Life & Diet After Weight Loss (Bariatric) Surgery
Bariatric surgery is not a quick fix. It’s an ongoing journey toward weight loss through lifestyle changes including, very importantly, diet. After surgery, the differences in your body will make it easier to adjust your eating and lifestyle habits. Fortunately, the Advanced Surgical Associates team of bariatric professionals will be there to support your efforts. Positive changes in your body, your weight and your health will occur, but you will have to be patient through the recovery process. It is important that you follow these critical post weight loss surgery instructions to ensure a great start on your road to a healthier, slimmer future.
The modifications made to your gastrointestinal tract will require permanent changes in your dietary habits. These changes must be adhered to for successful weight loss. Post-surgery dietary guidelines will vary by surgeon. You may hear of other patients who are given different guidelines to follow. It is important to remember that every bariatric surgical procedure is different, and the dietary guidelines will differ based on the individual patient, surgeon and procedure. What is most important is that you adhere strictly to your surgeon’s recommended guidelines. Here are some of the generally accepted dietary guidelines a weight loss surgery patient may encounter:
- When you start eating solid food, it is essential that you chew thoroughly. You will not be able to eat steaks or other chunks of meat if they are not ground or chewed thoroughly.
- Don’t drink fluids while eating. They will make you feel full before you have consumed enough food.
- Omit desserts and other items with sugar listed as one of the first three ingredients in preparation.
- Omit carbonated drinks, high-calorie nutritional supplements, milk shakes, high-fat foods and foods with high fiber content.
- Avoid alcohol.
- Limit snacking between meals.
- Avoid tobacco products since they have been known to severely injure the gastric pouch.
- Avoid NSAID’s (aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen, etc.) since this may severely injure the gastric pouch.
Going Back to Work after Bariatric Surgery
Your ability to resume pre-surgery levels of activity will vary according to your physical condition, the nature of the activity and the type of weight loss surgery. Many patients return to full pre-surgery levels of activity within 4-6 weeks of their procedure. Patients who have had a minimally invasive laparoscopic bariatric procedure may be able to return to these activities within a few weeks.
Birth Control & Pregnancy after Surgery
It is strongly advised that women of childbearing age use the most effective forms of birth control during the first 16-24 months after weight loss surgery. The added demands that pregnancy places on your body and the potential for fetal damage make this a most important requirement.
Although the short-term effects of weight loss surgery are well understood, there are still questions to be answered about the long-term effects on nutrition and the body’s systems. Nutritional deficiencies that occur over the course of many years will need to be studied. Over time, you will need periodic checks for anemia (low red blood cell count), Vitamin B12, folate and iron levels. Follow-up tests will initially be conducted every three to six months or as needed, and then every one to two years thereafter.
Advanced Surgical Associates is dedicated to post surgery follow-up and provides support group options to our weight loss surgery patients. We have found that these groups provide an excellent opportunity for patients to discuss their various personal and professional experiences after bariatric surgery. Most learn, for example, that weight loss surgery will not immediately resolve existing emotional issues or heal the years of damage that morbid obesity might have inflicted on their emotional well-being. Our support groups are designed to help you answer your short-term and long-term questions and needs. Our experience shows that taking part in ongoing support groups can help produce the greatest level of success for our patients.
To view support group schedules, please click the following link: Support Groups