Lifestyle After Gastric Bypass

How normal will my life be after gastric bypass?

Most of my patients a year or two years down the line come back and tell me how normal their life is compared to what it was before. So when you are asking what is their lifestyle going to be, how normal? Everybody has a different lifestyle. How they enjoy life and if the patients over weight status is preventing them from doing things that they would normally like to do that would make them have a good happy life style. Since our purpose here is to make them lose weight, when they lost weight their lifestyle gets better. They are able to get on the rides at Disneyland. Their weight restrictions at Disneyland they look at and say “Oh I used to not be able to do that now I can.”I have had patients run a marathon. Patients; I had a couple that said they never went to the beach. Now they went. They came back; it was actually heart-warming, and said to me “We came back here just to tell you we went to the beach today. “

What activities will I be unable to do after gastric bypass?

There are no activities that I know of other than "over eating" that you cannot do after having a gastric bypass. Almost every activity you were not able to do, you are now able to do. I cannot even think of something that you are not able to other than "over eating". First time you think I am making a little bit of joke of it but in only times that you have to be serious is when you are on holidays, people over do it, I mean everybody does. You are not going to be able to do that with gastric bypass or a band a laparoscopic band and you going to have to control yourself.

How often will I need follow-up doctor visits after gastric bypass?

The routine for the follow-up after Gastric Bypass is two weeks, six weeks, and then three months, six months, nine months, and a year after surgery. After that I see the patient either every six months or every year, depending on the patient and the patient's scheduling. We do a lot of patients in our practice who live far away: Alaska, back East, actually overseas also. And we follow up with them on the phone, e-mail, and with their physicians.

What can I do to help increase my weight loss after gastric bypass?

Another way of increasing your weight loss during the first 12 months to 18 months, is follow the instructions: You should eat slowly and not eat very high calorie liquids, that go down easily, but may cause the dumping syndrome. If they don't cause the dumping syndrome you can continue taking them and your weight loss is going to be a lot slower, if not stopped. After you've stabilized, it's then again your commitment. What weight do you want to get down to realistically? I tell my patients not to get down to have their idealistic weight be their real weight. That's very unrealistic to attain. Get a realistic weight, and then try to lose a couple of pounds a month. After that if you want to get down another 5 or 10, 15 pounds more, and that might mean dieting or using the supplements that will help with dieting.

Can exercise help me lose weight after gastric bypass?

Exercise is a very important part of the program of losing weight whether it's by dieting or with surgery or medications, which ever way you're doing it. We encourage our patients after two to four weeks to start an exercise program, whether that's just walking, swimming when they're still very heavy and can't do any impact exercises or any other things, or as they've lost their weight going back to a gym or to a gym for the first time, running, weight lifting, any exercise that you can do. I think it's important for everybody, not just people who are overweight, to do some exercise. But for our patients it is really important because they are looking to tone up their body and get rid of this fat that they have and exercise definitely helps tremendously in doing that.

What can I do to prevent weight gain after gastric bypass?

To prevent the weight gain, to be straightforward, the failure of the procedure, the best way is to follow the directions that your physician has given you. In our program, it is to eat slowly. I've said that is the most difficult thing in the world to do but the only thing you have to do. Also the exercise, keep yourself in shape prevents a lot of that weight from coming back on. It's that commitment, learning, going through all the program exercise that we have for our program, all the classes, going on the Internet, learning what it is that makes you successful then motivating yourself to do it that prevents the weight gain. I actually frequently tell my patients if not all the time, when you are putting something in your mouth, think about all the risks you took to have this surgery and what it's going to mean if you take that extra bit that you know don't need to your overall lifestyle. Did you go through the surgery, take the risk of dying and you are willing to take this extra food which you really don't need?