Category Archives: After Weight Loss Surgery
Will I Be Able to Eat My Favorite Foods After Bariatric Surgery?
The decision to have bariatric surgery has so many facets. For someone who hasn’t yet considered the surgical route, it’s hard to understand the considerations and fears that a person has about postoperative life. One such concern very legitimately revolves around the concept of what can and can’t be eaten after surgery. Why is this such a big deal for those considering bariatric surgery? The answer lies in our relationship with food.
For many of us, food has become a crutch – a comfort during times of emotional extremes, whether sadness or happiness. Our society has created a situation where celebrations and commiserations all revolve around food and drink. The result is that we rely on food far more than we think. When the prospect of not having that food in our future becomes a reality – when we begin to consider something like weight loss surgery – the idea of losing that crutch is daunting.
Staying Positive During Weight Plateaus
If you’ve never tried to lose weight, you might not understand the dreaded “weight plateau.” And it works both ways – people trying to gain weight, bulk up and add muscle, also face weight plateaus. But, today, we are focused on the weight loss plateau, a hurdle virtually every bariatric patient will experience along their journey.
The biggest issue with hitting a weight plateau is frustration. You become frustrated that you’re not losing weight fast enough though you continue to do the right things – the things your bariatric surgeon and nutritionist have advised you to do. You’re doing everything RIGHT! Why is the scale not moving down faster?
Gastric Sleeve Scars – Are They Big and Will They Go Away?
Scarring after any surgery is a concern. If you are considering a bariatric procedure or gastric sleeve, you may be wondering how big the scars will be after surgery and whether they will be visible longer-term. In this blog, Dr. Abbas will walk you through what scarring looks like, who is more prone to scarring, and tips and tricks to minimize them.
Hi everyone, it’s Dr. Abbas, and I wanted to talk to you a little bit about scarring. It’s a good topic to discuss and probably on your mind now that you are considering bariatric surgery. First, I want to mention that scarring is a natural part of the body’s healing process, and it is inevitable even in modern-day surgery. There have been techniques and technologies created to address scarring, but we don’t yet have a totally reliable scarless option for bariatric surgery. That said, we perform virtually all our bariatric procedures using minimally invasive techniques with or without robotic surgery. These techniques use tiny incisions and small medical devices to access the abdomen. Using these technologies has reduced scarring along with the risk of incisional hernias.
Addiction Transfer After Bariatric Surgery
Cross-addiction, also called transfer addiction, occurs when an individual swaps one of their addictions for addiction to a different substance or behavior. Say, for example, an alcoholic can stop drinking, but they do not treat the underlying causes of their addiction. Then, after a time, the alcoholic could become addicted to a street drug they began using to cope with their underlying emotional issues. That would be a clean-cut example of cross-addiction. This person moved the addictive behavior from one place to another – from alcohol to drugs.
Habit Stacking Helps Hit Weight Loss Goals Both Before & After Bariatric Surgery
Most of us are looking for ways to improve our lives or make them more manageable. Self-help books, classes, gurus, and products are trendy, generating billions in sales every year. Who wouldn’t want to improve their life? Everyone wants to make their life better somehow, and of course, they can! One method for achieving this is gaining popularity, known as habit stacking. You can use habit stacking to improve almost any aspect of your life and particularly your health.
Using Photos to Jumpstart Your Weight Loss
When dealing with excess weight and obesity, you may avoid taking photos and videos on vacations or family get-togethers. You may even dislike looking in the mirror. However, doing so can be a great way to jumpstart your weight loss and keep yourself motivated as you begin to lose weight.
Before bariatric surgery, many patients recall the moment that they looked at a recent photo of themselves. Some declare that they didn’t even recognize themselves. They looked older and larger than they believed themselves to be. However, that stark realization finally allows many patients to come to terms with where they are and where they need to go. It is often when they realize that they can’t do it by themselves. There’s just too much weight to lose.
But even after surgery, photos and journaling play a big part in success. We suggest taking pictures of yourself every few weeks during the first six months to a year after surgery, and after that time, taking a photo once every 2 to 3 months helps see your longer-term progress. Journaling your progress is also a great way not only to lose more weight but to remind yourself of how far you’ve come, especially when you’re feeling down or unmotivated.
Caffeine’s Place in the Bariatric Diet
Today we will be talking about caffeine, a staple in just about everyone’s diet. Whether it is coffee, black, or green teas, chocolate, or sodas, caffeinated products are ubiquitous in modern-day society. Over the past several decades, we’ve heard mixed reviews about caffeinated products and caffeine. Are they helpful or hurtful? Can they help you lose weight, or do they make you hungry? The data is all over the map. However, there are some steadfast rules that bariatric patients need to follow to ensure that their caffeine consumption is not detrimental to their health and their weight loss after bariatric surgery.
Having an Orthopedic Procedure After Bariatric Surgery
Decades of excess weight may have caused you to experience significant joint pain. This joint pain is common in those suffering from obesity and is called osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis occurs when the soft cartilage between our joints, which essentially acts as a protective layer between bones, begins to degrade. You can imagine how the constant excess weight rubbing on the structures can wear them down over time. The result can be significant pain that may lead to the need for joint replacement surgery. Most commonly, this occurs in the knees and hips, but can occur almost anywhere in the body. If you have visited an orthopedic surgeon about your chronic pain, and you have a BMI of over 40, you’ve likely been told that a procedure is too risky and that you must lose some weight prior to surgery.
Best Low Impact Exercises for Bariatric Patients
You’ve been cleared to exercise. So now what?
This is far less daunting than it sounds. For some of us, the gym was not our first hang out pre-surgery. Neither was spin class, the tennis court, the weekend hikes or the stand-up paddleboard. But guess what? Your new life is the golden ticket to some of life‘s best experiences that will broaden your free-time horizons, increase your health-conscious circle of friends, and lead to tremendous success in your weight loss journey.
What Is Dumping Syndrome? (And Why It Might not Be All Bad)
No surgery is 100% risk and consideration free and the gastric bypass is no different. In many cases, when we talk about the side effects of surgery, we focus on the decidedly negative ones. However, dumping syndrome is one of those very interesting side effects that, while very uncomfortable for the patient, may actually have some long term beneficial value. When we discussed dumping syndrome, we limit our discussion to the gastric bypass because of the way that the stomach is changed and. The outlets from the stomach into the small intestine, known as the stoma is removed and rebuilt during a bypass surgery. The new valve is not as efficient or as strong as the natural valve. This means that food and drink can enter into the more sensitive small intestines faster without being fully procesed in the stomach. This is known as rapid gastric emptying or dumping syndrome.
