Losing weight after having gastric bypass surgery is very dramatic. Since your stomach is smaller, and the surgery needs to heal you will see incredible results in a very short span of time. It is not unheard of to lose hundreds of pounds in as short a time as 18 months or less.
The thing to understand is anytime you have dramatic and sudden weight loss there will be some side effects to overcome. There are some little-known side effects like hair loss when you lose a lot of weight. In this case, you’ll need to research the best vitamins for hair loss after bariatric surgery.
In this article, we will go over some of the side effects that you may experience when you’ve had weight loss surgery.
1 – Depression
Even though many people that are obese and unhealthy have depression, many expect it to go away when they’ve lost weight. There are others who are in a good mental health state and will end up with feelings of depression after the sudden weight loss.
There is a mental toll taken on people who now have to show a lot of discipline to maintain control over what they eat and the exercise they need to do. It is very taxing mentally and can lead to depression. Those that have had bariatric surgery have it even tougher than those on traditional diets as many comfort foods are off-limits as they make you sick.
It should be a good indicator as to how much of a problem depression can be after the fact that a mental health evaluation is part of the process to see if somebody qualifies for bariatric surgery.
2 – Malnutrition
Since there are many foods that are off-limits and people with overeating issues before the surgery happened didn’t know how to eat a balanced diet, to begin with, there is a chance of not getting enough nutrition from the food they eat.
Many nutrients and minerals have to come from other sources since some vegetables and meats are not allowed. This means that taking multivitamins is essential to be able to get enough nutrition. A balanced diet is an ideal thing but it takes a lot of practice to get it right so supplements are a good insurance policy to have.
3 – Muscle loss
Exercise is essential after bariatric surgery since big weight losses usually also mean loss of muscle mass. When weight loss is happening quickly, the body starts taking nutrients from your muscle and not just burning fat. This muscle needs to be rebuilt.
Muscle is one of the tools to burn lots of fat and the less muscle that you have the less fat you’ll be able to burn. Rebuilding that muscle will help you keep the weight off for the long term. Make sure to not only do cardio and light workouts like walking and yoga. You should also be looking into resistance training to build muscle, especially in your core.
