How To Lose Weight Before Gastric Bypass Surgery

I am 28 years old and live in New Bern, North Carolina. After 20-plus years of struggling with obesity and an eating disorder, I decided to take control of my life, get a gastric bypass, and commit to changing my lifestyle permanently.

My whole family has struggled with weight my entire life, and I grew up overweight. I was always the biggest one in my class and remember having to get a doctor's note to start Weight Watchers when I was in the fourth grade. My weight yo-yo-ed throughout my childhood and teens but I was always active in sports, so that helped at the time. But as soon as I graduated high school and stopped being active, I noticed the weight start to pile on.

I struggled a lot with anxiety when I left for college and turned to food for comfort. By the time I was 22, I weighed 300 pounds and had full-fledged binge eating disorder. I would eat three large meals from McDonald’s in one sitting. I was living with my parents and trying to hide all the food from them because I was so embarrassed. I tried therapy for two years to get my issue under control, and at the end of my treatment, my therapist suggested looking into gastric bypass surgery.

Gastric Bypass Surgery: How It Works, Benefits & Drawbacks

Surgery was something I’d been thinking about for a few years, but I was so scared of what other people would say about me for choosing that route.

Nothing else was working for me, though. I got to the point where I was totally desperate. I felt like a failure and that I would never be successful without surgery.

Food was an addiction for me and I didn’t think I’d ever be able to stop eating in the way that I did. I tried every diet imaginable and would quit every time. I lacked the willpower to keep going, and that made me start to hate myself and my body. When I was 24, I could barely reach down to tie my own shoes, could only wear leggings and my dad’s 5XL T-shirts, and I was taking diabetes and high blood pressure medications.

What Is The Youngest Age For Bariatric Surgery?

I was scared but I knew I needed help—and that's when I made the decision to go through with a gastric bypass. I had my surgery on June 9, 2016, and I remember walking into the bathroom to change into my gown. I looked in the mirror and was crying hysterically. I was terrified and excited. I looked myself dead in the eye and said: “You will not fail. I was doing this for me.

That’s a far-too-common misconception about people who have weight-loss surgeries. In the months following my operation, I had to completely overhaul my entire life in order to make any amount of weight loss permanent.

I ate a low-carb, high-protein diet, learned to cook, and felt all the amazing changes that come when you stop filling your body with greasy fast food and start fueling it with foods that are good for you. I measured *everything* and paid attention to serving sizes. And eventually, the changes I was making started to come naturally and living a healthy lifestyle was second nature. But this is not something that you learn overnight, and it's not something that the mere act of getting surgery magically teaches you.

Weight Loss Surgery

Before it was nonstop junk food for me. Now, I'm super conscious of what I put into my body. Here’s what I typically eat in a day now:

I started off slow with exercise, by walking, swimming, and eventually moving on to yoga. To be honest, though, I still hate going to the gym.

Before having surgery, I would try and go to the gym but would get so frustrated and discouraged with how hard it was to move my body. I felt ashamed and like everyone there was judging me. I hated that feeling of being the fat girl at the gym.

Gastric Bypass Weight Loss Chart, Timeline

Now, I still hate going to the gym, as a part of me still feels like I don’t belong there, even 189 pounds lighter. So, I've found other ways to work out. I'll usually take my dog for a long walk, go to a Pilates class, or do a workout at home with a YouTube video.

Way of living, both physically and mentally, in a 12-month period. And while the weight change was amazing, I saw the biggest transformation in my mental state and the way I thought about myself. I started to fall in love my body for the first time in my whole life, not because it was getting smaller, but because of how strong it was.

My motivation comes from a serious refusal to go back to the way I was. I don’t ever want to be a slave to food or feel trapped inside of my own body. My husband and I are also trying to get pregnant and currently dealing with fertility issues, so while we wait for a positive, I keep telling myself that I need to make my body as healthy as possible so it’s ready to carry our baby.

Bariatric Surgery At Age 65

I could have chosen to keep my surgery a secret, like so many people do, and preached about the importance of counting calories and a keto lifestyle, or that drinking a shake every day helped me get those results. But I don't ever want to mislead people or feel ashamed about my approach. It's just as valid as anyone else's.

I want to be genuine and authentic for the people that feel the constant sting of failure while watching so many people succeed, for the people that want to get healthy but need help doing it.

'I Lost 50 Lbs. With Walk At Home And MIRROR' This Mom Lost 95 Lbs. With WW And Walking This Mom Lost 95 Lbs. With Keto And IF This Mom Lost 75 Lbs. With The 80/20 Rule

Bariatric Surgery (gastric Bypass)

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‘I Lost 190 Lbs. By Eating Healthy And Running’ This Mom Lost 90 Lbs. By Counting Calories ‘I Lost 90 Pounds With Portion Control, Lifting’ 'I Lost 100 Lbs. With WW And Jazzercise'Bariatric surgery is a big step in the right direction for substantial weight loss. However, surgery alone isn’t enough to ensure long-term success. Adhering to a proper bariatric diet before and after your surgery is key to an optimal patient outcome.

A bariatric diet is designed to allow your stomach to heal without being stretched by the food you eat. In addition, it will enable a transition to get used to eating the smaller amounts of food that your smaller stomach can comfortably and safely digest.

Accredited Weight Loss Surgery

Your Baptist Health surgeon will discuss with you the particulars of your individualized pre-op and post-op gastric bypass diet. But the guidelines below will give you a good idea of what to expect prior to and following bariatric surgery.

The purpose of apre-bariatric surgery diet is to reduce fat around the liver so that your surgeon can see and navigate your anatomy during the operation.

Now is not the time to binge or indulge in one last hurrah. You’ve likely waited six months to a year to be approved for surgery, and failing to comply with your pre-op diet will set you back. It’s just not worth it in the long run.

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The typical pre-op gastric bypass diet is high in protein and low in fat and carbohydrates. You will consume 70 to 120 grams of protein a day. Pre-op diet plans range from 800 to 1200 calories a day and will likely include the directions and foods below:

Once your operation has been performed, your stomach will need to heal. What and how you eat will be a determining factor in how well and how quickly you recover. Your post-op diet will prevent your stomach from stretching and putting undue stress on your body. It’ll also help you get used to your long-term diet after gastric bypass surgery and eating smaller amounts, help with initial weight loss and help avoid side effects and complications from surgery.

The first five weeks after bariatric surgery will be the most vital and the most challenging. Your post-op diet after gastric bypass surgery will unfold in stages until you’re able to tolerate solid foods. Establishing a new, healthy bariatric diet will be integral to maintaining weight loss success throughout the rest of your life.

Transoral Outlet Reduction With Full Thickness Endoscopic Suturing Addresses Weight Regain After Gastric Bypass

During this stage of your bariatric meal plan, you will eat foods that have the consistency of a smooth paste or thick liquid. You’ll still want to consume high amounts of protein and the recommended daily 64 oz. of water. Multiple small meals throughout the day will be substituted for three larger meals, due to the diminished capacity of your post-surgery stomach.

Anything that can be easily mashed with a fork is considered a soft food, but that doesn’t mean you can eat whatever you want as long as it’s soft. Stage 3 of your post-gastric bypass