Bariatric support is the part of Loopa for weight-loss surgery, endoscopic procedures, medical weight-management programs and the years after. You pick the track you are on, and Loopa brings the eating stages, supplements, lab reminders, activity and symptom tracking that go with it. This page is every screen and control in the iPhone app.
Loopa does not decide anything about your care. It shows what published clinical guidelines say, and where your care team gives you an instruction, theirs is the one to follow. It never decides whether a procedure is right for you, never sets a dose and never tells you what is wrong. The education articles on each procedure start at Start here: after bariatric surgery.
Bariatric support is part of Loopa Premium, including the procedure list, the education cards and the sources. Every new account starts with 14 days of full Premium. Without Premium the screen shows what Premium includes, and nothing you recorded is deleted.
Getting there
- Health tab › The Log › Bariatric support.
- You tab › Your health › Medical weight management ("Surgery, a program or a medication. The track you are on"). This row carries a Premium badge when your plan does not include it.
- During first setup, the Weight-management track switch under Medical on the "What would you like to track?" step brings you here after the setup questions.
Once you have chosen a track, the screen is titled with that track's name. Before that it is titled Bariatric support.
Choosing your track
The first time, the screen says Set your track up: "Tell Loopa which route you are on and it will bring the stages, the supplements and the reminders that go with it." Tap Get started.
Which one describes you? "You can change this later, and nothing here decides anything about your care." Each track is a card with a short description and what it includes:
- Exploring surgery
- Surgery scheduled
- Sleeve gastrectomy
- Roux-en-Y gastric bypass
- One-anastomosis gastric bypass
- Duodenal switch or SADI-S
- Adjustable gastric band
- Revision procedure
- Medical weight management
- Weight-management medication
- Endoscopic procedure
- Long-term maintenance
- Weight coming back
If the list cannot load you see Nothing to show yet ("This will fill in when the app can reach your community.").
Read about the procedures first opens About the procedures (below) before you choose.
Before you start
The first time you pick a track, Loopa shows a notice headed What Loopa does and Before you start:
- "Loopa shows you what published clinical guidelines say…"
- "It does not decide whether a procedure is right for you…"
- "It never sets a dose, and it never tells you what is wrong."
- "Where your care team gives you an instruction, theirs is the one to follow."
Tap I understand. Loopa records that you read it, with the app version you read it in, and does not show it again. Without Premium, the Premium offer appears next, and closing it takes you back to the track list.
Change your track or dates
This screen comes next after the notice, and later from the hub's Change your track or dates link.
- Your track. Choose… or any of the thirteen tracks. "You can change this whenever you like."
- I know my procedure date with Procedure date (surgical tracks): "Your stages, your lab reminders and your activity progression all count from this. Without it, Loopa shows the stages but marks nothing as due."
- My operation is booked with Operation date (Surgery scheduled): "The countdown works back from this."
- I have a balloon removal date with Removal date (Endoscopic procedure).
- Stages, How you move between stages (surgical tracks): Follow the reference calendar (selected to begin with), My care team advances me or I'll say after each visit. The last two never move you to another stage on their own.
- Optional: Watch for anti-inflammatory painkillers adds that class to your interaction watch list and raises the card Painkillers after your procedure on the hub; Flag my GLP-1 record before a procedure raises Your GLP-1 medicine and your anaesthetic when you track a GLP-1 protocol and have an operation date. Both start off. See Medications and surgery and GLP-1 medications and anesthesia.
Save and continue is disabled until you choose a track. Changing your track withdraws a protocol your care team sent for the previous one, and the published guidance comes back.
Removing bariatric support
At the bottom, Remove bariatric support asks Remove bariatric support?: "Your track, stage history, symptom log and food notes go, along with any protocol your care team sent. This cannot be undone. Your weight, food and activity log stays." Tap Remove to delete it, or Keep it.
The hub
From top to bottom, the hub shows what applies to your track:
- Your care team sent a plan ("Nothing has changed yet. Open it to see what accepting would do."), when your care team has sent a protocol you have not reviewed. See Sending your prescriber a link.
- Where you are. Your current stage with its summary and "Since" the date you reached it (tap it to open the stage), or the days "until your operation", or "This track doesn't have eating stages. What you log here still counts towards everything else in Loopa.", or "Your stages are ready when you are." When the reference calendar would place you somewhere else, a line says The reference calendar is on stage N.
- Flag cards, such as the two optional cards above, or Worth reading. Each opens its card.
- When not to wait, "The signs that mean calling your care team now". This card is on every track. It opens the warning signs to call your care team about. Loopa never places a call.
- Quick links, only the ones your track has: Your stages, Sip timer (when your current stage has one), Supplements, Lab reminders, Getting moving, Symptoms, Foods that sit well, What to do if…, Weight since your lowest, About the procedures and Change your track or dates.
- Not part of this track, a note on each section your track does not have and why.
- Your weight is N% above its lowest since your procedure ("This is common, and there is a lot known about it. Nothing is being decided here."), shown when your weight is 10% or more above your lowest. See Weight recurrence.
Pull down to refresh.
Your stages
Your stages lists every eating stage on your track, with its window ("Day N", "Days N to N", "N days before" or "Day N onward"). It marks You are here on your current stage and Reference where the published calendar would put you. The Your operation or Balloon removal countdown sits at the top when you entered that date. Where you have been lists each stage you were on, with "Still here" or "Until" a date. A badge says whether the stages are your care team's or the published reference.
A stage. Tap one to see its summary, Protein and Fluid per day, Textures, the rules In this stage, what moving on usually looks like, and Source or Sources. The current stage has Open the sip timer where it has one.
Moving to a stage. On a stage you are not on, tap I'm on this stage now. Loopa asks Move to this stage?: "Your care team decides when you move on. Loopa just keeps track." Tap Yes, I'm on this stage or Not yet. You can move forward or back.
The stages themselves are on The staged diet after surgery.
Sip timer
For a liquid stage, the Sip timer keeps a running count while you drink.
- Protein and Other fluid tallies, each with "This stage aims for" and the day's target.
- A + button for Protein and one for Fluid, each showing the amount your stage uses for one sip, in your own units. Tap it each time you finish a sip.
- Next protein sip and Next fluid sip: "Whenever you like", "Now", or a countdown. "A reference cadence, and one to relax once you are hitting the day's totals comfortably."
- Gentle cue on each sip, on to begin with: "A short tap, nothing more. No sound and no alert."
The tallies are a count on this screen only. They are not added to your water or food log, and they start from zero each time you open the timer. Log what you drank on the Water and Food screens as usual. A stage without a timer says No sip cadence on this stage.
More on the targets: Protein and fluid after surgery.
Supplements
Supplements lists the supplement lines for your procedure, with a badge for Your care team's protocol or Reference guideline.
- Too close together. When two of your reminder times are closer than the published guidance allows (iron and calcium, for example), a card says Two of these are too close together or Some of these are too close together, names each pair and their times, says "The published guidance is to take these at least N hours apart.", and gives the nearest time that clears it, or says there is no clear slot left today. Loopa never moves a time you set.
- Each line shows the nutrient, Yours (your amount) and Published (the published range), the form where it matters (By injection or Sublingual), your reminder times and the source. Vitamin B12 can appear twice, once by mouth and once by injection.
- Off means you switched that line's reminders off. Stopped means your care team stopped it: "Your care team has stopped this one."
Changing a line. Tap it (not a stopped one). The sheet, titled with the nutrient, has:
- Remind me about this, a switch for that line.
- Your amount, with the published range as the placeholder: "Leave this blank to keep the published amount… Blank is not zero."
- Reminders, your times. Add a time then Add adds one, up to six. Swipe a time to delete it. The footer says how far apart the guidance asks you to keep it from another supplement, or that a larger amount is usually split through the day.
- Cancel or Save.
A track without a published schedule says No supplement schedule on this track. The amounts by procedure are on Supplements for life.
Lab reminders
Lab reminders is the published follow-up calendar for your procedure: each check with its due date, And every year after that where it repeats, and the markers in the panel (such as thiamin, vitamin B12, folate, iron, ferritin, calcium, vitamin D, parathyroid hormone, vitamin A, zinc and copper). Without a procedure date each one says "Add your procedure date and Loopa can work out when this falls."
This screen is a calendar to read. It has no place to enter a result. To keep your results, use Lab results under Protocols. A non-surgical track says No lab schedule on this track. See Long-term follow-up and labs.
Symptoms
Symptoms shows Over this window, a count of each symptom you logged ("once" or "N times"): "Counts of what you logged. Nothing here says why." Below are your entries, with the symptom, how bad it was out of 5, the date, After: and the food when you gave one, your note and your question. Swipe an entry and tap Delete to remove it; there is no confirmation. With nothing logged it says Nothing logged yet.
Logging one. Tap + (read aloud as "Log a symptom"). The sheet Log a symptom has:
- What happened: Nausea, Vomiting, Cramping or flushing soon after eating, Shakiness or sweating an hour or more after eating, Reflux, Constipation, Signs of not drinking enough, Dizziness, Hair shedding, A food that did not sit well, Pain at an incision, Gas or bloating, Fatigue, or Other.
- How bad, a stepper from 1 to 5, starting at 3.
- What you had before it, for the eating-related symptoms (the two dumping-type symptoms, a food that did not sit well, reflux, vomiting and nausea): "Optional. Over time this builds into a list of what turned up before what. As counts, never as a cause."
- Anything else, a note.
- Something to ask your care team: "Your own words. Loopa never suggests one…"
- Cancel or Save.
The symptoms themselves are covered on Dumping syndrome and Nausea, constipation, gas and hair shedding.
Foods that sit well
The Foods screen keeps your own list of how foods went as you reintroduce them, in three groups: Sitting well, Try again later and Not sitting well. A food that used to be a problem and now sits well is marked Was a problem. Swipe a food and tap Remove to take it off. With nothing yet it says No foods yet.
Adding one. Tap + (read aloud as "Add a food"). The sheet How did it go? has Food, How did it go (Sat well, Try again later or Did not sit well), Anything else, and Cancel or Save. "One answer per food. If you answer about the same food again, the new answer replaces the old one and Loopa remembers that it used to be a problem."
The reading screens
- What to do if… Situation cards for your track, with the warning signs first. A card your track does not include says "That card is not on your track".
- Getting moving. How long since your procedure, whether Strength work, Higher intensity, Core work and Swimming are part of what Loopa offers yet (Yes or Not yet; swimming waits "until wounds have healed"), the phases with their quoted guidance and Now on yours, and What a session looks like. "This is what Loopa will offer you, not a limit on what you may do. Anything you do and log is yours." Without a procedure date it says "Add the date of your procedure and Loopa can pace this to where you are." See Returning to activity.
- Weight since your lowest. Your lowest, Now and Change as a percentage, with "Loopa offers extra reading at 10%" and "A number, not a verdict. Nothing is decided here and nobody is notified." Links to What is known about this and What to do if….
- About the procedures. A card for each procedure, grouped by kind, quoting the published sources. See Bariatric surgery explained.
Sources. Every card has a Source or Sources button. The sheet lists each one. A source marked "Abstract read; the full recommendations are not publicly available." is used only for what its abstract says. If sources cannot load, tap Try again.
Your care team's protocol
If your care team sends a protocol for your track, the hub's Your care team sent a plan card opens Review: which sections are theirs and which stay published (Eating stages, Supplements, Bloods), every line they sent, and their notes. Accept this protocol or Decline. If it was written for a different procedure the screen says This is for a different procedure and Accept is disabled. Once accepted, their stages, supplement lines and lab schedule replace the published ones, labelled as theirs.
A link for a bariatric care team is made in a browser, under Your prescriber links. The iPhone app sends links for medication protocols only. See Sending your prescriber a link and Clinician protocols and coach support.
Sharing with a Loopa coach
If you have a Loopa coach, Bariatric support is one of the categories you can share, from Coach tab › Your coach › What you share. It starts off. It shows your stage, counts of your logging and flagged symptoms, and whether a care-team protocol exists. It never shows supplement names or amounts, lab results, your weight, notes, foods or anything your care team wrote. The exact lists are on Sharing your protocol with a coach.
What the iPhone app does not have for this track
- A summary file for your appointment. The protocol summary covers GLP-1, testosterone therapy, hormone therapy and peptide protocols. For a bariatric appointment, bring the Symptoms and Foods screens, and your weight trend from the Progress tab.
- A place to enter lab results on the Lab reminders screen. Use Lab results under Protocols.
On Android
The Android app has the same Bariatric support screens, links and controls, including the sip timer, the supplement sheet and the remove confirmation.
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