How to Diet After Gastric Bypass Surgery

After gastric bypass surgery your diet will change. You will be able to eat less and you will also be less able to tolerate certain foods. In addition, gastric bypass surgery does not automatically solve your weight problems. You will have to learn how to eat differently in order to keep off the weight that you will lose as a result of the surgery. Read on to learn how to diet after gastric bypass surgery.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Dietitian

1. Understand that your eating habits will change drastically and forever.
2. Devote time to your meals. Try to eat without distractions so that you can savor your food. Take smaller bites and chew well.
3. Abstain totally from alcohol.
4. Be prepared to eliminate the majority of sugar from your diet. Sugar can trigger dumping syndrome. Dumping syndrome includes a wide array of unpleasant abdominal and bowel symptoms, such as diarrhea.
5. Supplement your intake of iron and vitamin B12, both of which will be less easily absorbed after your surgery.
6. Eat much smaller, more nutritious meals at much more frequent intervals. The most severe forms of gastric bypass surgery reduce the size of the stomach by as much as 90 percent. Failure to eat often enough or properly can lead to malnutrition.
7. Eat protein at the beginning of your meal. Your stomach will fill up much more quickly after gastric bypass surgery, making it imperative that you get the most out of each meal.
8. Avoid fatty meats, fats of all kinds and fried foods.
9. Cut down on processed foods. Your stomach will hold significantly less food. Don't waste space on manufactured foods that offer little nutritional value.
10. Drink liquids between meals not with meals. Beverages can give you a full sensation which leads to eating fewer solid foods during meal time. Fewer solids eaten with your meals can result in poor nutrition.
11. Stop drinking carbonated beverages. They cause bloating and rob your bones of calcium and your body of potassium.
12. Consume fewer fruit juices which are sweetened with high fructose syrup (HFS) and high calorie beverages like milkshakes and heavy coffee drinks.
13. Carry a bottle of water with you at all times between meals.
14. Consult a dietitian. As the name implies, this surgery actually bypasses parts of the intestines, which take important nutrients into the body. A dietitian will help you formulate dietary plans that will take the loss of intestinal function into account.

Tips & Warnings

• Gastric bypass surgery goes around the duodenum, effectively cutting it off. Calcium is absorbed into the body through the duodenum. As a result, after gastric bypass surgery, patients are at increased risk for osteoporosis. Your doctor will discuss calcium supplementation to decrease this risk.