How to Prepare for Bariatric Surgery at the BMCC

You’re considering bariatric surgery, but you have questions about the pre-bariatric-surgery process. What will your pre-bariatric-surgery diet be like? Should you start exercising before surgery? How can you use the pre-bariatric-surgery phase to develop the right mindset to sustain the kind of lasting change that you want and deserve to have after surgery?

Preparing for bariatric surgery is one of the most important things that you can do in order to maximize the health benefits of bariatric surgery. With that in mind, let’s go through these questions together.

How Should I Eat Before Bariatric Surgery?

Even before surgery, your diet will need to change dramatically. Six months before surgery, you should start to make incremental changes to your diet based on consultations with our registered bariatric dietitian. Our dietitian will help you to put together a bariatric diet plan, which will include:

– Replace fatty meats such as bacon and beef ribeye with lean meats such as turkey and chicken

– Cut down on carbs (especially refined carbs such as bread and pasta)

– Cut down on dairy

– Stop drinking alcohol or sugary drinks

– Stop smoking (THC, nicotine, or other) if you currently smoke

– Eat more non-starchy vegetables

– Eat healthy, unsaturated fats (ex. olive oil, nuts, avocado, etc)

– Cut down on sugar

– Eat three healthy meals per day without snacking in between

If you’re motivated to count calories, you can definitely do so; but at this stage, getting the behavioral changes down is more important than counting calories. Before surgery, only count calories if it helps you to stay on track with the above changes.

(One of the biggest steps toward preparing for bariatric surgery is a healthy diet. Learn more about the Power of Nutrition and what you can do to help make your surgery a success).

One week before surgery, it is very important that you transition to a fully liquid diet. This will include:

– Protein shakes (reinforced with vitamins) (you’ll need 80-100 grams of protein per day)

– Broth-based soups (low-sodium)

– 64oz of water per day (can be flavored, as long as it’s sugar-free)

– Tea (unsweetened)

– Jell-O (sugar free)

– Popsicles (sugar free)

– Fiber supplements (necessary to prevent constipation)

There are three very important reasons that you’ll need to make these dietary changes.

First, making these changes now will help you to get the behavior down after surgery. Contrary to what some people think, bariatric surgery is not a magical cure. In order to get the full health benefits of bariatric surgery, you will need to pair surgery with a life-long diet and exercise regimen. Your post-bariatric-surgery diet will look very similar to your non-liquid pre-bariatric-surgery diet: any meat that is eaten should be lean, few carbs, no snacking and very little sugar, etc. It is easier to stick to this diet if you already have practice adhering to it before surgery. 

Second, this diet is high in protein. Protein is essential for wound healing, and a high-protein diet before surgery can help your body to recover much more quickly from surgery. This high-protein diet is one reason that bariatric surgery is an outpatient procedure for most of our patients, and most of them go back to work within 2 weeks of surgery.

Third, making these changes can make your surgery dramatically safer. They will shrink your liver, which is essential because the liver sits on top of the stomach. An enlarged or fatty liver is harder for the surgeon to get underneath, which can increase the patient’s risk of complications (especially if the patient suffers from fatty liver disease). At the BMCC, we take your health and your safety very seriously. While the risk of complications is very small, it is very important to us to take every measure to reduce the already small risk.

Because we take your safety so seriously, this diet is a requirement. Your bariatric surgery cannot proceed unless you have adhered to it.

The Importance of Exercise

Even before surgery, it is important that you develop an exercise regimen. The exercise doesn’t have to be hard, and you should stop immediately if you feel sharp pain or tightness in your chest. Many of our patients found success by walking or doing light aerobics before surgery. However, if you have joint pain you will need to focus on non-load bearing activities like swimming or cycling. At this stage, exercise at home can be more powerful than going to the gym.

The American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) recommends light exercise for 20 minutes per day, 3-4 days per week, in the weeks and months leading up to surgery. Exercise helps in two ways. First, light but consistent exercise can make your surgery safer: it can reduce your (already low) risk complications, and also facilitate healing. Second, just like with your diet, after surgery you’ll need to develop a consistent exercise regimen that you can stick with for the rest of your life. If you start before surgery and get the habit down, then you’re more likely to see the success that you’ve hoped for after surgery.

Cultivating the Right Mindset

Losing weight and keeping it off is hard. Bariatric surgery can help you level the playing field in your battle against obesity, but you still have to be very disciplined about cultivating a diet and exercise regime that you’ll stick to for the rest of your life.

The pre-surgery phase is a good time to start cultivating the mindset and the habits you’ll need to stick with these changes. First, please remember that weight loss is a marathon, not a sprint. One way to find the motivation necessary to stick with all of these changes is to rack up consistent small wins. This can start before surgery. For example, set a goal of walking 10 minutes per day for 4 days in one week. When you hit that goal, increase your goal for next week. Give yourself consistent rewards (that don’t derail your weight loss efforts; for example, a good reward might be one episode of a new show on Netflix rather than food) for hitting small milestones.

Second, as you make and follow through with these changes before surgery, remember why you’re doing them. You want to lose weight; but go deeper. Maybe you want to lose weight in order to go on a hike with your grandkids, or meet that special someone. Maybe you want to be able to travel to see your kids without the experience of getting on a plane being a whole ordeal. Whatever your reason why, focus on it as you go through these early changes. Building the right mindset can help you to keep going on the right path after surgery.

Taking the Next Step On Your Weight Loss Journey

Choosing to undergo weight loss surgery is one of the most powerful decisions that you can make. The health benefits of bariatric surgery are immense: paired with diet and exercise, weight loss surgery gives you an excellent chance to lose weight, keep it off, and get your life back.

If you would like to know more about the pre-bariatric-surgery phase, feel free to take a look around the site or give us a call and our friendly staff will be more than happy to answer any questions.

Most of our patients say that bariatric surgery was the best decision they ever made.

“I can only thank Dr. Long and his staff for giving me my life back. I have set some new goals for myself and look forward to walking a 5k and participating in a triathlon.”—Johnetta Hebrlee, duodenal switch patient.

If you’re suffering, don’t wait. Contact our Denver office today.