Carbs And Sugar - My Theory - Long

[Guest guest]

I've been fighting an internal battle over carbs and sugar in my

diet. I first heard of this procedure at the end of July of last

year and did research on it on line and on these groups for a

long time before I actually had my surgery on February 2.

One of the things I read was about the fact that you only absorb

" so much " of the calorie content of what you eat, i.e. the

malabsorption thing. For the longest time I thought this was

" equal opportunity malabsorption " . I thought that no matter

what I ate, the same amount of calories from each thing would

be absorbed or malabsorbed.

It was only about 6-8 weeks before my surgery that I came across

info stating that fat and protein are largely malabsorbed, but

that sugar and carbs are largely absorbed! Well, that was a

bummer to me because I am a carb lover! It's good that I didn't

hear about this in the beginning though, because I don't know

if I would have considered surgery had I known this.

Fortunately I had my mind made up and I had the surgery. And

I have been fighting the battle of the carbs. I love bread,

potato chips, noodles, biscuits, mac & cheese, cookies, cake,

ice cream and juice and I always will.

I have been TRYING to avoid these things since surgery to help

maximize my " window of opportunity " of weight loss, which is

about the first 18-24 months post-op.

My mind goes back and forth saying, " You didn't have this surgery

just so you could be on a diet, everyone says they eat whatever

they want and lose weight, so you should do that too. " Then

I hear it say, " You know what you read about carbs being absorbed

more wholly than fat and protein, you should be maximizing your

window of opportunity for weight loss, in 18-24 months you can

eat more carbs, just don't eat them now. "

Variations on this theme have played out in my head multiple

times daily ever since I've been able to eat more normally the

last month and a half or so.

Until today. I've learned that I need carbs to feel satisfied.

My new, smaller stomach won't allow me to eat " too many " carbs,

especially if I am getting all my protein and water. This is

about the 4th time I've said " the heck with it, I'm eating what

I want like everyone says I should be able to " and the results

each time have been the same. I load some carbs onto my plate,

I eat maybe a third of what is on my plate and I am happy and

satisfied. My poor husband is going to wind up being overweight,

because I keep giving him what I can't eat off my plate. LOL

I've also realized, as I've seen others here say, that every time

they say, " I didn't have this surgery just to go on another diet,

I'm eating what I want " , they wind up losing more weight or

breaking a plateau.

I feel very strongly that I could not trust my body to tell me

what it needed before this surgery, but now that I've had this

surgery, I can trust it to tell me what it needs and how much

is enough.

I was reading the " intuitive eating " book about a year and a

half before I heard of this surgery and thought it made a lot

of sense, but I just could not make it work for me. I am going

to re-read it now as a post-op and try to work it, because I

think it will work really well with this surgery for me.

So my theory is, eat some carbs if you really want them. A

serving of carbs is probably not only not going to hurt you,

but your body is probably telling you that you need something in

whatever it is you are wanting. And that feeling of satiety

will free your brain up to think about other things than

food. )

Satiety is one of the many miracles of this surgery and I'm

going to start embracing it.

-Sherry (Lake Marcel, WA)

BPD/DS Feb. 2, 2001

self-pay

5'5 " / 341 pounds / 33 years old

Lost 9 pounds in pre-op weight loss efforts

Have lost 70 pounds since surgery!

Total of 79 pounds gone forEVER!

http://www.fluffynet.com/wls/