Gaining Weight Back after Bariatric Surgery
How to Stop Weight Gain after Bariatric Surgery?
Many patients struggle with weight gain after bariatric surgery. Weight gain following bariatric surgery is more common than you think. Sometimes even successful patients struggle. According to the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, about 50% of bariatric patients regain 5% of their excess body weight within two years after surgery. Some gain even more. Not letting gradual weight gain overtake your life is crucial. At Tijuana Bariatric Center, our medical and nutritional staff stand ready to help patients frustrated with unexpected weight gain after bariatric surgery at our Tijuana, Mexico, hospital. Whether you need professional advice or are considering revision surgery, our team can help get you back on track. We will separate facts from myths and misconceptions and help you maintain a positive outlook and healthy habits.
Why Am I Gaining Weight Back?
Bariatric surgery produces dramatic weight loss: patients often report losing up to 60% to 75% of their starting weight. However, despite these staggering statistics, just as many patients experience a weight plateau or see their weight begin to creep up again months or years after their bariatric procedure.
Common Causes
Several reasons can lead to weight gain. Sometimes, the cause is as simple as a patient slipping in their eating habits or exercise routine. Other times, it may signal post-surgical complications. But weight gain is often just the result of normal physiology. The human body is designed to store energy reserves in case of periods of starvation. Once your body adjusts to its new digestive system, it will begin to maximize energy absorption. As a result, patients often start regaining weight.
Patients may regain as much as eight to ten percent of their original weight.
Factors That Affect How Much Weight You Gain
The amount of weight gain a patient will experience depends mainly on the type of bariatric surgery performed. With purely restrictive surgeries, such as Lap-Band® or gastric sleeve surgery, which reduce intake by reducing stomach capacity, patients may regain as much as 8% to 10% eight of their original weight. In addition to restricting the size of the stomach, malabsorptive surgeries like gastric bypass or duodenal switch surgery change how your system digests the foods you eat. As a result, patients undergoing these types of procedures often regain less excess weight.
A well-balanced diet can help you maintain a healthy weight.
Preventing Weight Gain
Patients can take several measures to limit weight regain even before surgery. One of the most important steps you can take is to change your diet and exercise habits. By starting a restricted diet early, you can ease the stress of change on your body and begin to lose weight before undergoing weight loss surgery. Research shows that the lower a patient’s BMI (body mass index) when they undergo surgery, the less weight they will need to lose and keep off afterward.
If you struggle with addiction or an eating disorder, it is vital that you pursue treatment before bariatric surgery.
Eating disorders, alcoholism, and drug addiction can also complicate your results. All three conditions can interfere with your metabolism, affecting your weight loss and overall health. If you struggle with addiction, it is vital that you pursue treatment before bariatric surgery. Many people fall back into old habits to cope with stress after bariatric surgery, and recovery is stressful enough without other complications.
Working with a nutrition counselor can help you create and maintain a personalized diet.
Getting Back on Track
It is important to understand that even these precautions cannot always prevent weight regain.
Non-Surgical Methods
If you have noticed weight gain despite your best efforts, several methods can help you get back on track:
- Food journal: Keeping a written record of how much you eat each day can give you a more concrete sense of your diet. It also makes it much easier to identify potential problems.
- Nutritional counseling: While the nutritionist working alongside the Tijuana Bariatric Center will follow up with you in the weeks after your surgery, many patients find it helpful to meet with a nutritional counselor on a more regular basis. Like a food journal, routine discussions with a professional can help solidify your diet and highlight problem areas.
- Support group: Joining a weight loss surgery support group can provide invaluable resources. Working with this type of group, patients can receive advice from others who are sharing the same experiences. And as former patients themselves, members of these groups can often offer a perspective that professionals alone may not be able to provide.
Revisional Surgery
Unfortunately, the root of the problem cannot always be dealt with through nonsurgical means. In some cases, revisional bariatric surgery may be necessary.
However, these routes are only recommended as a last resort. For example, your surgeon may perform another procedure if a LAP-BAND® has slipped or if the stomach has stretched out after a gastric sleeve procedure.
Undergoing revisional surgery can help correct the consequences of weight gain.
If you are concerned about gaining weight back after surgery, feel free to contact TBC. We are here to help.
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Tijuana Bariatric Center is a facilitator company providing scheduling and marketing services. It is not a medical facility or healthcare provider. Tijuana Bariatric Center℠shall not be liable to anyone for any decision made or action taken in reliance on this information. This information does not constitute medical advice, results are not guaranteed, may not be permanent, and can vary per individual and does not establish any physician-patient relationship. The correct venue for claims regarding the actual medical services provided either by the medical facilities or surgeons or medical staff will be Mexico. Any claims against Tijuana Bariatric Center℠ must be asserted within 90 days of the event.
