Disclaimer: I Am Not Creating A Diet Plan
Not for me or for anyone else! SeriouslyIve shared this information not so that you can do what I did but to encourage you to be an active participant in your process. Always be aware of what you are doing with regards to food, exercise, vitamins and dont be afraid to ask for help or change something up if you feel like its not working. This is a process, a healthy lifestyle. Any person calling themselves a Bariatric Foodie is NOT on a diet.
So if you think thats the point of the postI clearly didnt make the point of this post well!
AnyhooI know the question you may be asking. But, Nik, are you going to stick with this? Enhhh. I dont see it as sticking with anything so much as recalibrating. I had veered off in the wrong direction and I set myself straight. Will I continue to do that? For today I will. As of the time of this writing, Lent isnt over yet so no starches until at least that is done with but my body feels a lot better than it did before I started tweaking. So I will do what I always do and take it one step at a time.
But here are my take-aways from this little experiment:
How Long Does The 3 Week Stall Last
If youve done your reading on gastric sleeve weight loss plateau, you may have heard of the 3 week stall. The 3 week stall refers to a pattern that many bariatric patients experience, in which their weight loss plateaus at the 3 week mark following their procedure.
As mentioned earlier, weight loss stalling is relatively normal after gastric sleeve surgery. 3 week stalls may be caused by a variety of reasons, namely that the body is working out the best way to adjust to the new stomach sleeve and dramatic weight loss. Often the first few weeks of repaid weight loss is a combination of water, muscle and fat. However, long-term fat loss results will take time, after some inevitable bumps in the road.
If youre wondering how long does the 3 week stall last?, it really depends. It depends on your body, the food youre consuming, the exercise youre undertaking and how your body adapts. For some, the 3 week stall will last for a few days or a couple of weeks. Others may experience the plateau for longer. For more information on how to break a weight loss plateau after gastric sleeve surgery, youre going to need additional support from your weight loss clinic. Its important to consult with your doctor before making any drastic changes to your diet or routine.
Stomach Response To Food Intake
Our stomach is made up of folds or mucosal lining called Rugae which permits expansion and contraction as a direct response to our food intake. In general, the food you eat gets chewed and swallowed through your mouth and passes through the esophagus into your stomach to be broken down by acids.
The food moves relatively rapidly through the sleeve and into the intestinal tract. As you continue to eat, more food enters the stomach to be processed. Food passing through the stomach and intestine triggers stretch receptors release a chemical called cholecystokinin to signal your brain to send signals you experience as feelings of fullness or satiety. In overweight people, the hunger and fullness signals may not function properly.
When your stomach is overstretched, you are constantly overeating. Since it takes a longer time for your stomach to fill up and you will eat larger quantities of food before your brain can signal satisfaction and fullness.
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Exercise After Weight Loss Surgery
As well as eating healthily, you’ll need to exercise regularly to help you lose as much weight as possible after the operation.
You may be given an exercise plan. This will usually involve increasing your activity levels gradually as you recover from surgery.
Once you’ve fully recovered, you should aim to do regular activities that are intense enough to leave you feeling out of breath and make your heart beat faster, such as:
- brisk walking
- advice and support about diet and exercise
- emotional or psychological support
Enter The Calorie Budget
No matter how clean your diet is, or how long youve been in Ketosis or how long youve been fasting, if your calories arent right you wont lose weight.
This is where the Calorie Budget comes into play. Without even going into any detail Im sure you can guess the general idea of the Calorie Budget.
At the fundamental level a budget can be defined as an estimate of income and expenditures for a set period of time. This sounds like a description of a personal financial budget, but it crosses over into weight loss, too.
- Income = Calories In
- Expenditures = Calories Out
Since a budget is designed to outline your finances by predetermining income and expenses, you can also predetermine the calories you consume and you can assume the calories you expend .
For someone who intends to maintain their weight, they dont want to gain any weight and they dont want to lose any weight, their income has to match their expenses. In other words they have to eat the same amount of calories that they burned.
Heres an example: If Sallys body burns 1,700 calories throughout the day she has to consume roughly 1,700 calories in order to maintain her weight.
Sallys calorie budget needs to be set at 1,700 calories for her to see the result she wants: Weight Maintenance.
If she eats more shell gain weight and if she eats less shell lose weight. At a very basic level, this is how it works
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Exercising To Maintain Weight Loss
Patients will need to keep moving to maintain weight loss this is especially important as they get further from their surgery date. Patients focusing on the intensity and not the duration of physical activity will have the most success postoperative. Those who engage in exercise will also experience a multitude of additional benefits.
- Zumba
- Crossfit
These exercises are not for all patients please consult with your physicians. If you drink high-calorie sodas and fruit juices, you may not lose weight. This is the same as consuming alcohol.
Long Term Diet Tips Following Gastric Sleeve Surgery
You will need to continue eating a healthy, high protein, low fat, calorie-controlled diet for the rest of your life to achieve and maintain your weight goals.
Some top tips include:
- Keep to three small meals a day.
- Have protein in each meal and eat it first.
- Introduce new foods one by one.
- Take a tablet form daily vitamin and mineral supplement as directed by your bariatric team. You will also require vitamin B12 injections once every three months.
- Eat slowly and chew your food thoroughly. The more you chew, the easier your food is to swallow and digest.
- Plan your meals so you are not tempted by off-diet foods.
- Drink plenty of water and always have some water to hand.
- If you feel hungry between meals try taking a drink first as your body may be mistaking hunger with thirst. If you are still hungry then have a small snack such as a piece of fruit or a low-fat yoghurt.
- Ask for half portions at restaurants it may be discounted and it will prevent you from being tempted to overeat.
Foods to avoid:
- Food with empty calories make wise diet choices and avoid foods with little or no nutritional value.
- Alcohol – is high in calories and your alcohol absorption will dramatically increase after surgery.
- Fizzy drinks – as they cause bloating and can increase your small stomach size.
- High fat foods they may make you feel nauseous and will not help you to lose weight.
- Tough meats – are hard to chew and hard to digest.
Things to avoid:
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What Does A Pouch Reset Involve
As the name suggests, your stomach pouch reset will typically require 5 days to complete. At the center of this weight loss restoration strategy is a rigorous 5 day pouch reset meal plan. Your nutritionist can help you create a scientific reset diet, but you must do it only in consultation with your bariatric surgeon. The diet restrictions will more severe in the first two days, but will progressively relax. Many surgeons recommend a gradual return to a normal diet after 10 days .
Protect Your Sleeve After Gastric Sleeve Surgery
The chances are slim that you will stretch your sleeve stomach after VSG surgery. Although, a slight variance in sleeve size may occur, and weight regain is possible after gastric sleeve surgery. If faced with this problem, there are a few options to protect your sleeve from stretching.
If this diet doesnt work out, try the 10-day pouch reset diet for a more long-term approach that can be followed at your own pace.
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What Is A Bariatric Pouch Reset
Your stomach is a muscular organ. When empty, your stomach is the size of your fist. However, it can stretch to hold as much as four liters of food or more than seventy-five times its empty volume, before returning to its resting size when empty. It stretches to accommodate large amounts of food and then shrinks back to its normal size as the food is pushed into the digestive track.
Even after bariatric surgery, the stomach continues to stretch and then contract. Folds of tissue within your stomach, called rugae, expand and contract in response to food. When you overeat, the rugae in your stomach stretches, and with a constant flow of food it never returns to its normal size. This causes your stomach to accommodate larger and larger amounts of food before you feel that sense of fullness.
A pouch reset is a tool to get your stomach back to its normal size. This is done by severely reducing your food intake.
Note: While you can do your own pouch reset, it is strongly recommended you do it with the support of a bariatric surgeon and dietitian.
How Long Does It Take To Recover From Bariatric Surgery
Recovering from bariatric surgery may take anywhere from 3 to 5 weeks, depending on the particular case.
**This blog is for information and education purposes only. This information is not intended to substitute professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please consult with your physician or another qualified health provider with any questions in regards to a medical condition.
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Introducing The Goldilocks Principle:
Just because everyone has unique and individual calorie needs that doesnt mean that everyone isnt capable of overeating and undereating alike
The dangers of overeating are pretty simple: you gain weight and your body fat will increase.
The dangers of undereating are malnutrition, losing weight too fast and loss of lean body mass to name a few
Just like Goldilocks and the Three Bears, you have to follow the calorie budget thats just right for you and your goals and then establish it as your calorie budget.
One person may need a calorie budget of 1,200 calories to lose weight. Another person may need 2,500 calories to lose weight. The big picture is this: Weight loss will not happen if calories consumed are greater than calories burned over time.
So whatever your perfect number is will then become your calorie budget which IMMEDIATELY gives your food log context. Did you go over your calories, by how much? Were you under, by how much? Setting your own bar allows you to judge your own performance.
Setting a simple calorie goal is just the right place to start. Dont worry about tracking protein, fat, saturated fat, carbs, sodium, sugars, sugar alcohols, blah blah blah.that will lead to burnout, confusion and analysis paralysis and nothing is worse than doing nothing.
Remember, without the proper calorie goal, nothing else can influence your weight loss.
Day Pouch Reset Results
Your 10 day VSG pouch reset or gastric bypass pouch reset can produce excellent results. However, as the name suggests, the program will only reset your body and mind to return to your regular post-bariatric diet plan. Some physiological benefits will occur, but the real benefits will be psychological and emotional to help you get out of your weight loss stalemate.
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A Closer Look At The Gastric Sleeve Pouch Reset Diet
The first day of a gastric sleeve reset diet is similar to the early days of your post-op diet, and that means consuming nothing but clear liquids, such as water, green tea, broth, and non-carbonated sugar-free drinks.
- Days 2 and 3, you can start taking protein shakes and can also incorporate thin soups into your diet, as well as sugar-free pudding, yogurt, applesauce, and other soft foods with high liquid content.
- On days 4, 5, and 6, you can start introducing soft and pureed foods into your diets, such as cottage cheese, hummus, and scrambled eggs.
- By days 7, 8, and 9, you can start eating soft foods like steamed vegetables, lean ground meat, soft cereal, and mashed fruit.
- Day 10 is your last day of the diet and the beginning of the diet youll try to maintain for the rest of your life, and that should focus on lean proteins, vegetables, minimal fruit, and other healthy foods.
Gastric sleeve surgery is both a safe and effective weight loss procedure, but poor eating habits can cause your stomach to stretch after the procedure, and this can lead to weight gain.
A pouch reset after the gastric sleeve is a non-invasive way to shrink your stomach after stretching, and this will give you an opportunity to regain control of your eating habits and get back onto your weight loss path.
Along with eating healthy foods, its also important to eat small portions spread out throughout the day and to chew your food thoroughly to prevent gas and help you realize when youre full.
Day Pouch Reset Meal Plan
The surest way to succeed in your weight loss endeavor is to have a well-crafted five day pouch reset meal plan ready in advance. Prepare the meal plan according to your unique needs and preferences. Your dietician can help you come up with the best solutions. Here is a sample 5 day pouch reset meal plan that you may consider:
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The Pouch Reset Does It Really Work
Very popular on WLS forums, the Pouch Reset diet claims to shrink your stomach back to the size it was right after your sleeve. But, before you jump on board, lets put a magnifying glass over this diet and see if it actually does what it claims.
What is the Pouch Reset diet?
Often done over 2-6 days, the Pouch Reset makes you go back to post-op liquids, followed by purees then a return to solids. The Pouch Reset diet claims two major things:
Now let me start by saying this There are no published studies I can find anywhere that have tested the Pouch Reset diet, which is perhaps evidence in itself. However, lets go through the two claims above and see if what we can find.
Does your stomach stretch after surgery?
First things first, does your stomach actually stretch after surgery? The short answer is YES. Your stomach is very stretchy it expands each time we eat to hold a meal then reduces in size when its empty Research suggests that after a sleeve your stomach will stretch by about 50% over the first 2 years after the surgery. Its very rare for it to expand to the size it was before surgery. Dont worry though, a small stretch in your sleeve wont necessarily mean you wont keep the weight off in the long term .
Are there any positives?
Minimize Unhealthy Weight Gain
- Balanced meal planning with lean proteins, healthy fats, and non-processed carbohydrates
- Portion control: do not overeat
- Training your taste buds to like non-sweet beverages like water, herbal teas, and True Lemon products
- The practice of Mindful Eating
- Do not drink with your meals it pushes food through your pouch faster causing you to be hungry faster
- Stress management tools like meditation, yoga, exercise, and mindful walking
- Treat yourself to no- food items
Exercise, yoga, and meditation are highly recommended to ease stress and avoid emotional eating.
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Diet And Exercise After Gastric Bypass
The diet that immediately follows gastric bypass surgery is very strict. It is low in calories, high in protein, and restricts foods that are high in fat and sugar. This diet allows rapid weight loss for months after surgery. However, as your body adjusts, you can tolerate a wider variety and volume of food at once.
Its important to remember that gastric bypass isnt a magic solution when it comes to weight loss. It is merely a tool to facilitate weight loss. If a patient returns to unhealthy eating habits after gastric bypass surgery, it is unlikely that the patient will maintain his or her weight loss.
Likewise, gastric bypass patients need to keep an active lifestyle after surgery to enable ongoing weight loss and prevent weight regain. As your body adjusts and tolerates more calories during meals, staying active will burn calories.