Bariatric surgery helps you lose a significant amount of weight rapidly for up to one and a half years. Following this period, the weight loss tends to slow down and may even plateau. This is the time to stay focused on your goals and tweak your weight loss program sufficiently to allow you to get back on track.
To put it simply, in order to lose weight, you need to ensure that the number of calories you consume is less than the number of calories you use on a daily basis. When you lose weight after bariatric surgery and dieting, the number of calories you need to maintain your body weight also decreases. However, this is short-lived as the immediate weight loss is actually due to loss of water when the extra stored reserve of glycogen burns down for energy. There will also be some inevitable decrease in muscle mass, which will reduce your metabolism and your ability to burn calories. With time, metabolism adjusts to your new lifestyle and body weight, preventing ongoing weight loss. You may reach a stage when despite all your right moves, the results stop showing on the scales. This may frustrate your attempts at further weight loss. However, there is no need to throw in the towel just yet. Having understood these factors, you can now turn them to your advantage following these 3 steps:
Further reduce calories: Gradually decrease the number of calories consumed ensuring that you do not go lower than 750 calories. Maintaining a journal and recording the number of calories consumed will ensure that shaving off additional calories can be done with minimum discomfort.
Increase muscle mass: Your body will respond when you change up the same old workout routines. Incorporating weight training into your exercise program as well as eating a high protein diet will ensure that you gain muscle. The added muscle will help increase your metabolism and ensure that you burn off more calories.
Increase your aerobic activity: As your body becomes more fuel efficient, gradually challenge it in terms of intensity or endurance. There are a variety of new routines that you can try such as Zumba, cycle classes and kickboxing. This is sure to further boost your metabolism, further increasing your weight loss.
Using this 3-pronged approach will start the get the scale moving in the right direction again.
