I had my surgery about 5 months ago and am interested in being vegetarian. We’ve been doing Hello Fresh and I’m preferring the vegetarian meals most of the time and all meat besides steak doesn’t feel very pleasant to eat.
I know ethically it’s better to be vegan but I think it will be too difficult with my current dietary restrictions.
I have to get at least 60 g of protein a day and I only have room for about 2-3 oz of food per meal (I eat 3 meals a day). Does this seem doable as a vegetarian? I’m going to talk about it with my doctor, but it feels like it would be. I might need to add a protein shake or 2 into the routine.
It’s not just morals for me, although that is a big factor. It’s been pretty difficult to eat all meat except steak and fish. Like it just doesn’t sit well and every time I eat I find myself wishing it was black beans instead.
Maybe I’ll try pescatarian to start. I’m not going to make any changes until speaking to my doctor though.
Vegan here, I've never had gastric bypass, but I know some folks who have and you're not going to be able to do it, at first. It's just not feasible to get enough protein with the amount of calories you'll be restricted to, and the fact that you can't eat any nuts or seeds and you have to watch the amount of legumes, due to fiber content. My suggestion would be to eat the leanest proteins you can and change your body composition. If you can get your bf % around 25, have the procedure reversed, then transition to a plant based diet.
You can’t have the procedure reversed. I think the only one that’s reversible is lap band.
If you are doing 'no processed foods' vegetarian, it will require being careful, and eating lots of beans to meet that. Things like high-protein tofu, tempeh, Seitan, and beyond meat-type subs are all around the protein density of meat though. The Beyond meat-stuff can be pricy, but seitan is super cheap if you make it yourself, and tofu can be cheap if you have an Asian market nearby, as I've found its over priced at most American supermarkets. Eggs of course are also in the same neighborhood of protein content, if you feel ethically okay with eating lots of eggs.
Seitan especially is super dense, and when I make it I usually cut it with wheat and/or mushrooms to make it lighter, but if you're worried about volume, pure seitan can get you your 60g protein in one 2oz serving. Its not complete protein, which is only really a problem if you aren't getting any other protein at all.
I think I have when I was doing Keto back in the day but not sure if I’m thinking of the same thing.
It's a good tool for food nutrition. Lists the generalized values for food as well as specific name brans. I usually Google lists for foods that are high in whatever nutrient I'm looking for and then use Cronometer to see how it can fit into a diet.
They didn’t give me a macro to stay under, but carbs are a waste of space.
They didn’t really give me a vegetable hierarchy, but starchy vegetables like potatoes and cauliflower don’t count as vegetables.
On a plate I basically need to eat all the protein before I can eat vegetables and then all the vegetables before I can eat any starches, but typically don’t have enough room.
