Fast Food Questions

[HogwartsIsMyHome 7]

All right, put your stones down and get off your judgement seats! Please don't respond to this by informing me how awful fast food is, I already know it, but I still love it! I'm sorry, but good ol burgers, fries, tacos, burritos, nachos, I have always loved these horribly unhealthy fast foods. Now I am 5 days post op gastric bypass, and my cravings have been out of control the last two and a half weeks on this darn liquid diet! I still have a week and a half to go, but I can proudly say I have not cheated once! Which is why I am on here obsessing over bad fast food, because a burger sounds so dang amazing right now!

So yes, fast food is horrible for you, moving on from that already obvious fact. I want to hear from people who have had the surgery and gone out for fast food a time or more since then. I don't intend to eat fast food every week as soon as I reach solids, but I would still like to eat out with family members or friends on the rare celebratory occasions.

And the only thing I ever read about fast food from people who had the surgery is that Wendy's chili is good, and just stick to healthy options like plain chicken and salad when you eat out. But that sounds disappointing, I mean if you are going to spend the money spend it on something you don't get to enjoy often. So here are my questions about fast food and gastric bypass!

Have you eaten fast food since your surgery?

Have you had part of a beef burger with fixings and/or some fries?

Have you had part of a burrito, or instead some nachos?

Please explain to me what you ate, how much you were able to eat and enjoy, how worth it the unhealthy treat was or not, or if I am totally delusional in thinking that ever enjoying some of a burger or a burrito ever again in my life is even a possibility.

Obviously I have not actually eaten since this surgery so I really don't know from experience what eating certain foods after surgery feels like, or if it is even enjoyable anymore (like fast food).

People make it sound like after this surgery if you ever treat yourself to anything unhealthy ever again then you must cry and punish yourself and never again even look at a picture of something unhealthy. In my opinion, you should still be able to enjoy unhealthy things, just rarely and in small amounts. But I am just a young and naive newcomer to this whole experience, so I also know I probably don't know what I am talking about. Still, I would love to hear honest confessions, stories, or memories you have if enjoying fast food after this surgery. I want to hear all the details, I just want to know if fast food and I will ever see each other again in my eating future, and if it is okay, or if it really is just the worst mistake I could make in the future.

Thanks! And sorry my post about something so stupid is ridiculously long.

[Gcarter 50]

First let me be the first to say that's not a stupid question at all. That's actually a very good question. I wondered about the same thing. I'm sorry that I am unable to answer your questions as I have my surgery next Friday. Hopefully someone that's been thru this will and will enlighten both of us. I just wanted you to know that these weren't stupid questions. I kinda fear the same, will I ever be able to have rally burgers fries, lol!!! Take care, good luck and God bless.

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[reree6898 1,164]

Every individual is going to be different. Years ago I was truly addicted to fast food so for me it was eliminated from my outings because I have found that I can go to other restaurants and get better quality food that I enjoy and have the outing still with my family without opening that door to that addiction. The only one I will go to is chick filet because they have awesome grilled chicken nuggets that are so good and friendly to keeping me on track, even before surgery they were the only thing I'd eat there. At home I still make nachos or burgers or what for my family and the thing is I have control over the quality of the food. For burgers I get the very lean 97/3 ground beef and I weigh out my patty and use the quality cheese that I select and make sweet potato fries baked and not fried. I don't eat a bun anymore and I focus on eating the patty first then just a few fries and I am very satisfied and stayed on track. I have found swapping things out works for me, keeps me on track and I am very satisfied. I let myself have a treat now and then but I do try to keep it to something small at one meal and not a cheat day. The very few times I have tried anything fried it made my stomach hurt badly and to me it's just not worth it.

[trekker954 421]

When I progressed to soft food I really had a hard time getting anything my tummy agreed with.

I was about one month out and on a road trip, I stopped in Taco Bell, ordered one taco supreme, and with a fork took small bites of the inside (meat, cheese, low fat sour cream - i pushed aside most of the lettuce as that's very hard to process that early out). I chewed to liquid consistency and it was the most delicious meal I had since the pre op diet started. I don't do that often but know it can be done.

I've tried the McD burger once to no avail. I couldn't chew to liquid consistency so tossed it. I can probably eat it now, but I will only resort to fast food in a pinch. I no longer need to chew up my food to liquid, so I need to be careful.

BTW, I hate to cook and have no responsibility to do so for family. I've been thinking of trying Pollo Tropical's grilled chicken as I hear its great.

My advice as one who is seeing that appetite and ease of eating returns, is to start off this journey with good habits, put an effort into making healthy choices even when stopping in for fast food.

[hikerdog 45]

I am a 4 weeks post op so I can eat chicken, Beans, cooked veggies, etc...

This week,I decided to do my first eating out trial.

I went to Moe's (fresh Tex Mex) & ordered a bowl with black beans and chicken. I asked them to add half the rice but add more pico. I said no to the chips. The chicken was moist & I cut into tiny pieces.

When I introduce new foods, I start with a couple of bites and wait a while to see how I feel. I ate about half of the chicken and a few bites of pico, sour cream and guacamole. I only ate 2 bites of rice. It all tasted awesome. I felt like a normal person.

I felt good so I officially added it to my "ok list". I took the left overs to have for dinner.< /p>

[esskay77 785]

I have not had fries and I will not have fries (keeping my fingers crossed that I hold to this!!).

I have had some fast food but it is a dangerous thing to do. When I do, I try to make the best choices.

I sometimes go to a subshop and get a Steak and cheese with onions and peppers but NO BUN! I eat it with a fork.

I avoid McDonald's because if you give in once, it opens the door to do it more and McDonald's is something I have no control over.

Obviously, it is best if you never partake in fast food but as you said, you already know that. So, when you do, try to stick to Protein as much as possible. Don't eat the fries, don't eat the bun, that sort of thing.

I can tell you right now that you are in that awkward phase where all you are thinking of is food. That does go away for quite a while. I personally think it is best to follow the rules really strictly throughout the first 2 years and lose as much as you can while you can. Because you can and will gain weight later if you go back to eating these foods.

[James Marusek 5,244]

The three most important elements after RNY gastric bypass surgery are to meet your daily Protein, Fluid and Vitamin requirements. food is secondary because your body is converting your stored fat into the energy that drives your body. Thus you lose weight.

Weight loss is achieved after surgery through meal volume control. You begin at 2 ounces (1/4 cup) per meal and gradually over the next year and a half increase the volume to 1 cup per meal. With this minuscule amount of food, it is next to impossible to meet your Protein daily requirements by food alone, so therefore you need to rely on supplements such as Protein shakes.

There are two phases to RNY gastric bypass surgery. These are the Weight Loss phase and the Maintenance phase. The Weight Loss phase is extremely short for RNY patients. In my case I naturally transitioned into the Maintenance phase at 7 months. Therefore it is extremely important that if you want to maximize your weight loss during this phase, you follow the guidelines. So when it comes to meals, it is important to follow the volume limits of your meals. In the beginning your stomach is in a heal mode. Therefore you need to follow the directions on the transition stages for full liquids/pureed foods/solid food. Also the guidelines for food types. I am an experimenter. So I deviated from these requirements at times - pushing the envelop. But then again I suffered the consequences, such as dumping syndrome.

I am around 3 1/2 years post-op RNY gastric bypass surgery. I eat out sometimes and sometimes these are at fast food restaurants. I have found the chili at Wendy's to be good and a couple crunchy tacos at Taco Bell to be a good meal. Before surgery, I would scarf down 5 tacos at a meal, but now 2 is the limit or I will digress into dumping. But then again I have transitioned into maintenance. So hold your feet to the fire during your first year and a half if you want to see the results.

[xoxococojay 842]

So you will eventually eat out again. That's normal. You will. But do so at an actual resturant that serves you real food and make better choices. I'm not saying that to be harsh at all...i have a very close friend who did by pass specifically and he gained almost all of his weight back because he didn't make the changes. You are much stronger than that. Don't give in, don't give up. We all used to like fast food before obviously. But all that grease will make you sick, which obviously you haven't experienced that feeling yet. ( for all of us) but by pass patients especially can be prone to dumping by doing that to themselves which is a very physically painful and uncomfortable feeling.

But it's crazy to think that you need fast food. I bought an air fryer, george forman grill etc. i can make all of that myself and make it much better for me.

I'm not sure what state you're in but where i live i was required to do several psychologist visits by my insurance. The doctor there was so amazing, she helped me conquer my addiction to food. You should look into doing something similar.

I know that's not what you asked for but tough, this is a support group, not an enablers group. We're speaking from experience only to help encourage you.

I can't stand mean cyber trolls either but i can imagine that you will hear from some. Honestly it's because of the types of questions being posted.

I hope that was at least informative if not helpful. Like i said i'm not trying to discourage you or be offensive. Just sharing what i've seen and experienced.

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[deb2571 70]

I'm 5 months post op gastric bypass. I do go out to eat but I make smart choices like salad, chicken, Soup. Lite choices on the menu. At this stage I couldn't eat something "bad" I don't have the room in my pouch. Also I'm trying to teach myself not to think of food as a reward. I know when I get to maintenence I can ocassionally have a bite of something off of my plan. I was and still am a food adict. I will always have to be careful not to fall back into that behavior. My brain is a fat girl brain in a thinner body. Surgery can't change that.

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[catwoman7 11,212]

some people do - but I don't. I wanted to be an extremely compliant patient because I wanted to lose all my excess weight, and I have (I've lost 227 lbs and am now at a normal BMI). I'm afraid a little fast food would have been a slippery slope for me, so I didn't do it. Like others have said, some fast food places have decent choices - Wendy's chili, Panera chili, the grilled nuggets at Chick-Fil-A. Those are the things I stick to if I'm out on the road and fast food is my only option.

[izzy13 117]

Why waste the money on something I will take literally 4 bites of and throw the rest away. Fast food (French fries, hamburgers etc.) doesn't reheat well so if I eat out I try to stick to food that is as healthy as I can find AND will reheat so I'm not pouring money down the drain.

My sister had sleeve surgery 2 years ago and I just had mine in October, we went to Red Robin the other night with my niece and nephew. She and I split a banzai turkey burger, we both took the bun off, ate a half of our halves and got the rest to go home. It worked out great and I had another meal from it later on.

[OutsideMatchInside 10,166]

I have a low carb burger from Hardees, like I dunno, quarterly in an emergency situation.

I get the nuggets at Chick-Fil-A grilled or fried depending on my mood pretty often, weekly, bi weekly.

I don't eat fries, they have no nutritional value, they are a slider and a trigger food for me. I could eat a whole pile of fries at this point if I felt like it, my restriction won't stop me.

The thing about your post is. You haven't changed your attitude about food at all. So long term once you are healed you are going to eat all these foods just like you did before and you won't lose weight, and the weight you lost when your RNY did all the work you will gain back.

When you can't eat at all or chew right after surgery, you are going to want all the bad things. That is head hunger.

You need to really work with your pouch thing, to learn good eating habits that stick. So that when you do get fast food, it just an occasional thing. If you really work with your tool, and learn to eat healthy, fast food won't even appeal to you anymore. And I am saying this to you as a single person that used to eat out all the time and eat a lot of fast food pre-op. I don't even really think about it now.

Also Wendy's chil is crap. Just make your own. I make low carb chili at home and it barely takes 10 minutes of active cooking. I don't use Beans because I don't need the carbs from beans. I just brown ground beef, add chili seasoning (packet or your own mix) and a can of diced tomatoes. Low carb Chilli. Let it simmer.

@@izzy13 Long term it isn't a waste. I can eat a whole bunless buger. The low carb burger at hardees is wrapped in lettuce. I didn't have one until the post 1 year mark. At the 6 month mark I could out eat 4 ChickFilA nuggets, at the 1 year mark and beyond I can eat 8.

I really hate when people say you can only have X amount of bites of something. It is a completely ridiculous and useless measurement that has no basis in science and provides zero frame of reference for people.

Edited January 14, 2017 by OutsideMatchInside

[summerset 5,265]

Have you eaten fast food since your surgery?

Absolutely but not that early out. Fast foods are usually loaded with fat and I don't think I would have been able to stomach it before being three or four months out. I'm having problems with certain stuff so I don't eat it (e. g. french fries, somehow can't stomach them).

[summerset 5,265]

I really hate when people say you can only have X amount of bites of something. It is a completely ridiculous and useless measurement that has no basis in science and provides zero frame of reference for people.

Me, too. It's different from person to person. For many people (including me) it's different from day to day. On some days I feel like I can eat the whole tuna steak and have some more, on some other days I feel ridiculously full after a half one. The same goes for other foods as well.

[Vinasu 621]

You need to get therapy for your food issues, or you're going to fail.

I'm not saying this to be harsh. It's simply the truth. You can eat around any surgery. You shouldn't be trying to learn how to do it. Instead, try to learn how to not want to.

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