Can someone tell me why do you have to have this high protein diet for two weeks before the op:confused:

I know one of the super infomed, wonderful, all knowing people will come by and give you a great answer but the short and sweet of it is......to shrink your liver so, as my doctor said "it's not flopping all over the place".

The liver is right in the way of where they want to band the stomach...I know I didn't really understand this, UNTIL I was given the photos of the operation, and my surgeon showed me how nice and pink my de-fatted liver was! He said he can tell during the operation if someone is going to be successful or not...before I get angry responses, I felt sure he meant that this gave him a good indication, but no one could ever 100% predict anything.

I hope this helps you, Cindy

I was told to maintain an adequate supply of Protein postop, but not preop. It is my understanding that the less fatty the liver is, the easier to perform the procedure, thus, losing some fatty liver preop. I just had to do a liquid-only diet one day before surgery; every doctor seems to have different protocol.

Kelli

Protein is a major factor for fast healing. The principal being that the sustained presence of protein in your body will help you recover faster from surgery.

Protein is used by the body for tissue generation. That's why body builders scoff a lot of protein. It helps build muscle.