How much protein did you eat before WLS?

[Cape Crooner 589]

Last night I looked at my loseit app and saw I was at 55 grams of Protein for the day. I quickly downed a Protein shake and some Greek yogurt.

Afterwards, I was thinking about pre opt. Being a guy who ate salads all week, I'm sure I went several days without getting 72 grams.

How come I need to worry about it now?

[Inner Surfer Girl 12,015]

I think we need to worry about it now because we didn't worry about it before. The more I learn about the disease of obesity the more I am convinced that conventional dieting wisdom is what got me in the place for surgery.

I think I was starved for nutrition, especially Protein, but basically lived on carbs (good and bad). Protein was almost incidental.

Why do we need protein now? Because our bodies need protein and we don't store it. We store carbs and fat but if we don't get enough protein then our bodies can't do what it needs to do and will consume the protein in our body (muscle).

[Bufflehead 6,358]

Immediately after surgery, your body needs Protein to heal. Beyond that, eating protein-forward is the best way for most people to be satisfied with eating a small amount of healthy food. Most people find that eating a carb-heavy diet just makes them hungrier and hungrier, no matter how much they eat. Eating fat is also good for satiety, but fat is packed with calories, so for those of us who are going to be fighting the disease of obesity for the rest of our lives, eating high protein just makes more sense than eating high fat or high carb.

[JamieLogical 8,710]

I lost 90 pounds through diet and exercise back in 2010/2011 and one of the ways I did that was by tracking every bite of food I ate. The site I used for tracking back then set target ranges for my macronutrients based on my height, weight, activity level, and weight loss goals. I was supposed to eat 60-90 grams of Protein a day and stay under 60 grams of fat per day. I was allowed a pretty outrageous (by my current standards) amount of carbs... something like 240 grams! I really got in the habit back then of checking the labels of everything I ate and making sure it had more Protein than fat. That was the easiest way for me to to make sure I got enough protein and not too much fat. I pretty much eat the exact same things now as I did back then, minus the carbs.

If I go back over my food logs from then, the meals we had for dinner are identical to what we eat now, except I no longer have the rice, Pasta, bread, or potato components.

[RickM 1,750]

The Protein levels that are typically recommended are our basic maintenance needs, or a little above - the amount needed to do the normal replacement of our muscle and organ tissues over the course of our daily living, plus what's needed to supply the amino acids that drive various biological functions in our bodies. These maintenance levels generally correspond to our lean body mass, so most women are fine in the 50-70 gm per day range while most guys need in the 70-100 gm per day range (more if one is particularly muscular, and still more if one is actively trying to build muscle mass.)

Think about it - 100 gm Protein is 400 calories, or 10-20% of our typical pre-op couch potato diet, so hitting those basic levels is largely incidental amongst all the other things that we are eating. However, post-op, we still need that basic maintenance level, plus a bit more for healing, etc., so we work to minimize most everything except protein in our post op weight loss diets - we may be running 50-80% protein, representing the dramatically lower proportions of carbs and fats during that time. Also, protein tends to be more satisfying, and longer, than carbs or fats, so there is another emphasis on protein there - it's easier to eat less overall if we eat protein forward so many eat more protein than the minimum for that reason.

[Cape Crooner 589]

Yes, I do fully appreciate the weight loss and satiety benefits of high Protein and low simple carbs. For 40 years, it was the only way I could lose weight.

I was simply looking back at many popular diets that have very little Protein (Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, etc) and noting their relative success.

[LetItGo 73]

I was thinking about this last night. I was almost a 100% carb and sugar eater pre-sleeve. Pasta with butter and cheese was my staple. I drank A LOT of wine...every night. I ate sugar and Desserts whenever I wanted to. I drank regular soda. I ate pizza, thai food, Pasta, fried everything, tons of bread and I was a fast food queen. Horrible way to live!! My body is still saying WTH after 5 weeks. It doesn't know what being healthy feels like yet! But I'm down 33 pounds and I'm getting better everyday!

[Djmohr 6,965]

It is scary to think about how little Protein and how much sugar and carbs I was eating pre surgery.

Protein, especially from food keeps you fuller longer.

[BLERDgirl 6,417]

I started using MFP 3 or 4 years ago as a ways to track my eating not only for fitness, but also to help with my allergies. My goal prior to WLS was 50gms of Protein. I actually hit between 40 -50 fairly consistently.