Any time you decide to have surgery, it is a big deal. Having your body altered during an operation is never a casual matter, but when you consider bariatric surgery the commitment is even more intense. The ramifications of deciding to have bariatric surgery don’t just affect you during the surgery and recovery period, but instead they kick off a string of changes that affect the rest of your life.
Dietary Changes
Bariatric surgery forever changes the way that you can eat. After surgery, individual meals will not be larger than one cup and sometimes, even smaller than that. Also, because you are severely restricted in the amount of food you can eat, you must make very healthy food choices every time you eat. In order to stay healthy you must eat with the goal of meeting your body’s nutritional needs within a limited meal size.
In addition to the restrictive eating, some surgeries will require you to commit to taking certain supplements daily. This is your safeguard against encountering a nutritional deficiency because of your new, reduced stomach size.
Psychological Changes
Many people who decide to have bariatric surgery have a relationship with food that involves more than just a physical need for it. Many find that it is difficult to adjust to the fact that food cannot be used as an emotional crutch after surgery. When they encounter everyday difficulties like stress at work, relationship problems, or other stresses, they need to find an alternative method of dealing with the stress. In addition, a whole new crop of emotional and stress issues can arise as you relearn how to eat, and how to relate to your friends and family after the surgery.
That is why it is so important to set up a reliable support system before you have the surgery. If you experience any of these struggles, you need to know that you are not alone. Former bariatric surgery patients have gone through the same psychological and emotional issues you might face and their methods of dealing with it and stories of experiencing it can be vital to helping you get through your own.
Once you have decided that you are prepared to meet the challenges of lifestyle and behavioral change in order to lose weight with bariatric surgery, your next step is to see if you qualify for weight loss surgery.