What do lap band patients eat?

People who chose to undergo lap band surgery are opting for more than a medical procedure; they are also adopting a lifestyle change. The change has two primary goals. The first is a gradual increase in exercise. Once slowly introduced, a regular exercise routine has to be observed on a daily basis. This means that a person who decides to go the lap band route will have to make a commitment to alter sedentary behaviors post surgery.

The other aspect of change that lap band patients must commit to is to follow a balanced meal plan. This new diet will also need to be incorporated into the patient’s daily routine.

Pre surgery diet A few months prior to lap band surgery, patients need to eat an extremely nutritional diet cutting meals into smaller portions to get used to the idea of eating lighter. The doctor will devise a diet program for you to follow that will be essential to the operations success. Following the diet is crucial in that it will shrink the liver which in turn will minimize blood loss and prevent muscle degeneration. This sensible meal plan usually reduces caloric intake to 800 to 1200 while cutting high fat content foods. There will most likely be a concentration on proteins rich edibles as well.

A liquid diet is then prescribed for the remaining two weeks before the operation. Other pre operative changes will include increasing exercise getting rid of cigarettes and reducing carbonated drinks.

Post surgery diet It takes roughly 4-6 weeks to stabilize and eat normally after lap band surgery. During the process, the patient will have to gradually get to the point of eating solids via a four step process. The first step directly follows surgery when patients will be given ice shavings and chips to suck on. They also won’t be able to drink fluids or caloric beverages until the next day to prevent nausea and vomiting.

A liquid diet is then observed for approximately two weeks. Many of the liquids have to be thin and clear like a broth and cannot include chunks of any kind. Dairy, sugar and extremely cold foods should also be avoided. When the doctor gives the go ahead, a patient often graduates to pureed foods that are prepared in a blender. The types of food one can pure can be discussed with your doctor. In terms of consistency, one can say the foods are akin to baby foods.

Directly following this is the introduction of foods like chicken or turkey. Portions have to be small and the patient has to thoroughly chew their meals or risk complications with their lap band due to sudden regurgitation. Vomiting can create major problems that could threaten the success of your surgery.

Should everything go as planned the doctor will allow you to start on solid foods once again but you will have to chew your food to a fine consistency before swallowing. You should also refrain from drinking anything with or after meals as the food will pass through your system too quickly for you to feel full. This will defeat the entire purpose of the lap band installation.

If you follow the basic instructions to the letter, you’ll soon be on your way to lifestyle make over that will provoke positive change and promote weight loss.

Long term diet Once you begin to eat solid foods, just remember to chew thoroughly and refrain from drinking anything with your meals. You will never be able to eat the way you once did prior to surgery, high calorie foods, sugary or carbonated drinks and even things like popcorn, asparagus and certain types of nuts will be off limits. Getting lap band surgery is not only a physical adjustment but a mental one as well, but once you begin eating healthy well balanced diets, you probably won’t even desire to partake in high caloric eating again. This makes lap band surgery rewarding on many levels.

Private Gastric Surgery in the UK

If you looking at having Gastric lap band surgery in the UK and you have the ability to fund the surgery yourself, you may want to contact a surgeon to arrange to have it done privately. The cost for having a private gastric band surgery in the UK will generally ranges from 4,000 - 8,000.

For a more complex surgery your surgeon may request you to be a private patient in the NHS hospital rather than in the local private hospital, due to the proximity to specialist care and services should you need them.

Here’s a few question you will need to ask to check whether the private surgery will cover:

Do the fees include pre-operational items such as blood tests, physician and dietician fees?

Are all hospital costs and operation costs included? Fees for surgeon and anaesthetist? What happens if there’s complications and you need to stay in hospital or need more specialised care?

Do the fees cover after care treatment? How many fills are included? Does it include blood tests for RNY/BPD/DS patients? What if you need additional care?

Never be afraid to ask questions regarding private surgery for gastric banding as your surgeon will be happy to explain more. Note most gastric band surgery will only include two band fills which is probably not enough.

As many patients require several more adjustments over the next two years after the surgery to reach their weight loss goals. If possible get a package with slightly more of surgeon appointments and dieticians follow-up after surgery than to be faced with the dilemma of not doing as well as you had hoped and having to find the money for additional appointments.

Generally insurance companies in the UK will not payout for any form of gastric surgery even though it’s considered a chronic illness. If insurance companies allow people to claim they will avoid any future claims for other related illnesses.

Now patients are looking abroad for their treatment and typically countries like France and Belgium as received medical tourists as the cot of surgery is much cheaper in them countries. Local surgery will give you the benefit of follow up care, where as some local surgeons refuse to treat you if you had operation abroad.

What ever you decide on your surgery, whether it’s local or overseas operation after care is key factor. So it’s recommended that you look at specialist obesity surgery. As they will have a great team of doctors to do the operation and follow up care? Quality of your operation is important so study carefully.

Gastric Banding In Belgium

Having your Gastric Lap Banding Surgery in Belgium has become very common, and Belgium has become one of the medical tourism destinations in Europe for Weight Loss Surgery and especially laparoscopic gastric band surgery.

So why has Belgium become such a popular destination in Europe?

The money that can save compared to countries like the UK where the surgery can cost around 9,000 against Belgiums cost only half that amount, with cost reductions the standard of operation has remained.

Quality of surgery: Belgium has a long been known for an affordable and high quality weight loss surgery medical centres. Laparoscopy, in fact is one of the areas of expertise of Belgian medical tourism for a long time. Gastric Lap Band or Gastric bypass is done by laparoscopy where possible and as this means a reduced stay in hospital, the patients too find this a great choice.

Belgian hospitals have a very high standard of hygiene standards and always uses the latest technology. Recently, The World Markets Research Centre put Belgium on top of a list of 175 countries on ratings done for medical purposes, one of the ratings being secondary infection or Staph rates. Belgiums secondary infection rate was found to be on an average less than 0.5% compared with 10% in the UK.

Belgium has a high standard of doctors compare to other countries as their doctors will typically train for 7 years and for specialists that is 12 years.

A problem with overseas surgery is the follow up inspections that can easy be one in England or Ireland though their network as they have links to local doctors to ensure all is well.

No need to wait for the surgery: As UK is famous for its waiting on the NHS. In Belgium, you set the date for the surgery, after initial tests are done, surgery is next.

Waiting is nearly zero, gone are the days of waiting months like UK, now you can choice your date and next stop is your surgery.

Climate and language: The climate is much about the same as the UK with warmer summers and colder winters. Dutch, French, and German are the official languages but a lot of young people do speak English, too. Hence, there is usually no communication problem.

Belgians climate is ideal for people from the UK, as they basically have the same weather with nice summers and cold winters. Language is not much an issue they speak Dutch, German and French and most will speak English too.