Losing weight with Ileostomy

The goal of this guide is to achieve fast and sustainable weight loss by creating healthy eating habits. This is not a crazy diet that brings discomfort and starvation. Quite the opposite, you will eat normally, healthy and your hunger in between meals will disappear over time. The guide is based on the Ketogenic Diet which has been around since 1920. You can find more about it on Internet. The below guide has become a way of life for many people.
Please, check with your medical doctor, nurse, registered dietician or nutritionist before making changes to your diet. This guide is not medical advice and is merely based on experience. Results may vary from person to person.
Please, also make sure to apply your own experience with Ileostomy when it comes to the recommended foods at the end of the document. Foods might affect different people in different ways and you have to make sure you avoid these that cause blockages. Also, make sure to properly chew your food, chop your vegies into small pieces or better yet, steam them or boil them. If you want to experiment with nuts, make sure to chew them well or chop them into small pieces or powder (like almond flour for example).
If you find that your output gets too liquid, you might try to eat more spinach. In the end, it is all about trial and error.
The Main Idea
When the body is in short supply of sugar, glucose and carbohydrates (carbs), your liver starts breaking down your own body fat as an alternative source of energy. This process is known as Ketosis. This occurs overnight, and during dieting or fasting.
In order to speed up the process of Ketosis and start burning fat you can do the following:
  • Restrict the intake of carbohydrates and glucose (there are plenty of foods that are naturally low carb)
  • Get rid of sugar (there are natural substitutes, like Stevia and Monk fruit)
  • Introduce intermittent fasting to your eating habits (like skipping breakfast)
  • Eat non-GMO or, preferably, organic foods
  • Take naturally derived supplements (vitamins and minerals)
Reducing Carbs
Carbs stimulate the hormone that stores fat. This hormone is called insulin (produced in the pancreas). When your insulin level is high, the burning of fat pretty much stops, and fat gets stored in your body. The goal is to keep the insulin level in a normal range. You cannot eliminate entirely carbs from your diet since they are in many foods, including fruits and vegetables. The goal is to keep carbs in the 20 to 50 grams per day range.
As an example, a handful of raspberries + a handful of blackberries + a tablespoon of hummus delivers around 20 grams of net carb. Net carbs are calculated when you subtract the fibers. You can find more information about net carbs online.
A handful of carrots + one regular sized tomato + a handful of beets is around 20 grams of net carb.
Two medium sized avocados would have around 8 grams of net carb.
Frequent Eating Habits
Frequent eating is another reason for high insulin levels. This means that snacking in between regular eating intervals is causing your insulin level to constantly jump and that, again, leads to building and storing excessive fat.
Reducing Sugar
Sugar is another reason for spiking insulin level. You need to bring your sugar intake down to zero. This means no sugar whatsoever. There are plenty of acceptable, natural sweet alternatives that will be mentioned below.
What Is Glucose And What Does It Do?
People get glucose from bread, fruits, vegetables, and dairy products. Along with fat, glucose is one of the body’s preferred sources of fuel. That being said, if your goal is to lose weight, you would need to reduce the intake of glucose in order to stimulate your body to produce energy from its own fat (fat burning). The process of your body adapting to fat burning can take anywhere from three days to two weeks.
Vegetables
Consuming green vegetables is highly recommended. You do not have to restrict these. Of course, you need to be careful with gas causing greens like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage etc. The fiber in the leafy greens will feed your gut microbes. They, in turn, convert the fiber into butyrate (a type of fatty acid), which lowers your insulin and helps you lose weight. Although fiber is a carbohydrate, it has zero effect on your insulin levels. The greater the diversity of vegetables, the more wide-spectrum your microbes will become.
Make sure you chew, chop or steam your vegies well in order to avoid blockages.
If you bloat from vegetables, you can try steaming them or reduce the amounts until you have no bloating. If this does not work, just avoid these that cause bloating. Bloating will reduce your weight loss efforts and will also cause problems with your pouch.
Fat
You might have heard that fat is bad but that's not really the case. Animal fat as well as fat from certain vegetables and fruits is actually very good for you and promotes weight loss. Animal fat will be the fat in any of the meats that you eat. So, don't buy low fat meats - they are not good and they also do not taste as good. You can also use butter and animal fat for cooking, olive or avocado oil for salads, eat avocados, unprocessed cheese and half-half or whole milk.
Intermittent fasting
Contrary to what you might have heard, don't eat more than 2-3 times a day. Eating too many meals or snacking in between meals will trigger insulin spikes and will cause weight gain. Drink water only when you are thirsty. Intermittent fasting is not a diet. It is limiting the frequency of meals, allowing you to rely on fat burning for all the time between meals and while you are sleeping at night. If you need to lose a large amount of fat, you might want to skip breakfast. For example, your last meal is at 8PM and you don't eat anything until 12PM, the day after. Don't worry about being hungry. You will probably have some cravings for a few days but your body will adapt and the cravings will stop very soon. The body will "eat" its own fat instead. You can have water, green tea or plain, black coffee. If you do not have to lose a lot of weight or you are already in good shape, you can go back to 3 meals a day.
If you cheat and you end up eating carbs or sugar, your cravings will be back. Just stay away from these until you are happy with your body weight. You should actually stay away from these for good or find healthier, low carb and no sugar alternatives to things like bread, pasta, pizza and deserts, to name a few.
Believe it or not, the solution to reducing cravings is to consume more fat during your meals. Fat not only satisfies you the most and makes things yummier, it also triggers insulin the least. Consuming lean protein and low-fat meals keeps you hungry, so the answer is more fat. Check the list of good fats further down below.
Food supplements
Supplements are not 100% necessary, but they could be beneficial because of the change in diet and because of your Ileostomy. Make sure to only use naturally derived (not synthetic) products. You can find a good multivitamin supplement that includes variety of vitamins and minerals on Amazon or at your local health store.
Apple Cider Vinegar is not really a supplement but is highly recommended for weight loss and just in general. Use it in your salads or just take a spoon of it in the evening.

Cheat Sheet - What To Eat

Fat
Avocado
Avocado oil
Blue cheese
Brie cheese
Butter
Cocoa butter
Coconut butter
Coconut oil
Cream cheese
Duck fat
Egg yolks
Ghee
Half and half
Lard
Macadamia oil
MCT oil
Olive oil
Red palm oil
Sesame oil
Sour cream
Tallow
Walnut oil
Whole cream
Protein
Bacon
Beef
Beef jerky
Bison
Cheese
Chicken
Cottage cheese
Deer
Duck
Eggs
Elk
Goat
Goose
Hot dogs
Lamb
Moose
Pepperoni
Pheasant
Pork
Pork rinds
Quail
Rabbit
Salami
Sausage
Sheep
Turkey
Veal
Wild boar
Wild turkey
Full fat Yogurt (if it has less than 5 grams of sugar per cup, like goat yogurt)
Nuts and seeds
You have to be careful with these. Based on your own experience with your Ileostomy, you have to decide which ones are good for you and which ones not. Always make sure to chew them well or chop them into small pieces or powder (like almond flour for example).
Almonds
Brazil nuts
Chia seeds
Hazelnuts
Hemp seeds
Macadamia nuts
Nut butters (unsweetened)
Peanuts
Pecans
Pine nuts
Pistachios
Pumpkin seeds
Seed butters (unsweetened)
Sesame seeds
Sunflower seeds
Tahini (sesame butter)
Walnuts
Fish
Anchovies
Bass
Cod
Eel
Flounder
Grouper
Haddock
Halibut
Herring
Mackerel
Mahi-mahi
Orange roughy
Perch
Red snapper
Rockfish
Salmon
Sardines
Sole
Tilapia
Trout
Tuna (including albacore)
Turbot
Other Seafood
Abalone
Caviar
Clams
Crab
Lobster
Mussels
Octopus
Oysters
Scallops
Shrimp
Squid
Organ Meats
Bone marrow
Heart
Kidney
Liver
Tongue
Tripe
Vegetables
Artichoke
Arugula
Asparagus
Bean sprouts
Beet greens
Bok choy
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Butterhead lettuce
Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Chard
Chives
Cucumber
Dandelion greens
Eggplant
Endive
Fennel
Garlic
Green beans
Jicama
Kale
Kimchi
Kohlrabi
Leafy greens
Leeks
Microgreens
Mushrooms (all kinds)
Mustard greens
Okra
Olive
Onion
Parsley
Peppers (all kinds)
Pumpkin
Radicchio
Radishes
Rhubarb
Romaine lettuce
Sauerkraut
Scallions
Seaweed (all sea vegetables)
Shallots
Spaghetti squash
Spinach
Swiss chard
Tomatoes (moderate amount)
Turnip greens
Watercress
Zucchini
Herbs
Allspice
Basil
Cardamom
Cayenne pepper
Chili powder
Cilantro/coriander
Cinnamon
Cloves
Cumin
Curry powder
Dill
Ginger
Italian seasoning
Nutmeg
Oregano
Paprika
Parsley
Rosemary
Sage
Thyme
Turmeric
Fruits and Berries
Blackberries
Black currant
Blueberries
Chokeberries
Cultivated European gooseberry
Lemon
Lime
Raspberries
Red currant
Sea-buckthorn
Strawberries
Tart cherries
Liquids
Almond milk
Broth (chicken, beef, bone)
Club soda
Coconut milk
Coffee, unsweetened
Herbal teas
Kombucha (2g of sugar)
Lemon and lime juice
(small amounts)
Seltzer water
Sparkling mineral water
Tea, unsweetened
Water
Sugar replacements (organic is the best)
Stevia (check the label and make sure it does not contain Maltodextrin, Inulin, cane alcohol, etc.) Monk fruit
Other
Almond flour/meal
Cacao nibs
Cacao powder
Coconut aminos
Coconut flour
Cod Liver Oil (Fish Oil)
Dark chocolate 100%
Fermented vegetables
Fish sauce
Gelatin
Gluten-free tamari sauce
Hot sauce (no sugar)
Mayonnaise (made with good oils—see list of fats)
Mustard (no sugar)
Pickles (no sugar)
Shredded coconut
Vanilla extract
Vinegar
Vegan protein
Hummus
Mushrooms
Nut butters
Nutritional yeast
Protein powder (pea, hemp, brown rice)
Seed butters
Seeds (sunflower, sesame, pumpkin)
Spirulina
Sprouted beans
Tofu/tempe

Cheat Sheet - What To Avoid

Protein
ALMOND MILK (sweetened)
BARBECUE (with sugar)
CASHEWS (in excess)
COCONUT MILK (sweetened)
HOT DOGS (unless organic / grass-fed)
KEFIR (unless plain and full fat)
MEAT PRODUCTS WITH SUGAR/GRAINS (meatballs, breaded meat, meats with sweet sauce, etc.)
MILK (commercial)
PROCESSED CHEESE
PROCESSED DELI MEAT (nitrates or dextrose)
SAUSAGE (unless organic / grass-fed)
SOY MIK (even regular, because it’s GMO)
YOGURT (over 5 grams of sugar per cup)
Vegetables
CORN (and popcorn)
Fruits and Berries
APPLES
APRICOTS
BANANAS
CANTALOUPE
CHERRIES
DATES
DRIED FRUIT (like raisins)
GRAPEFRUIT
GRAPES
KIWI
MANGOS
MELONS
ORANGE
PEACHES
PINEAPPLE
PLANTAIN
PLUMS
WATERMELONS
Starches
Potato
Sweet potato
Yam
Grains
OATS (oatmeal)
RICE
WHEAT
OTHER GRAINS
Legumes
BEANS (all varieties)
CHICKPEAS (hummus is okay as there is mixed oil)
EDAMAME