What to Eat Three Weeks After Gastric Bypass

Getting gastric bypass surgery is a serious medical procedure that cuts the stomach in half, either using staples or an adjustable band. The procedure will help you feel full more quickly while you're eating, which may help you lose weight. Gastric bypass surgery permanently alters the way that you eat, and even three weeks after your surgery, you still need to follow a modified diet 2. Talk to your doctor for a specific diet plan based on your particular case.

Pureed Foods

For the first three weeks after gastric bypass surgery, your doctor may recommend you eat only pureed foods 2. On your third week, your doctor will keep you on a diet of mostly pureed foods, with a few other slightly harder foods included. Puree foods in a blender or food processor until they have a smooth and creamy consistency. Foods like beans, lean ground meat, egg whites, fish and yogurt help you get adequate protein. You can also puree soft fruits and vegetables and eat them as a soup or a smoothie.

Soft Foods

Soft Diet List After Bowel Surgery

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When your doctor allows it, you may add soft foods into your diet about three weeks after your surgery. Your doctor may recommend soft foods like low-fat cottage cheese, cooked baby shrimp, tuna with fat-free mayonnaise, baked soft fish, tofu, thinly sliced, low-fat deli meats like turkey and roast beef, oatmeal and hot cereal, soft cooked vegetables like potatoes, carrots, zucchini and squash, canned vegetables and fruits with no skin and soft lettuce, like green leaf lettuce.

Liquids

Drink 6 to 8 cups of liquids, like clear broths, water, low-fat milk and juice, to stay hydrated throughout the day. Do not drink them with meals. Because your stomach is much smaller than it was before, drinking liquids along with your meals may cause nausea, stomach pain and vomiting. Even if it does not cause side effects, drinking fluids with meals may make you feel so full, you are unable to finish your meal.

Foods to Avoid

Diet After a Frenectomy

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Although some soft foods are OK to eat during the third week, if your doctor approves, others may cause nausea and vomiting because they are too difficult to digest. Fatty foods like butter, margarine, sour cream, gravy, bacon fat, whole milk, hard cheese, dressings, desserts, cream cheese and mayonnaise are too high in fat to digest properly. Raw vegetables, dried fruit, bread, peanut butter, macaroni and cheese, pasta and melted cheese may be too fibrous or sticky to digest -- save these foods for later in your recovery.