I keep seeing / hearing that you can not drink Water or anything else with meals after surgery.

Why is that ?

From what my doctor said, could be because Water can fill you up faster, or it pushes food down faster, not giving your body enough time to absorb nutrients.... Something along those lines

His rule is, no drinking 30 minutes before AND after eating.

Edited June 16, 201511 yr by simplyamy

For me I get nauseated if I drink anything with food. I do on occasion take a tiny sip of water just to moisten my mouth but never more than that otherwise I pay for it. I've actually thrown up because of it before I learned my lesson.

It can push the food through which can allow you to eat more. I can drink right up until I eat but wait 30 minutes after

Just to follow on from this, is the Water restriction in the beginning, or is it a long term thing. Basically what I am asking is will I never be able to have a drink with my meal again?

Sorry if this is an obvious question, just getting used to forum :/

I am over two years out and if I drink more than a sip immediately after my meals, I vomit. It's a horrible feeling.

It's because the liquid flushes the food out of your stomach quicker, making you fell hungry sooner and potentially eating too much. There are You Tube videos that demonstrate the phenomenon.

I followed the rule probably for 10-12 months, but now I drink and eat at the same time all the time with no problem. I'm going to be hungry and eat every 2-3 hours whether I drink or not, and it doesn't bother my sleeve, so why not?

I asked my dietician since there were so many answers and what she told me made more sense than anything else, a normal stomach can hold lots of food even expand to hold two pounds or more but losing 2/3 of it means you have only so much room to hold anything, so at first you want to try to get in your fluids, about 64oz per day, then you want to make sure that when you get back to normal foods you get all the nutrients you can especially protein, you can't do as well if you are taking bites and swigs of liquid at the same time, it's not like your going to implode or be cast into hell, it's just that food is more important at this point, I am a very big take a bite then a drink kinda guy, but I am learning I had tomato soup last night and caught myself taking a sip of tea twice, so I pushed it aside and when I finished my soup waited 30min then enjoyed my tea, no the diet police never broke in my door ! Lol