Diet For After Bariatric Surgery

After a bariatric surgery, either a gastric bypass or a gastric sleeve, the person must follow a liquid diet for approximately 21 days, and then he/she can start a pureed type diet for about 20 more days.

After this period solid food can be introduced progressively, returning to a normal diet around 3 months after the surgery. It should be noted that the time that a person lasts with a type of diet will depend on the tolerance to food, being important to follow up with a nutritionist specialist in the area. 

Performing this adaptation time is very important because the stomach of the person is very small tolerating at the beginning only 30 ml for the gastric bypass and 60 ml for the gastric sleeve, which increases progressively until tolerating around 200 ml of liquids. Because the gastric capacity is reduced and in the case of the bypass there is also an associated malabsorption of nutrients, the person begins to lose weight rapidly.

1st phase: liquid diet

The liquid diet begins immediately after surgery and lasts approximately 21 days. During this period food can only be consumed in liquid form in small quantities and several times a day, eating 6 to 8 meals a day with an interval of 2 hours between one meal and another. 

Clear liquid diet: This diet should be carried out during the first 7 days of the postoperative period, being based only on soup broth or defatted consommé, liquefied and strained fruit juice and infusions or teas to create tolerance. It should start with a volume of 30 ml and increase it progressively until reaching 60 ml during this week. 

Liquefied diet: From the 7th day onwards, this type of diet consisting of liquefied foods can be introduced, increasing the amount of liquids between 60 to 100 ml. The foods allowed are chamomile or linden teas; liquefied non-citrus fruit juices such as peach, pear, apple and papaya; cereals such as oatmeal, cornstarch or cream of rice without milk; white meats such as chicken or turkey; gelatin without liquid sugar; vegetables such as pumpkin, celery, yam, okra and cooked vegetables such as zucchini, chayota or eggplant. 

Foods should be ingested in small sips and straws should not be used to ingest them, maintaining a daily intake of water between 60 to 100 cc daily.

It is also important to ingest daily the supplements indicated by the doctor or nutritionist which includes a multivitamin and a calcium supplement with vitamin D, in addition to a nutritional supplement such as glucerna and a protein supplement such as proteinex to prevent the sugar from dropping and the symptoms of hypoglycemia to arise.

2nd phase: mashed type diet

The mashed type diet should begin around 21 days after surgery and in this the person can eat mashed foods such as creamed legumes, atoles, cooked or raw fruit compotes, pureed vegetables, meats such as shredded chicken, turkey and fish or fruit smoothies.

In this phase the volume ingested should be between 150 to 200 ml, avoiding the intake of liquids in conjunction with the main meals. See a menu with some recipes for a soft diet. 

3rd phase: solid foods

After approximately 30 to 45 days after bariatric surgery, the person can now return to eating foods that need to be chewed but in small amounts over 6 meals a day. In this phase it can be useful to use a dessert plate to eat small amounts at each meal.

Liquids should only be ingested between meals, being important to drink at least 2 L of water a day to prevent dehydration.

From this phase onwards the patient can eat fruits, vegetables, whole grains, milk and derivatives, meat, fish, egg, pasta, rice, potato and seeds in small amounts and according to their tolerance.

Post bariatric surgery type menu

Below is an example menu of the various phases of the diet in the post-operative bariatric surgery:

Liquefied Diet

It is important to drink 30 ml of water or tea between each meal and at about 9 pm the glucerna type nutritional supplement is indicated.

It is important to drink 100-150 ml of water or tea between each meal and increase depending on the tolerance until reaching 2L of water per day. 

What not to eat

DurantFor the first 3 months after stomach reduction surgery you should avoid foods such as:

Coffee, mate tea, green tea or black tea;

Pepper, ice cubes, mustard, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, mayonnaise and any kind of sauce;

Industrialized juices, soft drinks, chocolate drinks, carbonated water;

Chocolate, candies, chewing gum and sweets in general;

Fried foods;

Alcoholic beverages.

In addition to this, foods such as chocolate mousse, condensed milk or ice cream should also be avoided because they are caloric and even if consumed in small quantities can still promote weight gain.