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| Bariatric Food Pyramid for long-term guidance. Source |
How many years of dieting did you endure before you decided to have weight loss surgery? For me, it was about 20 years of dieting. With that many years of habitual obsession with the number on the scale, it takes a lot of hard work to break that mentality of dieting. But even inside the WLS community, there's a plethera of WLS Fad Diets that some tout as the solution to a stalled scale, plateaued weight loss, or a freak-out about a stretched pouch. This blog post is my attempt to bring together several resources I have already talked about on this website.
Yesterday I had a conversation with my friend Nikki over at Bariatric Foodie about weight loss surgery patients who were trying the 5 Day Pouch Test (5DPT) to lose weight and "reset" their pouch. UGH! Nikki and I share the same view on this crazy fad diet and other such hogwash. Don't do it! Don't fall victim to that old dieting mentality. Nikki was quicker on the uptake than I was in writing a response to this discussion. She explains the 5DPT and Cottage Cheese Test and why they don't work. Go to Bariatric Foodie now and read her post.
So if WLS Fad Diets aren't the answer... what is?
When the scale stops moving, when you hit a plateau, when you're battling portion control, when you can't get a handle on emotional eating .... the solution is simple. Eat right and move your bootie. The solution is simple, the execution is the hard part. So trying to take shortcuts with WLS Fad Diets is never going to get you the results you want, they will just set you up for failure and disappointment. So why not skip the fad diet step and jump right into the "eat right and move your bootie" stage instead.
Here are some helpful information to get you on the right track:
This article gives you 7 simple steps to make sure you are doing all the right things for your health. Go through the list and honestly evaluate your behavior and make adjustments as needed.
If the scale stops moving, this list is a great resource to figure out what might need to be adjusted. Weight loss is never a linear experience -- you have to make constant adjustments based on what your body is doing at any given time along the way.
I firmly believe that the weight loss surgery we have - the physical surgical part - is only about 10% of the weight loss process. The other 90% is all about getting your head screwed on straight. So if you're battling emotional eating and need some tools to help you win that battle, this article can get you started on the right path.
For RNY patients our pouches start out being about 1-2 ounces in size. But over time the pouch grows and adapts to the trauma we inflict with the surgery. So it matures and expands naturally as part of the adaptation process. Understanding how your anatomy changes over time is essential to adjusting your behavior as your guts change. This article is a good starting point for you to study the biology and anatomy lessons that go with having your gut rearranged with WLS.
While you begin your study of biology and your anatomy, check out this diagram of your digestive system and where nutrients are absorbed along the way. This diagram helps us understand better the importance of taking vitamins for the rest of your life.
Dr. Sharma is a leading obesity researcher and doctor practicing in Canada. His blog is filled with many valuable resources for those battling obesity - in whatever way they are fighting the battle, whether it's WLS or some other method. He has re-published the Bariatric Food Pyramid which explains the type of diet we should be following for the long-term. (Originally published in the medical journal Obesity Surgery in 2010.) I've also included an image of this pyramid on this blog post, but please go over and check out Dr. Sharma's website for lots of great information.
In that blog post over at Bariatric Foodie about the Fad Diets -- scroll down to the bottom of the post where she lists several additional resources for intelligent, balanced, healthy approaches to weight loss after WLS. Visit websites like Melting Mama, The World According to Eggface, and ObesityHelp for solid information about how to live life after WLS in a healthy way.
Thank you for letting me rant about this topic. I'm very passionate about it and I just want to make sure that you're healthy and going about this WLS thing the right way. Avoid the Fad Diets, just be healthy.
~Pam
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