In response to all the posts where people wonder why they were required (or not) to go on a 30 day liquid diet preop, are required (or not) to go on a 30 day postop liquid diet, are required (or not) to eat only 1/2 cup of food at a meal, (are required (or not) to eat a low fat, low carb diet, are required (or not) to wait several months between what may (or may not) be tiny fills...it just comes down to that old 'because he said so'. It's all arbitrary and each surgeon follows the belief/mindset of what he/she is most comfortable with.

I interviewed a number of surgeons (actually made an appointment to talk with them) before I made my final choice. If the surgeon could not give me a good 'reason' for why they required that specific diet, amount of food, fills, etc., I moved on. I do not allow my doctors to make decisions for me. It is my body and I make the decision I feel is best after doing all the research I can...and that doctor is just one more piece of research.

My final choice was partly based on the fact that he also had a lap band so he had personal knowledge/experience as well as the 'book knowledge'. It was also based on the fact that he said from his years of experience, he found that long term success of his patients was adversely affected by placing unrealistic expectations on them (eating only 1/2 cup of food). His goal for his patients was to be able to eat a normal diet (no special foods) with a normal caloric intake to get to the desired weight. His experience was that unrealistic expectations led to a higher rate of failure because when people couldn't stick to those expectations, they stopped coming in for their fills and follow-ups.

Does this make my doctor better or worse in comparison to other doctors? Only to me.

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Impressive! Good for you making sure you get what you need to get the results you want.

My doctor never mentioned eating 1/2 food. The only thing he ever said was to make sure to get 3 oz of protein every meal with 60-80 g protien a day. And to exercise. From my research I do think he is one of the best surgeons in the area (and being in the Boston region that's saying something); because people to go him to fix problems created by other doctors. Also I have never been told to eat eraser sized bites or to "chew chew chew". But I would also say I am my own health care advocate and do a lot of research. When I had my first meeting with the surgeon I had lots of questions. I said I'm asking a lot of questions do most people do that? He said no but that it was my body and I that I had the right to know exactly what was going on. I'm a corporate recruiter and I spend my life researching and asking questions so I guess it's just the way I am.

I think I lucked out. I got to my bariatric surgeon from the recommend of an Ob/gyn who had been banded by him. I had been toying with the idea of banding for a few years but some other health problems kicked me into finally taking the final steps. Meeting someone in real life who was banded helped alot.

I guess because when I went to the informational seminar what the doc said and the post op information (posted on his website) sounded so reasonable, I didn't research any further.

My doc too is 3oz Protein, 1/2 cup veggies 3x day, 64oz of Water, exercise 30 min/day, healthy Snacks if needed. I had no pre-op diet (but I hear he's doing that now for a week for banding) and was back on normal food by two weeks.

There are things that he doesn't do that I sometimes wish he would.. like check blood work or do an UGI at yearly intervals, but I can handle getting that done myself. I also wish the support group was run by a different person, but there's lots of ways of getting support.

I agree that having reasonable expectations/goals for the band makes the process a whole lot easier and a whole lot more likely to succeed.

Thanks for the posts ladies. My surgeon didn't have any weird pre-op or post-op requirements. I too was back on normal food after 2 weeks. I was starting to feel like the odd one out since everyone in the Dec 2010 group has all these diets they had to be on before or after surgery. I'm losing weight, not massive amounts but I am losing, I also have my first fill on Friday. So far so good.

It pays to be your own advocate and not be afraid to ask those tough questions and to expect the surgeon to meet your needs ...not their's. I too did research and had my husband do research as we think in opposite directions and then we sat down discussed what our knowledge was and what questions we wanted to ask not only of the surgeon, but his office staff right down to the team that were going to be doing all of the follow up, I.e. suport groups, nutrition, physical therapist. I could not be happier with the team that I chose. They are realistic and supportive.