and thought about food where as before surgery I truly believed I would NOT be hungry at all. This was not the case for me. The inner fat girl does not shut up. I remember out of the hospital I wanted to eat sour power belts, vegetarian nachos, and mexican food. Those were all things I loved so much. Before surgery I made super low carb versions of mexican food which was amazing but it was the taste I missed the most and the thought of not having a savory dish for a while was torcher. Im 2 weeks out and the food craving are less but Im still hungry with the difference that I could only put a tiny amount of food in me. Believe it or not once you start feeling your body say no to certain solid foods you just wont want it anymore because its not worth the pain of feeling like a stuffed sausage with real bad nausea. Also weight drop off is different with people. Some people had sheepishly shed weight others is like a slow peeling of layers...Hang in there my friend...

i'll be banded soon and just wondering what other vegetarians out there are eating post-op. are you having a lot of Protein shakes or ??

Hello...I have posted some pictures of before and after. Now that I'm on my laptop, I'm a little more computer literate! Love my Iphone but wow that screen is tiny and I'm blind :-) To answer some of your questions..I work out every day and I never miss the gym. I do a core workout at 4 AM, walk during my lunch on the hills and go to the gym every night. I am also a very careful eater, basically I eat for FUEL. You need to train yourself to eat like that, too. I make sure i get my Protein first thing in the morning because that's when I'm the hungriest. Also, pay attention to dumping syndrome..it's a very real thing and you will not eat garbage again once you experience it. To this day, people say I took the easy way out..how is it easy? I can't eat more than a cup of food, I cannot eat what I want and I've had to change everything about my life because of the surgery. Don't let people discourage you. Take a long, hard look at them..how they eat, how they live and you will see that they're jealous. What do I eat? Well, I am a vegetarian because that just works for me. I gained 40 lbs of my 200 back and I have since lost 60. I contribute my diet and my workouts to my tone body and not having to get surgery to remove skin. I am a size 8 now (was a 30/32 from Lane Bryant) and even lost a shoe size. I am so excited for all of you who are about to get this surgery...truely excited. It's life changing and, although you will still struggle with food decisions, you will feel so good about yourself. Get ready, you will literally melt and that's why exercise is so important. Even if you do about 10 minutes up and down your street every day. I have nightmares that I have been dreaming that I am thin...I have to pinch myself sometimes!

I lost 200lbs 12 years ago and the best decision I ever made. I workout every day and have been a vegetarian for 5 years. Several of my friends have gained most of their weight back... Don't let that happen. This is no "easy way out" because you MUST change your eating habits or you will get sick. Message me if you want to talk....

Truthfully, I'm only getting about 40 - 60 g of protein a day (I HATE EGGS!) I do like the Morningstar vegetarian products though.

I’ve heard of people developing intolerances to meat after weight loss surgery. It’s a challenge because it makes it harder to get in your protein, but you can probably work it in with cottage cheese, tuna, eggs, and vegetarian sources. As for forcing it, I don’t think that’s a good idea…if it’s making you vomit, you probably shouldn’t push it. That’s a good one to ask your surgeon, though!

I think one of the other problems is the lack of support from the bariatric community in terms of medical help. For some reason, I can't figure out why they are so against vegan/vegetarians without a shred of medical evidence (that is not biased or paid for by meat companies) that shows veg people can't get protein from non meat sources.

I was sleeved July 25th and today is my 4 week mark and I've felt great honestly. All my incisions have healed tremendously well and I'm down 37 pounds as of today - feeling extremely ecstatic about that. I have no issues with the solid stage - I am a vegetarian so no issues with any foods being caught since I am strictly plant based. Wishing everyone the best of luck Sleeved on July 26, 2017