Rather than freedom from dieting, a bariatric surgery indicates the beginning of a lifetime of good food habits and exercise. Even though a new stomach considerably reduces the quantity of food you can eat, it is still easy to sabotage all your efforts. In fact, about 1 in 20 people who have had a gastric bypass surgery eats a diet that is so high in fat and sugar that they immediately gain back all the weight they lost in the first year after surgery.

It is possible to succeed with bariatric surgery. All you have to do is make absolutely sure that excess dietary fat will not reverse all your hard work.

You won’t have to adopt a strange diet or strange foods. You can still continue to eat whatever foods you always ate but in much smaller portions.

You can even use the same recipes you’ve been using for years. Foods your stomach is familiar with are much more likely to be digested easily without problems. All you must remember is minimize the calories in your already minimal portions.

Here’s how.

Replace 2% or whole milk, with 1% or skim milk.
Substitute of an egg, with egg substitute or 2 egg whites.
Substitute butter, margarine, or oil in a recipe, with one tablespoon of fat and use puréed prunes or applesauce for the rest.
Substitute cream cheese with non-fat or low-fat cream cheese, or Neufchâtel.
Substitute heavy cream with evaporated skim milk or half-and-half.
Substitute of mayonnaise with the newer non-fat or low-fat mayonnaises, or halve the fat by mixing mayonnaise with non-fat yogurt.
Substitute of roux with a mixture of whipped margarine and skim milk.
Substitute sour cream with non-fat or low-fat sour cream, non-fat or low-fat yogurt, or purée non-fat or low-fat cottage cheese.