Please help. I need to lose at least 20 pounds in the next 2 months before my surgery. My hospital is new and only doing a limited BMI weight range and I'm too big. Please help with weight loss ideas to lose that amount of weight. Thanks in advance for any suggestions and help.

Have you spoken with your bariatric surgeon? Many of them put their patients on a liquid pre-op diet to lose weight before surgery. I was only on a pre-op liquid diet for a few days, and I lost 4 or 5 pounds before surgery, but many people on this board were told to start their liquid diet much earlier than me, and were able to lose quite a bit of weight before their surgery date. Check with your doctor or the hospital. Perhaps they can start you on the pre-op diet a couple of weeks early?

Thanks for the response. I will have 2 weeks pre-op liquid diet. And then a few weeks afterwards of liquid before moving on to the pureed and then to soft foods. So I'm a little nervous to start a liquid diet already 2 months before surgery.

I know 20 pounds in 2 months doens't sound that "hard" to do but if I could lose weight on my own I wouldn't be doing surgery. I have done weight watchers before and lost 20-25 pounds but in 16 weeks. I guess I'll just do the weight watchers thing again and just really watch very closely.

Thanks again for your post and have a blessed day. :biggrin:

You have to want it to make it happen.

• Stop eating fast food. It is nothing but garbage!
  
• Do not drink sugary beverages with calories.
  
• Drink at least 64 ounces of Water a day.
  
• Eat Breakfast every day.
  
• Eat only 3 meals a day.
  
• Cut your portions by 20 or 25%.
  
• Use smaller plates. It makes it seem like more food.
  
• Stop eating when you are no longer hungry. You don't have to clean your plate!
  
• If you must snack between meals, keep it to 150 calories or less.
  
• Keep a journal either on paper or online of EVERYTHING that passes your gums. This is important. It may show you that you are eating more than you thought and will be a great help when you see a dietitian.
  
• Focus on what you will gain from this and not what you are missing out on.
  

This is what has worked for me so far. I won't be banded for another 43 hours 20 minutes and I have managed to lose over 90 pounds in 5 months.

Good luck!

I started the pre-op diet 4 weeks before surgery (because of a scheduling issue)...but I didn't want to stop and then start it again.

Protein shake for breakfast

Protein Shake for lunch

4 oz lean meat

1 cup green veggies

Snacks:

Apple slices

It's been one week and I am down 9 pounds.....

It's not bad once you get your mind past the first three days. You see the results and your adreneline comes in and keeps you going.

Good luck... you can do it!

Hi. I can tell you what I have been doing and perhaps it will be helpful to you. In attempt to help a knee problem I started swimming 16 months ago; and am up to 60 minutes a day (moderate pace).

My first consult I was 329. I tried to stay at 1200-1500 calories a day. Pushed my swimming from 5 days a week to 7. Second Consult 39 days later 317.

Continued diet for 6 days and then started a voluntary liquid diet. 2 Whey Isolate Protein drinks made with fat free milk, ice cubes, 2/3 cup fruit; plus lunch chicken and two veg. I did voluntary liquid diet for 13 days. Third consult 304.

My doctor really likes a premeasured diet called HMR which is 5 shakes a day 100 calories each:angry:. I have done two days so far. I have to say that if I don't loose a pound a day I will not consider it a success as I have been loosing pretty well eating real food.

I lost presurgery using the 50 Million Pounds Challenge lost 40 lbs on this plan before my surgery. The 50 Million Pound Challenge

Thank you for this post. I am suppose to lose 5lbs between 2/24 and 3/34 for my next nutritional visit. The dr. told me not to freak out but it's just a "goal". These responses are great.

I just had my pre-op visit with my surgeon and I am totally deflated.

Starting back in November, I was supposed to lose only 5 lbs before surgery. I thought .. no problem, I can do that easily.

Well, I ate my way through the holidays, then health problems were discovered which delayed my surgery and I sort of gave up. As of last week, when I weighed in with the nutritionist, I'd gained 9 lbs. yikes!

I started the liquid diet, I'm on day 3, and this morning when I weighed in at the surgeons office, I'd lost 3 lbs since last week, which put me up a total of 6 lbs. The surgeon is talking about delaying my surgery unless I can get 4 -6 more lbs off in the next 5 days.

My advice to you is this, begin the weight loss now, don't wait. Don't let yourself get in my situation. I am so angry at myself right now. I wish I'd been put on the liquid diet a week or two ago. I needed a radical change to interrupt my eating habits.

This process has been a roller coaster ride of emotions. Yesterday I was so excited and today I am totally deflated. Thank goodness for this forum.

I just had my pre-op visit with my surgeon and I am totally deflated.

Starting back in November, I was supposed to lose only 5 lbs before surgery. I thought .. no problem, I can do that easily.

Well, I ate my way through the holidays, then health problems were discovered which delayed my surgery and I sort of gave up. As of last week, when I weighed in with the nutritionist, I'd gained 9 lbs. yikes!

I started the liquid diet, I'm on day 3, and this morning when I weighed in at the surgeons office, I'd lost 3 lbs since last week, which put me up a total of 6 lbs. The surgeon is talking about delaying my surgery unless I can get 4 -6 more lbs off in the next 5 days.

My advice to you is this, begin the weight loss now, don't wait. Don't let yourself get in my situation. I am so angry at myself right now. I wish I'd been put on the liquid diet a week or two ago. I needed a radical change to interrupt my eating habits.

This process has been a roller coaster ride of emotions. Yesterday I was so excited and today I am totally deflated. Thank goodness for this forum.

Do not feel bad. Just take it one day at a time. U have come this far and this is not the time to give up.

I am in the same position. They would like me to lose 20lbs pre-surgery.

I actually did not realize how long it had been since I had tried to diet the "regular" way. A few years. I had actually *given up* so to speak after being so frustrated, losing, gaining, etc. I had finally decided to just "let it be what it is" ... try to eat well but eat what I wanted, just in smaller proportions. This actually worked *mostly* ... it kept me at a very stable weight range of 10lbs or so for 3 years. But, as we all know, the weight stays the same, but the age doesn't, and the health issues continue to deterioriate.

It's been very hard for me to "diet" again and I have had to really work at it. I am very poor at weighing food and counting calories.

I have managed to lose 7lbs in 6 weeks. I know I don't get a gold medal, but hey. I'm not going for one. If I were a gold medalist I wouldn't be where I am.

Just some things that seem to be working for me now:

1. stopped buying bad things at the market. If they're not in the house, I don't eat them. In particular I keep out MY favorite things like bagels and cheese.

2. I make myself eat an apple whenever possible. This is hard because I'm not a big fruit person.

3. Keep the fridge stocked with lean ham, turkey, lettuce, chicken, hard boiled eggs and mustard (I like protein). Figure out what good foods YOU like and keep those around, make sure they are chilled and ready.

4. I keep some of those baby dum-dum lollipops around in my purse, the really tiny ones, for periods of oral fixation. I've also kept some weight watchers cheese sticks in my purse, but only a few. If there are 6 and I'm hungry in the car, I may eat all 6.

I know, it's hard.

Again, no expert here these days, my tummy is completely out of alignment with my head, but these things have helped a little to make my tummy - which does NOT want to diet - a little less restless.

Please help. I need to lose at least 20 pounds in the next 2 months before my surgery. My hospital is new and only doing a limited BMI weight range and I'm too big. Please help with weight loss ideas to lose that amount of weight. Thanks in advance for any suggestions and help.

I lost 10 pounds in 2 weeks on my pre-op diet. The diet was liquids only for the first 2 and last 2 days. The remaining 10 days was all liquids and one frozen meal (lean cuisine) than had 300 calories or less. The liquids I used included tomato soup and chicken broth.