Is a Smoothie Diet a Good Idea After Bariatric Surgery?
Smoothies are a big part of many bariatric patients’ postoperative life. This is primarily because we need so much protein that we often can’t get enough from our meals alone. Protein shakes become a great way to fill that deficit while enjoying something that tastes Good and contains essential nutrients. Protein shakes are usually used as a supplement for a meal each day but can also be used to get over the protein hump outside of meals.
However, you may have heard about smoothie diets that many celebrities and laypeople alike have employed with varied success in losing weight and feeling better. Does a smoothie diet make any sense after a bariatric procedure, and can it get you over the hump to your final weight loss goals?
Comparing Bariatric Procedures in 2024
As we wrap up 2023 and enjoy the holidays, we quickly turn to the new year with a desire to improve our lives and health. Many of you may be considering bariatric surgery, especially with the advent of weight loss injections that have brought new light to the treatment of excess weight and obesity. If you have ever thought about bariatric surgery in the past, you may have some preconceived notions. With so much innovation over the past few years, we must revisit the most performed bariatric surgeries to help you understand what may be best for you.
What Percentage of Stomach Do You Remove During a Gastric Sleeve?
Why is this the wrong question, and why does your surgeon answer it anyway?
The main goal of laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy for weight loss is to reduce hunger and caloric intake by removing most of the stomach and leaving a stomach tube or sleeve. Many patients ask, “What percentage of my stomach are you removing?” And often, they get a standard answer that ranges from 75% to 90%.
However, while many surgeons will say this to give the patient a general idea, the answer should be “It depends.” Furthermore, the right question should be, “What amount of stomach will be left behind?”
Understanding Your Insurance Options During Open Enrollment
Open enrollment, as you may know, is a short window from the end of 2023 through the beginning of 2024. It allows patients to modify their insurance coverage to suit their needs according to their expectations for the upcoming year. While we can never be sure of our health status in the future, we likely have a good understanding of our health goals and have the opportunity to evaluate how medical and procedural options might fit into them. With this analysis and knowledge, we can approximate our medical insurance needs for the next year and choose a plan.
How exactly do we do that? And what plan might be best? If your plan is part of the insurance marketplace, you will have several options, from PPO to HMO and bronze to platinum. Understanding these options can help you best choose a plan.
Preparing for Colder Weather as a Bariatric Patient
As the weather turns decidedly colder here in Las Vegas, we must understand how the many variables in our lives can affect our bodies and our continued weight loss. Undoubtedly, you’ve seen how seemingly obscure changes in lifestyle and circumstances can make a big difference in how we lose weight. The weather is similar. Let’s get into how to manage colder weather best so we can take advantage of it and maintain our weight loss or put it into high gear.
First, it’s important to note that you shouldn’t significantly modify your lifestyle or diet during cold weather without your doctor’s oversight. Also, if you have heart disease, cold weather can contribute to the temporary narrowing of arteries and blood vessels, exacerbating certain conditions. If you have any concerns about your health status, you should speak to your medical team to ensure your changes are appropriate for your medical circumstance.
Does the Success of Weight Loss Medications Like Wegovy Mean I Don’t Need Bariatric Surgery?
By now, anyone looking to lose weight has read up on a relatively new crop of weight loss drugs like Wegovy/semaglutide, which have shown excellent effectiveness in overweight and obese patients. By some accounts, weight loss in the range of 15-20% of total body weight loss has been achieved. This is incredibly impressive for a minimally invasive injection, and the results are consistent across a significant population of patients. Does that mean, however, that bariatric surgery is now obsolete?
Is a Program Like Noom Acceptable After Bariatric Surgery?
The diet industry is a juggernaut, with hundreds if not thousands of diets and new and popular diets popping up yearly. These dietary plans have a checkered success rate. However, some of these diet plans have blossomed over time. One such “diet” plan is Noom, marketed heavily as a psychology-based approach focusing more on what you think than what you eat. On the surface, this psychological improvement-first approach is a great idea. After all, long-term weight loss after bariatric surgery requires just that: a change in approach and habits. However, does Noom offer everything a bariatric patient needs to be successful, or is it just another gimmick and waste of money?
Is Golf a Good Idea After Bariatric Surgery
Over the past several decades, golf has exploded in popularity and remains one of the most popular sports in the United States. Like other sports, golf places unique stresses on the body, and today, we will discuss whether playing golf is a good idea after bariatric surgery. This can be especially important for our local Las Vegas patients who consider our local golf scene to be a benefit of living here. Golf isn’t typically associated with extreme physical activity and highly athletic players, though recent years have seen renewed interest in golf-centric fitness. It’s one of the few sports that can be played as long as your body can handle it – often into your 90s. But bariatric patients have particular physical limitations – do they interfere with golf?
Are Probiotics the Answer to Excess Weight?
In a world seemingly chock-full of fad diets that don’t work and may even cause health issues, we often turn to natural or holistic remedies to help us lose weight. One such hope has been probiotics. Analyzing the name tells us what they do – these foods and drinks contain live cultures of microorganisms to promote the proliferation of good bacteria in the gut.
Now, we have been conditioned to think that bacteria are harmful. And there certainly are bacteria that make us sick. However, the opposite is also true. Our gut microbiome comprises trillions of bacteria – far more than the number of cells in our bodies. These bacteria work overtime to process our foods and keep us healthy. However, years, if not decades, of mistreatment by eating highly processed foods and overuse of antibiotics has changed the delicate balance of this microbiome in many of us and consequently has been implicated in reduced insulin sensitivity, amongst other issues.
The Difference Between Mounjaro and Ozempic for Diabetes Management
Mounjaro, developed by Eli Lilly, and Ozempic, made by Danish pharma giant Novo Nordisk, are currently available as injectable diabetes management drugs. These drugs have very similar mechanisms of action and trigger a similar hormonal response, which can result in excellent diabetes management and even weight loss. However, neither of these drugs is approved for use in weight loss. Instead, a higher dose version of Ozempic known as Wegovy was approved as a weight loss drug at the end of 2022. Mounjaro is also being evaluated as a weight loss drug, and FDA approval is expected in the near future.