Recovery looks different for every person and depends on a number of factors including your state of health pre-surgery, age and mental preparation. A good preparation before the surgery such as taking optifast, reducing smoking etc can lead to improved recovery.

Always follow the advice from your team at SBC. This is very important because it will be tailored to your specific needs. After bariatric surgery, you must totally change how you eat and approach food. It is also important to incorporate exercise into your daily routine.

Diet

Fluid Phase: initially, you can only tolerate fluids in your diet for approximately 2 weeks after surgery. There will be no hunger, and you will be sipping a variety of drinks slowly.

Changing Texture: for a period of 4 – 6 weeks after the liquid phase, you will have changed the texture of your foods by blending, pureeing, and mashing food to make it easier for you to digest these foods and to help recovery.

After your operation, you will have the support from our dietitians to provide you with the right bariatric diet and eating techniques that will help you recover.

Our dietitians will help you with:

  • Transitioning to different food textures
  • Avoiding complications
  • Mindful eating
  • Obtaining all the nutrients needed for good health and managing specific health conditions such as type 2 diabetes, coeliac disease, food intolerances, heart or kidney disease.
  • Vitamin and mineral supplementation
  • Ensuring adequate protein intake
  • Meal planning and weight loss goal setting
Exercise

Start walking around as soon as you get home (start with a few minutes a day and build from there). Generally speaking, you should be able to begin working out approximately six weeks after your surgery. It is vital that you incorporate exercise into your daily routine to reduce the chance of regaining weight. Exercising is also a way of maintaining a positive mental state, preserving and building muscle mass which is so critical in the weight loss phase as well as increasing metabolism.

Mental Health

Most people will experience a lift in mood once they see results of major weight loss . Improvement in sleeping, more energy and resolution of things such as blood pressure and sore joints can result in a dramatic improvement in well-being.

However, a small percentage of patients notice depression after having bariatric surgery. You need time to adjust following the procedure and that adjustment period can be difficult. Often people underestimate the mental toll of surgery and only focus on the physical toll. It is important to know that there is nothing wrong with you for feeling this way after surgery and that the team at SBC is here to support you. Make sure you get in contact with us if you notice a change in your mental state after your surgery.

Follow-Up care

The first several months after your surgery will consist of frequent medical checkups to make sure that everything is ok. Our multidisciplinary team will work with you to make sure that you are progressing along nicely and guide you through your recovery process.