I recently received the following question.
I had Bariatric surgery 5 weeks ago, was doing real well but when I weighed myself this week to my astonishment put 5kg back on. I Googled it and they call it a plateau or stall, how we can get over these phases?
-My answer below.
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It is not uncommon for people with Bariatric surgery to plateau. The first thing I recommend is to start doing a food journal to see if there are any sources of high calorie low nutrient density foods. These would include anything that has flour, sugar, oil, and most juices. More about this later. Also beyond that – most of the oils bought in stores are actually rancid and you might not know it. This causes inflammation in the body which doesn’t help the situation. Get my short book on Inflammation to understand this more.
Another thing is this – your metabolism starts to adapt to the lower portion sizes that you have been eating. How do you fight back against this? You can eat more foods like garlic, onions, ginger, green tea, white matcha and spices like turmeric that can rev up your metabolism and also add lots of anti-inflammatory natural molecules to your diet.
Metabolism always needs to be challenged so that it doesn’t adapt too much. That is why if you do the same exercise everyday, you start to lose the effect. Your body was meant to be challenged! I don’t know what your mobility is but there are certain short (less than 20 minutes twice per week) high intensity exercises that you can do that can really up your metabolism but I can’t recommend them unless I know your activity level and your physician recommendation or restriction – let me know and I can make some recommendations.
Blood sugar spikes also make a huge difference here because when your sugar spikes – it effectively shuts off fat burning and encourages fat deposition as well as initiating processes of aging. See my book on inflammation to learn more. I recommend for patients with Bariatric surgery to stop eating foods with a glycemic index above 45. Your can find out if a food is above 45 by visiting glycemicindex.com.
Let me know what flour, oil, and sugar is in your diet firstly and I will offer alternatives for foods you “can’t do without.” Certainly Miracle Noodles can be used if you miss pasta and Miracle Matcha can be used for high nutrient density. (Disclaimer : I own both companies and started them to help bring people these amazing products) I am more than happy to help you with this if you reply thoughtfully to my questions. It makes me very happy to help you.
To be continued . . . Sign up for the newsletter at the top of the screen to stay up to date on this learning exchange.