a question about diet after surgery - ThinnerTimes

A new Me Awaits · 07-21-2006, 10:14 PM

I went to support group last night and the speaker gave a very detailed presentation about their journey thru the weight loss surgery complete with pictures. They also talked about the food they were able to eat after the surgery.

Im unsure about the diet I will need.
Since I really dont know what to look for on the labels maybe someone could give me some tips on what would be good for me to eat. One problem that I have that I havent read to much about is that I am lactose intolerant and I keep hearing about how yogurt and cottage cheese and such are very good for the diet. What if I cant eat that kind of food?

I also want to know why you can't drink and eat at the same time?

Any info would be greatly appreciated! thanks

AlabamaChick · 07-21-2006, 11:32 PM

You will start off on clear liquids and then progress to a full liquid diet (which consists of strained cream soups, sugar-free pudding, plain or cream yogurt, and any sugar free liquid with the exception of carbonated beverages. You can also have fruit juices that have no sugar added). At about six weeks, my diet plan allows me to start eating a regular diet and progressively adding new foods. I developed lactose intolerance since having surgery and I have basically educated myself on how to deal with it. Right now I have an ulcer, so I am having to live on the full liquid diet for up to three more months, even though I have hit the 6-wks post-op this week, so I would be in major trouble if I didn't know what to do. I live on yogurt and sf pudding. I cannot handle anymore cream soup, so I just dont ever get anything warm anymore.

But there are lactaid drops you can buy to mix in food or milk or you can do like I do and chew Lactaid before each time I am going to have a dairy product. You can buy the chewables at Wal-Mart. I also buy Land-O-Lakes Dairy Ease Lactose-free 2% milk to mix with my protein mix, so I feel like I am getting chocolate milk alot because I love the chocolate protein mix. I also have the vanilla and strawberry, but is not as good to me. I basically cannot do cheese at all (when I was getting to eat pureed foods). It still hurt even if I chewed Lactaid before eating it. You will have to just use trial and error to see which foods you can tolerate after surgery. Some things you can eat now may be a no-no for your pouch when you are post-op and vice versa.

The reason you can't drink with meals is because liquids do not stay in your pouch for very long and if you drink while you eat, it will flush your food from your pouch prematurely and you will not feel full and will eat more and also it can cause dumping with some foods by the food going into the intestines too soon. My dr. says I am not to drink 30 mins. before or 30 mins. after a meal.

I'm sure your nutritionalist will go over the whole food plan with you before surgery so you are prepared and then you will have scheduled visits afterwards too that are very important to work out any kinks or problems in your plan. I have a wonderful nutritionalist. I have his email and I can ask him anything anytime I want and he gets back to me within no time.

I hope this helps some. Maybe some other people can add some things to help also.

A new Me Awaits · 07-21-2006, 11:50 PM

Hi Trina
Thank you so much for your response. I did see the nutritionist and she gave me quite alot of information I think I just feel overwelmed with all the information Ive been getting. I just dont want to do anything wrong I want to succeed in this so Im trying to get myself as prepared as I can.

I take the lactaid pills now so its good to know I can continue to take them afterwards.

I am sorry to hear you have an ulcer. The dr thought I had one to as I came back H.pyloric positive. but when they scoped me they found no ulcer but found that I have severe gastrointestinal desease so they are treating me as if I do have an ulcer. I also have a hiatal hernia and I asked if that could be fixed as well the dr said its either the bypass or the hernia as they cant fix both.

I do appreciate your taking the time to respond to my question

Duckie · 07-24-2006, 04:06 PM

Make sure you follow the diet YOUR MD gives you for the best results.

Mavisavis · 07-24-2006, 06:55 PM

Welcome to the board.......that is such a broad question that it's hard to type answers out in enough completion. Basically, after out initial phases we are to eat protein first, veggie next, fruit next, and whole grains next. It would be best to cut out high/bad fats, empty carbs, and sugar, and likely some of them will make you sick. It might be good if you went up to search and keyed in words of interest to you like "diet" or "protein" and just read around some old threads. This message board is great for that! Good luck and stick around.

A new Me Awaits · 07-24-2006, 07:03 PM

I appreciate the time and effort you all have taken to give me some very helpful information.

I know the dr and nutritionist will give me "their diet" guidelines.. I was thinking further out after the liquid diet etc. I will do a search for other dietary posts thanks again for your responses