Coffee Lover

My ( totally competent modern and young ) NYC based surgeon, Dr. PARIKH ( whose stats by the way are awesome in the eight years since he performed my RNY surgery at NYU) told me I could have my visitors bring me starbux from downstairs the day after surgery.

I drank a fat free ex large latte practically ran the halls every fifteen minutes as prescribed ( with an IV drip hanging from my arm) and have enjoyed many highly caffeinated beverages every single day of the eight years since.

I DO NOT indulge in real half and half non-skim milk or other fattening creamers of course - or sugar or I'd have gained thirty lbs easily.

As others have said, each surgeon recommends something different.

I had VSG, but a good friend of mine had RNY. We were both allowed coffee as soon as we were allowed to start having liquids after surgery.

What I have found is that I do enjoy coffee every once in a while, but I've enjoyed not having the caffeine addiction I had for so many years. I no longer have to have my caffeine in whatever form before 2pm to stave off a migraine. Not having it every day also means that when I do drink some, it retains its "kick".

When I do have it, I have full fat cream/milk and I use monk fruit because splenda and stevia have a strange aftertaste for me.

I was allowed caffeine at some point, I don't even know when honestly but I drink it now. Before that, I drank decaf and a lot of it. I use premier protein and heavy cream in my coffee at home. When I go out I'll either order a plain Latte with no sweetener or I'll put a splash of flavored creamer in and then add a bit more half and half. I get a coffee from a local place every morning. It's 24oz of coffee and I do a splash of SF French Vanilla Creamer and a splash of unsweetened vanilla half & half.

Edited to add: I do figure my coffee additives into my daily calories.

My doctor said to not drink coffee (regular or decaf) for 6 months after bariatric surgery to minimize getting an ulcer.

I was told to switch to decaf for six months after surgery. I went back to the regular stuff shortly after that time. If you are a coffee addict, don't wait for the two week liquid diet before surgery to quit coffee because you will be asking for a headache!

I drank a Chike high protein iced coffee shake (order on Amazon) every morning for about 1.5 years after surgery for breakfast. 20 g of protein and the flavor of sweet iced coffee. It's amazing.

And listen to Grim's advice above - the first year after surgery your calories are low, but trust me when I say they creep up in maintenance and you don't want to have 100-200 calories a day in cream/sugar...

According to the Q&A on the Amazon page, this has the same amount of caffeine as coffee.

https://www.amazon.com/Chike-Protein-Coffee-Serving-Packets/ dp/B00ETJCCCC

I started drinking coffee at about 4 months post-VSG with my surgeons permission. Previously I would drink one cup a day to wake up. Now I've become a coffee craver - I have about 40 ounces each morning before noon with sucralose and SF coffee mate. Sometimes I have a decaf in the afternoon or evening if my cravings for munchies are there (also with sucralose and SF coffee mate).

I have a coffee cautionary tale. I don't remember how soon after surgery I started drinking coffee again, but by probably at least a year and a half out I developed a bit of a transfer addiction to caffeine, having several cups of fully-leaded coffee a day. I started having abdominal pain that would go away the next morning with no aftereffects. I thought it was gas or a food I was eating as it usually came on in the evening.

One day at work it started and just got worse and worse, so I went to Urgent Care and had a CT and everything. They didn't find anything, but I went to my PCP the next day and described what was happening and my doc posited gastritis brought on by irritation by the caffeine. This was alarming because I was experiencing the pain in my remnant stomach and it could have led to an ulcer which is bad news.

She put me on a course of omezaprole for six weeks and no caffeine and I did not have another incident. I still love my coffee, but I limit myself to 2 caffeine drinks a day and the rest is decaf. I haven't had a problem since and I'm four years out from surgery.

So! Pay attention to how you feel. It took me way too long to figure out what was causing my problem and could have led to a bad thing.

Jen

I won't speak to the caffeine issue, but I'll suggest you be cautious with what you put in it. You will need to log any sweetener or milk (including almond/soy/etc. milk) in your food diary, as those calories will count towards your daily totals. For the first year, it's most common to eat 600 - 800 calories/day, and adding 1c of soymilk to your Starbucks latte is 130 calories.

You need to push as much protein as possible into your calorie allotment, at least 60 - 80g protein per day. Milk (or substitutes) do not have enough to make them a valid and regular part of your diet.

I know there are some people here who drink coffee-flavored protein shakes-- either pre-flavored, or by adding something like coffee crystals to a chocolate shake to make a mocha. You can also use vanilla protein shake as coffee creamer.