WEIGHT LOSS ADVISOR BLOG

Adjustable gastric band surgery is a type of weight loss surgery that is used for obesity patients with body mass index (BMI) higher than 40, or patients who have BMI 30-40 and are diagnosed with co-morbidities such as high blood pressure, diabetes, sleep apnea, or arthritis that could improve with weight loss.

Gastric lap band is recommended for:

To be indicated for gastric lap band you should be between 18 and 55 years old and must have failed to lose weight on diet and weight loss plans for more than a year.

Gastric band surgery is NOT recommended for:

Gastric banding is not recommended for people suffering from inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract such as ulcers, esophagitis or Crohn’s disease, or are allergic to the materials contained in the band.

The gastric band itself is an inflatable silicone prosthetic device which is placed around the top portion of the stomach through laparoscopic surgery.

How the gastric banding works?

After the gastric band surgery the band creates a small pouch at the top of the stomach which can hold about 50 ml. This small pouch ‘fills’ with food very rapidly and the passing of food from the top part to the lower part of the stomach is slowed.

As soon as the upper part of the stomach fills with food, a message to the brain is sent that the stomach is full and your appetite is curbed, so you eat less in smaller portions, and hence you lose weight over time.

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It is important to follow a gastric bypass diet after a surgery.  The diet is designed to be gentle on your “new” smaller stomach, to ensure proper healing of the staple line, and to help you avoid overeating.

Gastric Bypass diet is generally divided into four phases, which I will describe in short. You should also know that the last phase of the diet will actually turn into your regular diet for the rest of your life.  

Gastric Bypass Diet Restrictions

You may not know but your stomach can normally hold about 6 cups of fluid at a time, and after a gastric bypass surgery, your new stomach pouch will only be able to hold only about ½ cup. That is 12 times less capacity, which sounds to me like you will need a major change in your eating habits.

To make sure you are eating right after the surgery, you should consult a nutritionist about the gastric bypass diet before starting it on your own. Here you will get only a briefly overview of what the gastric bypass diet consists of and what it recommends:

Vitamins and minerals - that’s what the gastric bypass diet recommends on the first place – taking multivitamins and minerals every day for the rest of your life. It sounds scary but these are the facts – you’ll need them.

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How exactly the Roux en-Y gastric bypass surgery helps you lose weight?

Let’s start with - you will eat less, and even if you want, you just won’t be able to eat more than your upper small stomach pouch allows you.

Let’s go on with – your caloric intake will be far less, because after the Roux-en Y gastric bypass, the food you eat bypasses a part of your small intestine and digestion actually occurs in the lower part of the small intestine. That in turn rapidly reduces the amount of calories your body absorbs, because your food skips part the small intestine length.

Roux en-Y gastric bypass complications

Well, there is one common complication after a laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery and it’s called the Dumping Syndrome – your body doesn’t feel very well when you consume foods high in refined sugars.

It occurs because the food you consume moves too quickly through your stomach and the small intestine. The symptoms are sweating, nausea, dizziness and weakness, and they get worse when you eat high sugar sweets and carbohydrates.

To be optimistic, I can say it’s not such a bad gastric bypass complication after all. Think of that you won’t be able to overeat with sweets, as you may have used to and you’ll lose weight forever.

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Types of Gastric Bypass Surgeries for Weight Loss

Gastric Bypass surgery can be either an open procedure (with a large incision in the abdomen) or laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery (also called limited access surgery because of the limitation on handling and feeling tissues, and the limited two-dimensional video screen).

Laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery is an advanced surgical technique performed by using several small incisions, or also called ports. One of the ports guides a surgical telescope connected to a video camera, and others permit access of the specialized operating instruments. The surgeon actually views the operation on a video screen.

As you already know from my previous post, the gastric bypass surgery includes dividing of the stomach into two pouches - a small upper pouch and a larger lower pouch, as well as re-arrangement and re-connection of the small intestines.

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Gastric Bypass surgery refers to a group of surgical procedures used to treat morbid obesity. Gastric Bypass surgery is a very popular weight loss surgery that makes your stomach smaller and you consume less food and your body absorbs fewer calories.

Bariatric surgery

Bariatrics is a branch of medicine that deals with the causes, prevention, and treatment of obesity. Bariatric surgery is the surgical treatment of morbid obesity. It includes several classes and types of operations and one of them is the gastric bypass surgery for weight loss.

Gastric Bypass surgery

Gastric bypass surgery is a type of bariatric surgery that makes your stomach smaller and the food literally bypasses the larger part of your stomach and a smaller part of your small intestines. This way you’ll feel full faster, which will lead to reduction of your food and caloric intake. That in turn will eventually lead to significant weight loss.

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