The gastric bypass diet is a special plan of eating that is following bariatric surgery patients for the first few months following their surgery. Now this diet may appeal to individuals who have not had the surgery because it is the diet being followed by individuals who are about to lose a large amount of weight very quickly. Truthfully, a bariatric diet is not much different than a meal replacement diet.
One thing you have to understand is it is not the bariatric surgery diet that is causing the patients to lose weight. It is the fact that their stomach is about the size of an egg and cannot hold more than a few ounces at any one time. The reason for the liquid diet is because there has been surgery in the stomach and digestive area. Anyone who has surgery in this area for whatever reason will be on a liquid diet for at least a few weeks during the healing process.
With that being said, both Diet Direct and Medifast offer nutritious meal replacement plans. But you should be eating at least one sensible meal each day and the rest of the day you can drink shakes for your nourishment. Step 2 is the most difficult as well as the most critical part of the gastric bypass diet. This step will begin once you are out of the hospital and I was actually required to have my first step 2 meal while I was still in the hospital.
I am a firm believer in simpler is better, so I stuck with high protein low sugar shakes. However, you can have baby food or strained pureed foods. The idea of baby food or strained pureed foods was not appealing at all. I figured for the 2 to 4 weeks that I was on this plan this was the best way for me. This is the time when you begin to realize that food serves a purpose besides being a comfort, because there really is nothing comforting about protein shakes and baby food.
If you a person that has not had weight loss surgery and thinks that you will lose weight on the gastric bypass diet, I think you will be disappointed. If you had difficulty sticking to other food plans, you will probably find the diet for gastric bypass impossible. If weight loss surgery is not an option for you and you have tried numerous diets, you may want to consider counseling or a support group. It might be best to start with why you eat than what you are eating.
