Weight Loss Dietary and Vitamin Guidelines
Diet Management After Weight Loss Surgery
After surgery, you will be placed on a restricted diet. For several days after surgery, depending on which operation you undergo, your diet will be liquid-only, and solid foods will be reintroduced over a period of a few weeks.
After surgery, patients must pay close attention to nutrients, especially protein and vitamins, for life. This is partly because you will not be able to eat nearly as much as before, due to the reduced size of your stomach. You will need to eat small quantities of food, often, and ensure that your meals are packed with nutrition.
How To Lose Weight Fast: A Low-Calorie Diet
The ideal post-bariatric surgery weight management diet will be low-calorie but highly nutritious. Weight loss surgery is a good answer to the question of how to lose weight quickly, but it only works when the patient’s eating habits create a “calorie deficit,” or making the body absorb fewer calories than it uses. For you to successfully lose one pound, you must eat 3,500 fewer calories than your body burns.
Your healthy-weight diet plan has to have:
- Sufficient protein
- Sufficient vitamins and minerals
- Supplements that help you get enough of these things, if needed
- Few fats or refined sugars
- None of the foods that may irritate the digestive systems or get stuck in the stoma of lap band surgery patients
L.A. Bariatrics can help you draw up a diet plan just for your needs.
List of Vitamins Needed
You will need to plan your meals to make sure you are following the best diet for you and getting enough of the nutrients you need. Vitamin supplements will probably be necessary, especially just after surgery, when you cannot eat as much.
In general, it is important for bariatric surgery patients —particularly ones who have undergone the gastric bypass or other malabsorptive procedures — to make sure they have enough fat-soluble vitamins and minerals.
These include:
- Vitamin A
- Vitamin D
- Vitamin E
- Vitamin K
- Calcium
- Iron
- Zinc
- Copper
Again, it’s important to follow the personalized advice of your nutritionist and doctor.
For more information on dietary guidelines for bariatric patients, including vitamin requirements, call us at (310) 577-5540 or schedule an appointment with our dietitian.