It's been 6 weeks and I am having a hard time figuring out what to eat. I get so much conflicting info from the bariatric websites versus the chart my doctor gave. Can I eat lettuce? Can I eat raw veggies? Can I eat fruit? What are you guys eating?

i"m in week 5 and not eating lettuce or raw veggies, I have tried cucumbers (skinned) and that worked well with some hummus, but it is a softer less fibrous veggie, tomatoes will probably work for me as well, but haven't felt the need to try it. My Dietitian is fine with me having soft foods at this point (not necessarily purees). eg ground meats work well for me as long as they are moist (so I have made chili, stuffed peppers etc). i have have had 2 oz of chicken thigh with a low fat gravy and it worked well. any meat portions I'm keeping to 2 oz (particularly if dense like salmon sashimi or chicken). if my meal had ground beef I keep it to around 1/2 cup and i stop when I feel satiated. I'm having cottage cheese several times a week.

My diet introduces fruit (as a carb portion) at the purees stage. I have a 1/2 banana in my morning Protein shake. that is the extent of my fruit consumption in a day. I have pureed and strained berries and added a tablespoon to my cottage cheese to sweeten it. if i liked yogurt I would have done that with yogurt as well.

keep in mind I had a revision so my pouch is bigger than most bypass patients so I understand that were I may be comfortable with 2 oz of meat a regular bypass patient may be full with 1.

Bottom line, follow what your doctor has given you, with the caveat that if you don't think you are ready for something yet..wait. eg. I tried a hard boiled egg in a pinch at work for a snack when I ran out of shakes...ugh...too dense..I didn't feel sick but it felt like it was still sitting in my stomach hours later, so i'm sticking to poached for now. I'm in no rush to try raw veggies and lettuce though I really miss salad. I'm satisfied with the variety of foods i'm eating for now so I'll probably wait until 3+months to try it, I will have to see how the other things I'm slowly introducing and trying go.

I can eat all those at 5 weeks. But after eating my protein I never have enough room : (

At 5 weeks, my program said I no longer had any restrictions. I could eat whatever I want as long as it's tolerated. They go into trying one new food at a time so if my stomach gets upset then I'll know what type of food gives me problems... Etc. My nutritional guidelines they gave me are as follows:

Calorie goals: 800-1200 cal, 60g Protein

Multi-Vitamin that contains 200% of daily value of most nutrients and 100% Iron,

1200-1800 mcg Calcium citrate daily

B-12 500 mcg daily or 2500 mcg weekly

Optional for me since I wasn't low in any of these Vitamins (but I take them anyway):

2000-5000 IU Vit D daily

2-4 grams fish oil daily

It may somewhat depend on they type of surgery that you had, such as RNY gastric bypass, sleeve or duodenal switch. I had RNY gastric bypass. My directions at 6 weeks were to consume pureed foods. It wasn't until week 9 that I was allowed to transition to solids.

Lettuce showed up on my options at week 9.

At week 6 you can eat many types of fruits but they must be pureed.

At week 6 many soft vegetable were allowed but they must be pureed. These included green Beans, beets, squash, asparagus, zucchini, cucumbers, mushrooms, Water chestnuts, carrots, cauliflower and broccoli. Also mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and peas were allowed at week 6.

I would ALWAYS follow your doctors orders at this stage. The reality is they are all different and you do not want to rush things.

P.S. Raw veggies can be pretty rough this soon post op.