Why Does it Matter if I Drink with My Meals?

TriStar Centennial Center for Weight Management / / Blog / June 15, 2017

Nearly all bariatric programs will have specific recommendations regarding your eating and drinking patterns after surgery. The most consistent recommendations are to: focus on good, lean proteins, drink a minimum of 64 ounces of no calorie or low calorie fluids daily, take your vitamin supplements and avoid drinking with your meals. These are the guidelines I was given in 2001 and the principles are still in place today. I found at the time of surgery, the single hardest change was to not drink with my meals. I find for the majority of patients, this continues to be the most difficult change to get used to after surgery.

I also find that when patients are struggling to meet their weight loss goals or they’ve regained a few pounds, one of the habits they frequently have resumed is drinking with their meals. The sleeve gastrectomy and roux-en-y gastric bypass both work through a restrictive component, meaning you feel full with a smaller amount of food. Concentrating on filling your stomach capacity with lean, dense proteins will keep you feeling full for a longer period of time for a smaller number of calories. You want that feeling of fullness to last. When you drink with your meal, you are thinning the consistency of your food, meaning it will take more to fill you up and the food can move through your pouch quicker which will decrease how long you feel full.

Try this experiment at home. Dump a container of cottage cheese into your kitchen sink without turning the water on and see how long it takes that cottage cheese to slowly empty down the drain. Now dump a second container of cottage cheese into your sink and turn the water on with just the slightest trickle of water and see how quickly that cottage cheese empties down the drain. Now, try this experiment at home. Do not drink with your meals; wait at least 30 minutes (ideally an hour) after eating to resume drinking. I bet you will feel fuller longer.