Extremely strict post op diet

[SethSnap 7]

Hello,

I just have my surgery on May 28th. My surgeon requires me to be on a 1 month liquid only diet after surgery. Month 2 I am only allowed to be on a puree diet. Month 3 I am only allowed soft foods. I am not able to eat normally again until Month 4.

This seems extreme compared to others I've seen on here. What is everyone's thoughts? Is anyone else on as strict of a post op diet as me.

I plan on sticking to it because I follow Dr's orders. Currently I do not have hunger no am I having emotional cravings either. (very surprising to me as I was mainly an emotional eater prior to surgery).

[RickM 1,747]

That does seem like overkill (particularly for one who was on a soft diet from the hospital through the first month, and then on to regular foods; our basic rule was to try new foods one at a time to test for tolerance and if something didn't work, then try it again in a week or two, as people can vary widely as to how the tolerate things and how quickly they can progress. There was someone else on here recently that had a fairly slow progression, but not quite that prolonged. I think that it mostly stems from the surgeon's overall philosophy on things - some tend to be kinda one size fits all, so they pace everyone based upon their slowest progressing patients, while others may be more individualized in their treatment. Our surgeons tended to encourage experimenting, within limits, as they found that their patients did better as they moved more toward regular foods (but then recognize that not everyone can progress at the same pace.) My wife was somewhat slower to progress than I was - for a long time she couldn't drink (sip) more than her nominal stomach size in a normal meal sitting time (say a half hour) while I could down a bowl of broth (8 oz?) and a box of juice in one sitting in the hospital - both within our surgeon's normal expectation for that time..

I would just chalk it up to differing philosophies - perhaps your surgeon had a bad experience with a patient once upon a time and wants to make sure he doesn't have a repeat of it.

As an aside, I have seen a couple of references to programs requiring up to six months of liquid pre-op dieting, so there are some pretty extreme programs out there.

[lizonaplane 1,605]

@SethSnap That sounds rough! I'm glad you are not suffering from any "head hunger" or true hunger so it won't be so hard for you. I hope that keeps up. Maybe your doctor feels that the weight loss will be better with that plan? What surgery did you have? Maybe different surgeries require different post-op plans? I know it is usually similar between sleeve/gastric bypass. Good luck!

[catwoman7 10,922]

yes that's pretty extreme - although keep in mind most of us lose our hunger for a few months after surgery, so if you're part of the majority, it won't be as bad as it seems. I pretty much lost all interest in food for the first five months after surgery - for once in my life, it felt like a chore to eat. I think that's true of a lot of us (although certainly not all - a minority don't lose their hunger). Hopefully you'll be one of the former.

[SummerTimeGirl 580]

Does seem extreme. But then again if nothing else we see how drastically different each of our docs seem to be.

Day one home from the hospital for me I started two weeks of FULL liquids. After that, 1 week Puree, then 2 weeks SOFT FOODS, then regular diet after that. I wish you luck cause by the middle of week 1.5 of the full liquid part I was going nuts (thankfully puree is tomorrow). But then I also had 11 days prior to surgery of nothing but liquids so if you add that to the two weeks after surgery, that's 25 days full liquid in total.

Maybe if you are moving along smoothly with no issues he may change it up on you and move you quicker into each phase. I've seen that happen with lots of other people. Either way, I wish you the best of luck!

[SethSnap 7]

9 hours ago, lizonaplane said:

@SethSnap That sounds rough! I'm glad you are not suffering from any "head hunger" or true hunger so it won't be so hard for you. I hope that keeps up. Maybe your doctor feels that the weight loss will be better with that plan? What surgery did you have? Maybe different surgeries require different post-op plans? I know it is usually similar between sleeve/gastric bypass. Good luck!

Yes I am really happy I haven’t been craving food. I had the VSG. Actually it’s through the local university’s hospital system. They have three surgeons that work in two area hospitals. The program is the same for all three surgeons.

[SethSnap 7]

5 hours ago, SummerTimeGirl said:

Does seem extreme. But then again if nothing else we see how drastically different each of our docs seem to be.

Day one home from the hospital for me I started two weeks of FULL liquids. After that, 1 week Puree, then 2 weeks SOFT FOODS, then regular diet after that. I wish you luck cause by the middle of week 1.5 of the full liquid part I was going nuts (thankfully puree is tomorrow). But then I also had 11 days prior to surgery of nothing but liquids so if you add that to the two weeks after surgery, that's 25 days full liquid in total.

Maybe if you are moving along smoothly with no issues he may change it up on you and move you quicker into each phase. I've seen that happen with lots of other people. Either way, I wish you the best of luck!

Maybe but the program seems really strict. Which for me right now is okay since I do not have hunger. But I imagine I will start to get really annoyed with liquid since I had a 2 week pre op only liquid diet as well. Hey though, I am now down 30lbs since the start of the pre op liquid diet. 294 when I started pre op, 273 at surgery on the 28th and 265 today.

[NewMe_2021 56]

My program is set up the exact same way for my VSG - 1 month in each stage, also through my university hospital. I have surgery 6/11 and am in the tail end of my 2 week liquid diet. 5 shakes a day are really becoming unappealing at this point. Thinking about another month of liquids post op seems overwhelming, but, I keep hearing it won’t be as bad post op. Sounds like you are doing well so far, which, is encouraging!

[Aliana Wood 19]

That sounds very extreme to me. You must have one of those doctors who is just extremely cautious. It really seems that the "stages" you go through after the surgery and when you go through them seem to be incredibly individualized. I have seen people who were started on soft foods like 3 days after surgery and it was fine. Then I have seen people who couldn't have soft foods until after like 3 weeks. I don't think any one way of doing it is the be all and end all. I have to be honest, I don't think I could do the stages your surgeon has given you. I probably would have cheated along the way. lol.

[ckrackley 2]

Hello,
I just have my surgery on May 28th. My surgeon requires me to be on a 1 month liquid only diet after surgery. Month 2 I am only allowed to be on a puree diet. Month 3 I am only allowed soft foods. I am not able to eat normally again until Month 4.
This seems extreme compared to others I've seen on here. What is everyone's thoughts? Is anyone else on as strict of a post op diet as me.
I plan on sticking to it because I follow Dr's orders. Currently I do not have hunger no am I having emotional cravings either. (very surprising to me as I was mainly an emotional eater prior to surgery).

Mine is exactly the same as yours, I'll be 4 weeks post-op this coming Friday...I can't wait for purees [emoji23]

Sent from my SM-N986U using BariatricPal mobile app

[NewMe_2021 56]

@SethSnap and @ckrackley just checking in on you guys and how your diets are progressing. I had my VSG 6/11 at UC Health and have 12 days left of liquids. It seemed like we were all on similar post op diets, so, wanted to check in. Have you both transitioned to purees at this point? If so, how has that been? I'm starting to feel like this liquid phase is never ending LOL.