How to Eat After Lap Band Surgery

After lap band surgery, you may be ecstatic over the results. Now all you have to do is eat correctly to continue the success yourself. It will be difficult to some extent, because you need to change a lifetime of eating habits. All you have to do is follow the diet information that goes along with the procedure instructions. Mainly, you need to get plenty of protein every day (about 45 grams), eat slowly (do not gulp) and drink plenty of fluids between meals.

Instructions

1

Begin drinking water a few hours after surgery, per your doctor's instructions. This is all that is permitted the first day in order to get your stomach back in working order. After a couple of days, you can start to eat something that, while still liquid, has a little more sustenance to offer such as protein shake powder. The idea is to work into eating "normal" foods slowly so that you will not overtax your digestive system.

2

Graduate to thicker foods by the second week. This is when you will be able to eat foods like yogurt, cream soup, and cottage cheese. Keep your portion size to about a half of a cup per meal, while maintaining your protein intake. This will keep you from overfeeding yourself and having problems.

3

Set your taste buds for a little more on the third week. You can begin to have soft foods now, and soup will be your friend here. Be sure to use very small pieces of meat that are well cooked in broth to keep them soft.

4

Eat slowly. This is important because on the fourth week, you are ready to give regular foods a trial. After chewing your foods until pulverized, you have spent about 30 minutes resting for each meal.

5

Chow down almost anything that you want now (watch your portion size). It has been over a month, and before you know it, you will be eating foods like everyone else-just smaller amounts. You won't mind this because you will be losing pounds every week just like you wanted because of the lap band surgery.