Final Stage today! Calorie/carb limit?

Today is the day I advance to the final stage of my diet. So basically nothing is off limits. I am excited to have a few veggies here and there. I don't see my diet changing dramatically as I will need to get all the protein in first anyway. However, I'm wondering how many calories and carbs people give themselves per day? My nutritionist said I will probably land between 500-700 calories at this point but said not to worry about carbs cause she doubts I'll get too many. However, I feel like I'd still like to monitor carb intake as they are such a trigger for me!

Can anyone share the max carbs they do daily in the weight loss phase? I'll also take any other tips from pros!

Thanks in advance!!

I don't know how many either but my nutritionist pushes high carb things like beans all the time. She also told me not to worry about carbs and concentrate on protein but it would be nice to know a ball park figure. My opinion is 40 carbs is plenty for day. I haven't made it to the pureed foods yet but I am not a big fan of beans. She also identified what she says are good carbs like, Butternut or winter Squash, Potato, Sweet Potato, Turnip, and the bad ones like rice,pasta, white flour, bread. Before my surgery I went on a low carb diet with 20 carb max per day. It was not easy but I lost 67 lbs in 6 months, than over the next 6 gained 80 lbs back. I'm from Italian family and it was always bread and pasta. But as long as you get your protein in, I don't see an issue with eating moderate amounts of good carbs. Good luck!

Your calorie range for the weight loss phase is similar to what I was given as well. Protein and produce is what they stressed. I do notice that those who are really strict on the board recommend no more than 25 grams of carbs per day, 40 grams max. I'm always below 25.

I'm Italian myself, so there were some doubters in my family that I could successfully do this -- I was the carb queen. Now...I'm afraid to eat carbs. I actually don't really crave them anymore either. Never thought that would happen. I do have an ounce of baked potato occasionally, it's sort of heavy in my stomach though. A small bread stick once in a while. Mostly I really stick with protein and green vegetables.

If carbs (simple carbs, bread, pasta, rice, etc) are a trigger for you, they sure are for me, then be mindful. It can be too easy to slip up.

Your nut is fundamentally correct - with your low calorie intake and protein needs, it's hard to be too high on carbs (or fats, when that was the "in" diet.) Indeed, our diets are by default low carb and low fat, which is one of the reasons that WLS has been the most successful form of obesity therapy irrespective what diets are in fashion - people have been successfully losing with their WLS for decades through both the low fat and low carb fad eras.

The key with your triggers is to pay attention to what foods actually trigger you to overeat, or crave the wrong things. Triggers can be virtually anything, from both the "carb" and the "fat" camps (or most frequently, both - think chips, twinkies, big macs and fries.) Does broccoli trigger you? If not, why worry about the carbs in it? This is an area where quality definitely trumps quantity - go for high quality, high nutrition foods and you won't likely be triggered into eating or craving the wrong things. Excessive worry about counting macronutrients tends to minimize much of the good food that we should be eating, like fruits and veggies. There is also a point that some things that have many of the negative characteristics of carbs, like some artificial sweeteners, aren't counted at all.

I never controlled carbs (or fats) but rather tried to optimize the nutrition that I got from the non-protein part of the diet; looking back at my data, it turned out that carbs and fats were roughly split calorically without agonizing about either. Probably the better thing to monitor is sugar intake, as that is closer to where the problem lies with most of us these days.

Very simple formula to follow, if that's what you're after is this:

Protein, >80 grams

Carbs, < 40 grams

Calories, 600-800

It's what many of us followed and worked well. I lost steadily to goal in 7.5 months following that plan. I never counted fats. I chose to monitor carbs carefully once I realized how many "hidden" carbs there are in food (think salad dressings, sauces, milk products, fruits, etc....). It's what worked for me.

What Kairk said is very true. I monitored carbs and protein. Didn't care about fat. If I did eat carbs, once I was a few months out, it was carrots, celery, beans etc....no bread, pasta, rice, etc.