Nutrition Care Across the Weight Loss Surgery Process

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to help the reader gain an understanding of the nutritional considerations of weight management during four critical phases of the weight loss surgery process, which we call preparing, healing, achieving, and maintaining. We recognize that this is a slight departure from the surgical approach more commonly encountered in the research literature: “preoperative,” “early postoperative,” and “later postoperative.” The reason for relabeling the phases of the weight loss surgery process is simple: we want to think about the weight loss process from a patient perspective rather than solely a surgical perspective. Focusing on the experience of the weight loss process from a patient’s perspective may help us more clearly identify the changing role of diet and eating behaviors through the different phases of the process and provide the dietitian and other bariatric team members with tools for counseling, educating, and encouraging patients throughout this process.