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preop diet questions



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How long do you have to be on it? What do you eat and is it all liquid? How many calories is it?

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Hi GoBanana.

I started my pre-op diet on October 20th. I have to be on it for 2 weeks. I have a protien shake for Breakfast and lunch and a Lean Cuisine for dinner. Snacks I am doing are a medium fruit and piece of cheese. I can have all the veggies I want as well as sugar-free popcicles. I have read that every surgeon is different. When is your surgery. How long do you have to do the diet?

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Im still getting all my clearances but i am planning for december/January for the surgery depending on insurance issues.

I was just wondering because everyone keeps saying about how they loose so much weight preop and i thought it odd that it was only 2 weeks. i thought it was maybe a month or something....

alot of weight in such a short time...just wondering what the diet consisted of.

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Mine is two weeks long and consists of 3 Protein shakes or Meal Replacement bars with 20g or less carbs per serving and at least 15 g Protein per serving. Additionally, I get to have one meal consisting of about 4 oz protein and unlimited veggies. I've been saving it for dinner, where I've had swordfish, salmon, or grilled chicken, etc., and a giant heaping serving of fresh asparagus, or spinach or green Beans. They said to aim for 1000 calories/day. This is low even for "diet standards" so I think that's why people drop anywhere from 5-15 pounds in that time

I'm on Day 3. Yesterday was pure hell. I was incredibly hungry all day. sleep was the only relief I got!

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well, since you can have Protein Shakes, i highly recommend Pure Protein. The chocolate ones are very good and filling..i have one for lunch everyday. keeps me full for about 3 hours. very satisfying. and only 120 calories, 1 g of sugar, 23 g of protein and 6g carbohydrate...love these things....

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well, since you can have Protein shakes, i highly recommend Pure Protein. The chocolate ones are very good and filling..i have one for lunch everyday. keeps me full for about 3 hours. very satisfying. and only 120 calories, 1 g of sugar, 23 g of protein and 6g carbohydrate...love these things....

Thanks for the recommendation- those are great numbers! Where did you buy yours?

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you can buy them individually at 7-11 for like 2 bucks a can or something but i got a 4 pack at target....you can also get them in bulk packs of 12 from Amazon for like 25 dollars or something...i wish i could get them at costco or another wholesale store - it would be so much easier. let m eknow what you think

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you can buy them individually at 7-11 for like 2 bucks a can or something but i got a 4 pack at target....you can also get them in bulk packs of 12 from Amazon for like 25 dollars or something...i wish i could get them at costco or another wholesale store - it would be so much easier. let m eknow what you think

I will- thanks so much!!

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I was told to do the "protein shake" diet 8 days before my surgery. I began eating less and just drank a shake for dinner. I lost a couple of pounds but still had "regular" meals here and there since I knew that I wouldn't be able to eat them for a while. I think the diet is more for the reason that they don't want you to gain any weight. Again I'm still loosing weigh post surgery even though I am not strictly on the liquid diet rolleyes.gif

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My surgery is this Friday (2 days..EEK!) and i've been on two Protein Shakes and one meal a day, and that meal has been Soup this week and lean cuisines last week. Needless to say, I am HUNGRY. I did cheat on the weekend, and after a week of eating nothing but liquid (mostly) what I ate made me pretty sick. Good luck on your surgery! Soon we'll be banded wonders!

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I start my preop diet tomorrow. My diet consists of 5 Protein Shakes, 1/2 cup fruit, 1/2 cup or starch, 1/2 cup of veggies a day. It can't be more than 1200 calories a day. My surgery date is November 10th.

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My surgery is Friday. My pre-op diet has been 3 Protein Shakes a day. I can also have sugar free Jello and popsicles.

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Wow, sounds like most of you have been allowed to have a lot more than my surgeon allows. I just started my pre-op diet yesterday and all I can have is 2 Protein Shakes a day, 1 cup of broth based Soup or 1 cup of low fat cottage cheese, and one snack (all non-fat, sugar free) of either pudding, yogurt, or Jello. Other than that all I'm allowed to have is Decaf coffee or tea, sugar free drinks, sugar subsitute, non fat Creamer. I'm starving and have noticed my mood has become a lot more angry and short tempered. I've been trying to supplement with Fiber pills to help me with the hunger, but it's not helping much. I'll be on this diet for 2 weeks, surgery on 11-11-11. My surgeons office told me the purpose of the pre-op diet is to shrink the liver in order to have better access during surgery to place the band. Surely I will loose some weight as a result of the pre-op diet as I'm starving myself.

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Wow, sounds like most of you have been allowed to have a lot more than my surgeon allows. I just started my pre-op diet yesterday and all I can have is 2 Protein shakes a day, 1 cup of broth based Soup or 1 cup of low fat cottage cheese, and one snack (all non-fat, sugar free) of either pudding, yogurt, or Jello. Other than that all I'm allowed to have is Decaf coffee or tea, sugar free drinks, sugar subsitute, non fat creamer. I'm starving and have noticed my mood has become a lot more angry and short tempered. I've been trying to supplement with fiber pills to help me with the hunger, but it's not helping much. I'll be on this diet for 2 weeks, surgery on 11-11-11. My surgeons office told me the purpose of the pre-op diet is to shrink the liver in order to have better access during surgery to place the band. Surely I will loose some weight as a result of the pre-op diet as I'm starving myself.

Day two was the hardest for me so far, then I started getting less hungry in the morning, which means I could put off my shake until 8:30 am.I also figured out I cannot wait until I'm famished to have something. I've been splitting lunch into two an hour or 90 min apart: each time having 1 creamy chicken cup o soup with a half scoop of unflavored Protein powder. Does the trick. I've also been eating more Protein for my real meal at night. plain grilled chicken beast with a heaping pile of asparagus last night! Hang in there! It takes a toll. Go to bed early to get some relief if you have to.

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@Pats fan in MA - Thanks for the advise and words of encouragement. I'm going to be so glad to have this phase overwith.

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      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
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      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
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      1. summerseeker

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        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

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