Weight loss surgery is it an option?

If you have been obese for a while you may have considered weight loss surgery. It seems like a cop-out, the easy way out. Since I have blood sugar issues, managing my blood sugar while trying to diet is very difficult. I can workout 3+ times a week but if I don't manage my blood sugar, I don't lose the weight. So recently I have considered weight loss surgery because of the difficulty involved and the implications of diabetes. It would be negligent to not consider all options, in fact Dr Oz mentioned in one of his episodes that weight loss surgery is the underperformed surgery he thinks you should be getting. 

So out of swimsuit season desperation I have looked at the implications of surgery and if I can manage the lifestyle. I found a couple of great links for weight loss post surgery diets and tried them out to see if they is manageable.  One is the Highland Hospital Bariatric Surgery Center 3 month – 6 month bariatric lifestyle meal plan (1000 – 1300 Calories Daily, 60 Grams Protein Daily) The bariatric meal plan consisting of a tips section,

• Potential problem foods, 
• my favorite section is the Sample meal plan, 
• Food groups and serving sizes,
• Keeping active
• and a very important Protein tally.

There is a puree and soft foods plan after the weight loss surgery but you graduate to a low calorie regular diet. Except that you have three small well balanced meals daily plus one to two snacks as needed. Can you manage that? You may have to consider the plan if you opt for the surgery.

Another great site is the Gastric Bypass Diet by GI care.  It has a vitamin and supplement section,

• Nutrition facts
• Special considerations
• Fluids
• The abc's of eating right
• a Sample menu

But by far my favorite is by the University of California San Francisco Medical Center on Dietary Guidelines After Bariatric Surgery, it has a General Guidelines section

• Fluids, protein, supplements sections
• Diet progression after bariatric surgery, Diet in the hospital, 
• Diet for the first two weeks post-surgery, Diet for weeks two to four post-surgery
• Recommended meal plan for weeks two to eight until two months post-surgery with a sample menu, 
• Recommended meal plan for two to six months post-surgery with a sample menu, 
• Recommended meal plan for six months post-surgery and Beyond and long-term dietary guidelines

My favorite menu is the sample menu for the Recommended Meal Plan for Two to Six Months Post-Surgery. Out of curiosity I thought I would attempt this plan and I have some interesting observations. In this plan you eat almost every 2 hours but you eat a little at each time, there 8 possible meals. You can eat 900-1000 calories in the day so each meal is only 120 calories or so, or maybe 200 for meals and 100 for snacks. So it is like continual snacking, which is similar to my usual eating pattern trying to satisfy my blood sugar levels. The meals don't satisfy you as they are so small but since you will eat again in 2 hours you can tolerate the discomfort. Also my blood sugar is balanced better if I eat healthy foods for my 1000 calories rather than any calories.

I haven't weight myself as I tend not to but I have noticed I am not as bloated and it only has been a couple of days. Today was Fathers day and I did splurge a little on half restaurant salad, glass of wine and cake but I was still only 1500 calories for the day. But I might have blood sugar issues later in the evening cause the wine and the cake don't help balance your blood sugar. That is the thing about blood sugar, it doesn't take a break. Take care of yourself before you ruin your pancreas. 

So instead of doing the surgery I am experimenting with the surgery diets to see if it is something I can do, and a side benefit may be that I finally lose some weight. I still have a long way to go but a start is better than doing nothing.

I really don't like the post surgery diets the liquids diet, the puree foods diet, and soft foods sounds boring. Surgery may be something I still need to do sometime, but for now lets see what happens with the sample diets for long term weight management for surgery patients. 

@myHFjourney