Although the trend of body acceptance is a step in the right direction when it comes to not judging others and discrimination, it is still better to not be obese. This is because there are a lot of health issues that arise when you are seriously overweight such as diabetes, heart disease, and other serious problems.
When you are morbidly obese, a good option to get your health back on track is to have bariatric surgery. It is important to keep in mind that this isn’t a situation in which all your eating problems are over. In fact, it is going to be a long road. For instance, even before the surgery, you will need to drastically change your diet. In this article, we will go over what you need to eat before you go in for surgery.
High protein
Before surgery, you will need to have a lot of protein but that doesn’t mean eating a lot of meat. Essentially, you will be eating fewer carbohydrates so this means eating more protein. The important part of this is that the meat is very lean. You will need to cut way down on fat from meat before and, most importantly, after your surgery.
Rather than eating a steak and cutting the fat off, you should look into some protein soup and even some supplement shakes. These will be very low in calories yet give you the protein your muscles need so you aren’t losing muscle mass. You are going to be putting your body through a lot so keeping it strong by getting plenty of lean protein is important. In fact, it can even help you recover faster from the surgery.
When you are allowed to eat solids, try to stick with things like hard-boiled egg whites, fish, and poached or grilled chicken breast. At a certain point, you will be relegated to a liquid diet when you will switch to soup and shakes instead.
Cut out the carbs
As much as people love carbohydrates, they are responsible for most of the weight gain you have probably experienced. They are mostly refined so you end up eating foods that turn into sugar very quickly and spike your insulin. This is how people that are obese end up getting diabetic.
Before and after the surgery, you will have to cut out just about all carbs from your diet. Pasta, potato, bread, and any type of sugary food will have to be eliminated.
Focus on digestion
When you have the surgery, you have to think about foods that are easy to digest all the time. Your body is going to be very sensitive to any foods that take effort for your digestive tract to process. You should essentially train yourself to eat foods that are easy to digest for a few weeks before your surgery.
This will help you to lose weight quickly and get your body ready for surgery. You will also have the right diet for when you have come out of surgery.
Photo by Diana Polekhina on Unsplash
Author: Mandy Kloppers
Mandy is a qualified therapist who treats depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, trauma, and many other types of mental health issues. She provides online therapy around the world for those needing support and also provides relationship counselling.
