It may be three months after surgery before you can go back to eating “regular” foods. The goal of your gastric bypass diet is to help you ease back into your typical foods. The first few days after surgery, you should only drink clear liquids.
You are more likely to have dumping syndrome if you eat a meal heavy in starches or sugars. The sugars can be either fructose or table sugar (sucrose). Insulin levels can increase to high levels, and then lower your blood sugar too much.
4) Bread, Rice, and Pasta
Because of the starchy nature of bread, rice, and pasta, after your surgery, they can form a paste in your throat that is hard to swallow without liquid. In some cases, they can block the stoma, the hole to the pouch that is your new stomach.
Long-term complications may include ulcers, scarring, and narrowing of the anastomosis (where the intestine is connected to the gastric pouch), known as a stricture. A drainage tract through the skin called a fistula may also develop. A fistula could develop between the gastric pouch and the bypassed stomach.
Patients may lose 30 to 50 percent of their excess weight in the first six months, and 77 percent of excess weight as early as 12 months after surgery. Another study showed that patients could maintain a 50 to 60 percent loss of excess weight 10 to 14 years after surgery.
In our baseline analysis, a 40-year-old woman (BMI = 40 kg/m2) would gain 2.6 years of life expectancy by undergoing gastric bypass (38.7 years versus 36.2 years without surgery).
As with any food, portion control and cooking methods are key. This is especially true with incorporating potatoes into a post bariatric surgery diet. Don't fry it, instead bake or boil. Also, keep the potato small, and don't add any unnecessary high calorie toppings.
Pizza and pasta are normally favorites, but after bariatric surgery, they should be consumed in moderation. If you are having pizza, order a thin crust and add veggies and lean meats, such as chicken or Canadian bacon. Overall, you should choose a menu item that is centered on protein, like grilled chicken or seafood.
Beverages to Avoid After Bariatric Surgery
Some drinks may irritate your healing stomach and should be avoided after bariatric surgery, including: Caffeine for at least 3 months after surgery. Carbonated beverages for at least 3 months after surgery.
Chinese Cuisine – Egg drop soup, hot and sour soup, egg foo young, mixed vegetables with tofu, chicken or shrimp, chicken and broccoli, chicken with snow peas, moo goo gai pan (chicken and vegetable stir fry), steamed vegetables.
Dumping syndrome is a group of symptoms, such as diarrhea, nausea, and feeling light-headed or tired after a meal, that are caused by rapid gastric emptying. Rapid gastric emptying is a condition in which food moves too quickly from your stomach to your duodenum.
Bariatric Surgery patients are able to incorporate bananas and other fruits back into their diet at five to six weeks after surgery, as the stomach needs to slowly regain the strength to digest fibrous foods.
At this time, your caloric intake will probably be no more than 500 calories a day, divided into six to eight small meals. Recommended portion sizes are 1/4 cup for solids and 1/2 cup for liquids. This sample menu includes different foods that are safe for you to eat.
Discomfort - Cramps and abdominal pain are common when Gastric Bypass/Sleeve patients have overeaten. Plugging - Feeling that food has become stuck in their upper digestive tract or pouch. Stretching - Regularly eating too much will stretch your stomach more and more, making the surgery nearly futile.
After surgery, your stomach can only hold 2 to 4 tablespoons of food or drink. After about a year, it will expand to hold up to 16 tablespoons of food or drink. Because of its small size, you will need to eat and drink much less at any 1 meal than you did before surgery. You will also need to plan your meals carefully.
Resist sweets.
If it's chocolate you crave, a small piece of dark chocolate might do the trick. Be careful using sugar-free candy, because it has a lot of calories and is usually high in fat. The fat and sugar alcohols in sugar-free candy also can bring on dumping.
Remember, avoid items like potatoes, french fries, hash browns, rice, pilaf, quinoa, couscous, macaroni, and bread until you are ready to maintain your weight. Then, only in very small amounts. An easy, low carb option available at most restaurants is to request a lettuce wrapped hamburger or lettuce wrapped sandwich.
Bariatric pureed diet foods include:
Mashed potatoes. Unsweetened applesauce. Refried beans. Cottage cheese.
Introducing Cloud Bread, which functions as bread but isn't made with flour at all. It will make light and fluffy round, white “slices” that can stand up to sandwich making. This egg based recipe has less than 40 calories per “slice,” so it can easily fit into a post bariatric surgery diet.
Cheese is often one of the foods that gastric sleeve, gastric bypass, and lap band patients add back into their diet after starting on their post bariatric surgery diet . Cheeses like ricotta and cottage cheese can often be tolerated even in the pureed stage of the diet.
Most bariatric patients should avoid sugar six months to one year after weight loss surgery.
Sometimes a second gastric bypass surgery is medically warranted. However, a second surgery carries an increased risk of complications. These complications can be serious, including infection, bleeding, and gastrointestinal tract leaks.
If you've had gastric bypass surgery, you will have lost about 30% to 40% of excess body weight. With gastric banding surgery, you lose 1 to 2 pounds a week -- so by six months, you'll have lost 25 to 50 pounds.