The Importance of Protein after Weight Loss Surgery

Your weight loss surgeon will provide you with ongoing guidance about the best foods to eat as you recover from surgery, and it is important that you follow those guidelines to ensure the healthiest recovery and best weight loss results. Throughout these dietary recommendations, there is one factor that you will find steady from day one: protein intake. Protein is a cornerstone of the post-bariatric surgery diet, and it is important that you are getting the right amount to support your body’s optimal wellbeing.

Making the Right Food Choices

The dietary choices you make following weight loss surgery can make or break your weight loss success. Bariatric surgery does a lot to support your weight loss efforts, physically restricting how much food you can eat at any one time to help suppress your appetite around the clock, but hunger is only one factor that influences your dietary choices.

Having a strong eating strategy goes a long way after weight loss surgery to ensure that you are making the right choices regarding your nutrient intake, and that you are able to overcome any mental cravings or emotional eating cues that can cause you to overeat despite the lack of hunger.

Part of this strategy is going to be keeping a diligent eye on nutrition labels and being completely aware of how much protein you are getting in your diet at any point.

All About Protein

Protein is the building block of muscles and a fundamental aspect of any healthy diet. After weight loss surgery protein becomes even more important.

Following your bariatric procedure the amount of calories you can eat per sitting and per day will be greatly limited. This means that when you do eat, you need to make sure that you are making the best eating choices and that you are getting maximum nutrient value out of every bite. When it comes to protein intake, this will require making several adjustments to the way that you dine.

These protein adjustments might include:

• Eating your protein serving first so you ensure you eat it before you grow full
• Sticking to lean protein sources that are low in calorie content but high in nutrient value, like grilled chicken or turkey.
• Using protein supplements and protein shakes to balance out your protein intake daily

The reason protein is so important is because it is part of every cell, tissue and organ in the body. Proteins are constantly being broken down and need to be replaced. If you aren’t eating enough protein daily, then you may not have enough of the nutrient present for your body to be able to rebuild muscle, which is crucial as you are focusing on your health and weight loss.

Talk to your weight loss surgeon about ways that you can increase your protein intake after weight loss surgery. Making healthy dietary adjustments is part of adapting to a healthier way of living after bariatric surgery.