When meeting for the first time and explaining what life after bariatric surgery will be like, I explain you should view it as a critical turning point in your life. There was “life before bariatric surgery”, and then “life after surgery”. Everything is suddenly different in terms of relationship with food: how to eat, what to eat, when to eat, and even where and who to eat with.
This of course should be a good thing, these changes should lead to a healthier life. But if you’re considering surgery, these significant and permanent changes are very important to get to grips with before you decide to have surgery. Bariatric surgery should be a turning point in your relationship with food, but you need to be committed to making significant changes in other areas of your life too, in order to get the best results. Learning to listen to your body, and recognising when you’ve had enough and when you’re starting to feel full (and stopping at that point!), and not snacking mindlessly or always finishing what is on your plate whether you’re full or not for example.
After surgery, you eat with your stomach
Before bariatric surgery, we all tend to “eat with our eyes”. We find ourselves simply eating what is in front of us – this commonly comes from being brought up to finish whatever food is on our plate. Another common underlying problem is consuming how much you “think” you should be eating, rather than listening to your body and how you feel.
After bariatric surgery, you will have to learn to “eat with your stomach”. Learn to recognise the sensation of feeling full, and to stop eating at (or preferably just before) that point. That’s how weight loss surgery works – you feel full earlier and stop eating at that point, meaning you end up eating less overall. It’s important to trust the process. Accepting that two or three mouthfuls may mean that you feel full and that it’s time to stop eating. That will be the end of your meal until the next meal, you shouldn’t just wait 5 – 10 minutes then start eating again because you ‘haven’t possibly eaten enough’ – the whole point is to reduce your intake.
Bariatric surgery will help you feel full quickly and eat less, but part of the problem may be that you may not currently feel that you are eating too much in the first place. It’s important to really re-wire the appetite/hunger and eating pattern connections, making long-term sustainable behaviour changes that result in weight loss. Eat with your stomach, not your eyes.
Quantity vs Quality
Bariatric surgery affects the quantity of food that you can consume, but it is up to you to ensure that the quality of the food you consume is optimal. Surgery reduces the quantity significantly, meaning that the quality needs to be even higher than before. If you only have a few mouth fulls at meal times, you can’t afford to be eating junk food.
Protein push
As you recover from bariatric surgery and are able to eat solid foods again, the focus should be protein (your body can get carbs and fat from your existing stores, but we don’t want it to get protein from your stores). Protein will also help you feel full for longer. Life after surgery means commitment to learning about different food groups, and what should be included or avoided as part of a healthy diet.
Supplements
Even with a well-balanced diet, after bariatric surgery you may still need to take multivitamins and minerals to ensure that your body is getting everything that it needs. Surgery not only restricts the quantity of food you can consume, but it also changes the way your body can process the food you do consume. It’s these changes that make supplements a necessary part of a bariatric patient’s diet, to ensure no deficiencies. The team here at UGIRS are expert in their knowledge in this regard and our dietitian Lisa and healthcoach Meredith will be invaluable guides.
Life After Bariatric Surgery
This might make it sound like a lot of hard work, and it’s true, it is going to be hard work. Weight loss surgery is not a quick and easy fix. Generally, patients may have had dysfunctional eating habits for many years before surgery, and all of this old programming needs to be replaced with new healthy routines. But rest assured, the results are worth every bit of effort in the long run.
After a gastric sleeve, patients can expect to lose up to 60% of their body fat in the first two years after the procedure. Diseases like type 2 diabetes or sleep apnoea can go into remission or disappear altogether. Significant weight loss has an impact not only on the health of a person but also on the quality of life. Bariatric surgery can be the ‘turning point’ that starts this weight loss, this change in a person’s life, and you will always remember life before but it will never be the same.