Gastric surgery is normally done so as to reduce obesity and to remove excessive fats from the stomach region. This surgery, just like any other, causes a lot of restrictions and changes in the patient’s eating habits especially because it is related to the stomach and the gastrointestinal tract. The new diet that ensues is what is termed as the gastric bypass diet.

The process of gastric surgery leads to the ‘new’ reshaped stomach being connected or bypassed to the intestines. It really helps the patient in losing weight because it makes the person feel satisfied quickly after eating a relatively small amount of food.

One has to adjust with the eating habits caused by the newly shaped stomach. The patient has to manage the food that can get digested quickly so as to hasten the healing process. The normal stomach holds approximately six cups of fluid but after gastric bypass surgery the stomach can only hold half a cup of fluid. These changes require a gastric bypass dietthat is quite light and decisively beneficial for a faster recovery process. These changes might cause some degrees of malabsorption to the patients hence causing a lack of nutrients in the body. Patients are therefore compelled to take multivitamin supplements for the rest of their lives.

This type of diet is divided into four stages. The first stage requires that the diet after surgery only features a clear liquid, just the same as the clear liquid used before the surgery. The gastric bypass diet must be precisely plain and can include clear soups, water, unsweetened soups, meat and chicken stocks and several diet drinks. After two or three weeks the patient is introduced to a semi liquid diet; this is the second stage. It is important to keep the foods consistently pureed, smoothened and blended. Yogurt or mashed potatoes are suitable inclusions but you should ensure that patients keep away from sweets, chewing gums, crunchy foods, chocolate and so on.

The third stage involves taking semi solid foods and it must start after four to five weeks of the surgery. The diet is divided into four potions a day with each meal weighing 4oz to 6oz, subject to the approval of the doctor. The patient is required to chew the food thoroughly in order to get it digested.

After the sixth week it is time to move to the fourth stage of the gastric bypass diet plan. The patient can now test his or her food tolerance levels with solid foods. Proteins are highly needed at this stage for the healing of the surgery, and the prevention of weight loss as well as hair loss.