There’s more to bariatric surgery than just the surgery itself. Leaning on a team of medical professionals is critical in achieving a successful outcome from bariatric surgery. Patients have the best chance of success when supported by an arsenal of weight loss experts. This includes patient advocates, exercise physiologists and dietitians who have one goal: To help you achieve and maintain successful weight loss.
Dietitians
Before surgery
Dietitians are here to set up patients for success. Replacing poor eating habits with healthy lifestyle choices is critical for long-term weight loss both before surgery and post-surgery. During the preoperative phase, a dietitian will assess your unique needs and potential barriers to success, as well as get a sense of your readiness for making lasting, lifelong changes.
To ensure patients stay committed during their weight loss journeys, they have consistent follow-up appointments with a dietitian. These experts may introduce gradual changes such as drinking less soda or choosing more vegetables over fried foods help foster good habits before surgery so that healthy eating feels like a normal part of everyday life.
After surgery
It’s important to remember that bariatric surgery is just one of the tools at your disposal used to achieve weight loss and improve overall health. Whether you’ve tried multiple diets throughout your life or have never considered adopting healthy eating habits before, dietitians will help determine what each individual patient needs to lose weight and keep it off.
After surgery, dietitians will address a range of nutrition-related issues, including obstacles to following healthy eating habits, food intolerances, and how to ensure patients are receiving enough vitamins and minerals. Dietitians will also help patients stay consistent in meeting nutritional needs and address personal conflicts that hamper weight loss goals.
After surgery, some patients may feel as though the surgery did the hard work for them already, but the real challenge of breaking bad eating habits and replacing them with healthy ones is just beginning. Therefore, dietitians are a highly crucial part of the bariatric process.
Exercise physiologists
Adhering to a steady exercise plan will help you achieve success in your weight loss journey, but it’s not a simple matter of working out as hard you can. Obese or morbidly obese people often require a more personalized approach to exercising: this is where exercise physiologists come in.
Exercise physiologists will administer fitness assessments to prescribe an individualized exercise plan for patients of all levels of physical fitness. Using state-of-the-art technology, these professionals will find the most effective “fat-burning zones” and use metabolic testing to customize a host of cardio, strength and flexibility programs. As you lose weight post-surgery, your exercise program is going to adjust too. Chronic joint pain, back issues and other ailments are not limitations, but rather opportunities to adjust fitness plans.
Patient advocates
Patient advocates do exactly what you think: They are here to advocate for you, especially during the complicated pre-operative process. These advocates will help you find answers to health insurance questions, understand financial options and navigate through a web of medical tests and appointments.
Different from a support system, patient advocates are experts in dealing with insurance companies and medical professionals alike, so you can be confident that they have the knowledge to guide you through the bariatric weight loss process.
WeightWise is committed to helping you achieve significant weight loss and keep it off. If you’re ready to make a lifelong change to improve your health and live the life you’ve always wanted, attend a free seminar to learn if bariatric surgery is right for you.