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Nobody can tell what amount of calories is enough to maintain or not. It depends on too many things like age, sex, genetics, activity level etc.

@JanJan19 Lmao I read your cottage cheese post and decided not to ask if advancing a day or two early would kill me. I didn’t want to get scolded either. I mean if we were all great dieters most of us wouldn’t be here in the first place. JS. I made it to foods today without cheating except I added a little shredded cheese to my grits the last couple days, but yea, I hear you. And at some point those cream Soups and yogurt and shakes just make you want to hurl. I crushed my Protein goal today bc I added a Protein Shake snack. Do you know the next step? If you do you could cautiously try it or call your doc and let them know you feel you need to bc you’re so weak. It’s not a hard requirement for all vsgs to go so long on liquid but they may have their reasons.I would never have survived liquids without yogurt. I was eating 3 a day to avoid extra shakes. I can do a shake a day. Any more than that is too much thick sweet drink. 

When you go rogue with 100 calories of cottage cheese you gotta do it on the sly apparently. The liquids thing is soooo different by doctor too. Mine was anti jello & pudding during that phase, but totally okay with any soup you were willing to blend, so I could eat a higher calorie broccoli cheddar, but not 15 calories of jello. It was weird.

FINALLY of 4 months having two bumps in the road preventing me to get approved to finally getting the call Thursday from my surgeons office telling me to call them back to schedule surgery and my insurance approved me! They first gave me the date of July 8 but I had to get an AUGUST date due to work schedule for the next 2 months! I been in the process since Dec. 5 (consult day) I am so excited, after I got the call i called my mom, sister, and grandparents with the news with tears in my eyes. All day that day I was so emotional wanting to scream to cry of happiness. I can not wait for my new journey in getting healthy. Family have asked me if I’m excited and scared. All I’ve told them is both but that I am not trying to think of the scary things. .... just wanted to share with all of you

I don't think you should jump from liquids to eggs and chicken quite so soon. You should talk to your surgeon about progressing early. Sent from my SM-N960U using BariatricPal mobile app

You would think they would encourage it, knowing it is money in the doctors hand. I would had to say. I may not be as other pat9 you might see but my health is at stake and I am excited that I lost 10 and if I could lose weight on my own I would have already accomplished that. I think if the Surgeon knew she would be fired. Sent from my LM-Q710(FGN) using BariatricPal mobile app

And now you are no longer Rolling but on your own 2 feet.Yes Celebrate Yourself- You are a miracle every step of the way. And if you want to put your walker behind you, I believe you have the strength of character to do it! Blessings be upon You and all you love!❤😛❤

Hello LLane RN, how are you? And how is preop diet going? I bet you are at the edge of your seat! I just wanted to give you my update. I too got my approoval today and I could not be happier!! I met surgeon first time 4/24 to have my lap band removed after 7 years od bondage (not all bad, but felt like it). I was disappointed to find that my surgeon would not do the revision simultaneously...but now I am glad she did not as I have had the chance to not go off how I was feeling with the labpband and do some very necessary research both on the site and generally. I did tell the office to go ahead an submit as I did not want a long wait and wanted to know my faith early on in the process. Request was submitted initially on 4/30 but they had the wrong CPT code and it was resubmitted immediately and we waited 1 week to come find out the new CPT code request was also cancelled same day. So they resubmitted again on 5/13 and they made me wait exactly 2 weeks to hear back today as yesterday was a public holiday that the request was approved. I met surgeon once, lap band removed on 5/3 and approval today. I am yet to meet the Nutritionist, Psych etc. I plan to still do all that but it feels good to know the approval is in and I can do all other appointments at my leisure. Thanks to your encouragement and this site for all the GOLDEN nuggets, it was invaluable. Good luck to you LLaneRN, I'll be praying that your surgery goes very well and your recovery is speedy!

I started this process in late January. I was scheduled to meet with the surgeon right away and I really liked him. After speaking with him I talked to the Coordinator, also very nice and assuring. I kept hearing, "Call us if you have ANY questions or concerns." Admittedly I am too easygoing and didn't want to seem impatient so I waited. And waited. Three weeks later I called the number I was given for the Coordinator. First off there was a LONG intro message that kept repeating that the process takes time because of the insurance company, patience is required, don't keep calling about a surgery date, and please expect 3-4 days for a call back - is this normal? Anyway, admittedly this made me very uncomfortable because of my personality... I hate confrontation and didn't want to be annoying (I know that is ridiculous since that is there job, but I'm being honest.) I did leave a message but no one called me back in the 3-4 date range. When I finally did get a call it was a reminder of my surgery date for the following week and I knew that was wrong because I hadn't even been scheduled for the required appointments yet. The caller apologized when I told him this and we both knew I had been confused with another patient. No wonder I wasn't being called to schedule appointments. I wasn't sure what to do so I found the email where I was first contacted about my interest in the program so I replied to it and explained my situation. I received a prompt reply saying they were sorry and that my email had been forwarded to the Coordinator. Still no call, but I did get calls from providers to schedule my other appointments. I finished up all of my requirements in mid May and I sent another email which was forwarded to the Coordinator and left a voicemail and still no calls. It's so frustrating and I'm starting to worry because I've spent so much money toward my deductible and if I don't have the surgery this year I don't know if I'll be able to afford to have it. I know I could find another surgeon at a different facility but how complicated is it to switch this late in the game? And it sucks because I really liked the surgeon. I'm just not sure what to do. I feel like if I call and leave a message for the surgeon he would make sure they submit my paperwork (I don't think they have because on the Cigna site there are no pending authorizations for me), but would I be stupid not to switch given the experience I've had? Surely this can't be normal. It blows my mind that they didn't call after finding out about the mix up to reassure me that everything was okay. And you'd think they would make sure that they stayed on top of my case to make up for the mistake. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I had my surgery on 3/12/19. I watched my insurance carefully because I'm slightly obsessive about numbers. I had called my insurance several times prior to surgery and was told once I met my out of pocket I was fully covered. Out of pocket was met in January. April I start getting bills. I call the insurance company who keeps patching me through to a company called accolade who says I am fully covered and they don't know why the drs office is saying I owe coinsurance. They will send a note to the insurance company. I have called the drs offices and the insurance company and accolade weekly since April about these bills and started making $10-20 payments so I don't get sent to collection. I just get a call today from Accolade who tells me it's not medically necessary and I owe 30%. I said that is not what I was told the numerous times I called. So they sent me to the insurance company to file an appeal. They are going to pull transcripts of my phone calls and hopefully they will pay the balance of the bill. I owe over $7000 for a surgery that I had because I was told it was 100% covered. And the $7000 is for OUTPATIENT. I work two jobs and am a single mother. I don't have $7000. Anyone have any experience with this?