6 Reasons for Lack of Weight Loss After Bariatric Surgery
April 4, 2022Are you struggling to lose weight after surgery? Although weight loss plateaus are not uncommon after surgery, there are many habits that could be contributing to a lack of weight loss.
6 Reasons for Lack Of Weight Loss
1. Inadequate Protein Intake
Protein is undoubtedly the most important nutrient in the bariatric diet. Protein plays an essential role in helping your body burn fat, it supports your metabolism and helps to keep you full for longer periods. Inadequate protein intake can lead to your body preserving fat stores and burning lean muscle mass as energy, thus hindering weight loss.
While protein goals are individualized and vary from patient to patient, general protein intake recommendations are between 60-80 grams daily. Since your body cannot absorb more than 30 grams of protein at a time it is important to consume protein throughout the day through several small meals and snacks.
2. Grazing
Bariatric surgery restricts the amount of food you are able to consume during meals, thus theoretically reducing the amount of food consumed throughout the day. Grazing is a pattern of consuming smaller quantities of food throughout the day.
Grazing causes weight gain by allowing larger portions and higher calorie consumption throughout the whole day. Additionally, grazing can lead to consistently raised insulin levels, preventing your body from burning fat efficiently.
Whereas planned meals and snacks throughout the day boost metabolism to help with weight loss, grazing makes it difficult to listen to your body’s hunger and fullness cues. Often, people who struggle with grazing are drawn to foods high in carbohydrates, sugars, and calories which can contribute to weight plateaus.
Planning out meals and snacks ahead of time is one way to combat grazing patterns.
3. Inadequate or Lack of Exercise
If you are struggling with weight loss, it is essential that you are physically active! Minimal recommendations suggest between 120 to 150 minutes per week of moderate aerobic exercises. Strength training 2 to 3 times a week is also suggested. Exercise helps build and retain muscle and allows your body to burn fat. Maintaining muscle mass allows for a higher metabolism, resulting in quicker weight loss.
If you are exercising but your weight loss has slowed down you may need to revamp your exercise routine. Your body can adapt and may no longer burn as many calories during this exercise as when you first began. Other tips while exercising are to only take short rest periods during workouts, change up the order of exercises, and change the amount, repetitions, and sets of weights that you lift.
4. Mental Health Struggles
Psychological factors can negatively affect weight loss by hindering motivation or interfering with dietary compliance. Depression can lead you to old eating habits such as binge eating or resorting to comfort foods that are high in calories. Keeping your mental health and stress in check is essential along your bariatric journey.
Common symptoms of depression include:
- Fatigue
- Loss of interest in daily activities or hobbies
- Hopelessness
- Insomnia or excessive sleeping
- Irritability
- Thoughts of harming yourself or others
- Loss of interest in daily activities or hobbies
Reach out to your primary care provider or your program’s psychologist if you are struggling! Never be afraid to ask for help!
5. Consuming Hidden Calories
Be mindful of hidden calories as this can contribute to a lack of weight loss. Condiments like salad dressings and dipping sauces can be full of fat, carbohydrates, and calories. Drinking sweet tea, fruit juices with sugar, or carbonated beverages can also hinder weight loss due to high sugars and high caloric value.
Additionally, candies, gums, and mints that contain sugar could contribute to a lack of weight loss. It is important to carefully review the nutrition facts of food and beverage products before consuming them.
Reading labels is essential to check for added sugars. Common names for added sugars to look for on food labels include anhydrous dextrose, barley, malt, beet sugar, brown sugar, coconut sugar, confectioner's powdered sugar, corn syrup, dextrin, dextrose, high-fructose corn syrup, maltodextrin, malt syrup, maltose, maple syrup, molasses, nectar, sorghum syrup, and sucrose.
Drinking alcohol after surgery may also reduce maximal weight loss success. Alcohol contains many calories that prevent weight loss and has no nutritional benefit. For instance, one can of beer contains 150 calories, one glass of wine contains 70 calories and 1.5 ounces of liquor contains up to 160 calories.
Once consumed, alcohol can relax inhibitions, which can lead you to overeat and chose to eat unhealthy foods. Additionally, carbonated alcoholic drinks like beer and champagne can expand your new small stomach, making it stretch over time and allowing for a larger portion intake. Furthermore, carbonated beverages have also been shown to increase hunger which can lead to overeating and weight gain.
6. Poor Sleep Habits
Believe it or not, your sleep patterns play a huge role in weight loss and can be a contributing factor to lack of weight loss. Lack of sleep lowers your metabolism. In addition, lack of sleep causes your brain to increase reward center activity which can lead to cravings for higher calorie and carbohydrate foods. Sleep deprivation can also lower hormone levels that are responsible for hunger and feeling full, which leads to the consumption of more calories.
If lack of sleep is related to staying up late at night, this alone can make you eat meals in the late evening which also contribute to slower weight loss. Sleepiness also makes it less likely that you exercise as recommended.
A minimum of 7 to 8 hours of sleep is recommended. Ways to make sure you are getting adequate sleep and maximizing weight loss include avoiding large meals, caffeine, or alcohol before bedtime, creating a relaxing nighttime routine before sleep that does not include using your cellphone, computer, or watching TV, and ensuring you have a comfortable sleeping environment such as a cool, quiet and a dark room, comfortable bed and pillows.
Brittany Jackson, MSN, FNP-C, is the Bariatric Coordinator for Southern Surgical Associates.
 | ABOUT THE AUTHOR Brittany Jackson, MSN, FNP-C, is a board certified Family Nurse Practitioner and the Bariatric Coordinator for Southern Surgical Associates. Brittany received her Master of Science in Nursing from The University of North Carolina at Wilmington in December 2020 and joined the Southern Surgical team in May 2021. She is certified as as Family Nurse Practitioner by the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. |
