Bariatric surgery is a tool to help people who need to lose weight. For those who have the bypass bariatric surgery, about 80% will lose 70% of their excess weight within two years of having the surgery. However, it can still be a challenge to maintain that weight loss over time.
Without good support, folks who have had bariatric weight loss surgery can see old eating habits come back. In a study of women who had bypass surgery, soft bakery goods and sweet drinks were consumed by those who started to regain weight.
Losing weight is a long term healthy-eating proposition. For those women in this study who successfully lost weight after surgery and kept it off, they ate 3 meals each day (no skipping), had a lean protein serving at each meal, and a small serving of fruits and/or vegetables. If there was room, a very small amount of starch.
Having weight loss surgery is not a quick fix, but a tool to help restrict food intake. And the health improvements can be significant including a reduction in blood pressure and glucose levels. Many folks can stop taking meds.
Bariatric studies show that long-term weight-loss success includes:
- seeing a registered dietitian on a regular basis
- going to monthly support groups
- writing down daily food intake
- weighing on a regular basis to keep track of the weight
All are helpful weight maintenance tools. It takes work each and every day to maintain the leaner weight.
