Weight-loss surgery is not a quick fix. It's the beginning of an ongoing journey toward weight loss and improved health through lifestyle changes. Fortunately, you will not have to go through the process alone. A team of professionals including a registered dietician and a licensed clinical psychologist are here to support your efforts. Positive changes in your body, your weight, and your health will occur, but you will need to be patient through the recovery process.
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Vidalia lost 184 pounds!
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Diet
The changes made to your gastrointestinal tract will require permanent changes in your eating habits that must be followed for successful weight loss in your new life after surgery. It is important to remember that these guidelines will be different depending on the type of procedure you have. What is most important is that you follow your program’s guidelines. Eating after Weight-loss surgery will be much different than before! That is why we have a registered Dietitian on staff to help you with any questions you may have. Through Mercy’s Weight-loss program, you get free nutritional support for life.
The following are some of the generally accepted dietary guidelines for a healthy diet after surgery:
• When you start eating solid food, it is important to chew your food thoroughly and eat very slowly. It is important to wait two to three minutes after swallowing before putting the next bite of food in your mouth. You will not be able to digest 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 eaten enough food. Fluids consumed with meals can lead to feeling hungry sooner after a meal.
• Don't eat items with sugar if they have more than 3 to 5 grams per serving size.
• Avoid carbonated drinks, high-calorie nutritional supplements, milk shakes, foods high in fat, and foods that have no nutritional value.
• Avoid alcohol.
• Limit snacking between meals.
Going Back to Work
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 procedure you have. Most patients return to work and are able to exercise within one to three weeks after their Lap-Band or laparoscopic gastric bypass. Patients who have had an open procedure do so about six weeks after surgery.
Birth Control and Pregnancy
It is strongly advised that women of childbearing age use the most effective forms of birth control during the first 16 to 24 months after weight loss surgery due to the added demands pregnancy places on your body and your health.
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Debra lost 130 pounds!
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Support Groups
The widespread use of support groups has provided weight-loss surgery patients an excellent forum to discuss their various issues. 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. Mercy’s program has support groups led by a licensed clinical psychologist to assist you with short-term and long-term questions and needs. It is proven that ongoing post-surgical support helps produce the greatest level of success for patients after surgery.
Plastic Surgery
Most patients who undergo weight-loss surgery lose a lot of weight. Typically patients are left with large folds of excess skin, along with loose muscles and sometimes localized pockets of unsightly fat tissue. In such cases, plastic surgery procedures, or lipoplasty (liposuction), can help to reshape the normal structures of the body in order to improve appearance and self-esteem.
