Your Post-Op Diet Explained
If you are considering a change of life such as having a Bariatric Surgery, it is very important to follow the recommended post-op dietary guidelines carefully created by your surgeon and bariatric dietitian with the main purpose of reducing the number of calories you consume and balancing the meals accordingly to what your new stomach and your whole body need to receive from now on, helping and preventing lack of nutrients and at the same time, preserving the muscle tissue.
Bariatric Surgery not only will help you to lose weight but to improve your health problems related to obesity giving you the opportunity for a better quality of life, and let you do many activities you were not able to do because of being overweight. Bariatric surgery requires commitment and discipline, the results of the whole process are not magic, they will be related directly to the effort you put into the strict post-diet, physical activity and life habit changes before and after the procedure as follows all the steps (before and after).
Why is it important to follow the post op diet?
Remember that you just had a bariatric procedure done, a surgery. As all surgeries, post op recommendations will be provided to assure a successful recovery. Pre and post op diets are carefully designed by experts. Your body is going to change and so as your lifestyle, your body will lose more weight than it was used to and of course, the food will not be processed the same way as it used before so the importance of following the post op diet is to basically help your body to find a balance between what you are losing and what you are gaining.
Your stomach needs to get used to the procedure you just had so we usually recommend you to take it easy and don’t stress, this might be the hardest part of your journey and you need to make sure you are getting exactly what your body deserves in this stage.
What if I ate something that I shouldn’t in my post op diet?
We know that the anxiety for food might be hard on you, you used to eat anything you liked and now, you just jumped to a whole new diet in which the first stage will be only liquids allowed. Please, focus on yourself and your health, don’t be shy to let your doctor know you ate something that maybe you shouldn’t, at Hidalgo Bariatrics we always make sure to stay in constant touch with our patients in any stage (mostly on this one) to make them feel comfortable of letting us know how is it that you are feeling and some support is never enough, every patient experiences the process in a different way…
If you ate something that you should have, reach your surgeon or your surgery team. It might depend on how bad it can be depending on which stage you are going through, whether you are a male or female, amount, food that you took or even the timing. The stage in which you should be the most careful about is the liquid one, you can do this!
Post Op Diet can sometimes feel overwhelming at the beginning but over time, you will find a way to learn how to eat and enjoy the process.
This post-operative diet includes 4 important stages:
Stage 1 – Clear Liquid Diet
Day 1 to 3
- Water
- Sugar-free jello, ice chips, and zero sugar juice
- Sugar-free ice popsicles
- Non-fat broth such as chicken broth
Stage 2 – Full Liquid Diet
- Day 3 to 17
- Liquids from stage 1
- Vegetables soups
- Vegetable juices
- Beef, chicken, or vegetable broths
- Skim Milk
- Protein shakes
- Yoghurt
- Minimum of 5 meals per day
Stage 3 – Pureed Diet
- Day 17 – Day 30
- Protein Shakes
- Pureed and soft food
- Soft Eggs
- Low-fat cottage cheese
- Soft fish
- Continue drinking liquids slowly
Stage 4 – SOFT DIET
- 4 weeks post-operative
- Rich Protein Food – Priority in each meal
- Low fat, low fiber, high protein (Fish, eggs, chicken, thigh ground turkey)
- Canned fruit sugar-free
- Soft-cooked fruit without skin
- Soft cooked vegetables
- The small number of carbohydrates
Bariatric procedures will make your stomach smaller and you will eat less so, here we give you some tips:
Be strong, over time, you will be able to increase the creativity and consistency of foods in your daily new post-op diet
