Bariatric Surgery FAQs

After following a blended diet for four weeks, your diet will be advanced to solid foods. Eventually, you will be able to enjoy most foods again.

You may find that certain foods will not agree with you; this is highly individual and varies from person to person. You will need to avoid sugars, choose low-fat foods, and eat much smaller portions in order to maintain a healthy diet and sustain weight loss.

Your new diet should be varied enough to include foods from all the different food groups. However, by eating much smaller portions, having a smaller stomach capacity, and some patients having a reconstructed intestinal area, it will become difficult to get adequate amounts of all nutrients in your diet.

It will be very important to take a multivitamin with minerals, a B12 vitamin, calcium, and iron supplements every day for the rest of your life. Depending on which weight loss surgery procedure you have, the degree of vitamin need may vary long term.

Some patients experience hair loss following surgery. Usually this is due to rapid weight loss, hormonal shifts and a stress response from surgery. Generally, when it does occur, it is only temporary and the hair does grow back.

In order to minimize hair loss it is very important to focus on getting good nutrition each day by following the guidelines for vitamin supplements, protein, and hydration.

Dietary guidelines may vary depending on the procedure, institution, and your specific needs. The changes made to your gastrointestinal tract will require permanent changes in your eating habits that you need to follow for successful weight loss. It is important to follow the guidelines given to you by your surgeon.

Here are some general guidelines:

• When you start eating solid food, it is essential that you chew thoroughly.
• You will not be able to eat steaks or other chunks of meat if they are not chewed thoroughly because the food may get stuck in your stomach or intestine.
• Don't drink fluids while eating. They will make you feel full before you have consumed enough food.
• Don't eat desserts and other items with sugar listed as one of the first three ingredients.
• Don't drink carbonated drinks, high-carbohydrate nutritional supplements, milk shakes, and high-fat foods.
• Avoid alcohol.
• Limit snacking between meals.

You may be able to resume pre-surgery levels of activity about 3 to 6 weeks after laparoscopic surgery. Lifting, bending, or strain on your abdomen may cause pain or injury if you attempt it before you have healed.

During the four-week, post-surgery blended diet phase, it is important to focus on adequate nutrition and hydration as explained thoroughly in our pre-surgery education classes, which you must attend. This focus could mean you won’t have the time and energy needed to return to work; therefore, 4 to 6 weeks off is recommended.

Fertility typically improves with hormonal shifts associated with weight loss for both men and women. It is strongly advised that women of childbearing age use effective forms of birth control during the first 16 to 24 months after weight loss surgery.

The added demands that pregnancy places on the body, and the nutritional requirements of pregnancy, may cause small-for-gestational-age infants and unwanted vitamin deficiencies in the mother. Babies born to mothers after weight loss surgery are typically healthier than siblings born prior to it, due to the improved health of the mother and a safer pregnancy.

After frequent post-op visits at 7-10 days, 30 days, and others as needed, you are seen every three months for the first year, then at 18 months, and then at 2 years. After that, you are asked to return once a year to meet with a team of surgeon, nurses, and dietitians.

We monitor vitamin and nutrition levels annually after the first three months. We have found that patients who stay engaged long term in their weight loss journey tend to be successful lifelong in maintaining improved health.

Yes, we do offer support groups. View our support groups.

Ongoing post-surgical support can help produce the greatest level of success. Support groups can provide you with an excellent opportunity to discuss various personal issues and get assistance with short-term and long-term questions and needs. Most people learn, for example, that weight loss surgery will not immediately resolve existing emotional issues or heal the years of damage that obesity might have inflicted on their emotional well-being.