Bariatric surgery is only the first step in the direction toward safe, effective, and lifelong weight loss. Your life after gastric bypass surgery will be marked by dramatic but beneficial changes in dieting and exercise habits which will help you to lose weight and keep it off for the rest of your life. While these habits may have been difficult to change before bariatric surgery, the physical changes taking place in your body will make it easier to adjust to a new lifestyle. In addition, you will have a support team of physicians, specialists, and loved ones to help you along. To learn more about how to live a successful post-procedure life, contact Dra. Santos Quiñones today.
Changes in Diet
Changes in Exercise Habits
Post-Bariatric Reconstructive Surgery
Nutrient Deficiency
Changes in Diet
New eating habits and other changes you make following surgery must remain permanent in order for you to achieve and maintain successful weight loss. As your new stomach only has a volume of approximately three ounces, the amount of food required to reach the feeling of fullness will be dramatically decreased. The most important thing to do in regard to your new diet after bariatric surgery is to understand and closely follow the instructions Dra. Ana Santos Quiñones gives you.
Though dietary restrictions and instructions from Dra. Santos Quiñones will vary from patient to patient, there are some generally-accepted dietary rules that should be practiced after the surgery.
- When Dra. Santos Quiñones suggests that you can start eating solid foods, it is wise to completely chew your food and eat very slowly. You must allow a few minutes in-between each swallow, no matter how well you chew your food.
- Dessert foods or other foods with more than three to five grams of sugar per serving should be avoided.
- Drinking liquids with meals should be avoided as ingesting fluids will make you feel full before you actually have had enough food. Drinking liquids with a meal can also cause you to vomit and experience dumping syndrome.
- Cut down on snacking between meals as much as possible.
- Avoid drinking sodas or other carbonated drinks, as well as foods that are high in fat or have little nutritional value.
For the most part, patients are told to eat no more than 1/4 cup (two ounces) of food, though you will be able to eat more as time passes. Many patients are able to eat a 1/2 cup of food after a year has passed.
Water consumption is an extremely important aspect of dietary changes that need to be made to maintain safe weight loss. As your body loses fat deposits, many waste products need to be eliminated, usually exiting the body through urine. However, some of the waste products can stay behind and crystallize, forming painful and damaging kidney stones. By increasing your water consumption, you will be helping your body get rid of waste quicker and in a more efficient manner, ultimately aiding your weight loss. Water can also help you feel more full, especially in-between meals when it is ideal to avoid snacking.
One condition that people must watch out for during their post-procedural life is dumping syndrome. The symptoms of dumping syndrome include diarrhea, dizziness, sweating, rapid heart rate, and hot flashes. Dumping syndrome results from the consumption of simple sugars, small-particle foods, or foods high in fat that are, in a sense, “dumped” from the gastric pouch into the digestive tract at a fast rate, which in turn pulls water from the bloodstream into the digestive tract to dilute the level of sugar. This sudden and rapid influx of water causes the person to experience the symptoms.
Changes in diet will be easier to adjust to as you begin to shed the pounds that had previously weighed you down. If you have any questions about the dietary changes that are necessary following life-altering gastric bypass surgery, contact Dra. Santos Quiñones at the Institute for Advanced Surgery and Obesity Control.
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Changes in Exercise Habits
As your calorie intake decreases dramatically after gastric bypass surgery, your body has to make up for the difference by burning unused muscle or fat. However, the human body tends to use unused muscle for energy before using unused fat. When a great need for calories is combined with an absence of exercise or a general lack of physical activity, strength and muscle are lost. But, by exercising daily, people who have undergone bariatric surgery can keep and improve muscle mass and tone while burning off unwanted fat.
With consistent exercise, post-bariatric patients can achieve and maintain the weight loss they so desire. Conventional exercise will be difficult immediately following surgery. However, modified exercise in the form of getting out of bed and walking must start a few hours following the procedure. You will be asked to attempt to walk further and further each day during your recovery and gradually work your way into exercising as much as your health and condition will allow. The type of exercise that is most appropriate for you will depend on your physical limitations as you continue to recuperate and lose weight.
The most important aspect of changing exercise patterns is the establishment of consistency. As undergoing gastric bypass surgery is a lifelong commitment to setting and following lifestyle changes, establishing a regular pattern of exercise will help you obtain the ideal weight loss results.
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Post-Bariatric Reconstructive Surgery
While achieving significant weight loss can be an extremely rewarding feeling, the aesthetic results may be less than satisfying. Skin can become very loose and lose much of its definition and tone following rapid, significant weight loss. Many patients become insecure about how their skin hangs loosely and can become even more unhappy with their body image than they were before bariatric surgery. Dr. Ana Santos Quiñones understands that losing weight can be both a victory and a challenge and makes sure that you are placed in contact with an experienced cosmetic surgeon.
A reliable and experienced cosmetic surgeon will be able to safely remove extra, hanging skin from the abdominal area, arms, breasts, thighs, buttocks, neck, back, face, and virtually any other area of the body. Reconstructive surgery can help post-bariatric patients look and feel as good as they deserve to after making such a dramatic commitment to losing weight.
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Nutrient Deficiency
A substantial number of post-bariatric patients – around one-third – experience nutritional deficiencies. Since the food does not go through the duodenum, the body is not able to absorb calcium, iron, or vitamins A, D, E, and K, and other nutrients very well. Nutrient deficiency can lead to a variety of problems, such as osteoporosis, chronic anemia, iron deficiency anemia, and metabolic bariatric disease. However, by sticking to the dietary recommendations of Dr. Santos Quiñones and taking vitamin and nutrient supplements daily, most patients will be able to avoid nutrient deficiencies.
If you have any questions about the lifestyle changes that you need to make after bariatric surgery, contact Dra. Ana Santos Quiñones today.
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Dra. Ana Santos Quiñones takes great pride in the drastic changes her patients undergo after bariatric surgery. Explore our gallery to see how bariatric surgery can dramatically improve your body.
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Address:
Dra. Ana T. Santos Quiñones
P.O. BOX 373130
Cayey, PR 00737
click to view mapPhone: 787.738.8084
Fax: 787.535.1030