The Gastric Bypass Diet

Those seeking to receive a gastric bypass are going to be required to make choices and changes. The choice they will be faced with is where to have their surgery.

Local or regional hospitals are able to provide a gastric bypass, but the gastric bypass surgery cost will be roughly 80% more than a comparable facility in Mexico would charge. The changes they make will be to their diet.

What many don’t realize is that this dietary change will start before the procedure is ever performed. Much like the diet required before a lap band procedure, the patient will be required to limit or eliminate a number of foods.

For the most part, these are the foods that would be limited or removed as part of a normal diet and include high sugar foods like cakes and candy, as well as carbohydrate rich foods like pasta and bread.

The principle difference from a normal diet is that there is very high protein requirement, ranging between 70-120 grams a day. It can require augmenting the protein intake with protein shakes.

After the procedure, the patient will undergo a series of dietary stages and continued changes to their diet. The stages typically move the patient through a four-stage transition:  liquid, semi-liquid, semi-solid and solid.

Patients are all but forbidden from eating high sugar foods, as this can lead to indigestion and vomiting. Patients are also required to begin taking an iron and zinc enhanced, daily multivitamin that they must continue taking for life. The post gastric bypass diet will be very protein heavy and limit fat intake.