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7 POST-BARIATRIC SURGERY MISTAKES

Bariatric surgery is becoming more and more popular when it comes to choosing a treatment for severe obesity. Brazil already holds the second place among the countries that perform this kind of surgical procedure. Right after the surgery, the patient loses a lot of weight, a process that goes on for one or two years, depending on the initial weight and on the changes and habits after the procedure.

During this period of time, the patient is also more excited with the treatment, with the aesthetic and behavioral changes that stimulate dieting and lifestyle transformations. After this time, some patients put about 10% of the weight lost back on, which is considered normal, but 10 to 15% of these patients end up gaining back all the fat lost after the stomach reduction. Many current studies are dedicated to these trends and to which measures shall be taken so that such a thing won’t happen.

Weight regain, as the fat gain after bariatric surgery is called, can be related to several different factors, such as:

1- Not adopting the nutritional treatment prescribed, that is, the patient stops following the diet plan followed after the surgery and goes back to an unhealthy diet, with hypercaloric food and, many times, taking long breaks between meals;

2- Ingesting less protein and ingesting more simple carbs, such as crackers, cookies, cakes and so on, many times due to the difficulty of chewing protein and also for preferring such kinds of food;

3- Not ingesting protein supplements, which are responsible for improving the body composition and maintaining the lean body mass. Scientific research has shown that patients who ingest the hyperproteic supplement during the first six months of the postoperative period show an improvement in their body composition, which means they maintain their lean body mass since the beginning of the treatment. The growth of body mass after a bariatric surgery is linked to long-term weight maintenance;

4- Not practicing physical activities is also connected to the lack of long-term weight stabilization. Exercising not only helps with burning fat, but also with gaining lean mass;

5- Drinking alcoholic beverages, which are highly caloric and also hinder the absorption of important vitamins. Some patients actually stop eating properly in order to drink alcohol, since one of the habits people who go through the surgery have to change is to never drinking liquids during the meals, in order to avoid vomiting;

6- Eating disorders. Some patients may show signs of depression, anxiety and binge eating, which may stimulate weight regain;

7- Another issue is abandoning the appointments with the multidisciplinary team, which should be frequent so that the patient is constantly motivated to keep up the habits changes.

All of these factors show that after treating severe obesity with bariatric surgery, as well as any other kind of obesity treatment, the patient must be stimulated to change his/her behavioral, lifestyle and dietary habits, and the continuing treatment with the multidisciplinary team, with individualized frequency for each need, must be kept going.

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