The Importance of Sleep During Lap-Band Surgery Recovery

As with any surgery, sleep is incredibly important to your recovery after Lap-Band® procedure. Sleep is about more than just getting a good night’s rest. Not only does proper rest boost energy levels, but it also improves your body’s ability to heal itself and strengthens your immune system. A faster recovery post-surgery means you can get moving sooner and start your journey toward a healthier lifestyle.

How the Lap-Band Procedure Speeds Recovery

Like other bariatric procedures, the Lap-Band surgery is performed laparoscopically. The minimally invasive surgery leaves only a few small incisions, which also makes for a faster recovery and minimal scarring.

However, unlike other bariatric surgeries, the Lap-Band does not require any cutting or rerouting of your stomach or digestive system. Because there is no partial amputation during the surgery, Lap-Band patients typically have a very short outpatient hospital stay. Most Lap-Band patients are able to return home on the same day as their procedure .

Sleeping at Home After Lap-Band Surgery: Tips for Restful Sleep

Sleeping Position

Because of discomfort around your incision sites, sleeping on your stomach may be uncomfortable. We recommend sleeping on your back or on your side with a pillow between your knees. Some patients find it more comfortable to sleep slightly reclined in a comfortable chair or couch. Others find surgery pillows to be helpful to keep their body supported and relaxed.

Difficulty Falling or Staying Asleep

If you’re struggling to sleep after Lap-Band surgery, do not take any over-the-counter sleep medication, as they could interact with your prescribed pain meds. Even if you’re not taking pain medication, always talk to your doctor before adding more medication to your sleep routine. 

If you continue to struggle with falling and staying asleep, try adjusting your environmental factors in your room, like lowering the temperature or adding white noise. You may also find sleep breathing exercises or meditation useful.

Control Your Naps

Everyone loves a good nap, but sleeping too much in the middle of the day can prevent you from getting quality sleep when it’s actually time for bed. Research has shown the ideal nap is 10–20 minutes long—just enough to recharge your energy levels.

Sleep is an essential part of your recovery after Lap-Band surgery. Most patients return to work within a week and are fully healed within two, but poor sleep quality could lengthen your recovery. 

At Lap-Band Indiana, we aim to support our bariatric patients in any way possible. If you are struggling with your weight and diet and exercise have not worked for you, the Lap-Band may be the weight-loss solution you’re looking for. Learn more about the Lap-Band Program on our website or register for our free online seminar.

Patients often have questions about exercise. A common question asks which type of exercise is best for assisting weight loss: cardio or weights. This article will address the benefits of both and how incorporating both into your routine can help lead to lasting results.

Cardio: Burn More Calories per Session

Cardiovascular exercise is a superb addition to your routine. The main benefit of cardio is the calories per session you can burn. Cardio is a much better exercise for burning calories per workout session compared to weightlifting. Sustained, low-impact cardio burns more calories than weightlifting given the same amount of time. Though cardio will benefit you in the short term, weight training also carries some long-term benefits—especially for Lap-Band® patients. 

Weights: Increase Resting Metabolism and Calories per Day

Weight training may burn fewer calories per session, but it does increase the number of calories you burn per day. Muscle burns more calories while at rest—even more than fat. With this added strength, you may increase your resting metabolism. Adding weights to your routine may help you build muscle over the long term, thereby aiding your long-term weight loss. 

Incorporating Both Exercises

To experience both benefits, you may want to incorporate cardio and weightlifting into your routine. For Lap-Band patients, doing both exercises may be helpful for short and long-term weight loss. The Lap-Band Program also allows patients to experience long-term weight loss in the form of a fully adjustable gastric band. 

The Lap-Band is placed via minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery. This gastric band limits the amount of food you can intake, encouraging prolonged weight loss. Patients also benefit from the Lap-Band Program, which helps establish healthy eating and exercise habits. For more information about the Lap-Band, register for our free online seminar.

Obesity is on the rise every year. From 1999 to 2018, the obesity rate in America climbed from 30.5% to 42.4%. To reverse this trend, it’s essential to understand how obesity happens, the complications, and how to cultivate a healthy lifestyle with Lap-Band® surgery.

Identifying the Causes of Obesity

There are several causes of obesity, resulting in millions of Americans being affected. Understanding the various causes of obesity isn’t as simple as it might seem. Numerous contributing factors work in tandem to make obesity so prevalent. 

Unhealthy Diet 

An unhealthy diet is one of the most prevalent causes of obesity. An unhealthy diet often results from improper education about food. Lack of education regarding portion size, satiety and nutrition, and cultivating unhealthy food choices can be detrimental to our health.  

Social & Economic Issues 

Multiple social and economic issues can impact obesity. Poverty and inaccessibility to healthy options while providing cheaper, high calorie, and poor quality food options can increase the likelihood of people becoming obese.

Type 2 Diabetes 

You might think that type 2 diabetes is a byproduct of obesity, but the two have a much more complex relationship. You can acquire type 2 diabetes while not being overweight. This condition, however, nearly always leads to weight gain and obesity if not properly controlled. 

The Consequences of Obesity

There are multiple consequences of obesity, all of which can lead to life-long conditions that affect your health. People who experience obesity are at a higher risk for heart disease, hypertension, high cholesterol, stroke, sleep apnea, mental illness, osteoarthritis, and many forms of cancer.

Seeking Treatment with Lap-Band

The Lap-Band® is an excellent solution for those looking for an effective weight-loss solution. The Lap-Band procedure places a fully adjustable band around a portion of the stomach,  reducing the amount of food you can intake. Lap-Band patients experience weight loss after recovering and as the tools helps them establish new patterns of behavior. However, our Lap-Band Program doesn’t stop after surgery; your team will also work with you to establish healthy eating and exercise habits.

If you’re struggling with obesity, register for our online seminar to learn more about this procedure and how it can help you reach the milestones in your weight-loss journey.

Are you thinking about having bariatric surgery? If you are, then good for you! Thousands of Americans receive some form of bariatric surgery every year. If you’re still deciding, you’re probably seeing multiple procedures popping up in recommended blogs and advertisements. It can be challenging to choose the right solution for you. 

Finding a Solution

Our patients often wonder about the short-term effects of surgery, but today we wanted to focus on the long-term benefits. Specifically, we want to explore the long-term benefits of Lap-Band® surgery and why we recommend it to patients. 

We’ll list some of the long-term benefits of the Lap-Band Program and why it can be the best solution for producing lasting weight loss results. Follow along and read until the end to find the next step for your weight loss journey. 

Enduring Benefits

The Lap-Band procedure is one of the only bariatric solutions specifically tailored to your needs. Because the band is fully adjustable with a quick visit to your doctor, you can customize the process to your needs. With other solutions, this isn’t possible. This customization allows for enduring weight loss that changes as your body changes over time—something that other solutions can’t claim to offer. 

Also, it’s important to note that the gastric band doesn’t alter your anatomy in any way. It doesn’t require irreversible changes to your body like other solutions. The Lap-Band Program emphasizes minimal invasiveness. We want you to live as comfortably as possible while benefiting from a solution that won’t cause you any long-term discomfort. If needed, the band is entirely removable, returning your body to the way it was without any alterations. 

A Healthier Lifestyle

One of the best long-term effects of Lap-Band is the lifestyle changes that we emphasize. Our Lap-Band Program focuses on helping you cultivate a healthier lifestyle rather than just a surgical solution. With the tools to enhance your health, we believe that you can lose weight and become healthier overall.

With other solutions, patients may fail because they resort to old habits. Breaking these habits involves time and encouragement, which requires a more hands-on approach from your medical staff. You can make the necessary changes to lose weight regardless of which solution you choose, but old habits are hard to break when you go at it alone. That’s why we work with patients long-term; we help establish healthy habits that will last throughout your weight loss journey.

Results that Last

The results of our Lap-Band Program are excellent. We’ve seen thousands of patients make healthy changes to enrich their lives and grow happier. This weight loss solution isn’t a fad or temporary solution. Instead, Lap-Band allows you to lose weight over time with lifestyle changes that will help you develop independence. We believe this procedure enables you to take control rather than letting the solution control you.

Do you have more questions? That’s great to hear. We love hearing from people interested in the procedure and trying to find the best weight-loss solution for themselves. If you wish to learn more about Lap-Band, consider reaching out to us today and finding out if it’s right for you. 

The Average Cost of Bariatric Surgery

For most people, finances are a big consideration before proceeding with bariatric surgery. However, there are some great economic benefits to bariatric solutions like Lap-Band® that are rarely mentioned. In this article we’ll cover some of those benefits and explain how general bariatrics can save you money rather than being a financial stressor. 

Lowering Your Health Insurance

Roughly 60 million Americans are obese, resulting in record numbers for heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and even certain types of cancer. Because of these record numbers, our health insurance companies will do anything to keep us from developing conditions—including paying for some bariatric procedures. 

Additionally, opting for bariatric surgery can reduce your monthly premiums, resulting in long-term savings of thousands of dollars. With these savings, the average cost of bariatric surgery is hardly significant and will save you money in the long run. Issues like high blood pressure can disappear with surgical procedures like Lap-Band and save you many trips to the doctor, further contributing to the thickness of your wallet.

Increasing Eligibility

Losing that excess weight is a great way to increase your financial eligibility for coverage options. People who undergo the Lap-Band procedure and lose weight can qualify for better health and life insurance. People who undergo weight loss surgery can qualify for better coverage around two years after losing the weight. With better coverage comes more financial help if catastrophe strikes. This means that any bariatric surgery cost can be miniscule compared to the financial assistance you can receive after weight loss. 

Setting Up Your Appointment

There is no better time to request bariatric surgery from a trusted provider, especially with insurance policies that will cover the cost of surgery. Reach out and talk to someone at our clinic today.  

Learning From Our Neurology

Imagine a gooey chocolate chip cookie. Think about the golden-brown edges, the crumbly texture flaking away into your hands, then imagine the smell. The scent of freshly baked cookies fills your house, bringing you back to the summer days you spent as a child waiting for them to come out of the oven. Hear the crunch as you go in for the first bite. Now imagine the taste as the savory outside begins to dissolve, giving way to a river of chocolate bubbling at your taste buds.

Hungry yet? We hope that example illustrates the power of food cues. Your senses are just a few of your external eating cues. You have internal ones as well. Regardless of origin, mastering your food cues can be an important part of your eating behavior. Successfully navigating your cues can improve your diet and help sustain your health.

Food cues are versatile, meaning they can be both positive and negative. What most people want to do is eliminate the negative ones that are afflicting you. Food cues are deeply rooted in each individual and are often psychologically conditioned. Even more surprising is the fact that obese individuals show stronger neural activation in response to their normal food cues. This means they’ll need to exert more control of their appetite when they are present.

How They Work

It’s easy to see that the brain is involved in food cues, but it’s hard to see how. Your brain is the most complex organ on Earth. That’s why we need experts in neurology to explain it to us. According to research from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, food cues involve the amygdala, nucleus accumbens, and dorsal striatum. All these brain regions combine and compel you to eat in response to a stimulus. The key to mitigating these external eating cues is to rewire your brain.

Mitigating Any Cue for Eating

No matter the cue to eat, there are a few things you can do to mitigate the negative cues we talked about earlier. For one, you can try dismantling associations you already have. For instance, if there are unhealthy snacks in the breakroom, replace them with healthy snacks at your desk. If you notice that you always eat ice cream while watching TV, try to eat a salad during your next movie night.

No matter what efforts you take to mitigate a cue to eat, remember to be kind to yourself. Quitting something unhealthy must take place gradually to be sustainable. If you find yourself in need of a little extra help, LapBand Indiana offers excellent solutions for you.

Fad diets: trendy weight-loss “solutions” that promote rapid or easy weight loss. While that’s a broad definition, you’ve most likely heard of many of these diets, especially if you’ve tried or are currently trying to lose weight. The apple cider vinegar diet, the grapefruit diet, the Master Cleanse…the list goes on.

While these diets are touted as the latest and greatest way to lose weight, the vast majority of them are more detrimental to your body’s health than they are conducive to weight loss. 

How to Identify a Fad Diet

It promises a “quick fix” or “fast results.” A healthy weight-loss plan shouldn’t promise to help you lose more than one or two pounds a week.

It’s a temporary plan with no reference to after the diet “ends.” Healthy weight loss and weight maintenance come from healthy lifestyle changes. While those changes may evolve over time, they are intended to be lifelong, sustainable strategies, not followed for a month and abandoned.

It drastically cuts your daily caloric intake. Fad diets that essentially rely on starvation may seem promising from anecdotal evidence. However, the weight endorsers claim they lost in the first few weeks isn’t fat—it’s water weight, and it’ll come right back after the diet ends. And that’s not even mentioning just how much damage you can do to your body by depriving it of the energy it needs.

It removes an essential food group or nutrient from your diet, or it promotes a “super food” as the key to weight loss. A balanced diet helps keep your body healthy, and there’s no one food or combination of foods that will magically “unlock” your body’s ability to lose weight.

It promotes a supplement, shake, bar, or the like as the “key” to weight loss. This is just an attempt to get you to spend more money. These “solutions” usually rely on the same method of water weight loss, usually via laxatives or something similar.

It seems too good to be true—most likely because it is. 

Why Fad Diets Fail

The various rules fad diets rely on may differ, but they all have one thing in common: they’re not sustainable. While you may actually lose weight in the first few weeks of a new “program,” the large majority of participants gain their weight back after the fad diet ends. 

There’s a reason these fad diets promise to help you drop a seemingly impossible amount of weight in just a few weeks—they’re not meant to be lifelong strategies for healthy eating. Even if you were to extend fad diet eating habits past the end of the proposed program, you likely wouldn’t be able to continue it for long. Fad diets are so restrictive that they’re often counterproductive, leading people to binge to make up for the lack of calories or nutrients. 

The goal of fad diets isn’t to help you form healthy habits or promote a lifestyle change; it’s to create something trendy and make money by preying on insecurities. Fad diets are a “quick fix” to a problem that can’t be quickly fixed. Obesity doesn’t happen overnight—it can’t be solved overnight, either. 

Healthy, lasting weight loss is a result of a balanced diet, regular exercise, and an improved relationship with food. However, it’s true that these lifestyle changes don’t work for everyone, and, in those cases, a bariatric procedure may be necessary to help patients achieve the results they desire. 

If you’ve been unsuccessful with losing weight through traditional means of diet and exercise, the Lap-Band® gastric banding system may help. To learn more about the weight-loss solutions offered by Lap-Band Indiana, visit our website.

The heat of summer is in full swing, and that means drinking water is more important now than ever. For those who receive the Lap-Band® Surgery or another bariatric procedure, proper hydration is especially crucial to weight loss success and overall health after surgery. 

The exact amount of water you need to consume depends on your body weight, but 64 ounces is a good number to aim for. It can be difficult to adjust to drinking so much water, especially if monitoring proper hydration was not a part of your pre-surgery lifestyle. Your stomach after the Lap-Band Surgery will hold a much smaller volume of fluid, so it will take time to adjust. 

However, dehydration is one of the most common reasons for returning to the hospital after bariatric surgery, so knowing the symptoms can help you stop dehydration in its tracks:

  • Excessive thirst
  • Dark-colored urine
  • Dizziness or feeling faint
  • Confusion 
  • Fatigue or irritability 
  • Headache
  • Increased heart rate

Why Hydration After Lap-Band Surgery Matters

The ways in which proper hydration helps support weight loss are undeniable—improved digestion, reduced fluid retention, and removal of waste from the body, just to name a few. Water is also essential to your body’s ability to absorb certain nutrients and can even assist in maintaining a healthy blood pressure. 

Not only does water boost your energy levels, but it also keeps your joints well-lubricated, allowing you to hit the gym with more energy, more motivation, and less joint pain. Speaking of the gym—water also increases the number of calories you burn. By drinking ice-cold water, your body is forced to exert more energy to raise your body temperature and maintain homeostasis.

When trying to determine whether or not to have a snack, drink a full glass of water and wait at least 20 minutes. Thirst is often mistaken for hunger; drinking water before you reach for a snack can reduce the physical feeling of hunger and prevent you from consuming unnecessary calories. Similarly, drinking water half an hour before a meal will partially fill your stomach pouch, causing you to eat less.

If you’ve had the Lap-Band Surgery, remember these tips for staying safely hydrated:

  • To prevent washing food through your stomach pouch, don’t drink while eating
  • Skip the carbonated beverages, as they can cause stomach discomfort
  • Avoid dehydrating drinks like coffee and alcohol 
  • Sip your water—don’t chug a large amount at once

Wherever you are on your weight-loss journey, Lap-Band Indiana is committed to supporting you in whatever ways we can. With a team of certified professionals, we’ll help you get on the path to a healthier lifestyle.

Once your bariatric surgery is complete, the real work begins. Many believe bariatric surgery, like the LAP-Band® procedure, is the “easy way out” when it comes to achieving weight loss, but this is a dangerous and misinformed assumption. Both before and especially after bariatric surgery, it requires hard work and discipline for patients to be successful in losing and keeping off weight. In addition, there are regular habits you can adopt that will contribute to your weight-loss success after bariatric surgery.

Eating Habits

It may take some time to get used to, but you’ll need to change the way you eat after bariatric surgery. Your stomach will hold much less food, so until you get a feeling for how much you can eat, go slow and chew each bite thoroughly.

Because your stomach is so much smaller, you will need to be more conscious of the nutritional choices you’re making. Utilize the space in your stomach wisely with healthy, nutrient-dense foods. Your bariatric team will help you develop a personal diet plan that works for your nutritional needs and lifestyle, but, in general, you’ll need to consume plenty of protein and fresh fruits and vegetables while avoiding simple sugars. Protein is especially important, as it helps your body retain muscle mass even as you lose weight, so it’s a good idea to prioritize the protein on your plate when eating.

Drinking Habits

You’ll also need to drink plenty of water after surgery—upwards of 64 ounces a day. Not only does this help reduce the risk of nausea, but it also reduces feelings of hunger, boosts your mood, and gives you more energy to channel into fully committing to your new lifestyle. Do not use straws, and, as with eating, sip your fluids slowly.   

In addition, avoid liquid calories. You’ll likely spend some time on a liquid diet immediately after surgery, but after your doctor has given you the go-ahead to move to solids, do your best to stay away from sugary fruit juices, coffee, soft drinks, and alcohol. These contribute little to your nutritional goals and are often high in calories. 

Listen to Your Body During Exercise

You’ll have to take it easy while you recover from your bariatric surgery, but you should start your exercise regimen as soon as possible. Begin with short five-to-ten-minute walks, slowly increasing the length each day. Remember to be patient with yourself, especially while you’re still healing, and watch for any signs of infection. 

Around three to six weeks after your surgery, your doctor will give you the go-ahead to begin more strenuous physical activity, but even when you’ve been told it’s okay, start slow. Muscle soreness is normal when exercising, but if you’re experiencing stabbing or sharp pains, especially around the site of your procedure, stop the activity and call your doctor. 

Choosing the Right Procedure

At Lap-Band® of Indiana, we offer several options for weight-loss procedures. Choosing the best one for your particular situation will help ensure you are successful after surgery. Learn more about our procedures, or visit our blog for more information on health, wellness, and weight loss.

With the weather finally turning warmer, more opportunities for outdoor exercise are opening up, whether you’re ready to hit the bike trails or get into running. The warm weather and sunshine might make it easier to push yourself to work out, but in case the motivation-sapping winter blues are still hanging around, check out these workout tips to keep yourself active.

Prepare Ahead of Time

Pack your bag the night before you head to the gym or wear your workout clothes around the house for an hour before you exercise to get yourself in a positive mindset. If you treat your workout like it’s going to happen no matter what, it makes it less likely you’ll skip it at the last second.

Try Morning Workouts

If you struggle to make time for exercise, consider making your workout the first thing you do every day. Morning workout sessions are less likely to be interrupted or rescheduled due to life’s daily conflicts, whether it’s a call from work or laundry that needs to get done. Not only does it set the tone for your day by making your first choice a healthy one, but morning exercise also has multiple health benefits, including lowering your blood pressure and improving your overall energy levels.

Get an Accountability Buddy

It’s much harder to skip out on a workout when you’re not the only one who’s supposed to be working out. Find a friend or family member to exercise with you, and your workouts will start to feel more like a social event than, well, work. In addition, working out with a buddy allows you to learn new exercises and motivate yourself with low-stakes, friendly competition. 

Do What You Can

Some days, the motivation just isn’t there no matter what you do. If you can’t motivate yourself for a full workout, promise yourself to something small, like a 15-minute walk. Some physical activity is always better than nothing, and when you’re done, you might just find you have the energy for a longer workout after all.

Starting your weight-loss journey this season? Get more fitness and motivation tips on the Lap-Band® Indiana blog.