I'm not a drinker but normally I'll have a glass of wine or martini on my birthday or special occasions (so about 8 glass of alcoholic beverages for the year). My surgery date is April 19 & I celebrate my 30th bday in June. Also my brother getting married in Jamaica (island) in August & I'll be attending. Read a diary entry online that after bariatric surgery no alcohol for one year. It's Saturday so my nutritionist is not in office. Is it true? Did your surgeon or nutritionist said that no alcohol for one year? Thanks

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Mine hasn't told me that, but I have read that after surgery we have to be careful because with our new stomachs the alcohol will be intensified and affect us/make us drunk a lot faster.

Mine hasn't told me that, but I have read that after surgery we have to be careful because with our new stomachs the alcohol will be intensified and affect us/make us drunk a lot faster.

Yeah mines didn't tell me that either only to stay away from regular soda.

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Most surgeons want you to obtain from alcohol but it will vary. I've seen 3 months, 6 months, a year.... There isn't a hard and fast rule of one year no alcohol.

It may depend on the type of surgery you have. My surgery team said one year. I'm going with it because I've met a number of people now that have had bariatric surgery and alcohol became a problem for them. I don't want to become an alcoholic and I'm wary because it runs in the family. Oh, and yes, I work with individuals in recovery from addiction.

Doctors' philosophy on this vary from a few weeks to never again depending upon their experiences. The basic issues are:

Healing - alcohol is somewhat corrosive to the stomach lining so one needs to give things a chance to heal first,

Alcohol tolerance - rapid stomach emptying means it tends to hit faster, and with less (i.e., a "cheap drunk") so care must be taken there,

Transfer addiction - we can no longer satisfy whatever addictive tendencies we have with food, so it is easy for transfer that addiction to something else, like alcohol, drugs, shopping, gambling, etc. What was a casual habit of a glass of wine with dinner occasionally can easily turn into full blown alcoholism.

Liver health - starting as morbidly obese, or worse, our livers are not usually in very good shape to begin with (hence the "liver shrinking" pre-op diets that are often prescribed) and the liver is further stressed from its role in metabolizing all that fat that we are rapidly losing. It doesn't need any more stress from ingesting a known liver toxin like alcohol (not a judgemental thing, just our physiology at work).

My surgeon is also a biliopancreatic (livers and pancreas) transplant surgeon, so he is in the no alcohol as long as we are losing weight camp (and ideally forever) and indeed we sign a contract to that effect - he doesn't want any of his bariatric patients coming back onto his transplant table!

Those are the issues in play, and some aspects bother different surgeons to different degrees, so they have different policies. Check with what your surgeon's policy is, and decide for yourself - we are all adults here.

Most surgeons want you to obtain from alcohol but it will vary. I've seen 3 months, 6 months, a year.... There isn't a hard and fast rule of one year no alcohol.

Yeah I think it depends on the person & how our stomach heals. And thanks much for sharing.

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It may depend on the type of surgery you have. My surgery team said one year. I'm going with it because I've met a number of people now that have had bariatric surgery and alcohol became a problem for them. I don't want to become an alcoholic and I'm wary because it runs in the family. Oh, and yes, I work with individuals in recovery from addiction.

I'm getting the gastric bypass done next month. And thank you for sharing[emoji173]

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Know yourself. If you only have 1 or 2 on special occasions, you'll probably be fine. Me, on the other hand, I don't do moderation. I'm either all in or all out. I was a wine person before surgery 4+ years ago & stayed that way after. I lost 108 pounds & then regained 40 of it because I was drinking 1 to 2 bottles of wine a night every night. The horror stories you've read about are true for some people like me. I'm proud to say it's been almost 2 years since I had a drink & the weight is slowly starting to come off again. If I could change 1 thing post-op, it would be never starting to drink again. But that's me. Good luck, whatever you choose!

Thanks for sharing, I'm not a drinker or a fan of alcohol so staying away won't be hard for me at all[emoji4][emoji173]

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Mine told me when I drink to be careful. I don't know how much is too much. One drink could take me over. Anotherwords, its possible but be careful. Agree with GradyCat.

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Mine told me when I drink to be careful. I don't know how much is too much. One drink could take me over. Anotherwords, its possible but be careful. Agree with GradyCat.

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Okay cool thanks for sharing

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I also drink on special occasion just the fruity drinks since I never found alchohol to be appealing to my taste. My nutritionist told me that I can drink a little alchohol during the appropriate stage after surgery, however that I must be mindful since alchohol offers no nutritional value.

1 hour ago, SusieQ2019 said:

I also drink on special occasion just the fruity drinks since I never found alchohol to be appealing to my taste. My nutritionist told me that I can drink a little alchohol during the appropriate stage after surgery, however that I must be mindful since alchohol offers no nutritional value.

Great point about nutrition!

I also drink on special occasion just the fruity drinks since I never found alchohol to be appealing to my taste. My nutritionist told me that I can drink a little alchohol during the appropriate stage after surgery, however that I must be mindful since alchohol offers no nutritional value.

Oh okay cool & Thanks for sharing[emoji173]

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