What To Expect After Gastric Bypass Surgery - Diet, Having A Support Group And Plastic Surgery
If you are considering gastric bypass surgery to help you fight your weight battle, then the first thing you should know is it is not a decision to be taken lightly. It may have a high success rate but it is still a surgical procedure and anything can happen while on the table. That being said, once the decision is made and the surgery is done, another important thing to make yourself aware of is what happens after gastric bypass surgery. It is not a quick fix that does all the work for you, and the better informed you are about it, the better prepared you will to achieve your personal goals.
Adjusting Your Diet
One of the biggest changes you will have to make is adjusting your diet after gastric bypass surgery. You cannot go on eating everything you want and expect your new smaller stomach to be able to handle it.
Overeating can result in nausea and vomiting, two very common after effects of surgery, but this can be avoided. For the first two weeks after surgery, your diet will consist of liquids only.
After that period, your diet after gastric bypass will be made of very soft foods that you don't need to chew much. After one more week, you can eat most foods but in very small quantities. Your new smaller stomach can only handle about two tablespoons of food, and after a while will increase to hold about a cup of food.
This means your food intake has to be drastically cut, often replaced with liquids instead of actual food. You shouldn't snack and you should chew very slowly and carefully, to avoid swallowing any foods whole, and cut your food into tiny pieces. Not following these instructions or eating junk food can result in heartburn, ulcers or you could burst your new stomach.
Because of the difficulty your stomach will have to absorb different kinds of foods, you could become deficient in certain vitamins, like iron, calcium or vitamin D among others. For this reason, it is recommended to start taking nutritional supplements, if your doctor agrees.
Join a Support Group
This will help you avoid health problems like anemia or osteoporosis in the future. It is certainly not easy making these huge lifestyle changes after a serious procedure, and more so it isn't easy adjusting to life as the new you. Luckily, many weight loss centers offer a gastric bypass support group, where you can get behavioral counselling and support from other members to stick to the decisions you have to make.
Consider Plastic Surgery
Plastic surgery after gastric bypass procedures are also quite common as you could lose 70-80 pounds in your first year and could end up with a lot of excess skin that won't go away. An abdominoplasty, or tummy tuck is the most common type since it takes away this excess skin and tightens the elasticity in the walls of your abdomen.
If you've gone through the research and have opted on weight loss surgery, be sure you're not only prepared for the surgery itself but for your lifestyle afterwards. Many things will change after gastric bypass surgery, but the good thing is you're not alone. You can succeed if you take it one day at a time and follow your nutritional and exercise guidelines.
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