by D. P. Noe

Created on: January 03, 2009

Bariatric surgery ( Gastric bypass procedure) alters the anatomy of your digestive system in order to cause an individual to lose weight. What you eat, how much you eat and how you eat will change after you have had a gastric bypass procedure.

Your stomach has been reduced to the size of a small egg and portions of your small intestine bypassed, there are specific diet guidelines that will need to be followed. Usually after the procedure, a dietitian will meet with you and create a diet for you to follow. This is vital so that you will have a healthy weight loss and maintain a stable nutritional status.

The first two days after surgery you will remain NPO, which means you will not be allowed to eat. They will add foods to your diet acording to a specific diet progression. Diet progression is a necessity when you are in a process of healing after the surgery. Diet progression allows an individual to adapt to adding new foods. The first 3 months after surgery will follow phases in the bypass diet progression.

The first two days after surgery you will stay on a liquid diet. These are foods that are liquid at room temperature and contain mostly water. Examples of the foods you are allowed are broths, juice, milk and sometimes a strained cream soup.

The next three to four weeks you will be put on a pureed diet. These are foods that have an appearance of pasty or thick liquids. Pureed food have no distinct food particles in them.

For the next 8 weeks you will be put of a soft food diet, soft foods are easy to chew. Examples of soft foods are canned or soft fresh fruit or ground or finely diced meats. After eight weeks you will progress to foods with regular consistency as recommended by your doctor or dietitian.

There are lifelong changes and new eating habits because the changes in your digestive system will restrict how much you can eat and drink. There are guidelines you will given to follow.

You will be told to eat small amounts of food. After the surgery, your stomach holds only about 1 ounce of food. Over time your stomach will stretch to hold more food, and usually by the end of the third month you will be able to eat 1 cup to 1 & 1/2 cups of food with each meal. If you eat too much, it will cause pain, nausea and vomiting. You need to eat only the recommended amounts and stop eating when you feel full.

You need to take time to eat and drink slowly. If you eat or drink quickly, you may experience dumping syndrome. If foods and liquids enter your small intestine

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