7 ways weight loss is influenced after bariatric surgery

Weight loss after bariatric surgery is different for everyone. The reality is no two people experience weight loss the same.

This is because there is only one YOU! Although bariatric surgery produces great weight loss for so many people. What caused YOUR weight loss is different for everyone. And it’s not just because you’re eating less food.

You see, weight loss after bariatric surgery can be influenced by so many factors and I’m not just talking about how well you eat and exercise. Although those are important aspects of weight loss, there are deeper considerations after bariatric surgery. Think of it more like how your diet and lifestyle choices are influencing things at a cellular and a DNA level.

So, let’s dig into the seven ways weight loss is influenced after bariatric surgery…

Genetics
Inflammation
Oxidative stress
Methylation
Gut bacteria
Mindset
Stress

Genetic connection to weight loss after bariatric surgery

There is considerable variability in your ability to lose, gain or maintain a healthy weight. As a matter of fact, certain gene variations affect how you regulate energy (aka calories) and making you more genetically prone to gain weight and slow weight loss. This is why following a standard bariatric diet may need to be more personalized.

You see, also your genes have the ability to influence how frequent and how much you need to eat to feel satisfied. Not to mention the type of exercise and how long you need to move to experience benefits. Although, as it happens, genetic variations can give us insight into how people respond to overeating, exercise and diet.

But here’s the good news…

Your genes only load the gun, but it’s your epigenetics that pull the trigger.

For instance, epigenetics is just how your behaviours and environment cause changes that affect the way your genes work. Epigenetics doesn’t change your DNA sequence, but they can change how your body reads a DNA sequence.

And guess what?

Meanwhile, your genes can be influenced to improve weight loss. Although genetic testing is helpful and very personalized, applying some basic principles can help get you started. These include…

Quality sleep
Realistic goal setting
Quality food
Mindful & intuitive eating

Now, let’s move on to understanding how inflammation impacts weight loss.

Inflammation’s influence of weight loss after bariatric surgery

Inflammation is protective by design, but can become destructive when not monitored. When inflammation turns chronic is when conditions like arthritis, eczema, IBS, autoimmune conditions and many diseases, including obesity occur.

A study published in 2016 “The impact of bariatric surgery on inflammation: quenching the fire of obesity?”

Inflammation is a known complication of obesity that supports Type 2 diabetes development.

In fact, inflammation causes the transition from obese and metabolically healthy to obese and metabolically unhealthy.

But failure of inflammation to resolve after bariatric surgery may blunt improvements in glycemic control. Therefore, impacting weight loss. So, as you can see, inflammation has connections to your blood sugar. Additionally, gut bacteria, genetics, stress and oxidative stress influence your inflammatory response and weight loss after bariatric surgery.

Although bariatric surgery positively shifts inflammation, gut bacteria, genetics, blood sugar balance AND oxidative stress, it doesn’t guarantee remission. Not to mention, permanently change it. Maintaining these benefits may require being intentional about your choices.

When it comes to inflammation, it takes persistence to improve weight loss outcomes. Also, think of it as more of what you add, not take away.

Include whole foods that influence your inflammatory response(flavonoids, polyphenols, aka plants, especially with color)
Unsaturated fats(salmon, sardines, cold-pressed olive & avocado oil)
Prebiotic fibers(garlic, onions, asparagus, artichokes, honey, wheat, rye, tomato, milk)
Beta-Glucans(whole grains, shiitake mushrooms)

So improving weight loss after bariatric surgery, regardless of how perfect you eat. You can lessen the impact my ADDING these powerful choices.

Now let’s weave in oxidative stress.

Oxidative stress & weight loss after bariatric surgery

Oxidative stress is the human equivalent of “rusting” to put it simply. The impact of all exposures over time results in damage to our cells. Unmanaged oxidation can impact energy levels, memory, premature aging and sometimes cancer risk. In a healthy functioning cell, enzymes that counteract oxidative damage, a “rust block” is made. The ability to make those enzymes is determined by certain genes.

A study published in 2020 “Influence of bariatric surgery induced weight loss on oxidative DNA damage”. Overall, bariatric surgery induced significant reduction in excess body weight and improved the patients’ health status, including reduced DNA strand breaks and slightly improved antioxidant status, but DNA oxidation damage stayed unaltered. Although bariatric surgery did show an improvement in overall antioxidants it doesn’t fully repair the previous damage.

This is where diet and lifestyle play a role. In fact, we know a good diet and lifestyle can aid towards lowering the oxidative burden and help maintain the health of your cells.

So what helps lower oxidative stress?

Increase anti-oxidant rich foods (dark leafy greens, Olives, beets, berries)
Foods that supply co-factors for anti-oxidant enzymes(zinc, copper, selenium & manganese rich foods)
Foods that dampen inflammation caused by oxidative stress damage(polyphenols, omega-3)
Over exercising/training increases the potential for oxidative stress. Rest & recovery is important.

Methylation & weight loss after bariatric surgery

Methylation is the biochemical process of making sure every cell is functioning optimally. It’s not just responsible for how we repair genetic material, but also how we make energy, respond to stress, handle inflammation, how well our cells detoxify and how our brain chemistry works. In fact, methylation is the process involved in actually turning genes on or off. So you have to look at it through the lens of an indirect influence when it comes to weight loss.

You see, methylation impacts so many pathways that influence your ability maximize weight loss after bariatric surgery. So ignoring this very important process that occurs in every human seems crazy. A great example is, the genetic SNP MTHFR 677 C>T, which is common in >50% of the entire population. This SNP alone impairs folate metabolism that downstream impacts methylation, detoxification, neurochemical balance, cardiovascular health, hormone balance and DNA synthesis.

Additionally, the MTHFR 1298 A>C SNP also impairs folate metabolism increasing this risk further. Not to mention, those that carry both 677 C>T & 1298 A>C MTHFR SNPs have an increased risk for depression.

How well will you manage exercise, cooking healthy meals and engaging in the necessary behaviors for long-term maintenance of weight loss after bariatric surgery if methylation is ignored?

So if you’d like to turn off the genes associated with any disease there are a few things you can do to optimize methylation.

Supply adequate co-factors for methylation enzymes by consuming foods high in B-vitamins, choline and magnesium(leafy greens, cruciferous veggies, avocado, beans, eggs, nuts & seeds)
Provide food that act as methyl donors(wild caught fish, poultry, grass-fed meats, wild game, garbanzo beans, edamame)
Prevent DNA damage and address factors that may burden the methylation cycle(cruciferous veggies, green & black tea, adequate fiber, limit alcohol, fermented food to maximize B vitamin absorption)

How gut bacteria impact weight loss after bariatric surgery

Although many studies show your gut bacteria are connected to weight loss success after bariatric surgery. No one fully understands the how and why. A study published in 2019 in the Journal of Obesity Surgery, “Role of gut microbiota in sustained weight loss following roux-en-y gastric bypass surgery”.

“The results indicate that the gut microbiota are at least functionally, if not compositionally different between the poor weight loss and successful weight loss patients.” Another study published in the American Journal of Translational Research 2019, “Gut microbiota specific signatures are related to the successful rate of bariatric surgery”

“Successful patients have presented a more diverse core microbiome, what could represent a dysbiosis status of the other groups.” For some, gut bacteria can seem like they have a mind of their own when it comes to weight loss after bariatric surgery. Too much is bad. Too little is bad. In fact, it’s all about balance.

Comparatively, no one’s “guts” are alike. As a matter of fact, your health story has influenced every aspect of your gut health. Antibiotics, medication, surgeries, stressful events, trauma, food choices, exercise and sleep all determine the “healthiness” of your gut bacteria.

So, when it comes to weight loss after bariatric surgery, optimizing your gut bacteria can be quite impactful. Here are a few tips:

Eat a diet high in fibre from multiple different plants & whole grains
Consume resistant starch foods
Include polyphenols (berries, green tea, cocoa, dark chocolate, cherries, beets)
Limit antibiotic use
Get off proton pump inhibitors (PPIs)

Is your mindset influencing your weight loss after bariatric surgery?

The almighty powerful brain. Or maybe it’s just stubbornness? Regardless, it’s easy to get stuck in old patterns of thinking. Your weight loss after bariatric surgery doesn’t occur because your brain was altered. Although you will experience weight loss after bariatric surgery, working on your mindset is an important piece to your long-term success.

For example, what if you’re genetically designed to experience weight loss slowly after bariatric surgery?

Will you be grateful for the weight loss or frustrated at the pace?

Don’t let your mindset spoil the process. Your surgeon, dietitian or therapist do not know how quickly or how much you will lose. All you can do is focus on the things you can control, while shifting your mindset to be resilient enough to handle any situation that unravels. After counselling tens and thousands of bariatric patients, the individuals that are more resilient focused less on numbers and more on the behaviours.

They have an openness to experiment with new strategies that may shift their biology a little closer to their goal. A resilient mindset is the best strategy. It will prepare you for wherever your journey takes you.

How can you shift your mindset?

Hang around people who stretch you
Consider what you’re grateful for
Challenge yourself to do something new
Don’t be afraid to fail

Stress and weight loss after bariatric surgery

Although most would associate the correlation with stress and weight loss after bariatric surgery to poor food choices. Or just a life out of balance. Unfortunately, stress goes way deeper. In fact, I would say out of all ten listed, stressful events probably have one of the most powerful impacts. It’s like stress can place “timestamps” on your nervous system. If you drew a timeline of your health history, you will likely find a stressful life event prior.

Stress shifts so many things in your biology. For example, one stressful event can shift gut bacteria, blood sugar balance, inflammation, sleep and hormones. Almost instantaneously it seems. Weight loss gets woven into the cascade of events that unravel. To explain further, when stressed, your body prepares itself by ensuring that enough sugar(energy) is readily available. So, your insulin levels fall, glucagon and epinephrin(adrenaline) levels rise and more glucose is release from the liver.

A study published in 2020 found stress can reshape the gut bacteria’s composition through stress hormones, inflammation and autonomic alterations. In turn the gut bacteria release metabolites, toxins, and neurohormones that can alter eating behaviour and mood. In fact, some bacterial species may encourage dysregulated eating.

So, as you can see, the cascade of events that follow chronic stress can be life altering. But there are things you can do to help lessen the impact.

Meditations
Sit in nature
Go for a slow nature walk
Pet an animal
Sing a favorite’s song

Conclusion

As you can see, what drives weight loss for you may not work for someone else. So understanding your genetics, methylation, oxidative stress and inflammation can really give insight into how weight loss can work for YOU!

And finally, weight loss after bariatric surgery doesn’t occur because your brain was altered. Taking the time to work on your mindset may be the most important aspect of weight loss. Put in the effort because the rewards are many!