Top 10 Bariatric Mistakes

[sraebaer]

This is an EXCELLENT article for all of us. My nutritionist posted it on Facebook and I needed it. I am guilty of the soda and alcohol, but after reading the description of why I should cut it out, it's a no-brainer. And then I get a little cocky because I have maintained my weight for over 2 years.

Post Ops Need Help!
We recently asked an innocent question about hunger on Facebook and were not prepared when the floodgates opened with an outpouring of post ops not making changes needed to make it through the first years, forget a lifetime. Some said surgery had failed them but didn’t take vitamins, drink water or avoid carbs. While some were eating right and drinking protein others didn’t get why they were hungry. Many do not appear to be trying. At two years post op and already this far off path, what happens in twenty years? We can already hear their bones collapsing. What is missing? Responsibility! How this turns out is largely up to us.

No matter how fast or successful you were in initially losing weight, these are the top ten things that can and will sink you!

1.Drinking with Meals

Taking a big glug of iced tea with a mouth full of food is normal for many. But after weight loss surgery, drinking while you are eating washes the food out of your pouch. This allows you to refill your pouch and eat around your surgery. There are some who do this on purpose so they can eat more, adding the twist of psychological sabotage.

People come up with the excuse that they have to drink because they are thirsty. Drink a glass of water before you eat. Problem solved. You can drink right up until you take that first bite, but once the food starts, no more drinking unless you are choking. This is critical to long term success. No drinking with meals. Forever. Period. Done.

After bariatric surgery no drinking with meals

2. Drinking Soda

Having a pop doesn’t do anything as dramatic as explode your pouch or even stretch it, BUT it does take many back to a time when they would drink a twelve pack OR MORE of Dr. Pepper a day. There are many people who drank a LOT of soda before their bariatric surgery. It is better to not go back there. Post ops are also more likely to drink their soda with meals and that is a combination that will eventually get you back to pre op weight.

3. Not Making Good Food Choices

We obviously made more bad than good choices or we wouldn’t have needed weight loss surgery. We envy Slim People as genetically blessed and don’t realize they watch their food choices and exercise as their normal. When I would lunch with my naturally slim and fit friend Veronica, I would think ‘She is so thin, why is she eating grilled salmon on a house salad? She can afford to eat the bacon blue cheese burger and fries!’

It never dawned on me that she was slim because she didn’t choose burgers and fries plus she exercised in her living room every single morning. I had it backwards and it took me a long time to own that I ate differently than others.

Cook fresh food, stop with the processed ‘dead’ food, fast food, convenience foods and surround yourself with better choices. For the rest of your life, ‘Protein First, followed by lower carb Vegetables’ is the plan. Keep repeating it. Stick to it. You chose surgery knowing this was the deal. Why have your stomach removed if you never truly intended to change toxic food choices?

4. Not Understanding Alcohol

Not a drop of alcohol for the first year after surgery. The liver and other organs are already pushed beyond normal limits by massive weight loss detox. Non negotiable.

Your prior experiences with alcohol are no longer valid as things change with your bariatric surgery. Without a handbag sized stomach for digestion, the cocktail dribbles directly into the small intestine and is sucked into the bloodstream at almost full proof. You can get deliriously sloppy and dangerously drunk in seconds. With RNY surgery you can additionally become ill from sugar as specialty cocktails can easily contain 50 grams of sugar.

Never drink alcohol unless you are with someone with whom you can trust with your life. Period. Your Match.com date does not qualify. Things can go very wrong with alcohol and if you are alone or with someone who does not understand your surgery, it may place you in grave danger. Never do a shot or feel pressured to keep drinking as alcohol poisoning can kill you.

There are studies that show a slightly increased rate of alcoholism in the bariatric set that may be due to a transfer of compulsive behavior. Be aware of this. If you find you are drinking more than occasionally or cannot stop, get help. Call your surgeons office, they won’t judge and will know what to do.

There is a strong pull to go out, dance and party after being released from the bonds of obesity and social drinking can be a part of that life. We are not a website that tells you to not drink, just have a plan before that first sip. There was a woman in BE Support Group who asked in open forum which cocktail she should drink for her wedding as she was one year post op and had not tried alcohol. Not a good idea to have your first post op drink at your own wedding, the office holiday party, or a business dinner with your boss.

5. Not Taking Vitamins or Supplements

Let’s cut to the chase. It’s ridiculous to think that you could have most of your stomach removed or cut in half with intestines bypassed, or a silicon band choking down the organ to the point where forced malnutrition causes a 100 pound weight drop in a few months and NOT need to take vitamins. Professionals TELL US we must take bariatric supplements yet most don’t. It is shocking how many don’t bother and wonder why they are sick! They insist they chew ice because they LIKE it, when unbeknownst to them they have a ferritin stored iron level of *3*. Serious iron deficiencies can damage your heart.

How long can someone last when food intake is restricted and they cannot absorb nutrients? Take vitamins. Take vitamins. Take vitamins. If you have bariatric surgery at age 35, what happens to you after 25 years of deficiencies? It does not end well. The numbers of post ops who break a wrist or ankle in minor trip and fall accidents would shock you. Longterm post ops are horrified that their teeth have loosened because of osteoporotic jawbones. Many need much more involved dental procedures including bone grafts when the underlying structures won’t support a root canal or implant.

There are serious conditions and symptoms that can hurt you when you are deficient in vitamins, protein and or minerals. There are neurological conditions caused by not taking essential supplements that are irreversible and can even lead to death. Yep, death.

The image below is from the surgery report when I fractured my ankle in a motorcycle accident 8 years post op. “The bone was extremely osteoporotic”. That straightens you right up. These stories are common. Wake up and pop a couple of capsules!

Fractured ankle with Osteoporosis, gastric bypass

6. Not Drinking Enough Water

Dehydration is the number one reason for hospital readmission and is a largely preventable complication. Your surgical team is not kidding when they tell you to keep sipping. Many come out of surgery feeling good and then after the first ten days slide into dizziness, nausea, headache, not being able to keep focus and falling asleep mid sentence. It gets progressively worse and unfortunately lands them in a hospital bed where they are fortunately hydrated with a fluid IV. Stay in front of the problem and drink water on schedule to prevent this.

Adequate water intake will also help flush fat metabolites from your system as you lose weight. Drinking water releases water weight so you will lose more pounds.

Our Hy Water app will help you and its free at GetHyApp.com where you can download it at The App Store. Tap the screen and every set number of minutes there is a fun reminder to DRINK UP.

7. Grazing

Plan and eat actual meals. Three meals plus Two small Protein Snacks; this is also called Five Small Meals. Grazing is eating a bite here and a bite there, never really filing up. Your small pouch is the strongest tool and not filling it is giving up a powerful way to control fullness.

Sit down with your plate then slowly and deliberately eat your meal; fullness or satiety will tell you when to stop. Grazing is a behavior that allows you to consume a larger amount of food over a longer period of time as pouch fullness does not happen. If you realize you are grazing, stop it by eating enough solid protein to feel full, a hard cooked or deviled egg, rolled up deli turkey, half a protein bar.

Much of what we call grazing is due to ‘head hunger’ where we think we are hungry or actually just looking for something to do. Take up beading, play online games, read, anything to take attention from food!

8. Not Exercising

Obese people think that people who go to the gym like to exercise. The truth is that people who exercise WANT to look and feel good. Few really like the act of working out, they like the result.

EAT LESS BURN MORE is a mathematical formula to lose weight! The boost provided by even 10 minutes a day of jacking up your heart rate will help you lose weight faster, give you a chance at keeping it off longer, help you LIVE longer and make you look & FEEL better. I cannot believe the energy I now have and I am happy. I wasted so much time feeling so tired and sad.

If you are right now formulating silent excuses that ‘you would’ but have bad knees, medical maladies, no money for gym membership and no time, we have BE exercise plans for you that are done at home, using no equipment, place zero impact on joints and take up just 10 minutes of your day. Poof. Nice try. Excuses gone. If you choose to be a slug, OWN IT! Sorry, but walking around Walmart doesn’t count for squat. Get real.

9. Eating Too Many Carbs

Let’s lay it out there. A big post op problem is HUNGER and many do not get that carbs are the reason.

Protein crowds out the carbs which controls hunger and forces weight loss. While a Little Debbie cake may have the same carbs as a dish of blueberries, it has zero nutrients. The little cake is a processed or dead food with no nutritional value. Choose the berries for great taste, fewer calories, tons of nutrients and use the energy to burn stored fat! All around a much better deal.

Carbs like pretzels and biscuits burn quickly and leave you hungry for more. Ever notice that eating crackers just makes you want to eat more crackers? Once you are at goal you can have a small amount of anything you want but make it your choice rather than a compulsion and only once you are in control of food.

When people are gaining weight and keep a food journal for a few days, its usually obvious that its the carbs that have wiggled their way back into the kitchen. Clean them out, stop buying them and get some fresh lower carb foods that bring nutrients to the party.

10. Assuming Surgery Has Cured Your Morbid Obesity

Calling it a Honeymoon Period is an accurate description. When weight is falling off and suddenly the world is brighter and all is good it is hard to imagine you will ever face the problems of morbid obesity ever again.

Here’s your wake up call. THE WEIGHT LOSS PARTY ENDS. During those first seven months of massive weight loss you are not driving the bus. You will lose the same amount of weight no matter what you do. There are some who don’t catch on to this and happily think that they have somehow cheated the system and are still losing weight while eating french fries. This does not end well in the long run.

It is common for post ops to not lose all the way to goal weight or over the years regain a substantial portion or even all of their weight back if they have not embraced making completely different foods choices. Even those paying attention can get hit with a gain, just like people who have not had weight loss surgery can gain weight. As with most successes, you create a long term plan and follow it. Weight loss surgery is not effortless nor does it last forever without serious commitment to the new way of life you create.

Change is hard, even with weight loss surgery. While we all thought this would be less difficult and more permanent, it turns out that just like in non-surgical life, once out from under the burden of 150 plus pounds it still comes down to diet, exercise and our willingness to change.

[Mbenson5]

This is sooo true! We just need to copy and paste into every thread that talks about how the sleeve has failed them. Even us vets neec to read and re-read this! Thanks Susan!

[Starry92]

Love this. It's all so very true. Should be given out as a weight loss surgery information leaflet.

[dreamgirl1]

Thank you Susan for directing me here, I love the article and must say that I was guilty of 7 out of the 10. Today will be a new day!!!!

[Kindle]

Thanks for the post. It's always good to be reminded of the importance of personal responsibility when it comes to WLS success.

The alcohol section is a bit on the dramatic side. Taking it easy with alcohol is a no brainer, basically because of the carb/calorie aspect, but when it comes to the effects of alcohol, they provide a very broad generalization and a lot of assumptions. I could outdrink a football team before VSG and I still can. I do not get drunker and if anything, I feel the effects even less. I drank every single day prior to surgery, but now only 2-3 times/month. I have yet to feel more than a slight buzz and the buzz isn't worth the calories anymore.

I also drink with meals...always have. I still hold to the fact that this is a rule leftover from bypass. GB leaves you without a pyloric valve so yes, food can just flush out of your pouch if you add liquid to it. (Notice how the term pouch, not sleeve, is used in the article). VSG leaves your pyloric valve intact this is what controls how fast food leaves your sleeve.

These are good basic guidelines, and something to think about if you aren't reaching goal or are regaining. But in the end, there are no rules that are set in stone for everyone. Just like the stats surrounding weightloss after surgery, no one is limited or restricted by what worked or didn't work for others. if you find a plan that works for you, then THOSE are the rules YOU need to follow.

[Ranger1]

Very helpful article. No matter what stage of the process you are in. Keep these reminders close.

[Shirl]

Thanks for sharing.

I am a newbie by all meaning of the word, but I have always been interested in micronutrients and eating wholesome.

I appreciate what Kindle has said about the water because while I am not drinking water in between bites (like I used to), I take a sip here and there because sometimes eating meat without sauces they feel too dry. I sip on water when I get anxious and get a sense that I'm chocking, but it is not every time, and just certain foods.

Regarding the carbs, well I have a bit of an issue with the generalization of the term because carbs are everywhere. What the post is referring to is "Simple Carbs" which is referring to those food items that are made with processed flours that have been stripped of nutrients, often made with over processed saturated fats or loaded with high fructose sugar (which is not real sugar). Simple Carbs includes any candy or dessert, sugared cereals, sodas and sugary drinks, pastas, and refined bread such as white bread, bagels, cupcakes, etc. Things that I keep in mind is that simple carbs are empty calories and nutrients.

Complex Carbs are good carbs, and what that means is that they have or contain more of their natural structure and fibers which require our bodies to digest. Complex Carbs are "whole grain" breads, cereals, green vegetables, certain nuts like almonds and walnuts, fresh fruits (caution that some are high on the glycemic index like grapes). When choosing breads or pasta try to go for the higher fiber content.

I am following a PaleoBetic food plan and was informed on that forum that high fiber content could be subtracted from my total carb intake.

All that being said, I adhere to protein first then vegetables then if there is room for anything else choose wisely food plan my dietician recommended.

[densol]

Great article - thanks for posting

I also agree with Kindle's comment above saying the bit about alcohol is rather over the top. I still drink alcohol ( sleeve 6 months ago) but I cannot drink anywhere near what I used to drink - not because it makes me drunk - I just cant physically do it ! Lol. I also find weight loss slows when I drink. Last two weeks ive cut down a lot of wine, almost abolished carbs, and go gym and swimming 4 days a week. 10 pounds have just fallen off after an up/down stall for a month.

The sleeve just stops us overeating in one session. Without good food choices of what we do eat, less carbs and more exercise - we are just like we was before and the sleeve wont work.

[sraebaer]

Could be Kindle, I don't know.

[lil_lisa]

Didnt know lack of water made u sleepy, I have trouble getting my water dont know why I hate it so much. Thank you for sticking around and giving advice.

[Ann2]

Truth.

Sooth.

Word.

Thank you, sraebaer.

[Pam G]

When I've eaten too much, I've tried drinking to move the food out of my tummy faster.....it never works!

I think the eating and drinking thing is more for the bypass, like Kindle said.