A frequent concern among patients of bariatric weight-loss surgery is what foods to eat or avoid after bariatric surgery.

After all, when you surgically alter your stomach’s capacity, it’s only natural to consider the question of diet / foods after bariatric surgery.

Regarding food and diet after bariatric surgery, the main thing to remember is that you will not be able to consume nearly as much food as you did before the surgery.

That’s the primary point of a weight-loss surgery procedure — to reduce the stomach’s capacity and by extension the patient’s weight.

Here is what some leading experts have to say about your diet and foods after bariatric surgery:

The National Institutes of Health:

“You will remain on liquid or pureed food for several weeks after the surgery. Even after that time, you will feel full very quickly, sometimes only being able to take a few bites of solid food. This is because the new stomach pouch initially only holds a tablespoonful of food. The pouch eventually expands. However, it will hold no more than about one cup of thoroughly chewed food (a normal stomach can hold up to one quart).” - Source

Vanderbilt University Medical Center:

“After gastric bypass surgery, your small upper stomach will hold about one-fourth cup of food. After eating just a nibble or two, you will feel full, and your appetite will be reduced. This causes weight loss. Although the food you eat is digested, your body cannot get all the nutrients you need. You need vitamin and mineral supplements to help your surgical wound heal and avoid health problems such as anemia, nerve problems, osteoporosis and others.” -Source

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center:

“During the first week, your diet should be limited to liquids - the same diet you were given in the hospital, which includes water, juice, tea, coffee, gelatin, popsicles and strained soups. Milk, ice cream and soft food are forbidden at this time.” -Source

UC Davis Health System:

“After a gastric bypass you will need to make changes to your eating patterns. The patient’s diet after surgery progresses from a liquid diet, to a pureed diet, to a soft diet and then to a modified regular diet. The diet progression is designed to allow you to heal. Initially, it helps you meet your protein and liquid needs, and later to meet your nutrition needs.” -Source

The Mayo Clinic:

“During the diet progression, you eat many small meals a day and sip water frequently. You might first start with six small meals a day, then progress to four meals and finally, when eating regular foods, decrease to three meals a day. Typically, each meal includes protein-rich foods, such as lean meat, yogurt and eggs.” -Source

CNN Health Library:

“How quickly you move from one step to the next depends on how fast your body adjusts to the change in eating patterns and the texture and consistency of food. In most cases, people start eating regular foods three months after surgery.” -Source

We hope this brief tutorial has helped you understand the recommended diet after bariatric weight-loss surgery. To learn more about this subject, click on any of the “Source” links after the quotes above. You may wish to read our related article on the advantage of bariatric vitamins as well.

Bariatric Food Recommendation

There are plenty of places to go online when searching for bariatric foods, vitamins and the like. But for the simplicity of the online ordering process, and the wide variety of vitamin products available, we recommend Bariatric Choice as a supplier.

* We would like to thank all of the sources cited above for publishing such helpful information about diet after bariatric surgery.