Nutritional Guide - Flipbook - Page 6
EATING AFTER YOUR OPERATION
Eating after your operation
After surgery, your healthcare team want you
to be able to eat well as soon as possible.
After your surgery, you probably went
through the “nil by mouth” stage, then the
“clear fluids”, “free fluids” and “soup and
sweet” before being told you were on a
“light diet” and had a limited choice from
the hospital menu. Once out of hospital,
you get to enjoy home-cooking and some
takeaways, but there can be worries
whether you are eating and drinking “the
right thing”.
This advice will help support you through
those worries, and provide some guidance
on the best way to approach food and
nutrition in the time immediately after your
operation and into the future.
Timings
The typical person will need 2000 calories
(female) or 2500 calories (male) a day.
Spreading meals is an easier way to
eat than having 1 or 2 large portions of
food because it can stop you becoming
too full. More importantly, it means the
gastrointestinal (GI) system has less bulk
to deal with at once. After surgery, some
people have reduced appetites and can
find it hard to eat as much as they normally
could. Eating little and often is a useful
technique after surgery to ensure regular
nutrition that supports healing.
When we eat, the muscles contract
along the GI system and move food and
fluid along, therefore eating regularly
helps move the nutrition along and can
reduce the risk of blockages. Eating 3
6
small-to-medium sized meals and 2-3
snacks a day is an easy and well-tolerated
eating structure after surgery. There is no
set time that is recommended between
meals and snacks, but food can take 1-4
hours to leave the stomach and hunger
levels vary depending on many factors.
Having something to eat, roughly, every
2-4 hours will suit most people; a typical
day may look like:
~8am: Breakfast
~10am: Snack
~1pm: Lunch
~3pm: Snack
~7-8pm: Dinner
~9-10pm: Snack
