I had my DS surgery July 31st.  While I tried to follow the diet progression the best I could, I found myself eating soft foods sooner than I was supposed to.  Now I am eating regular food here and there and doing fine with it.  I am careful what I eat and how much I eat.  I was wondering when the vets began to introduce red meats?  I am dying for a small steak right now.  I aslo wondered when eating red meats is it better to have them medium rare than well done?  I ask this because my surgeon is always telling me not to eat a burnt T-Bone.  Prior to surgery, I ate my steaks either rare or medium rare.  Are there any possible complications if I introduce steak to early?   I wouldn't want to hurt anything the surgeon has done.  Thanks for reading and God Bless.

My surgeon didn't want me eating beef for at least 6 months (Or was it a year?  It seemed totally unreasonable so I imagine it was a year).  I didn't wait that long and didn't do any harm.  I'm sorry that I can't remember for sure how long I waited.  Just eat it slowly and chew it thoroughly, which is good advice for everybody even without surgery.

ETA:  I had a very rough recovery.  I had a hard time with most foods for a long time.  Yet I'm thinking it might be a little early for you to try red meat.  Maybe at 3 months?  Same advice; go slow and chew, chew, chew.

I had some wonderful medium rare rib eye steak on my 1 month surgiversary and it was great. :)  I couldn't handle chicken or fish easily early out but very marbled, tender, medium rare steak was not an issue.  My go-to meat otherwise was shrimp.

Try steak slowly and see how you do.

--gina
 

 I was eating whatever I wanted when I came home.  Get a good and tender cut like ribeye or filet, and cook it like you want it and enjoy!  Just chew it really well.  One thing I can recommend is to be careful with hamburger.  It took me some time to tolerate that.

I've already had some chili (very soupy mild chili).  I'm a week ahead of you, although I'm a 2 parter so I've snuck ahead a bit (REALLY well chewed chicken is mushy food in my book).

Stew may be a good starting point as that should be nice and tender.  See how that goes and then take it from there.

BTW I have some tenderized steak Diane in the freezer, but I'm leaving it a few more days - I'll be 4 weeks out on Tuesday, so am doing my best to leave it closer to then, which is when I'm officially free dietwise, apart from evil carbs of course!! ;-)

Beef, probably because of the fiberous strands in it, was hard for me to tolerate....   I could eat ground beef, if mixed with something wet, (i.e.,  no bean chili, or creamy ground beef stroganoff).  I was at least 8 or 9 weeks out before I tried real hunks of   beef.    I agree with everyone elses suggestions, try a fat marbled piece, like a rib eye....  rare or med rare shouldn't matter....   many Docs warn everyone, not just WLS peeeps, away from burnt meats because of potential problems with carcinogens  ?sp...   just a theory....       My advice, start with ground beef, if you tolerate it well, move on to steaks and enjoy!!!!   Protein, protein, protein!!!!
    Mary C

Different docs give different advice. Mine was no beef, chicken, etc for the first month, ok as tolerated after that.
    I had more trouble eating than most people, but did relatively well with steak, if tender and rare, which is how I like it. I had a terrible time with hamburger, which you would think would be easier, but it wasn't. Something about the texture, I think. It took about a year before I could eat hamburger, but I'm fine with it now.

Larra

I did hamburger fairly early but put applesauce (YEAP) on it to keep it moist. And the first time, I tried, I ate about 1/8 of a burger (dh was 5 weeks ahead of me and he ate almost 1/2).

I found chicken way too dry. However, steak, as long as it was a good cut, was heaven!

Liz

 Thanks for all the advice.  I worry about my protein intake.  I do good for the most part but there are days I only get 2 protein shakes in.  I am eating high protein meals but there are days I don't feel like eating so I end up eating just one or two meals too.  I am trying to do better and make myself eat.  Trying to get a variety of food ready for me to work on.  God Bless.

HI,
 I had my DS on July 11th, and had stsek a week after i came out of the hospital, had stuffed pork chops that following sunday, and meatballs the next wednesday. eat slow, chew chew chew chew chew, and eat whatever you want. as tolerated, of course! I still haven't found anything i can't eat.  God Bless you on this awesome journey.

I had my surgery on 7/25 and feel the same way-tired of same foods. Tried some cheese today...that's not even on my surgeons list until week 6! I've been dying for meatloaf. I figured if it's moist with ketchup it could be doable.

 I have been eating frozen meals.  I have found that not only is the meat moist but the protions are almost perfect.  Little to waste.  I have had checken, pork, meatloaf, salbury steak and meatballs.  So far so good.  The hardest thing for me is to eat slow.  I am learning but the hard way.  God Bless.

I got a notebook from my program outlining food introductions for the entire first year.

My surgeon did not say anything about not eating red meat until 6 months out.
We were allowed lean ground beef, actually, for me plain old 80/20 ground beef worked better than 95% lean but the dietary sheets did not introduce beef steak, roast, et****il we were one year out. I ate it earlier than that, and did not tolerate it well. In fact, to this day, beef steak, roast and white meat chicken seem to "swell" once I eat them and drink my beverage, and I can "lose my lunch/dinner" if I get too full from the meat absorbing the liquid, and I'm 3 1/2 years out. That might be something to think about. It seems the juicier the meat, the better it sits, and medium rare to medium is juicier than well done.

The burnt T-Bone advice may be due to the carcinogens that develop when fat is charred by flames during broiling. That's something that came out a few years ago in popular health news. That used to be my favorite part of the steak, but no more! There's enough stuff in food these days that leads to one disease or another!

As you can see everyone's body tolerates things differently and everyone's doctor recommends different things. The best thing is trying it slow and in small portions. As far as eating to fast, I use a stop watch and rest at least 60-90 seconds between every two bites. I have only thrown up twice since surgery both times because of eating too fast. The first was early out. The second was just last weekend when I had stopped using my stop watch because I thought I had this.