I’m with you 100%. Lost 30lbs on my own, doing my own thing in the months leading up to surgery. I had been told by everyone at the office I have to eat “their” food for two weeks, no exception, everyone has to do it. I tried it and developed not only some extreme food aversions but a massive case of depression. I did call the office and they let me transition to whole foods like chicken, cottage cheese, salad for the remainder. Still had to be 800 cal/day which was fine. So I was still able to go out to eat and just get a salad. Lost 8lbs in that two weeks before surgery. They didn’t tell me I’d go into ketosis and ache all over or that I would have zero energy. I think my depression came really from not being able to move (priorly walked 4-5 miles/day). Well it all came crashing down the night before my scheduled surgery. Full blown panic attack knowing damn well I wasn’t coping with life as it was and there’s no way I could add in a major operation and not even be able to do simple things like drink water. I ended up cancelling my surgery the morning of (May revisit in 6-12 months). Bottom line for me is that without good mental health, really nothing else matters. Even if I went through with the surgery I think my results may have been diminished with the level of depression I am/was experiencing
that whole time I lost my first 30 lbs my mantra was “food is fuel” and while that is true and helped immensely in guiding making good food choices… food is so much more than that, often central to social gatherings being the big one. I am not an emotional eater but it was hard to not get my usual takeout like I used to or enjoy a treat