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I am scheduled for February 18th. I will be first in. Wow, this process takes forever.

OMG, I'm going through a similar thought pattern at the moment. My surgery is not until early Feb 2019 and I first met my surgeon in August 2018 so I've had all this time to relax and not worry about dieting. On the other hand I've gained about 5kgs since then and I've got to get through Christmas and New Years yet. I will be starting a pre-op diet on the 21st January 2019 but I'm worried that I'm going to blow up to the size of a house before then. I have my first appointment with my dietitian in a couple of weeks and I'm just wondering... do they ask you to lose x amount of kilos from the day you see your dietitian or do they just ask that you lose for example 5 kgs from whatever you are at the start of your pre-op diet? I guess they are all different but I'm worried they want me to lose the weight from when i first saw my surgeon in August which was 5 kgs ago ?

OMG, I'm going through a similar thought pattern at the moment. My surgery is not until early Feb 2019 and I first met my surgeon in August 2018 so I've had all this time to relax and not worry about dieting. On the other hand I've gained about 5kgs since then and I've got to get through Christmas and New Years yet. I will be starting a pre-op diet on the 21st January 2019 but I'm worried that I'm going to blow up to the size of a house before then. I have my first appointment with my dietitian in a couple of weeks and I'm just wondering... do they ask you to lose x amount of kilos from the day you see your dietitian or do they just ask that you lose for example 5 kgs from whatever you are at the start of your pre-op diet? I guess they are all different but I'm worried they want me to lose the weight from when i first saw my surgeon in August which was 5 kgs ago ?

I am going through this too. I did a seminar in April, had to wait a month from then to get an appointment for a consult, and then 6 months of weigh-ins after that. I have to show weight loss, but not too much because if I go below a 40 BMI I might not be approved. I have mild sleep apnea and high cholesterol, but that isn't always enough to get approval with a BMI below 40, so it is a frustrating balancing act. my NUT is pleased with my small, steady loss and changes I've made. I'm basically dieting 5 days a week and taking weekends off (but not binging). I've quit all sodas and liquids with calories (with the exception of milk in coffee) and have started exercising. This has helped me stay sane. I am careful all week and if I really want that pizza or whatever, I know I can have it on Saturday. As I get closer I'm going to move to 6 days on and 5 days off. If you gain or don't lose enough, they will not approve you, and if you don't start making small changes that two week pre-op is going to be unbearable. Going from a 1200-1500 calorie diet to less than 1000 liquid only is hard, but going cold turkey after a high calorie diet is going to be harder. Good luck.

It really depends on a variety of things. My insurance made the approve/deny decision based upon initial weight at first visit with bariatric team - not my surgery day weight. Also, the sooner you get yourself into the right mindset - protein first, 100 grams of protein a day, no more than 10 grams of sugar in a serving of anything, the easier life will be after (at least it was for me.). My "class" (required to get the appointment with a surgical team) was in April 2016 and my surgery was on August 23. So I had 120-ish days before my surgery. My team required that I follow post-op rules for a pre-op diet to show that I was committed and making progress. My pre-op diet was one shake and two meals, under 1000 calories for 8 days prior to surgery. So, talk to your team to find out whether additional loss will be a problem for your approval. DO NOT ASSUME ANYTHING.
I'm 2 years out in two days. I'm down almost 150 pounds from my starting highest estimated weight because I wouldn't get on a scale, but looking at photos I was over 300 in 2015. So please, talk to your team and get your head in the right place to eat the right way - the sooner you do the better your chances of success.

Think of it as 6 months of training for how you will have to live and eat after surgery. That is what I did during my mandated 6 month surgery waiting period. It also helped that the Insurance required that I lost a minimum of 3 lbs a month during that period with no weight regain. LOL, I had to get down to my underwear for my 2nd weigh in to meet the 3 lbs lost requirement. After that scare I got serious about making sure I was on track and no worries about getting rejected by insurance for my surgery.

"I've already lost the weight, my mind is just waiting for my body to catch up."
That was my mindset. For my testing phase, before my doctor would agree to have me as a patient, I had to lose at least 10 pounds over a 3-month period. Monthly weigh-ins, could not regain anything over what I'd weighed the month before.
I did super the first month. Lost seven pounds. Felt great. And...celebrated. Went too far. A week from my second weigh-in and I was five pounds OVER what I had weighed in at for my first weigh-in. Uh-oh. I was worried. My schedule was very limited, if I had missed a mark I would have had to delay my surgery for a year. Took a hard week of crash-dieting and fasting to eek under my previous mark by one pound; I lost six pounds in a week.
Decided, after that, NEVER AGAIN. I was DONE with the over-portioned junk food that had dominated my diet my whole life. "I've already lost the weight, my mind is just waiting for my body to catch up." That was my mantra. Still is. Never had trouble with myself after that. I've had plenty of years to abuse my body with food. There's too many other things I want to be able to do with my life other than sit and be fat.