Nutritional sensitivity is also prevalent in weight loss surgery

Nutritional sensitivity is also prevalent in weight loss surgery

Although the standard of preoperative education has been raised for bariatric patients seeking obesity treatment with weight loss surgery, there is a certain silliness among patients and the public suggests that surgery is the easy way to lose weight. Widespread perception of surgical weight loss suggests that lifestyle changes, including diet and exercise, are not necessary for weight loss. The surgery does all the work for the patient by restricting calorie intake.

The truth is, to lose weight and maintain the resulting healthy body weight with weight loss surgery (gastric bypass, gastric lap band, gastric sleeve), one must make significant lifestyle changes that include following a high protein diet, eliminating processed carbohydrates and carbonated drinks, and avoiding or at least controlling snacking or mindless eating. In addition, patients must engage in daily physical activity beyond the physical movements of the routine day. Patients need to exercise. If the diet or activity requirements of bariatric surgery are not met, weight loss will stop and may potentially lead to weight gain.

The idea of ​​simply eating less of the things we ate at the height of our obesity in order to lose weight is absurd. Yet I have heard the hearty laughter of a post-surgical patient more than once as he declared, “I can still eat the same things I used to eat, just less!” Okay, how about we check in with this person in a year or so and see how this works. Chances are the last thing they want to talk about, let alone laugh about, is weight loss surgery. The patients and the public who want to believe that weight loss is simple weight loss don't want to hear this simple truth: If the food you ate before surgery made you fat, eating after surgery will continue, even less of it, to keep you fat. It's that simple.

Most bariatric programs explain to their patients that the surgical gastric pouch is “just a tool” for weight loss, and some programs have patients sign a contract certifying that they will use their tool properly. To use the tool correctly, the patient must follow the prescribed diet and exercise program. Not just for a few weeks or until the target weight is reached. The operation is a permanent modification of the human digestive system, therefore the patient must permanently change his behavior in order to consciously use the tool to control the metabolic disorder that we call obesity.

Even during surgery, patients must diet and exercise to lose weight. To maintain this weight loss, they will continue to meet high-protein diet and exercise requirements for the rest of their lives. Patients who do this are happily successful with their “simple” weight loss surgery. Patients who ignored these requirements from the first sting and hoped the surgery would do the job for them aren't laughing much now as they try to fade into the background and do the same things they've always done hoping for different results.

In my work, I advise weight loss surgery patients who often ask me if it is okay to eat this or that. My job is not to fork feed these people, but to give them the power to rule their own fork. So I'll answer this question like this: "When you look at or crave that fried food at the fair, use your nutritional sensitivity and remember that if it makes you fat before surgery, it will certainly make you fat after surgery."

Inspired by Kaye Bailey