By Daniella Lindsey

What can you expect after Bariatric Surgery?

Ideally, your diet should have changed before weight loss surgery to get you into the habit of eating less fatty foods, eating more protein, and preparing for a different daily diet and a new way of life.

Immediately after your bariatric surgery, your eating habits will drastically change in ways that will have a major impact on your lifestyle for the rest of your life.

You won't be allowed to eat anything substantial for one to three days after surgery so that your stomach can begin to heal. Then, you'll follow a specific progression in your diet for about 12 weeks.

This progression begins with liquids only, proceeds to pureed and soft foods, and finally to regular foods that you can digest.

With your stomach pouch reduced to the size of a egg, you'll need to eat very small meals during the day.

In the first six months after surgery, eating too much or too fast may cause vomiting or an intense pain under your breastbone.

The amount you can eat gradually increases, but you won't be able to return to your old eating habits.

You may experience one or more of the following changes as your body reacts to the rapid weight loss in the first three to six months:
   

     Body aches
     Feeling tired, as if you have the flu
     Feeling cold
     Dry skin
     Hair thinning and hair loss
     Mood changes

Over time, you will need periodic checks for anemia (low red blood cell count) and Vitamin B12, folate and iron levels.

The following are common food diets suggested after gastric bypass:
Liquids - foods and fluids that are liquid or semi liquid at room temperature and contain mostly water, such as broth, juice, milk, strained cream soup and cooked cereal. In most cases, you stay on a liquid diet for one to two days.

Pureed Foods - foods with a consistency of a smooth paste or a thick liquid. Pureed foods contain no distinct pieces. The pureed diet is generally followed for three to four weeks, or as recommended by your dietitian or doctor.

Soft Foods - foods that are tender and easy to chew, such as ground or finely diced meats, canned or soft, fresh fruit, and cooked vegetables. You usually eat soft foods for eight weeks before progressing to eating foods of regular consistency with firmer texture as recommended by your dietitian or doctor.

Take recommended vitamin and mineral supplements. After surgery, your body has difficulty absorbing certain nutrients because most of your stomach and part of your small intestine are bypassed.

To prevent a vitamin or mineral deficiency, take vitamin and mineral supplements regularly. These generally include a multi vitamin-multi mineral, calcium, iron, vitamin B-12 and vitamin D.

Talk to your health care provider about recommended vitamin and mineral supplements following gastric  surgery including Lap Band and Roux-en-Y.

Specially prepared gastric surgery diets are available and can be delivered right to your home, saving you the worry of finding and preparing meals.

This can be especially important while you are more concerned with healing than housework.

Find out about Bariatric Choice Diet Food Delivery 

Bariatric Choice is the leading supplier of pre and post weight loss surgery bariatric diet foods and they have plenty of advice on diet and food as well as tips and recommendations on their company web pages.

Just click on the image to get this information now. 

Their range of products is extensive and guaranteed to be the highest quality with a full money back guarantee. 

This is an example of a desert from Bariatric Choice. 

They have a selection of drinks, entrees, snacks, protein tablets and many more healthy products with lots of taste to satisfy your hunger pangs after gastric bypass surgery.

Always check any dietary food with your doctor.

Besides care with diet after gastric surgery, physical care must come high on your list as complications can occur.   

Be aware that you MUST work at getting all your vitamins and minerals after this surgery as shortened digestion processes may not release all vitamins and minerals in your daily foodstuffs. 

Malnutrition and even beriberi along with permanent damage to your nervous system are possible problems that may arise if you don’t heed your correct diet. 

Some of the vitamins and minerals you will need can be found at www.aussievitamin.com. 

Other problems are hernias and strictures. 

Strictures are narrowing of areas where the intestine is joined. 

And hernias may occur on the abdominal walls connective tissue causing a bowel blockage, or where the intestines are sewn together causing the small bowel to displace in pockets into the lining of the abdomen. This type of hernia is serious and needs immediate attention.

Although all these possible challenges may be daunting, if you read any of the testimonials to surgery or visit any of the obesity forums, you will read time and time again from people that are just so happy they had their operation.

Many of the older writers express the wish that they had done so years earlier to get the benefits they now enjoy.

This information is presented as a guide only.

Always get professional advice on any surgical procedure.

For more information on Dietary Foods visit Bariatric Choice Dietary Foods

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