Still Deciding - Can't lose pre-op weight

[mspal 2]

I'm wondering if anyone can chime in on this. I'm booked for May in TJ and am on an extended pre-op diet. I "switched" from my regular low carb to nothing terribly different, and unsurprisingly, am not losing weight. I already eat very little - I switched from low carb bar for Breakfast & lunch, low carb dinner, and WonderSlim chocolate cake to... a Premier Protein shake for breakfast & lunch, low carb dinner, and wonderslim chocolate cake. I eat 1-2 serving of vegetable a day, never any fruit. I laughed when I got the email about 4 lbs of leafy green vegetables. Who has time for that? You'd be eating all day. My dinner is small, usually about 4 oz of Protein plus my veggies. {I eat the cake at night to control my fasting blood sugar for the morning}

I tried explaining to the nutritionist group that I was already eating low carb & low calorie and the plan that they were "putting me on" was virtually identical to what I have already been doing. I *already* eat around 1000 calories a day (I am 4'11") and it gets me nowhere. They really really didn't understand that I already eat this way, I have had gestational diabetes 3 times and basically am a diet controlled diabetic. Really who would believe someone that's 100 lbs overweight couldn't lose weight like this? I cannot.

As I have been for the past 6 months by the time I get home I can barely see straight and am extremely irritable and I generally fall asleep right before or after dinner, just from lack of food. I'm at the end of my rope with lack of weight loss but I'm also extremely worried about spending $$$ on nonreversible surgery that won't have any different outcome. I haven't booked my flights yet. I don't feel like throwing away more money if I can't lose the 10% they want to see. I don't have the benefit of the first week of dieting 10 lb weight loss either.... because I already eat extremely low carb. It's not a matter of compliance, which is just even more frustrating.

Edited April 2, 2015 by mspal

[recordsmom 52]

@@mspal,

I'm sorry I don't really have any diet advice for you, I would just encourage you to get back with your nutritionist and see if they have any other suggestions for tweeking your diet that might help things move along. I am a type 2 insulin dependent diabetic and am on my pre-op diet also. They have me drinking a Glucerna Advance shake for Breakfast, one for lunch and then a low carb meal for dinner. No Snacks unless my blood sugar drops (and it usually does mid morning, so I have a cheese stick and apple or something similar). I've lost about 5 lbs a week doing this for a couple of weeks. The only thing I see that is very different between our diets is the WonderSlim cake at bedtime. Do you think this might be causing a problem?

[mspal 2]

@@recordsmom 5lbs! if i could lose 5lbs a week (like i used to be able to do) I would be pretty golden. good for you! the shakes you are drinking have 27 g carbs/3g Fiber each, mine have 5g carb/3 Fiber and i do not eat any fruit whatsoever, i cannot.

the wonderslim cake has 9g carbs, 3 g of fiber, and that (compared to nothing or only low carb things) prevents my FBS from jumping up by 10 points in the morning (it's usually at 120 and it won't go any lower).

[recordsmom 52]

Hang in there, I'm rooting for you! Please keep us posted on your progress and decision.

[drmeow 323]

I know you've said you are eating low carb but are you actually keeping a food diary of exact amounts of each thing you eat, and having it total carbs, calories and Protein? I know it must be very frustrating to follow all the rules and still not lose; most of us probably have extremely damaged metabolisms from all the dieting we've done before. But it can be easy to overlook small changes we've made in our diets or even in the products themselves - read all your labels again to be sure they haven't changed. And what do you consider low carb? My personal need is to stay below 25 grams of net carbs per day (total carb minus fiber g) some people consider anything below 50 acceptable - if it works for them, great, but not for me.

Do you mix your Protein powder into milk or are they pre-mixed? If you are using skim milk, it's high in carbs. Try unsweetened almond milk (or soy, which I can't take due to my thyroid) or Water.

Are you eating enough healthy fats? You can't do low carb and low fat very long and expect to lose - your body interprets this as starvation and locks the brakes on any weight loss. If you compensate by increasing only Protein, the body burns that by turning it into sugar (protein by itself is not a fuel - you need either sugar or fat, which becomes ketones which your brain actually prefers over sugar)

After surgery is different, of course, b/c we have to get protein preferentially first due to the different anatomy and gastric hormones. But before it, just doing high protein isn't enough.

Healthy fats - 1/2 an avocado (good fats plus magnesium and potassium), a few Tbsp of olive oil and/or coconut oil added to foods, egg yolks, small portions of nuts like almonds/walnuts/macadamias (but check carb levels), even animal fats if they are pastured, non-CAFO animals, preferably organic. The omega3:omega6 ratios in CAFO animal fats are completely unbalanced but in animals that graze naturally, they are very healthy for us.

Finally, i am concerned in general that most of your diet seems to be processed foods. The shakes, bars and cakes may be OK for occasional use (and shakes needed post-op obviously) but you will likely do much better eating real food for now, still sticking to low carb. I don't know where 4 lbs of leafy vegetables came from but you can certainly get 4-5 CUPS of leafy greens in a big salad each day, with a few other low carb veggies, some good protein and a little good fat. Skip the starchy vegetables - potatoes, corn, peas, and the higher carb ones like squashes and Beans (not green beans) for now.

If you think this is too time-consuming now, I don't think you will do well after surgery b/c from what I've read, it takes a LOT of your time to get all the Water in, the protein, the Vitamins, etc. And once you're able to eat "real" food, unless you've trained yourself to eat good, nonprocessed foods, you may find yourself regaining.

If you've been following typical "Diabetes" nutritional advice I'd recommend reading more - very few doctors or dieticians are current on the research in nutrition on carbs, and react mostly to the media sensations. Try http://www.amazon.com/Dr-Bernsteins-Diabetes-Solution-Achieving-ebook/dp/B004QZ9PC4/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1428240830&sr=1-1&keywords=diabetes+Dr.+Bernstein Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution and http://www.amazon.com/Good-Calories-Bad-Gary-Taubes-ebook/dp/B000UZNSC2/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1428240912&sr=1-1&keywords=good+calories+bad+calories+by+gary+taubes

Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes.

Note, I am not a nutritionist nor a human medical doctor. I do have a medical background and have done a TON of reading over the last 5 years on nutrition. Just my (way more than) 2 cents! :)

Good luck!

[GADeltaDawn 14]

I am preop also and have pretty much adopted the post op diet already. I've lost 20# far. Here's what I'm doing: I've given up all sweets including sweet tea, no caffeine (I drink Decaf coffee), I get 80-100 grams of Protein a day through food and Protein Shakes (I love the Quest protein), I eat something or drink a shake (2 max per day) every 2 hours (I feel like all I do is eat), and drink at least 64 Oz Water a day. I focus on the protein first and stay away from white bread (actually almost no carbs). There were 2 days last week that I didn't get enough protein and barely had my Snacks and gained 1.5#. The next day I upped my protein to 120g, had all my snacks and lost the 1.5 plus 1 additional. I don't eat anything after dinner especially sweets. Ever since I gave up sugar I no longer have cravings. My guess would be that you need to up your protein intake and track your food in a diary. I'm sure there are other options that would better at controlling your sugar than eating cake right before bed. You definitely should speak to your dietician about that. Good luck to you! It's hard but will be so worth it to lose some before the surgery because we will heal faster and have fewer complications.