With weight-loss surgery, also called bariatric surgery, comes significant diet and lifestyle changes. Choosing the right foods can help improve the success rate of weight loss after surgery as well as minimize potential complications. Most bariatric surgeons and dietitians will provide you with a specific diet plan to follow before and after surgery to help ensure you meet all your nutritional needs. But just as important as eating the right foods is avoiding others that may cause poor tolerance, discomfort and barriers to meeting your weight-loss goals.
Cookies
Foods high in carbohydrates and sugars, such as cookies, not only contribute a significant amount of calories but may also cause "dumping syndrome," which is a condition that results from foods dumping too quickly into the small intestine. Dumping syndrome can lead to unpleasant symptoms such as nausea, dizziness, diarrhea and a rapid heart rate.
Candy
As with cookies, candy contributes a significant amount of non-nutritive calories and may lead to dumping syndrome. In addition, chewy and sticky candies can get stuck in your small stomach opening.
Soda
Regular sodas add unnecessary calories to your diet. In addition, carbonated beverages can cause symptoms of bloating and stomach distention.
French Fries
Like foods high in sugar, high-fat foods also contribute a large amount of calories, which can be counterproductive to weight loss. Avoid fried foods such as french fries and other high-fat foods. Many people experience poor tolerance to fatty foods after surgery, resulting in nausea and abdominal pain.
Butter
Adding butter to toast and other foods increases the caloric and fat content of foods, which may work against your weight-loss goals. Because of the high fat content, some people may also experience abdominal pain and nausea after eating foods with added butter. It is important to choose low-fat foods after surgery and prepare meals using low-fat cooking techniques such as steaming, baking and broiling.
Celery
Some foods, although seemingly healthy, are often poorly tolerated after weight-loss surgery. Fibrous foods can cause abdominal pain, and small particles can get lodged in the stomach opening or laparoscopic-banding after surgery. One food culprit is raw celery. Most people should avoid raw celery in the early postoperative stages of the diet. Cooking vegetables very well -- to a mushy state -- may allow for better tolerance.
Apples
Like with celery, raw fruits -- especially those with skins, such as apples -- can lead to abdominal pain when consumed after surgery. Foods better tolerated include fruits canned in water, naturally soft fruits -- such as bananas -- and unsweetened applesauce.
White Bread
Doughy foods can be difficult to digest after weight-loss surgery and should be avoided. Foods such as untoasted, doughy breads can be problematic. As an alternative, choose thinly sliced bread that has been toasted.
Sticky Rice
Just as with untoasted bread, sticky rice can be difficult to digest. People may describe the feeling of these foods getting "stuck" in their chest.
Tough, Fatty Meat
Certain meats should be avoided after weight-loss surgery for several reasons. Fatty cuts of meat have a high fat content. Tough, fibrous meats can also be poorly digested and cause nausea and abdominal pain. People may have better tolerance to tender cuts of lean meat, cooked in a moist environment and cut into small pieces.
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