When planning your post-surgery meals, you need to make sure that the small meals you eat are able to meet all of your body’s nutritional needs. Your post-surgery diet is considered a progressive diet because you must gradually progress from clear liquids to full liquids, pureed foods to soft foods, and soft foods to regular food. Within this progression, your nutritional needs stay the same and must be met.
Your Stomach after Bariatric Surgery
You’ll notice at the beginning of your post-surgery diet that your stomach isn’t able to hold much food at all. In fact, because of the swelling that will be present after surgery, just two or three spoonfuls of food may be enough to fill you. This can be difficult to resolve yourself to mentally and emotionally, but it’s extremely important that you take your time when eating and listen to your body in order not to overeat.
By the time you begin eating solid foods, the swelling in your stomach will have gone down. At this point, it will most likely take more food to fill you up. In addition, you could notice that some foods fill you up more than others. Dense foods such as proteins will fill you faster than less dense foods such as lettuce. The amount of food you will be able to tolerate will depend on the density of the food.
Stomach Size
Gastric Band: your stomach will hold about ¼ cup at a time. This is roughly 2 ounces. As your recovery progresses, this may expand to as much as ½ cup (4 ounces).
Roux-en-Y: your stomach will hold about ¼ cup at a time. This is roughly 2 ounces. As your recovery progresses, this may expand to as much as ½ cup (4 ounces).
Duodenal Switch: your stomach can hold from ½ cup to ¾ cup of food, which is about 4 to 6 ounces. Like with gastric band and bypass surgery, your stomach will expand over time and be able to hold a bit more.
Gastric Sleeve: your stomach can hold from ½ cup to ¾ cup of food, which is about 4 to 6 ounces. Like with gastric band and bypass surgery, your stomach will expand over time and be able to hold a bit more.
Taking it Slow
Chewing slowly and completely after weight loss surgery is crucial, as it can take as long as twenty minutes for your stomach to tell your brain that it’s full. If you eat too quickly, you won’t give your stomach and brain enough time to work out whether or not you’re full, which makes you likely to eat past the point of actual fullness.
General Eating Tips
- Eat high protein, low fat and low starch diet.
- Eat 3 meals per day.
Duodenal Switch: patients may need to eat more frequently as they require more daily protein and fat than other bariatric surgeries.
- Drink a minimum of one quart of water/and other fluids daily. Your goal is to drink 2 quarts of fluid daily.
- Once you start your soft diet, be sure to chew your food at least 25 – 30 times.
- Do not drink when you eat. Stop drinking fluids just prior to eating. Do not restart drinking fluids for ½ hour after you are done eating solids.
Gastric Band: You may not feel any restriction to the amount of food you can comfortably eat until after your first fill.
If you have any questions or concerns about your diet, please call the office (940-382-9429)
Progressing your Diet after Bariatric Surgery
Follow your pre – surgery instructions for dietary progression.