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Bariatric Surgery vs keto

4K views 27 replies 6 participants last post by  itissteve 
#1 ·
It has begun.

My wife started her 8 day pre-op liquid diet in preparation for her bariatric surgery on October 9th.

I'm supporting her lifestyle choice as much as possible by matching her dietary changes with my own.

She is headed for a 30 day liquid phase. I'll do the same while attempting to keep my diet LCHF.

I don't expect to be conforming to a traditional ketogenic diet but I have no intention on eating apple sauce or drinking low fat milk like the doctors have recommended for my wife.

I also have no intention of nit picking or criticising her diet. That would not be supportive.

Anyway, please wish both of us luck. Things are about to get real for us LOL.
 
#2 ·
Good luck, NSDad and NSMom!

My wife underwent bariatric surgery many years ago and has learned to accommodate the changes in lifestyle it calls for (smaller meals, greater attention to nutrients, etc.). If you were to ask her, I think she would do it again. I applaud your efforts to support your wife in preparation for her surgery.

My wife and I have kind of been on the flip side of where you are now. Now that I'm eating keto, my wife is, too, with her additional carbs largely in the form of chosen treats. She gets her treats and I don't have to cook rice/noodles/have that kind of stuff laying around the house as a temptation. I must say I'm surprised by how well her system has adjusted to eating keto; originally we figured it would be a real issue but it has not been, so you may be able to look forward to eating the same meals for quite some time to come. :smile2:
 
#3 ·
Best of luck to you both.

Being supportive as you are doing is a big step for you and a big help for her. I've seen that being critical and nit picking only makes things worse.
 
#5 ·
this week has been a week of protein shakes and strained soups.

I've been adding olive oil to my shakes, hers are low fat.

I'm using an unsweetened almond milk instead if milk. It is a new shopping list item for me and overall I'm impressed with it. The sweetened variety has too many carbs, I won't buy it.

My wife has been using milk but switched to the almond milk yesterday. She found that the almond milk was more filling and her general sense of craving food was reduced.

Do you know the saying 'You don't know what you don't know.'? Well, I havent had regular milk in almost a year so there would be no way for me to know that about milk vs almond milk.
 
#6 ·
I'm sure bariatric surgery has come a long way since I was thinking about it back in the 90's....... All I can say is be very careful, and make sure your doctors are top notch. I hope she gets what she wants out of it.


As for the almond milk, I love the stuff. I changed to almond milk a long time ago, and never regretted it. They even make different forms of almond milk, like almond cream and almond milk coffee creamer.

I like the honey almond milk, but the stores around here stopped selling it, so I just get the unsweetened vanilla almond milk and put a bit of real honey in it. It's takes the "blah" out of it for me and gives it a little "yum" factor. If you do artificial sweeteners, you can put some of that in there also.

They also have cashew milk, which I thought I would love, since I'm addicted to cashews, but no...it tasted funny to me, so I'm sticking with almond milk.

There's also different brands of almond milk, some are more watery tasting to me than Blue Diamond Almond Milk. I like it the best, as it's more creamy to me than the other brands. The chocolate almond milk is good too.
 
#7 · (Edited)
I have to admit that I'm hungery. The protien shakes and almons milk are not doing it for me. In the past week I've cheated (ie ate solid food) several times.

once i ate a can of waxed yellow beans with hot sauce.

yesterday i ate a 1 cup can of black olives with a tbspoon of olive oil

but most embarassing, I've got a jar of peanut butter and I'm about 1 cup into it over the last week. So basically I'm cheating but not in the same way as when I'm in a full blown 'I need ice cream' mode.

i wonder what the protien shakes are doing to my blood glucose.

as i write this, I realise that I havent been testing my blood sugars or breathe ketones. I'll test before and after my morning smoothy but I'll also have to test all day because if my morning numbers are high it might lead me to the wrong conclusions.

--------------------------

a new blog article, I wrote the draft to it about a month ago but finally updated and published it today http://www.fastingandketo.ca/how-do-you-define-moderation
 
#11 ·
i wonder what the protien shakes are doing to my blood glucose.

as i write this, I realise that I havent been testing my blood sugars or breathe ketones. I'll test before and after my morning smoothy but I'll also have to test all day because if my morning numbers are high .......
just a quick follow up on this, I still need to test my bg perhaps tomorrow. last weekend was canadian thankgiving so i skipped the mashed potatoes but ate the turkey. lol
 
#8 ·
my wife's surgery is tommorow. Today was clear liquids only for her, which includes chicken bone broth.

I'm proud of her, she had less than 500 calories of clear liquids yet - thanks to the bone broth - she still had about 80g of protein.

I've been a fan of bone broth since I read keto clarity by jimmy moore. But now I'm an even bigger fan of it.

My wife has been mixing my home made bone broth with equal parts walmart bone broth. She says it makes the walmart bone broth taste better
 
#9 ·
Best of wishes for your wife to have a successful operation. Let us know how it goes.

On a less serious note, go eat a cheeseburger tomorrow while she's in recovery, we won't tell.
 
#10 ·
lol too funny! thank you for the best wishes

i'm in the hospital cafeteria waiting for my wife to get out of surgery.

I was hoping to get something to eat. I was hopinh for somr low carb options. looks like they have some great tasting muffins, and crousants but nothing low carb.

. I settled for peanuts from the vending machine, and a coffee. ironic that i can get the same from a convenience store. lol
 
#13 ·
this is Day 6 post surgery for my wife. She has been home since noon on Day 2. They kept her until she was on phase 3 of her diet - full liquids including protien shakes, strained soups, jello, pudding, and plain greek yogurt. Milk has been replaced - by choice,not by doctor - with almond milk. Phase 3 lasts for 30 days, then gets reused from time to time to "reset" her diet.

I have been eating the same protein/almond smoothies, and I've been having some of the soups. The soups are a concern For me, most soups are two high in carbs for keto.I have to choose carefully and sparingly. Ussually that means 1/2 cup servings with bone broth and water. And, I've been adding plain whey protien to soup at the dining room table(adding before microwave causes a mess LOL). Hot sauce has been a wonderful way to spice up the soup.

I was cheating with additional keto type meals during the pre-op diet until my wife came home on day 2. The past 4 days I have not strayed from my full liquid diet.

Anyway, my bg is 6-7 ish, and I'm at the low end of my typical body weight for the past 4 weeks so this is definitely not hurting me.

My wife is down 50lbs from 8weeks ago when she started practising her new way eating. I am extremely happy and jealous for her.
 
#15 ·
Glad to hear NSMom is doing well and wishing for speed recovery. Congrats on the weight loss for both of you. I take it you are diluting the soups with a more keto friendly liquid options. Good move, what are your plans after the clear liquid phase?
 
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#17 ·
my favorite soup so far is campbells cream of mushroom soup at 7 net carbs per 1/2 can.It doesn't need to be cut

many other soups are over 22 grams per cup, requiring me to cut back to a 1/2 cup serving that i can extend .

my basic strategy is to dilute things down with chicken bone broth, but out of convenience I'm finding that I will use the almond milk.

I've been limiting my almond milk to 1 cup or less per meal ( 30 cal. 2grams of carbs) but those numbers are so good, tonight I omited the plain whey protein from my soup and made a chocolate smoothy with an extra cup of almond milk.
 
#19 ·
i mentioned yesterday to nsmom that her soups are causing me carb issues. if i don't do the due diligence to dilute them down, I'm coming in at 40-65 grams and when I do I'm counting 18-25 gram with more that i'm not counting.

She suggested that I switch back to my regular keto meals.

I could do alot worse than listen to her so I think I will LOL
 
#20 ·
How are you and NSMom doing?
 
#21 ·
nsmom is doing well. she has lost 65lbs. not sure of the split. but i think 45lbs was preop while testing herself on the diet that is now surgically enforced.

Me? not so well.I'm still enjoying all my NSV related to keto buy I'm only 7lbs below my Mar 11th weigh in(which is 35lbs below my starting weight this time last year.

I'm still a believer but would really like to see some more progress if you know what i mean.
 
#22 ·
NSDad, I hit a similar plateau earlier this year -- very disappointing considering how quickly the earlier pounds came off and considering that, according to the ol' charts on the wall, I still have another 30-40 pounds to go.

However, that also was the time that I got a little preoccupied with some other life issues and I kind of let keto and my more regimented approach to my diabetes care slide a little. Apparently I did not let it go as far as I thought, though, because my A1c came back exactly the same as it did this spring and I lost six pounds since then, too. So maybe this is just the new normal.
 
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#23 ·
Steve, thanks for sharing. I'm having a similar struggle.

I need to do a reboot this month. I know this is going to look like a 'new years resolution' but I really do find that the xmas break is a good time to reset my goals and work hard at them.

It was approximately xmas of last year when I did a 13 day fast and then transitioned to keto. It was a life changer and an eye opener for me.

I'm a bummed out over not losing 50 lbs by now - I wanted so bad to say goodbye the 300s on the scale. But the nonscale victories are enough that I believe without a doubt that this is the way.

Truthfully, it is not so bad to have finally found the way but stumble, if that makes any sense.
 
#24 ·
update on this thread

Keto(me) - down 35+lbs, stalled since June, but have kept the 35 off for almost a year. At one point I was an additional 20 lbs lower but that was before I fell ill with an embolish. From time to time, I'm moving my weight 7-12lb down, but the progress is not sticking.

bariatric surgery(my wife) - down 78.5lbs as of today. About 45lbs of that was between June and Oct, where she ate a keto diet plus she had to do an 8 day pre-op diet and a 2week test diet prior to the surgery. Most of that weight loss was from the liquid diet, not keto. The surgery was on Oct 9.


I would say my wife is kicking my butt. I think that is wonderful and would defend her choice to have surgery. I still think my path is not surgery. I believe keto is my path but I need a reboot.


I think my reboot might look like this:

- ongoing fasting in the neighbor of 3-5 days at a time. ( this is supposed to keep my metabolism higher than OMAD will )

- strict keto on my feeding days. One to two days then right back to fasting.

- put my calorie intake at 110-120% of what I need for the day. ( apparently this helps keep your metabolism higher, too)

- I have to get back into daily walks for general health, not weight loss.

- I have to strength train and interval train to strengthen my muscles( and heart).
 
#25 ·
First off, congrats to NSMom, I hope she continues to do well.

I'm like you, I think diet and exercise would be my choice.

Also congrats to you and what you've accomplished. Hoping the reboot starts your weight loss again. Looking forward to your posts updating how it's going.
 
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#26 ·
thanks all!

my wife is now down 80 lbs

I haven't stopped keto and up'd my game to preparing a big bowl of raw veggies. it works out to be 5g carbs per cup because i've added equal pirtions of carrots, radishes, tomatoes, to the celery, bell pepper, mushrooms, cucumbers. I'm having 1 cup at lunch, 1 cup at supper. adding certified cold pressed olive oil and meats. my meals should be packed full of nutrition and void of anything questionable.

i'm charting out a 4 months 'way of life' for jan-to- may. I think i'll split the year into 3 chunks with obvious differences such as exercise. my exercise will focus on weight lifting but transition to walking outside. the summer will be no wright lifting just outdoor activities. stay with sensible sustainable ideas and goals.
 
#28 ·
it is making me bummed out about my lack of progress.
Pardon the food pun but you're talking apples and oranges here.

For what it's worth, Mrs. itissteve had similar surgery many years before we met. She lost a lot of weight, too, but has had her share of challenges since in adapting to the procedure; challenges I don't think I'll ever experience with LCHF and, honestly, challenges I wouldn't want. You'll be okay; her approach was just ... different.
 
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