Stuck in a Plateau After Weight Loss Surgery?

How to Break a Plateau After Weight Loss Surgery - Mexico Bariatric CenterSome bariatric patients who undergo weight loss surgery such as gastric sleeve or gastric bypass may hit a plateau, where weight loss comes to a frustrating halt. Weight loss after bariatric surgery involves a post-operative diet, bariatric vitamins, exercise routine, and an overall positive state of mind.

But let’s face it, sometimes life can throw curveballs at us, causing the visits to the gym to decrease, healthy diet habits to waver, and it can be difficult to break the plateau.

After bariatric surgery, it is important to keep on top of your exercise and dietary habits to ensure that your body fat drops as your lean body mass (muscle) increases or is at least maintained.

4 ways to beat a plateau after bariatrics:

Here are four hints to beat a gastric sleeve stall or a gastric bypass stall.

1. Change Up Your Exercise Habits

cope with plateaus, woman doing crunches.

A great step to breaking a plateau after bariatric surgery is to adjust your exercise to a healthy amount of time, intensity level, and to change it up regularly. When you do the same exercises routinely, your body becomes more efficient at those particular exercises and begins to burn fewer calories and grow muscle more slowly.

By changing up your routine appropriately, you keep your body guessing, which increases calories burned. Changing up your exercise routine roughly every 6 weeks or so is a good start. Including resistance training such as pull-ups, resistance bands, and weights is a great way to build muscle throughout your journey as well.

2. Adjust Your Diet

Another step you can take is to adjust your diet to ensure that you are properly nourishing your body while at the same time allowing for a deficit of calories brought on by exercise. A dietitian such as the one provided here at Mexico Bariatric Center can help at times with some questions you may have.

Both the number of calories you consume and just where those calories come from (healthy or unhealthy sources) play a large role in your overall weight loss success. Too many or too little calories can throw your body into confusion and cause you to start packing weight back on or for your body to stall completely, staying at the same weight until you change things up.

3. Drink More Water

Be mindful of drinking a minimum of 48 oz. of water after surgery to keep you from experiencing the adverse effects of dehydration. Medical doctors recommend 8 glasses of water (64 ounces) to stay healthily hydrated. For purposes of weight loss, aim high and it may kick-start your fat-burning machine of a body.

When we do not drink enough, our body retains water, thereby slowing weight loss. The way the body rids itself of the by-products of fat breakdown is by flushing it out through the urine. To optimize the system, maximum hydration is key. Aim for .5-1 oz for every pound that you weigh.

4. Stay Consistent and Persistent

In short,  you get out of your surgery what you put into it. If you do not strategize and really learn how to combine exercise and a healthy diet with this valuable weight loss tool, your results will be left to chance.

Conclusion

If you find you are starting to snack a lot, be it impulsively, absent-mindedly while watching TV, or due to social pressure, take a step back and really evaluate the situation. There may be a lack of consistency and persistence in your life that is contributing to your lack of success in dropping that number on the scale.

Have you had to overcome stalls in the past? How did you do it and how has it worked for you? Share in the comments below!!!

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