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Hi, I'm pretty much a vegetarian. I only eat boneless skinless chicken breast, very little if any, and shrimp and crab meat. I'm scheduled to have the surgery on June 17th and am a bit concerned that I won't be able to get the required amount of Protein. Does anyone have any good ideas for sources of protein? thanks a bunch !

cottage cheese: I believe most 2% has 15 grams of protein per half cup (I still choose 2% over 0% because there's only a difference of about 10 calories between the two, and 0% has higher carbs. Also, I hate the more liquidy consistency and taste of 0%); greek yogurt: You can find brands with 19 or more grams of protein per half cup. I think Liberte has a plain greek yogurt with 18 grams. Look especially for plain greek yogurt, which has higher protein, and lower calories and carbs than fruit flavours; eggs: there are only 70 calories for a large egg, which is a good source of amino acids and important nutrients; chicken breast: 1 chicken breast has 3 times the protein than 1 thigh (30 g vs. 10g), while having a lower fat content; tuna (or other fish): high protein, low calories and fat tofu: only a half-cup provides 20g of protein, while being very low in calories and fat (make sure to use a low-calorie marinade; or only a few teaspoons of soy sauce which is absorbed well by tofu) beans: some provide about 10g of protein in a half-cup; low fat, high potassium, Iron, and Fiber. protein powders: some doctors advise against Protein Shakes because you don't get the fullness from them as you would from eating solids. I don't think this is a big deal for many bandsters, as long as they're monitoring their caloric intake well and they know that they're not exceeding it. I don't really have a problem with fitting protein powders into a 1100 calorie or lower diet, while not being hungry, so they've been very useful to me in getting in protein. If you're still experiencing hunger while restricting your diet, then solid foods is probably the way to go. However, if you have room for about 130 calories in your daily budget, a low-carb, low-sugar Protein Powder can boost your protein intake by about 25g or two scoops (260 cals) by 50g. The brand that I use is Optimum Nutrition 100% whey. The flavours that are most popular or almost unanimously liked are mocha cappuchino (I have this and, with milk, it's pretty close to chocolate milk), double rich chocolate, and delicious strawberry. Other people also talk about Muscle Milk and GNC's protein powder. Are you male? If so, your 1000 calorie limit seems very strict compared to most guidelines. Have you consulted your family doctor? Also, I find it hard to get in more than 120g of protein on a 1100 cal diet, while also eating 3-5 servings of veggies a day. However, I'm a vegetarian, and I'm sure it's much easier getting 150g of protein in with a meat diet. And, I'm not very strict with what I eat; I'll have a bite of anything I like as long as it fits into my day's caloric budget and I've met my other nutritional needs. To meet 150 grams of protein, you just need to make sure that every meal you consume is efficient (high protein to calorie ratio). People on the low-carb subforum should be able to help you.

I really like my nutrionalist, she is very friendly and nice. I do wish she had more info for me as a vegetarian. She gave me tons of packets of info and sample meals, but nothing vegetarian specific. Her main advice on it was that i would be supplementing with shakes and bars for much longer than a meat eater. Sent from my SM-G930T using BariatricPal mobile app

Thanks for the reply, gives me hope. I am hoping that since I am a vegetarian that will make things a little bit easier for me b/c I wont have to worry about digesting meat!

What are your main Protein sources? about how many g of protein do you strive for/day? (I am a vegetarian, so that's why I'm asking). thank you!

Has anyone's doc or nutritionist ok'd these products? I am on mostly soft food and can eat chicken and fish too. I'm just getting a little tired of them all the time and found some Morningstar black bean burgers in my freezer. One has 11g of protein. I'm going to predict they are probably ok b/c I'm sure there are some vegetarian banders out there ..but wanted to get thoughts.

When my band was "deflated" as I call it- I gained about 30 lbs in the time until my sleeve date- However I lost about 18lbs pre op and have kept loosing since my sleeve- so No gaining has not been an issue for me- I do not exercise as much as I should- but I attribute my continual loosing to a strict vegetarian diet I now follow.

The unjury samples can be found at the Unjury.com website. They cost about $20 for 2 samples of each flavor, or you can buy them individually for $1.99. I tried the chicken soup flavor (vegetarian, surprisingly) and the chocolate so far. I really like them.

Sorry. I've had no problems. No hair loss that I can see. And no awkwardness with food. Then again, I'm a vegetarian with multiple food allergies so everyone already thinks I eat weird.

Well, I can't say enough good things about the whole procedure and everyone involved. The supervised diet doctor is Dr. Garza next door, and she and her staff are also wonderful. Dr. Garza's office sells the unjury brand protein powders but I was not required to buy it. I just did because it was easy. Dr. Cribbins' office sells the Celebrate Vitamins, but they were not required. I bought them because I figured why not, but I grew to hate them and then I believe I developed an allergy to them so no more of that! Basically, my food plan was: Very low fat and vegetarian for two weeks prior to surgery. I got my surgery date less than two weeks out, so I didn't even have the whole two weeks of pre-op diet. Clear liquids for three days following surgery (I was in the hospital those three days, no problem) Full liquids/thinned pureed foods for five weeks. I think at four weeks I was allowed to add crackers to Soup and that was pure excitement! lol After that, I got to introduce regular foods gradually. I was terrified of the pre-op diets that I had read about on this site. I didn't think I could comply with full liquids for several weeks pre-op (post op was a piece of cake - did I just write that?). I was so relieved to find out, after I was almost through the process, that Dr. Cribbins has an easy pre-op diet. I would just double check, if you call, that everything is still the same because things might change.

My nut recommends their vegetarian meatballs so they are on my list to try. I also buy their hi potency chewable vitamins and sublingual b6/b12 folic acid from there. Love TJs!

i just had surgery tuesday! and already i feel like i am consuming too much....the first few days i was SO sick, nausea and intense pain....but today i was able to drink about 1 1/2 cups of broth, two s/f Jello cups, and probably 30oz of Water. i guess it doesn't sound like too much when i write it all out. but i am still thinking a lot about food....do the mushies get better? or is it the real food? i am vegetarian, so i'm worried about a higher carb intake. do any of you have a higher carb count and still lose? i can get by cutting out rice, Pasta and bread etc....but yogurt, bocca burgers, eggs, cheese etc still have carbs! is this okay? i know i'm covering a lot of old ground. i jsut feel so afraid of failing!

i had rice and eggs because i am a vegetarian and my doc includes these in mushy food for a vegetarian

Thank you both for the info and suggestions. Tonight I went to a Chinese restaurant and had some vegetarian soup and eat around the solids in it. I ate about half a quart or 16 ounces of it. It was good and gave me some satisfaction. I will probably go shopping tomorrow for some more canned Soups, even if I have to strain the solids out. I begin puréed food on the 30th. I've never been so excited for mushy food. I'm looking forward to hummus the most.

Miso Soup is like a stock based soup. I have vegetarian & vegan friends who use it regularly as a soup or to add to other meakls. No lumps or floating food in it. completely safe xx

Vegetarian and vegan are manageable with the sleeve if you desire to do it. Do some research and you'll find the our society over estimates how much Protein we actually needs. I was told to do this.... I did my research and found exactly this!! I am 8 months post op, eat vegetarian in the evening, vegan in the day. 40g of protein a day. I feel full and fine. My doctor supports this.

I'm not a vegetarian but didn't eat a lot of meat pre-sleeve, one month out. I find that I cannot get down meat at all, no matter how soft it is. It just sits on me and I feel terrible for hours afterward. Ive been eating hummus (white bean with basil from Trader Joes, so good), I can also easily eat Quorn patties. These are no soy. The Quorn gruyere chick'n patty is delicious. I ate these often pre-sleeve with marinara and pasta. I'm also eating regular yogurt (Greek style is too thick). Protein shake and 1/2 a protein bar get me to 60+ grams of protein a day, but I'm only eating 500-600 calories. Today I'm going to try chickpeas in sauce to see how that goes down.

I once lost all the weight I am attempting to lose now on a lowcarb diet. I was a lowcarb size eight but over the years it seemed I was getting more and more anxious -- anxiety problems, mood stuff, that seemed to be fixed by carbs. I'd put the weight back on and go into an UTTER PANIC. I've been on the verge of quitting jobs so I could stay home and starve and do crunches. For a few years I could go back on lc and lose whatever...five, ten, twenty pounds. But then I married a vegetarian who liked to eat in restaurants and was constantly going on and on about how my diet was so unhealthy. This caused me to go quite batty and start hoarding food and going to the drugstore to buy licorice and swedish fish and suddenly nothing worked -- not lowcarb, not vegan, not raw food...nothing. I could drop twenty pounds on anything I tried but I just was not getting down there where I wanted to be. Plus I was obsessed. By the time our marriage ended I had decided to Just Be Fat. Other people are fat, I can be fat, it's not a freakin CRIME you know. Ahem. Anyway,. Point is, I think lowcarb works -- I know it does, but I think it's unhealthy for me personally to get too into FOOD given my psychopathic backgound with all of it. However I have to say that in my first week experimentation with solids, certain breads seem to go down and certain of them DO NOT. I ate three weight watchers mini pizzas ( not a whole serving) last night. They're mostly bread, kind of a soft doughy kind. These things started punching the hell out of my esophagus all the way down, then came back up to complain a second time before kicking my ass again. It was miserable and suddenly the whole concept of doughy minipzzas seemed...unappetizing. Maybe for the rest of my life. I don't have a problem with bread. I will so totally eat it. But I'm kind of finding that as the days pass I'm getting less interested in that and more interested in cottage cheese and mozzarella, and thinly sliced turkey. I have not seen a surgeon yet recommend a low carb diet but it seems like you might end up on one regardless.

I'm a vegetarian of 8 years. I am finding it very easy to get my Protein in! I use soy Protein shakes, and the faux meat products contain A LOT of protein. For instance, I had a piece of gardein "chicken scallopini" for lunch today, diced up with fat free mayo on a piece of bib lettuce. 14 grams of protein, 90 calories, 4 carbs, 2 grams of fat for 2.5 oz. I also made some chili the other night with tofurky soy ground beef and chili Beans. Lots of protein. There are SO many options.

I was browsing old posts and came across this. I embraced a vegan diet with no sugar or wheat for almost two years and felt so great physically, but didn't drop a pound (but didn't gain either). Slowly I started eating eggs, cows milk and cheese, and one day decided I wanted a steak and that was the end of that. Now, three years later I remember my motivation for the vegan diet. I have chronic inflammation which causes more pain than I'd like to live with, and I'm sensitive to many medications so I can't just pop a pill to help with the pain. When I was eating a very clean vegan diet (no sugar, no wheat) I was pain free. Even when I started eating animal products the pain didn't return for about 2 years. Probably because I still kept sugar and wheat to a minimum. The pain has been back for awhile now, and I'm finally back to eating vegan. I have not had surgery yet, but I'm convinced the right path for me is to have surgery and eat vegetarian (mostly vegan) with no flour or sugar. I'm 55 years old and would like very much to enjoy my life, not suffer through it.

You can be a vegetarian and have the sleeve. Just make sure you're getting plenty of Protein from other sources. meat has to be very moist & soft for me too. I eat a lot of meat salads that I make myself to control fat and additives (chicken salad, tuna salad, ham salad, etc). I love shrimp and fish. Chicken and turkey are nearly always a problem unless I cook them in the crock pot. I use ground turkey instead of ground beef and we rarely eat beef unless it's a roast (again, crock pot). If you don't have a crock pot, invest in one. They are on sale here at Christmas time. I have a small one if I'm cooking just a couple of individual servings and a family size for a family meal.

I suppose technically you don't have to eat certain types of meat at all as long as you are aware of your protein intake. Tofu, steamed fish, lentils, egg whites, cheese, beans, are all good sources of protein. There are even a few vegetarian sleevers around here that seem to do just fine.

@@MrsKarenC2008 That's definitely the way to do it...protein first, then veggies, then if you really really must, a healthy whole grain carb. I think at this point the rules on veggies are relaxed save for those foods that have really tiny seeds that can get stuck in any residual healing lines. The big leafy vegetables should be fine for us now. And honestly, I have been feeling pretty gross the last few weeks being able to have my Protein but not being able to have anything green. Also, maybe your surgeon has a different opinion, but I don't see the problem with getting your protein from the shakes, and your fullness sensation from some raw veggies. Hopefully they don't make you nauseated. After all, there are vegetarians out there, and they need their protein from somewhere too, so it has to be fairly common.

I only have a couple more Lovenox shots to go (2-week post-op regimen) and I'm so happy. I find for me they sting a little but I just don't like doing it, and to top it off, the drug is made from porcine intestines and I'm a vegetarian. I tried to see if there was an alternate and there wasn't anything FDA-approved that could be substituted. I needed to follow doctor's orders and I didn't want a blood clot. Difficult decision after being a vegetarian most of my adult life. The nurse who showed me how to do the shots said to do them in your "love handles." Below the belly button and in fatty tissue in that lower abdominal area (I think it would hurt directly in the stomach). She had me squeeze a pinch of fat gently and put the shot in there. Make sure that you aren't doing the safety part of the needle until you pull the needle out (where the needle retracts again before disposal). My husband retracted the needle once while it was still in my belly and that was the only time I would say it really "hurt." Hang in there...this too shall pass! And it's a lot better than getting a blood clot! Take care.

Endless , My husband is vegetarian also. He is having his sleeve done the end of July. What are you using for your main protein source? how did you handle it in the immediate post op phases? Thanks for any insight