Getting Your Daily Protein In - after 3-4 months Post Surgery

[FluffyChix 17,415]

I read a lot on here about people having so much restriction that it's still difficult to satisfy your Protein requirements each day. Quite a few are lactose intolerant so it's not as simple as eating a Protein Bar or drinking a Protein Shake. Others are so sick of Protein Shakes that they're ready to do dire things! And still others have a lack of appetite (thank you surgery for doing your job--embrace it). But bottom line we ALL have personal responsibility to hack our own bad selves and figure out how to do what our surgeon and RD want us to do!

I thought it might help to see just what it would take in a world where you are limited to 1/2c-1c of food per meal by volume (about 2-4oz by weight) in a day. Whenever I meal plan, I start with the basics of things I'm either hungry for, or know are lean/dense protein. I don't try to get tricky. I keep those kinds of cheesy gooey meals for treats and feast days...not every day. So here's how I figure out how to plan my protein to get between 60-70g per day--if I'm trying NOT to use any kind of protein drink/protein cracker or sweet/protein supplement, etc.

RULE #1 Log your protein.

Begin with only 3 meals: B/L/D and see where you fall. As you can see, in 3 meals I'm getting 51g of protein from lean protein sources alone! Wow! Cool! 51g will do in a pinch, but it's still too low for everyday figures. Looks like we're gonna need some snacks! Ok, let's do it!

Breakfast: Microwave Egg Puff (no extra fat needed cuz it's cooked in a glass bowl in the microwave)

Lunch: Turkey and cheese Rollup (no extra fat needed cuz it's in the turkey and cheese)

Dinner: Grilled chicken (add up to 1 tsp of olive oil to cook the chicken with spices)

RULE #2 Add 2 Snacks to Your Day and Assess How Much Protein You Still Need.

It makes the most sense to add a Midmorning snack and an Afternoon Snack, but suppose you aren't hungry in the afternoon after your lunch? Well, I like going to bed on a satisfied tummy, so I'm inclined to add a Midmorning and a Bedtime Snack first just to see where we are with Protein Requirements! Here's the protein plan for the day with 2 snacks added into the mix. If you do nothing more than this, most of us will get by with protein until we're able to eat 3oz of protein at a meal. But, it's still kinda low so let's add 1 more Snack!

RULE #3 If Protein Is Still on the Low End, Add 1 More Snack!!!

If I need to add a snack #3 to the mix, I want it to be easy, low/no cook, maybe more sliderish in nature and be a little more less like a protein chore. So let's make it lactose free fun!?! And voila, for very little effort I'm smack where I need to be to get my daily protein in while only eating about 2oz of protein per meal by WEIGHT and around 1 ounce of protein by WEIGHT per snack. That's about 1/2c of protein by VOLUME per meal and about 1/4c of protein by VOLUME per snack. That assumes you will eat about every 3 hours. Now it's time to add your veggies!

RULE #4 You've satisfied your protein, now let's go add those veggies to flesh out our meal!

Most of you will be able to eat between 1-2oz of veggies by WEIGHT per meal. So let's start there! That's between 1/8-1/2cup of veggies by VOLUME depending on the density of the veggie and how firmly you chop or pack them into your measuring cup. Here's your immediate "requirements" for protein and veg/fruit:

RULE #5. Now let's make it taste good!!!

Let's add our fats in although we already have some fats in the form of avocado, and nuts/nut butters, plus the fat in our Proteins. So here's the full day! And it's filled with nutrient dense filling foods that taste satisfying and don't add a bunch of extra calories into the mixture!

Hope that helps you. The key is to break your day down and systematically look at what you need each meal to get you to the finish line. That way you don't end up at the end of the day and you have only gotten 20g of protein into your piehole! This type of planning takes me about 5 minutes every day to sit down either then night before or the next morning and fill it out. I might deviate from plan, sure, but at least you know where you are in the ballpark in case you need to make adjustments in order to meet your protein needs and keep calories in line with your other macro goals!! (By the way, if you AREN'T lactose intolerant, you save a lot of carbs by using regular Greek yogurt and if you are lactose intolerant, sub out the string cheese for a hard boiled egg or an ounce of lunch meat!

How do you plan your day so you get protein in?

[Jazzy1125 1,010]

I will save this for when i am allowed to have Snacks per my surgeon. For the 1st year he does not want us to have snacks at all and to get our additional Protein (outside the 3 meals) from a protein supplement drink. After the 1st year, we can swap out the Protein Drink for protein snacks. I have been eating a lot of salmon, tuna, and ground meats. chicken doesnt like me yet. LOL.. My issue is getting in stuff outside of protein but not too worried about that as he said to focus on Water and protein, and the other stuff will come later.

Thanks for the tips Fluffy!

[Jazzy1125 1,010]

Let me add.. I no longer drink ready made ones by themselves. Those are reserved as Creamer for my coffee! I make all my own from Protein Powder and i flavor it up with either PB2, or Torani SF flavored syrups and spices, depending on my mood.

[FluffyChix 17,415]

6 minutes ago, Jazzy1125 said:

Let me add.. I no longer drink ready made ones by themselves. Those are reserved as Creamer for my coffee! I make all my own from Protein Powder and i flavor it up with either PB2, or Torani SF flavored syrups and spices, depending on my mood.

Hi there. Yes, it's way easier to eat your 3 meals per day + 1 Protein drink. I was making this for those whose surgical rule is only protein from food rather than a supplement. Or for those who don't know how to plan. And for those who have become intolerant of using protein supplements.

Glad you've got things worked out. Even though it's boring, we honestly don't "need" any carbs. Our body can make all it needs for our brain and portions of our kidney to function...but yeah, I know, sometimes you just want a veg. For me, that's why I DO continue to use protein supplements in my coffee (about 2-4oz per day is enough to free up some real estate on my plate for veg. I currently try to stick to: 2oz dense protein + 1-2oz veg + up to 1/2-1tsp of fat per meal. I aim to get 600-800cals per day and between 60-70g protein in and around 35g-ish grams of fat each day. I'm almost to 1 year post op.

Edited January 30, 2019 by FluffyChix

[elcee 3,341]

I had my first postop dietician app this week. According to her I am doing well and seem to be achieving what I need to Protein wise. I’m not a logger, all that stuff is too hard, I’m just following the plan I was given.

[Wanda247 908]

@FluffyChix Thank you so much for taking the time to break it down like that and share your food log, I do log all of my food it just works better for me, but I usually do it after I eat each meal but it makes so much sense to log it for the entire day, l will admit I am one of those that will get to my last meal and then realize that dang!! I did not meet my Protein for the day. And I usually cook a couple of meat dishes on Sunday's so I pretty much know what I have to work with as far as my protein for the week...I needed to see that because I was starting to feel like it's a chore to get the protein in and that's not good. New goals 😊

[FluffyChix 17,415]

1 minute ago, Wanda247 said:

@FluffyChix Thank you so much for taking the time to break it down like that and share your food log, I do log all of my food it just works better for me, but I usually do it after I eat each meal but it makes so much sense to log it for the entire day, l will admit I am one of those that will get to my last meal and then realize that dang!! I did not meet my Protein for the day. And I usually cook a couple of meat dishes on Sunday's so I pretty much know what I have to work with as far as my Protein for the week...I needed to see that because I was starting to feel like it's a chore to get the protein in and that's not good. New goals 😊

See? I totally get this and most of us have been where you are right now. I wanted to post this for you and others but didn't want to jack the other thread!

Protein is like Water. It's easy to get overwhelmed. But if you break it out so you can see what you need to do where...then suddenly it gives your power back to you?!! So you know, hey, if I basically eat 2oz of protein per meal and then have 3 Snacks with 1oz of protein each, I'm on top of protein. To me at your point, 2oz of protein per meal felt totally do-able! Some of you guys will eat those 2 oz and that will be it for you. LIghts out. No more! But for me, I was able to have 2oz protein + 2oz veg (1oz of cooked veg + 1oz of avocado/grape Tomato blend which is kinda sliderish for me). To this day right now, that is my protein plan for most meals.

And sometimes I get to craving veg so much, that doing the 4oz of protein drink in my coffee, frees me up so that either:

1. I don't have to have 3 snacks (which is better for me--more time between meals=better weight loss)

or

2. I could have a veggie snack rather than a protein snack and could have up to 1cup of some kind of raw veggie and up to 1/2c of cooked veg to get my serving in! That way I don't feel like I'm captive to my protein each day.

*****

Planning before you start the day helps get an action plan together. If you do it enough it becomes routine and you will see you are repeating a lot of meals. Then planning and logging gets even easier! I still make food choices on the fly, but it's much less chance of that happening when I plan.

[Wanda247 908]

4 minutes ago, FluffyChix said:

See? I totally get this and most of us have been where you are right now. I wanted to post this for you and others but didn't want to jack the other thread!

Protein is like Water. It's easy to get overwhelmed. But if you break it out so you can see what you need to do where...then suddenly it gives your power back to you?!! So you know, hey, if I basically eat 2oz of Protein per meal and then have 3 Snacks with 1oz of protein each, I'm on top of protein. To me at your point, 2oz of protein per meal felt totally do-able! Some of you guys will eat those 2 oz and that will be it for you. LIghts out. No more! But for me, I was able to have 2oz protein + 2oz veg (1oz of cooked veg + 1oz of avocado/grape Tomato blend which is kinda sliderish for me). To this day right now, that is my protein plan for most meals.

And sometimes I get to craving veg so much, that doing the 4oz of Protein Drink in my coffee, frees me up so that either:

1. I don't have to have 3 Snacks (which is better for me--more time between meals=better weight loss)

or

2. I could have a veggie snack rather than a protein snack and could have up to 1cup of some kind of raw veggie and up to 1/2c of cooked veg to get my serving in! That way I don't feel like I'm captive to my protein each day.

*****

Planning before you start the day helps get an action plan together. If you do it enough it becomes routine and you will see you are repeating a lot of meals. Then planning and logging gets even easier! I still make food choices on the fly, but it's much less chance of that happening when I plan.

I agree planning is key especially for me ((Hugs))

[Bari_KS 499]

@FluffyChix I use a similar meal planning and for the day with Baritastic app. I log my food and Water the night before or in the morning and then adjust/add/remove Protein and other macros. In fact, it is very easy to log and monitor my macros.

[Jazzy1125 1,010]

Thanks for all the tips and info. I am sure i will be changing things up soon myself with doctors blessing LOL

[EJ's Mom 2]

@FluffyChixI love MyFitnessPal ! I use it everyday!

Edited April 18, 2019 by EJ's Mom