Our Bariatric Surgery Aftercare Treatment

Aftercare

Why is aftercare so important after bariatric surgery?

Weight loss aftercare is crucial as it ensures not only the initial success of losing weight but also provides the support and guidance necessary for maintaining the achieved weight loss in the long term.

Our 2023 figures speak for themselves*

8,800kg

Total weight loss across patients

70%

Average excess weight loss

30kg

average weight loss per patient

*between 5 to 12 months post surgery

Our Streamline aftercare plans offer*

Up to 2 years aftercare dependant on your plan

Regular blood screening

Regular dietetic appointments

1-2-1 appointments with your surgeon

Access to the ExiLife exercise app

Elan Vitamin & Minerals Supplements

*please note, that the support and benefits you receive will be dependant on your plan

Your aftercare journey

Our Aftercare plans play a crucial role in helping patients adapt to their new lifestyle and achieve sustainable health benefits after bariatric surgery. These plans are vital to achieving optimal outcomes, ensuring patient safety, and promoting long-term success in achieving and maintaining a healthier weight.
Shaw Somers

Dietetics and aftercare

George Hamlyn Williams

Clinical Services Manager & Bariatric Dietitian

At Streamline, your dedicated specialist dietitian will support you with regular appointments all the way from your initial consultation prior to surgery right the way through to the end of your aftercare period. All published scientific guidelines regarding aftercare following bariatric surgery emphasise the importance of dietetic input, and for good reason – evidence suggests that people who engage with regular dietetic input get better outcomes, in terms of weight loss, improvements in health conditions and a lower incidence of nutritional deficiencies. Regular appointments with dietitians:

Provide the opportunity to talk about how you are managing with the various dietary changes required after surgery and to ask questions. Often life is so busy that the only time patients have to talk about this is during their appointments with their dietitian
Help you to make small but maintainable changes to your diet one at a time
Help to you keep your motivated and remind you of progress you have made, whether related to weight or not
Help to ensure that you are consuming an appropriately balanced diet that is right for you
Help to ensure that you are having the recommended blood tests at the appropriate times; your dietitian will also interpret these blood results and suggest any changes you might need to make to your diet or supplements

Physiology and aftercare

Jack Moss

Exercise Physiologist

At Streamline, you will have a dedicated exercise physiologist who will support you with regular appointments from your initial consultation prior to the operation and through your aftercare journey. During these appointments you can discuss any mobility concerns you may have, the physiologist will also help you with your activity levels and discuss other aspects of your wellbeing. With the weight loss you are likely to exhibit from surgery, it is important that you maintain activity post-operative and our physiologist will assist you with a slow and steady approach. Regular appointments with your physiologist:

Giving you the chance to discuss how you are doing with your current mobility and activity post-operative. With everything happening after your surgery there probably isn’t much time to think about this and this is where are physiologists can help
Assist you in mobilising and implementing an activity plan that suits you
Helping you stay motivated and discuss any progression you have made or help you with any areas of weakness you want to target
Help you programme an exercise programme that is tailored to your capabilities
Assisting you with offsetting the chance of experiencing a mobility injury in the future
Help you track body composition changes

Psychology and aftercare

Dr Melanie Rendall

Clinical Director for Psychology

Learning to live with bariatric surgery takes time, and it is normal for people to struggle at different stages of this process. Specialist psychological support can be an important part of ensuring you get the outcome from surgery that you hope for. This may be particularly important if you find that long-standing habits around food, your mood or your behaviour still hold you back from doing the things in life that matter to you, be the kind of person you want to be, or get in the way of making the recommended changes to your eating and activity levels. You may also find that surgery creates a new set of challenges to deal with. Some examples of how psychology can help include:

Better understanding the function that food plays in your life, or identifying the habits that are getting you stuck
Maintaining weight loss and dealing with setbacks
Dealing with changes in body image and building self-compassion
Learning about how to identify and use values to take action to solve your problems, face your challenges, and take actions that help you build a richer, meaningful life
Learning skills to handle difficult thoughts, feelings, urges, cravings and physical sensations more effectively, so they have less impact and influence on you and the changes you want to make

Vitamin & mineral supplements and aftercare

Benno den Hartog

Managing Director of Elan Supplements

Since all bariatric procedures, to variable degrees, alter the anatomy and physiology of the gastro-intestinal tract, you are more susceptible to developing nutritional deficiencies. Your bariatric procedure will impact the amount of food you can eat (restriction) and your ability to absorb essential nutrients like vitamins and minerals (absorption). After your surgery it is challenging to obtain the necessary amounts of vitamins and minerals from your regular diet in order to stay fit and healthy. Therefore, lifelong use of multivitamin supplementation is recommended after your surgery.

Extensive scientific research has shown that optimised and specialised bariatric supplements are significantly more effective in preventing vitamin and mineral deficiencies compared to a standard supplement. Given the permanent alteration to your digestive system it is very important for your own personal health to follow this advice for the rest of your life, also after successfully losing weight and achieving your personal goals.

Please consult your bariatric dietitian of Streamline, since he/she knows your personal situation and can help you in determining your supplementation need and to can help to make the right choice in order to get the best results and to stay healthy.