Pre Bariatric Surgery Diet

Prior to bariatric surgery, you should undergo a pre bariatric surgery diet. What you eat is very important, and it can make the operation successful or destroy your endeavor to a good shape.

This is the time you should be very choosy on food you eat and follow your doctor’s instruction to the letter. It is not the right time to splurge on your diet and make your health worse.


Importance of a pre bariatric surgery diet

It help to lower the amount of fat around the liver, continuous intake of fat rich diet leads to accumulation of fat in liver. To lower the amount of fat in this region, people undergoing bariatric surgery are advised to lower intake of fat rich food. It also helps to lower liver volume, if liver is very large, it comes into contact with stomach, and this interferes with operation.

It preserves and protect muscles, and the overall effect of a pre bariatric surgery diet is to lower fat in the body while increasing the muscle percentage. By a pre bariatric surgery diet you avoid food rich in calories and fat before surgery, and you will also lower the amount of fat that will be removed in various body parts.

It makes operation safer, by using the correct diet, lowering liver volume and increasing body muscle content, you make the operation safer since the risk of affecting liver and spleen is evaded.

It is also a good way to prepare yourself for new post-surgery diet. After operation, you are not expected to use foods that will balloon you once more. The pre bariatric surgery diet is the best way to adopt to the diet that you will be using after surgery.


When to start a pre bariatric surgery diet?

The time to start a pre bariatric surgery diet will vary from one person to another, your history and the type of operation you are undergoing.

People who are obese will start the pre bariatric surgery diet much earlier than people who are just over weight, nevertheless, people who are normal but still want to shed of some meat may start pre surgery diet much late than obese and overweight person. For people who are obese, they should start dieting atleast 4 months before surgery while for overweight people may start 2 to 3 months before surgery.

Your history is also very important in determining when to start your pre bariatric surgery diet, as those who have been to food rich in calories and fat for long period will be required to start pre surgery diet much earlier than those who have been in it for short period. Those who have used "bad" food for long will shed fat slower than their counterparts hence they need to star dieting earlier.

The type of surgery to be performed is also very vital, for example, gastric bypass and duodenal switch surgery, pre dieting may start 2-3 months while for gastric band surgery pre surgery diet may start 2-3 weeks.


Foods to avoid prior to surgery

For successful bariatric surgery, you need to avoid foods which may compromise operation. Some of the foods to avoid include:

Carbonated drinks

Carbonated drinks are rich in calories, they will compromise operation by inflating your liver. Some of the drinks such as sodas, beer and fruit juices are good example of carbonated drinks rich in calories.

Advisably, you should use fruits instead of fruit juices. Fruits are very effective in beating weight, they are rich in nutrients and fiber. Fruits fiber is very important in your endeavor since it absorbs excess water in the body thus, they will help you in your toil to beat weight. In addition, fruits fibers makes you remain full for long, you feed less which is a great milestone in fighting excess body weight.

Junk foods

You also need to avoid some foods such as chips and sausages. They may look nice to you but they are actually killing your dream to get the body that you love. They are very rich in calories and will make you balloon very fast.

You may also limit the amount of food you are taking, you should not attempt to starve yourself. Starving is very dangerous since the moment you start eating normally, you will gain weight very fast. You can check on amount of food you are eating, it is good to avoid eating in portions since you may not get the amount you have eaten at the end of the day.

You also need to limit carbohydrates intake including pasta and bread.

You also need to limit sugary and sweet foods such as biscuits and sweets.

At all cost, stop smoking and reduce nicotine intake, they are known to compromise surgeries and you should not get into such risks.

Ideal food

Go for vegetables, they are rich in antioxidant compounds which eradicates free radicals in the body. Vegetables have anti-inflammatory properties which will have a soothing effects and will help you during operation. More so, they are rich in fiber which helps in absorption of excess water in the body.

Use lean meat, avoid meat rich in fats. It is good to avoid red meat and opt for white meat, the ideal source of white meat would be fish which is also rich in omega 3 fatty acids which are good in fighting weight.

Use eggs, they have a very high protein profile and are more ideal source of protein than meat. They contains almost all amino acids including amino acids that contains sulfur which helps in weight loss.

Go for whole grains, yes, whole grains are safer than processed grains, they are more nutritive and richer in fiber than processed grains.

Take milk and milk products such as yoghurt, cheese and butter, they are rich in protein.

Take water, it is good to take enough water and stay hydrated. Water is a major component of muscles and you cannot put on and maintain muscles without water intake.




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In a nutshell, food rich in protein are ideal for pre bariatric surgery diet, because they preserve and protect muscles from being used by the body to supply energy.

By using protein, fats in the body is burned to supply energy, thus protein will be used for body building while fat will be used to supply energy, this leads to low body weight and makes operation safer and easier.