I am 5'4" and 250 and the nurse was telling me the other day that I need to get down to 240 before I could have the surgery..... why do I need to lose weight? I know i have to do the special diet before hand to shrink my liver and I should lose weight then but just curious if anyone else had to do this...

I am 5'4" and 250 and the nurse was telling me the other day that I need to get down to 240 before I could have the surgery..... why do I need to lose weight? I know i have to do the special diet before hand to shrink my liver and I should lose weight then but just curious if anyone else had to do this...

I only had to do it for the liver, it was 10 days pre op, liquid only. I lost just over 10 lbs.

Some surgeons require you to lose prior to surgery to show commitment to the program. Sometimes it is the insurance company making the demand.

My surgeon's rule was that once I began the two week preop diet, if I gained weight my surgery would be canceled. A weight gain would prove that I did not follow his orders.

Depending on your BMI, my surgeon requires some weight loss. My BMI had me in the "need to maintain" range....but if it were higher, I would have had to lose a certain amount. My friend how had the surgery as well, she had to lose 15 lbs by surgery---required by the surgeon not the insurance company,

I am 5'4" and 250 and the nurse was telling me the other day that I need to get down to 240 before I could have the surgery..... why do I need to lose weight? I know i have to do the special diet before hand to shrink my liver and I should lose weight then but just curious if anyone else had to do this...

my surgeon says I have to lose 10%, which for me is 25lbs before surgery. He said its cause the liver, but also he wants to see how committed I am to my decision for the band.

I 'interviewed' several surgeons prior to making my choice. I eliminated all but my chosen surgeon because they all had requirements that they couldn't seem to give me a good reason for...or just made up what was obviously a standard response -- 2-4 weeks liquid diet prior to surgery, 4 weeks liquid diet after surgery, lose 10% of my excess weight prior to surgery, go through a 6 week long nutrition class (that one would've cost me an additional $250 not covered by insurance), yada yada. I chose my surgeon because he had none of those requirements. Neither did my insurance.

Bottom line - you need to find a surgeon you can work with.

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My doctor also required 10% body weight loss. Yes shrinking the liver is important; but there are other reasons. My nurse said think of it as the doctor needing to get at something at the bottom of a fully packed suitcase. The more you take out of the suitcase (fat); the easier he can get to the stomach which is at the back of your anatomy.

I highly recommend watching real surgeries on YouTube. There is no blood so they are'nt gross. They really give you an idea of what the doctor is doing to your body and how the band is attached. I think if people watched a surgery they would'nt be tempted to "cheat" on their post op diet. The stomach has gone through trauma and needs time to heal.

I thought of the pre surgery diet as practicing for the rest of my life. Getting the band is'nt the end it's the beginning. Eating healthy foods and healthy sized portions now will get you in the habit of doing it later on.

I recently watched a series on Youtube of a lapband surgery by a dr. in Kansas City. I am glad I watched this 2 weeks after my own procedure last month! But if you can stomach (no pun intended!) that video, you can see why they want us to lose as much weight as we can pre-op. It was crazy how much yellow fat was around the stomach and all the areas they need to access to place the band. For sure the 2-4 week liver diet is important. One of the books I read as research said if your doctor doesn't require it, you should question their complication rate. I don't know if that is true, but I can definately see the possibility....

I agree with honk above, I also thought of it as a test of my commitment for the rest of my life. I think my dr. did as well.