I know that we've cut way back on eating out. My family of 5 used to go out most every Sunday after church. But it's just gotten too expensive to do that often, so I will try to smoke something Saturday, or Sunday morning for our Sunday meal. My wife goes in early for practice because she's the piano player, so it's not easy for her to do a Sunday meal. Today, we had tri tips with baked beans and baked potato. That was a much better meal than we would have gotten eating out and much cheaper. Plus, we have plenty of leftovers

Always.

Of course all food depends on the crew working when you order...

My wife and I were returning from a skiing trip in Colorado and stopped off at McDonalds in Limon, CO. Holy hell, they wanted $10 for a double quarter pounder with cheese. We exited and found a Wendy's down the road where I got the Dave's double for $7.

$10 for a McDonalds burger? WTF!

That's why you should stop at the McDonalds/Love's in Bennett, then keep rolling east until you get to the Burlington. McDonalds or Love's in Burlington......unless The Dish Room is open and you have time to sit down. Dish Room is awesome.

https://www.thedishroomburlington.com/

Just looked at the current Dish Room menu....John Wayne Burger is only $3 more than McDonalds in Limon. They also have the $12 lunch menu.

Thanks for tip!

Just got back from or favorite sushi place. We had our usual, love boat for 2, baby octopus salad and a rock & roll, roll on the side. We go once ever couple months because we know its going to set us back a good chunk of change. Pre scamdemic, it cost us right at $60. The last time we went it was $75. Today it was just over $100. I'm not going to say we're going to stop having it because we love it, but it may be reserved for special occasions now

Not yet and I'm 4 years out. I could see how it would be an issue with a high protein diet, regardless of whether one had the surgery or not.

However, another part of the program is water consumption. Not sure how much that would help ward off kidney stones but I actually drink more than 128oz of water a day - yeah, the program requires you to consume no less than 1 gallon of water a day.

I missed this in my previous response...

Were those studies conducted on bariatric patients in general? Because that would include gastric bypass patients, who would definitely have difficult with metabolizing oxalates. They have trouble breaking down all kinds of minerals which is why they have a very strict regimen of post-op vitamins.

I had a sleeve gastrectomy, where they basically remove 3/4 of your stomach. The stomach remains intact and still performs its original function (rather than being bypassed), so with sleeves it's more of a question of "how much/little" vs. "have vs. don't have". If that makes sense.

That's too bad, looks like they are getting tipped 7% instead of 10%.

Had some Chinese take out tonight, delicious.

Technically, the biggest reason low carb, high protein, paleo, and even keto to a lesser extent work is because they focus on higher concentrations of proteins and fats and less on carbohydrates. Call it a macro if you want, I'm not sure what else to call it.

By focusing on protein and less on carbs, you get quite a few benefits that flow naturally out of the way you're eating.

As has already been mentioned, eating protein fuels your body differently than eating carbs. Protein is generally dense and has much more complex chemical bonds than carbohydrates. It takes more time and energy to break down protein. So you're less hungry than if you eat mostly carbohydrates. This produces two effects mostly:

1. You eat less total calories over time (there's only 24 hours in a day and we all need to sleep). By upping protein, you are less hungry and thus eat less.

2. You burn more calories over time. Eating protein takes more energy to break down so you're actually burning more calories just digesting protein vs. carbohydrates.

I hope this doesn't sound like a lecture, it's really not. I agree with pretty much all of what you're saying.

Yep. Processed usually means cheaper, more "concentrated" ingredients. You'll get high fructose corn syrup instead of raw sugar, for example. Not only is high fructose corn syrup higher in calories but it's easier to digest. So just from a caloric standpoint, you're fighting a terrible uphill battle eating processed foods.

Look at your analogy from my perspective. Because of my surgery, my average meal is about 8oz - 4 protein, 4 veggies and starch.

If you were to look at a bag of regular old Lay's classic potato chips, the recommended serving size is 15 chips or roughly 1 ounce. The entire bag has 8 servings. To eat the same volume of food as the steak, I'd need 4 servings or half the bag of chips to get roughly the same "full" sensation.

4 ounces of steak is about 250 calories, almost all protein. The chips are about 75% carbs and 25% fat (mostly the bad fats too) and 4 oz. would have a whopping 640 calories. And because of the chips' caloric makeup, I'll likely be hungry in HALF the time as if I had eaten the steak. If you look at that difference over time (due to being more hungry from eating chips), you start to see how wide the gulf is.

And even if you look at the chips as a side to the steak, it's still horrible. 4 ounces of roasted broccoli has 40 calories, only 6g of carbohydrates, and almost half of that is hard-to-digest fiber.

I used to be a "not that simple" guy. Mainly because none of the things I had tried were simple at all. In the end, it turned out that it was a lot simpler than I realized because I was trying to "diet" instead of actually changing.

Diets don't work. I know there might be some that disagree but over the long term, studies show diets don't work. You can't deprive yourself of an entire foodgroup (or more) and expect to be healthy and balanced. It's nearly impossible to maintain because the more you deprive yourself, the more your body craves those things of which it's being denied.

I simplified my view greatly 4 years ago. Yes, I had surgery but I lost 40 pounds BEFORE my surgery by following the diet I was going to use after the surgery. And I very quickly found out it was absolutely SIMPLE.

Just be mindful of what you eat and how much of it. Make smart substitutions, like zucchini instead of a baked potato.

Eat SLOWER - it really is good advice. People say it takes about 20 minutes for your brain to catch up with your stomach and that people are actually full 20 minutes before they stop eating. Well, I've lived it If I eat too much, I will get sick. I cannot wait 20 minutes between being full and stopping eating because I won't just get indigestion. I could get violently ill. The first thing they told us in the program is to eat slower. Eat with your stomach, not your brain. For me, eating slower is the key to not being sick. For most everybody else, it's the key to eating what you need, not what you want.

Finally, protein protein protein. I eat 3 meals a day but at 8 or so ounces a piece, that's simply not enough food. The program wants the average man to supplement 60-90 grams of protein supplements a day and they recommend whey protein isolate as the cleanest source.

Keto and Atkins and stuff like that are great to lose weight because they shift focus to healthier, more calorie-dense foods and away from a lot of simple or processed carbs.

The problem is that they're not balanced at all and thus usually impossible to maintain.

The key is really shifting from carbs to protein. It's pretty much that simple. You don't need a diet plan to tell you that.

I was talking to a buddy today about this topic. He and his wife are good cooks. They are of means and can afford to go out a few times a week. The kids are gone and have business careers.

They would go out a few times a week because they don't have time to cook. Because they can cook and the prices are so crazy, they are trying to cook more at home.


His point is that you can go to Taco Bell for ~$20, but it is crap food.

So do you spend +$50 or more for quality or take your time, if you can cook, and cook at home?

Time = money.

That is the basic premise. or do mac n cheese and pop tarts?

Have you seen the price of Mac and cheese lately?!? And even the Kraft powder kind.