Life After Weight Loss Surgery

Life after weight loss surgery will be a 180 degree turn from what you are used to. Despite what some people may think, bariatric surgery is not an “easy way out”.

But even though it can be difficult at times, most patients say it was the best decision they have ever made.

• Recovering from surgery (including diet, healing and short-term difficulties)
• Weight & health after bariatric surgery
• Diet
• Exercise
• Relationships
• Pregnancy
• Support (including face-to-face and online support)
• Plastic surgery (reconstructive, NOT cosmetic)
• Real-life patient experiences & videos
• Weight gain after bariatric surgery (on a separate page)

In addition to reviewing this page and the pages (links) it will guide you to, consider picking up a good weight loss surgery book or two. It will greatly help you round out your necessary knowledge...

Recovering from Bariatric Surgery

For the first month and a half following surgery you’ll be going through some big changes. The best thing you can do is exactly what your surgeon tells you. This is the most important advice we can give you, so it’s worth saying again…

To keep you on track, your surgeon will want to see you periodically after surgery. While each surgeon’s follow-up visit requirements are different, you will typically schedule your first check-up a week or two after surgery followed by less and less frequent visits as time goes on (may be more frequent with gastric banding due to the need for band adjustments).

The rest of this section covers…

• Diet during recovery
• Caring for your incisions
• Short-term difficulties and side effects

Diet During Recovery

In order to let your stomach heal, you won’t be able to eat for the first few days following bariatric surgery. Your doctor will start you on a liquid diet and have you slowly transition back to solid foods. Your calorie consumption will be about 1/4 of what it used to be, and your diet will be completely different (we’ll get into your permanent diet further down the page).

It is also important that you drink a lot of fluids… between 48 and 64 ounces per day. That’s equal to about 8 cups or 1/2 a gallon. You may find this tough to keep up with considering the size of your new stomach.

Try to always have a low-calorie drink next to you and sip a little every 15 to 20 minutes. To make sure you’re getting enough, designate a special container, measure out your daily amount of fluids every morning and put it in the fridge. Spread your consumption throughout the day so that the container is empty before you go to bed.

Do not drink any liquids during your meals or within an hour afterwards. This can flush your meals through your new stomach which can cause you to eat more and contribute to malabsorption.

Careful with Those Incisions

Your incisions will be healing, so you’ll need to be mindful about keeping them clean and covered. A simple process of gently washing your incisions with soap and water (no scrubbing) then drying them gently but thoroughly is recommended. Swelling, bruising and leaking a little bloody fluid is normal, but if your incisions turn bright red, start to leak excessively or if the fluid changes color or thickness you should call your surgeon right away.

AFFILIATE

After the wounds have completely closed (usually takes about 2 weeks), you can start applying special lotions to minimize the scarring. Mederma's scar care products (aff) have been found to be some of the best towards improving the appearance of scars and making them less noticeable.

Also remember to use sunscreen on your scars when they are exposed to the sun.

It’s important that you not rush back into your normal daily routine immediately after surgery, but you should get up and move around as much as possible. Don’t lift anything heavy for at least a couple of weeks. Having sex is okay as soon as you feel up to it, but be extra careful with your healing incisions.

More strenuous exercises such as lifting weights, jogging, riding a bicycle and swimming should not begin until you are completely healed on both the inside and outside of your body.  If you're not sure whether or not you're ready for a specific activity, talk with your surgeon to be sure.

Short-Term Difficulties and Side Effects are Normal

At first, you may experience discomfort in a number of areas which may sound unpleasant, but these side effects will usually pass with time or changed behavior…

• Nausea or vomiting is especially common within the first few months following weight loss surgery. After your stomach is fully healed, you’ll quickly learn what your stomach can and can’t handle. How you eat is as important as what you eat when it comes to preventing nausea and vomiting… avoid eating and drinking too quickly or too much, take small bites and chew your food thoroughly. (See our Bariatric Eating page to learn about proper eating techniques that will avoid problems.)

• Body aches – should pass with time. If they become too uncomfortable, talk with your doctor about which pain relievers are safe. You should typically avoid NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) such as ibuprofen or Aleve.
• Weak or tired feeling – should also pass with time, especially once your new bariatric diet is in place and, as soon as you are feeling up to it, your exercise program has begun (diet and exercise discussed further down the page).
• Feeling cold – this is caused by metabolism and weight loss and the fact that you have less fat insulating your body.
• Constipation – drinking more fluids, eating fibrous foods or taking fiber supplements and moving around regularly should help.
• Diarrhea or loose stools - usually diet related and requires the avoidance of “trigger” foods that disagree with your stomach.
• Gas – also diet related.
• Dumping syndrome, especially after gastric bypass, is caused by rapid emptying of your stomach after a meal. Symptoms include weakness, dizziness, flushing and warmth, nausea and palpitation immediately or shortly after eating.  If you don't adopt the right habits, this problem can continue over the long-term.  See our Dumping Syndrome page for more details.
• Gurgling noises – not necessarily uncomfortable, but it’s worth noting. Gurgling noises are completely normal and are due to the different way your new digestive system pushes air through. The best way to prevent gurgling noises is to avoid swallowing air (i.e. avoid carbonated beverages, sipping through a straw, eating or drinking too quickly and chewing gum).
• Thrush (yeast infection) – this can be a side effect of the antibiotics you are on to prevent infection. Symptoms include changes to your tongue such as a white coating, redness or inflammation. Thrush is easily cured with medicine, so let your doctor know if it starts to develop.

Your emotional state may also be a little shaky immediately following surgery. It’s common for patients to feel scared, uncertain or moody due to hormonal changes and to the emotional effects of adjusting to a new life after weight loss surgery. The Support Group section further down the page will address the best way to overcome any difficult emotional issues.

Other things you may experience include…

• Skin changes such as acne or dry skin occur with some patients. The right bariatric diet and bariatric vitamins are your best defense. There are also many over the counter creams and lotions that can help. Worst case, partner with your dermatologist to find a treatment that works.
• Hair loss – this can be an alarming side effect of rapid weight loss, but it is only temporary. It happens in about half of all patients in the year following surgery. Proper nutrition is the best defense, including protein and the right bariatric vitamins. Several other treatments can also help, including the application of special shampoos and oils (Nioxin shampoo, flax seed oil, biotin tablets or powder).

It typically takes patients anywhere from two to six weeks to start feeling balanced and back to normal again. After getting through the recovery phase, following are the ways that your life after weight loss surgery will be permanently changed…

Weight & Health in Your Life After Weight Loss Surgery

Depending on which types of bariatric surgery you are considering, a successful procedure will cause you to lose anywhere from 50% to 90% of your excess weight. By completely eliminating obesity discrimination and improving your quality of life, your mental health will be better than ever.

Improvements to your physical health can be equally as impressive.

The following conditions have been shown to get better or completely go away following bariatric surgery1...

In actuality, bariatric surgery may be the only cure for many of these.

See our Obesity Health Problems page for more about the above conditions.

Despite all of these positive outcomes, you'll need to develop permanent long-term habits in order to maintain your weight and health goals. And it is next to certain that you will NOT be able to do this on your own; they direct support of family, friends and your weight loss surgery team will be integral to your long-term success.

For example, a recent study of 380 patients found that:³

• The more services a patient received after surgery, the greater their percentage of excess weight loss
• Patients who completed group exercise sessions and nutritional consultation after surgery lost more weight than did those who did not complete these services

The following sections dive into the importance of diet and exercise during life after weight loss surgery.

Diet in Your Life After Weight Loss Surgery

Get ready for some significant changes to both what you eat and how you eat.

Don’t worry… it may not be as hard as it sounds. Many patients find that their unhealthy food cravings completely go away, plus your new stomach will cause you to feel full much sooner than before surgery.

Appropriate changes to your diet are so important that we have devoted an entire section of our site to them. Here are a few pages to get you started…

• Bariatric diet – an overview
• Diet for gastric bypass (coming soon)
• Lap band diet (coming soon)
• Bariatric eating – reviews how you’ll eat rather than what you’ll eat
• Bariatric vitamins
• Weight loss surgery recipes (coming soon)

Exercise in Your Life After Weight Loss Surgery

Daily exercise is extremely important and should be integrated into your life after weight loss surgery. It has been proven to…

• Prevent blood clots and blood clot symptoms
• Boost metabolism
• Improve depression
• Lower bad cholesterol and increase good cholesterol
• Improve insulin control
• Increase self esteem
• Improve libido
• Help you live longer

Our Exercise for Bariatric Surgery Patients section explains the best ways to start a personalized workout routine that you can stick with.

Pregnancy After Bariatric Surgery

If you get pregnant after bariatric surgery, there are some things you’ll need to do differently than you would have before surgery. In general, pregnancy and child birth after weight loss surgery are much safer than they are if you are obese.

Our Pregnancy After Weight Loss Surgery page reviews the details along with the steps that should be taken for a successful pregnancy.

Support in Your Life After Weight Loss Surgery

In order to have successful long-term bariatric surgery results, research suggests that you will need more support than what can be provided from family and friends alone…

• Study 1 - Patients who attend support groups achieved a 1.6 lower body mass index than patients who do not. (See our How to Calculate BMI page for more about body mass index)
• Study 2 – Support group patients have a 10% lower BMI than non-support group patients.
• Study 3 – Not only do support group attendees lose more weight, but the more often patients attend group meetings, the more weight they lose.

In addition to holding you accountable for your actions, support groups give you an outlet to discuss problems and situations with people who are going through the same experience.

See the following pages to learn how to find and use the bariatric surgery support that is right for you...

• Weight loss surgery support - learn how to find the best in-person bariatric surgery support groups that fit your style and needs.
• Online weight loss support will drastically improve your chances of reaching and maintaining your weight loss goals, but only if you choose to work with the best websites. We have reviewed them all and have good news… the best options are all free. If you want to jump straight to a specific online weight loss support category, click one of the following:
  • Reviews of the top free diet journal & exercise journal options
  • Bariatric surgery forum: Top gastric bypass forum, lap band forums and forums for other procedures
  • Ongoing weight loss surgery education
• Support from family and friends

Relationships in Life After Weight Loss Surgery

Relationship changes are another great reason to participate in a bariatric surgery support group. These changes often go overlooked by people considering bariatric surgery, and they can be both positive and negative depending on the situation.

On one hand, you look better and you feel better. People you don’t know may start to treat you with more respect. You may be treated more favorably at work. People may be more physically attracted to you.

On the other hand, weight loss patients are keenly aware of overweight discrimination against others, which can lead them to wonder… would this person be treating me the same way if I hadn’t lost all of this weight? How do I handle obesity discrimination now that I’m on the “other side”?

In addition, people who you’ve known for a long time will not be used to the way you look. Could that promote awkwardness from overweight friends or family members? Could your spouse or partner become jealous now that others are noticing you more?

Some of the patient testimonials below give examples of how relationships can change, but do your own direct research via your in-person weight loss surgery support and online weight loss support groups.

How did YOUR relationships change after weight loss surgery?

Your experiences will greatly help both prospective patients and those who have already had surgery...

- Many prospective patients fail to consider how interactions with friends, family, partners and colleagues will change after surgery.

- Patients who have already had surgery need to know that others are going through the same thing and how to handle it

What changes did YOU notice after surgery with the following people...

1) Your partner or spouse
2) Family
3) Dating
4) People at work
5) People you don't know well (i.e. service people, waiters, random people on the street, etc.)

Relationship changes for other visitors after bariatric surgery

Click below to see contributions from other visitors to this page...

Plastic Surgery following Bariatric Surgery

You’ll be healthier, you’ll feel better and you’ll look better after weight loss surgery. For many patients, that’s all they could want or hope for.

But the extra skin that many patients have following surgery leads them to consider reconstructive plastic surgery. In addition to improving your appearance, patients often take this route for medical reasons including rashes and problems maintaining hygiene between the skin folds.

The most common parts of the body to receive reconstructive plastic surgery following weight loss surgery are…

• Abdomen (affordable tummy tuck, also called “abdominoplasty”)
• Breasts (breast lift, also called “mastopexy” and/or breast augmentation)
• Neck or face (neck lift or face lift)
• Thighs (thigh lift plastic surgery, also called “thighplasty”)
• Upper arms (upper arm lift, also called “brachioplasty”)
• Entire body (total body lift)

If you decide to incorporate cosmetic surgery into your life after weight loss surgery, it’s best to wait at least a year or two until your body reaches its new final weight.

See our Bariatric Plastic Surgery After Weight Loss page for more information.

Real-Life Patient Experiences & Videos

As we’ve discussed, offline and online support groups are a great way to get first-hand testimony of every stage of pre- and post-bariatric surgery life… both before and after you begin the journey.

If possible, talk with patients who were treated by your surgeon to give you an understanding of what to expect. The best bariatric doctors can usually refer you to support groups that their patients attend.

Click here to read experinces about life after bariatric surgery from other patients.

Following are interviews with and stories about actual bariatric surgery patients. They explain the good, the bad and the ugly about life after weight loss surgery…

Professionally made videos about life after weight loss surgery*…

Homemade videos about life after weight loss surgery*...

Click here to review the homemade bariatric surgery videos from other patients.

For changes to expect specific to each type of bariatric surgery, see the following pages…

• Analysis and Cost of Laparoscopic Gastric Bypass Surgery
• Analysis and Cost of Lap Band Surgery
• Duodenal Switch
• Gastric Sleeve Surgery
• Vertical Banded Gastroplasty
• Mini Gastric Bypass Surgery

Or for an overview and comparison of all bariatric surgery procedures, see our Types of Bariatric Surgery page.

References for Life After Weight Loss Surgery

1. Stacy A Brethauer, Bipan Chand and Philip R Schauer. Risks and benefits of bariatric surgery: current evidence. Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine 2006; 73(11):993-1007; doi:10.3949/ccjm.73.11.993.
2. *   Bariatric Surgery Source is not affiliated with and was not involved in the creation of the          videos on this page.
3. Jessica C. Peacock, Sam J. Zizzi. Survey of bariatric surgical patients' experiences with behavioral and psychological services. Surgery for obesity and related diseases : official journal of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery 9 December 2011 (Article in Press DOI: 10.1016/j.soard.2011.11.015)

[Last editorial review/modification of this page: 11/8/2011]