Month: February 2021

How often do you pay attention to food cues? Do you understand what causes you to reach for a snack or a second portion of dinner? Food cues are any kind of stimuli that trigger a food-related response and can include “viewing or smelling of food stimuli, advertisements, or any cues or situations associated with food-related memories.” For instance, this would include a fast-food commercial that plays during your favorite television show at night and encourages you to order up some French fries and a cheeseburger for delivery. Food cues, when listened to over hunger cues, can put you at risk of developing obesity.

Mindless eating

Food cues cue you to eat whether or not you are actually hungry. This encourages mindless eating behaviors. Because you aren’t hungry and you aren’t really paying attention to how much you are eating, mindless eating is associated with weight gain. If you are wondering why you can’t seem to be losing weight when you follow a healthy diet and exercise regularly, excessive snacking due to food cues may be the culprit.

Awareness — four types of food cues

Food cues present themselves in a variety of ways, and it’s important to understand how they present themselves so you can get to the heart of what triggers you to eat when you aren’t hungry. Cues may be visual, auditory, olfactory, or mental. A visual cue could be a picture of a delicious meal or a commercial for a restaurant. Auditory cues are anything you may hear related to food, whether it’s the sound of bacon frying or coffee percolating. Olfactory cues come into play when you smell food. Mental cues often have to do with your emotions. You may be cued to eat because you are stressed, bored, sad, or feeling out of control. Food cues are quite literally everywhere. You can’t watch television without seeing them and every time your coworker orders takeout, you’re cued too.

Make a list of the food cues that impact you the most. For instance, perhaps you aren’t impacted by olfactory cues, but a picture of food makes you salivate. If mental food cues affect you the most, determine which emotion triggers you the most. Do you grab a candy bar when you’re sad and stressed? Does boredom send you running to the kitchen? Understanding the emotional that cues you can help you overcome that response.

Ignore the external

It’s important to understand that food cues are predominantly external. Instead of listening to external stimuli that tells you when to eat, pay attention the internal hunger response. That may be a growling stomach, hunger pangs, or lightheadedness and tiredness associated with lack of food. Similarly, pay attention to internal cues as you eat so that you can stop eating when you are full. Your brain takes some time to process, so eat slowly.

Once you are aware of what is cueing you, take some time to think about whether or not you’re truly hungry, or if you’re just responding to an advertisement. Give it a few minutes; oftentimes, if you do not indulge your craving immediately, it will go away. Drink some water and distract yourself with another activity to take your mind off the food cue response.

For tips on mindful eating, check out our blog.

Is the scale stuck in one spot? If you can’t get that stubborn number to go down, you might be wracking your brain to figure out what you’ve been doing wrong. If you are struggling to lose weight, there may be a number of reasons.  

Excessive snacking

Do you eat several big meals per day and still snack throughout the day? You may be consuming more calories than you realize. Especially if you are snacking mindlessly, you may be taking in hundreds of calories each snacking session.

Stress

Some stress can be a good thing because it motivates you to complete tasks, but too much stress is a problem. Not only can it take a toll on your well-being, it can cause your body to hold onto fat. Stress may cause you to overeat and choose unhealthy foods. It may also cause you to lean on food as emotional support.

Slow metabolism

Our metabolisms tend to slow as we age, and it may be slower if you have a high percentage of body fat. Muscle burns calories, so if you have higher body fat content than lean muscle content, you may not be burning as many calories as you could be. If you regularly skip meals, you may also be slowing your metabolism. Eating too-few calories or skipping meals can slow your metabolism and send your body into starvation mode. Not sleeping enough can also slow your metabolism. You may also have a slow metabolism due to genetics.

Medications

There are several medications that may make it more difficult to lose weight. Such medications include those for allergies, diabetes, depression, high blood pressure, epilepsy, birth control, and more. If you are concerned about your medication causing weight gain, speak with your doctor.

Health conditions

You may have health conditions that cause you to hold onto weight. You may have problems with your thyroid, such as hypothyroidism. Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is known to cause insulin resistance and because it messes with an individual’s hormones, it may lead to fat accumulation.

Yo-Yo dieting

If you are constantly trying the latest diet trend, it may be more difficult for you to lose weight and maintain that weight loss in the long-term. Yo-yo dieting (losing weight and gaining it back again) can be detrimental to your health for a number of reasons. You may lose muscle and gain fat, change your gut health, increase your appetite, and increase your chances of harmful diseases like heart disease and diabetes. It can also be incredibly frustrating to be in a cycling of losing a lot of weight and then gaining it all back. Instead of following fad diets, it’s best to follow a nutrient-rich diet, exercise regularly, manage stress, and get plenty of sleep.

This is in no way a comprehensive list. There are countless other reasons you may be unable to lose weight. It’s best to speak with your doctor to determine a healthy weight-loss plan. There may be factors outside of your control, such as genetics, causing you to hold onto excess weight. If a healthy diet and regular exercise have repeatedly not worked for you, it may be time to reach out to a Lap-Band® Surgeon here.

Are you ready to consider weight-loss surgery? There is plenty of research to comb through, so we’ve created a quick guide to help you understand your options before making your choice.

Gastric bypass

The Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass (gastric bypass) procedure consists of two components, requiring cutting and rerouting of the organs and hundreds of staples. First, the top of the stomach is divided from the rest of the stomach, which creates a small stomach pouch. Then, the first portion of the small intestine is divided. The stomach pouch created in the first step is attached to the bottom end of the small intestine that was just divided. Finally, the remaining portion of the divided intestine is attached to a different portion of the small intestine. This means that stomach acids and digestive enzymes will eventually mix with ingested food.

After surgery, the stomach pouch is smaller, which means that smaller meals (and fewer calories) are consumed. Because one segment of the small intestine doesn’t have food going through it, it is presumed that overall, there is less calorie and nutrient absorption, requiring expensive supplements. Gut hormones change in response to the new food stream, which can promote the feeling of fullness and suppress appetite. These changes provide advantages such as long-term, significant weight loss, increased energy, and maintenance of weight loss.

Sleeve gastrectomy

The Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy, or “the sleeve,” removes 80% of the stomach. The remainder of the stomach is approximately the size of a banana. The procedure is irreversible and involves cutting and stapling the stomach. The smaller size of the stomach means it can hold much less, so food consumption is significantly limited. Gut hormones are also changed, which can induce feelings of fullness, curb appetite, and control blood sugar.

In the sleeve gastrectomy procedure, the intestines do not need to be rerouted, unlike with gastric bypass surgery. However, patients will experience a similar change to gut hormones, which can increase feelings of fullness and suppress appetite. The sleeve results in fairly quick and significant weight-loss. Patients must stay in the hospital to recover for approximately two days. Patients who undergo this surgery are at risk for malnutrition and require long-term supplements and vitamins to avoid possible deficiencies.

Lap-Band® (gastric banding)

The Lap-Band Procedure the safest of all bariatric procedures with the lowest complication and mortality rates. It is a much simpler procedure when compared to gastric bypass and the gastric sleeve. An inflatable band is placed around the upper portion of the stomach. The band creates another, smaller stomach above the band, while the stomach below remains intact. The smaller stomach allows the patient to feel fuller faster and to stay full longer. The band is easily adjusted by filling the band with sterile saline (injected through a port under the skin). This in turn adjusts the size of the stomach opening. This leads to weight-loss that is gradual and lasting. Unlike gastric bypass, food is digested and absorbed normally, so typically only a multivitamin is required. The band is both reversible and non-anatomy altering.  

Pros and cons

There are pros and cons to each bariatric procedure. Gastric bypass surgery and the gastric sleeve are much more complicated than the Lap-Band Procedure. A more complicated procedure requires a longer hospital stay, whereas the Lap-Band Procedure is performed in about one hour and patients can go home soon after. The Lap-Band is also the only procedure that is non-anatomy altering and can be reversed.

With gastric bypass surgery and the gastric sleeve, there is the risk for vitamin and mineral deficiencies, typically in vitamin B12, iron, calcium, and folate. Because the procedures aren’t reversible, patients may need to take supplements for the remainder of their lives.

To learn more about your options, talk to a Lap-Band Surgeon.

Sources:

• ASMBS Informed Consent for Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Band
• ASMBS Informed Consent for Informed Consent for Laparoscopic Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass
• ASMBS Informed Consent for Laparoscopic Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy

Body Mass Index (BMI) is an easily calculable number if you know your height and weight. Despite it being so easy to calculate, there is a lot of controversy surrounding BMI. Many people don’t know what it means or understand its importance. It’s an important number to know, and it’s important to understand what it means for you.

What is BMI?

Body Mass Index measures your weight in relation to your height. It’s a good indicator of whether or not your weight is in a healthy range for your height. Knowing this number helps you and your doctor to understand if you may be at risk for developing certain health conditions or diseases.

It’s important to find a healthy weight for your body. A high BMI may put you at risk for Type 2 Diabetes, heart problems, and certain musculoskeletal problems, whereas a significantly low BMI may mean it is more likely for you to develop osteoporosis, anemia, or malnutrition. A general rule is that a BMI below 18.5 is categorized as underweight and anything above 25.0 is categorized as overweight (above 30.0 is categorized as obese). A healthy weight falls into the range of 18.5 and 24.9, which is where you want your BMI to be.

Controversy

There is controversy surrounding BMI and how it is interpreted. While it’s a good measurement, it is not perfect. It does not take other factors into consideration, such as age, sex, muscle mass, and ethnicity. For instance, men tend to have less body fat than women even if they have the same BMI. Additionally, a muscular individual may have a very high BMI due to their muscle mass, not a high level of body fatness. BMI must be interpreted differently for the elderly population and teens/young adults. 

While BMI is an important number, your doctor must conduct a variety of other health assessments to determine your health and risk of certain diseases. A variety of other tests can be used to measure body fatness as well, such as skinfold thickness measurements, MRI or CT scans, and hydrodensitometry.

Bariatric surgery

BMI is a reliable measurement used by individuals in the medical field. BMI helps determine if you are overweight enough to qualify for bariatric procedures, such as the Lap-Band® Program. The Lap-Band System is the only FDA-approved laparoscopic weight-loss device approved for people with lower BMIs (30+). Lap-Band patients with a lower BMI lose an average of 75% of their excess weight in the first year and 70% in the second year.¹ In addition to taking your BMI into consideration, there are other qualifications individuals must meet in order to be eligible for the minimally invasive, safe, non-anatomy altering surgery.

¹ Robert Michaelson, Diane K. Murphy, Todd M. Gross, and Scott M. Whitcup. LAP-BAND® for Lower BMI: 2-Year Results from the Multicenter Pivotal Study. Obesity (2013) 21:1148–1158.