How to Eat for Muscle Growth After Bariatric Surgery
December 13, 2017I was over the moon when I received an email that someone had requested I write on this topic! The world of fitness after bariatric surgery is a new and sometimes overwhelming world indeed. I guarantee you this, you’ll never regret building a fit and strong physique.
With that being said, as bariatric patients, we have to go about it in a bit of a different way than the majority of the population. When some programs will have you eating fish, white rice and asparagus at six meals a day, bariatric patients just can’t do that (and that diet plan sounds terrible anyway).
Building strong muscles takes time, consistency and patience.
5 Tips To Eat For Muscle Growth After Bariatric Surgery
1. Find your happy macronutrient place
Figuring out what to eat, how much to eat, when to eat it and why was one of the most confusing aspects of this new lifestyle for me. It’s a lot simpler than we make it.
- Eat lean proteins at every meal time.
- Eat dark, leafy greens that are easy to digest at a majority of meals or in-between as planned snacks.
- Fats that are a good bang for your pouch buck (oils and grass-fed butters).
- Adjusting carbs accordingly and limiting to low-glycemic carbs only.
- Using spices and different cooking methods is a great way to get creative with foods you might be eating on a daily basis.
It would be impossible to for me to tell you exactly where to start with your own personal macronutrients so here is a vague suggestion that will hopefully help you find a decent starting point for yourself.
Find out where your macronutrients are right now. Adjust your foods and make swaps accordingly so that you are eating from the above suggestions, keeping foods clean and home-made. The quality of the nutrients you are putting into your body are just as important as the quantity of the food. Once your foods are adjusted take time to adjust your macronutrients; protein should be the highest macronutrient intake for your day, fats next being at about half of the grams you are taking in of protein, with 30-40 grams of carbs total to get you started.
Measure out all macronutrients into six meals per day. Keep track of your lifts, your cardio, and food amounts you are able to eat and progress for at least a month. After a month if you are not seeing progress in your pictures, adjust accordingly.
2. Don't make crazy changes too quickly
Believe me, I know how much you want to see a change as quickly as possible. Sadly, our bodies have a different plan and they take their own sweet time showing off the hard work we are putting in.
Our bodies need time to adjust to changes and adapt, and four weeks is a decent amount of time to start seeing changes. When you are tracking your macronutrients and you don’t see progress as quickly as you would like, please don’t make crazy diet changes thinking that it will help. Your body will have to start from square one all over again and re-adjust to the rapid changes you’re making.
Adjust macros slowly, increase protein, decrease carbs and wait. If you don’t continue to see progress, then increase the intensity of your workouts and wait. Be patient. Keep working as hard as you can every single day, put in the work, track the progress, keep learning your body. (Note: it took me six years of doing this entire list multiple times to get to the bodybuilding stage.)
3. Keep a journal
You should be keeping a journal during your journey anyway. However, this one is going to be a much different journal. This journal is going to track your workouts, how your body feels, your goals, things you are noticing and personal best lifts. Keep detailed notes every day on what you are eating during the day, before your workouts, and after your workouts. Make a note of everything you did at the gym, reps, sets, and weights.
Extra tip: Use this as your study-guide in the future if you feel yourself falling off track.
4. Keep listening to your tool
You will drive yourself crazy with measuring, weighing and tracking. At the end of the day, the whole point of having bariatric surgery is that we now have the beautiful tool of portion control.
We listen to our own minds more than we listen to our body and what it needs. As you are starting to track your macronutrients, use weighing and measuring them as a tool to indicate how much you are able to eat. Example: If you portioned out 4 ounces of chicken in a meal and only ate a little over half, that’s a good indication of where your restriction is, adjust the portion to 3 ounces or you can divide the 4 ounces into two meals to make it 2 ounces per meal.
Your tool is still there and now the two of you are going to crank it into high gear to be on the same page together.
5. Little and often
I truly believe that this philosophy I followed was what made a difference in my muscle growth and strength. Instead of trying to get all of the protein I needed into three smaller meals, I broke those meals down even further to six meals per day. When I kept eating a little bit of food every 2 hours, I was able to get my macronutrients in much easier than forcing anything down.
This also made it easier for me to get my water and my vitamin supplements in. Water, wait, food, wait, supplements, water, wait, food…you get the idea. You will always be doing one or the other and it is crucial to stay on top of all bariatric necessities as well as fitness necessities in order to see the progress you want.
Muscle Growth Doesn’t Happen Overnight
Rinse and repeat. This is a trial and error process. Everyone’s body is different and you have to become a student of your own body. Muscle growth doesn’t happen overnight, stay honest, stay consistent and stay determined. Most of all…have some fun! Happy lifting!
 | ABOUT THE AUTHOR Lyss Remaly had WLS in 2010 after her highest weight of 350lbs. She revised from Lap-Band to a Duodenal Switch. After changing her habits, she became certified as a personal trainer and behavior change specialist to help others do the same. Lyss is a Bariatric Lifestyle Coach, Certified Personal Trainer and a competitive Natural Bodybuilder. Catch up with Lyss at FitnFabulyssRead more of Lyss' articles! |
