Why you shouldn’t eat and drink at the same time after a sleeve

After a sleeve staying hydrated should be one of your priorities. However how and when you drink your fluids is equally as important! To clear up any confusion and to answer some frequently asked questions I wanted to explain what the guidelines are for fluids after a sleeve and why you shouldn’t have fluids at mealtimes. 

The guidelines:

To stay hydrated, most of us should be drinking around 1.5-2L fluid each day. This doesn’t just have to be water but ideally sugar free and caffeine free beverages should make up the majority of your daily fluids (check out this post for good fluid choices). After weight loss surgery it is ralso ecommended that you don’t drink with your meals and leave a 20-30 minute window before and after your meals.

Why no fluids at meal times?

There are two main reasons we recommend avoiding drinking with meals: satiety hormones and the risk of becoming uncomfortable.

Firstly, your new stomach works like a funnel. It holds a small amount of food which, when full, causes nerve endings signal to your brain that you have eaten, releasing satiety hormones to help you feel full and satiated. As long as that food slowly dribbles out of the funnel and into the rest of your gut, you are going to feel full for a long time – at least three hours ideally. If you throw water in the mix, you will water down that food and it will flow through the funnel more quickly. This means the food leaves your stomach faster, you are going to feel hungry a lot faster, will be likely to start eating sooner and ultimately eat more calories over the day.

Secondly, if you drink fluids soon after a meal, when your stomach is full, you are likely to make yourslef sick! Think about what happens when you try to put water down a blocked pipe – it comes back up again! The same thing goes when drinking when your stomach is full – you may easily cause yourself to have a foamie or regurgitate what doesn’t fit.  

The bottom line

It’s best to keep a window around meal times for fluids to avoid discomfort or regurgitation and maximise your satiety. Instead, sip water or low calorie fluids slowly at regular intervals throughout the day to stay hydrated and leave a gap around your meal times where you put the glass down.