The title saids it all. I see that alot of people dont have to go on the liquid diet before hand, or they are on a low fat diet something very different from the liquid diet. Bascially though what is the liquid diet for?? How will they know if you've faithfully been on nothing but the liquid diet????

They will know if you did not follow the liquid or low fat diet by the size of your liver. Some Dr's will close you back up and not operate if they find your liver to be too large.

See I don't understand this liquid diet thing. My doctor never told me to go on a liquid diet before the surgery. He said (and in the paperwork) stop eating and drinking 8 hours before the surgery. He was also a pretty lenient about post op. He said to just do a liquid diet for as long as I can stand then move to soft foods whenever I want. WEIRD!

As much as the liquid diet sucks, it is very helpful for after the surgery! If you can get through the liquid diet you can do anything! Plus its nice to watch how fast you lose weight that first two weeks.

It's to shrink your liver and different drs have different views on how strict they will be with you. I was a low BMI patient (35 on surgery day) and I was told by my surgeon that I didn't need to do a wholly liquid diet as he didn't expect that I'd have an issue with a fatty liver. That's his risk to manage.

But the way I see it iis f that's the person cutting you up you probably should listen to them as to what they'd like you to do to prepare for surgery. They want to optimal result for you so I reckon just do your part to enable that too.

My Dr. said I MUST loose 10-15 lbs before surgery to shrink the liver, or he will have to re-schedule it.

He did not care one bit how I lost it, as long as I did.

Having said that, liquid - Protein shakes, work the best. So most Dr.'s cut through the Bull Crap explaining it and just say go on a liquid diet.

It' easier and time saving for them to say that.

\It was all about loosing the weight, NOT what I consumed. I did eat regular foods, but I was on my own about whether I wanted this surgery or not!

I'm kind of on a semi-liquid diet. I don't have to loose a pre-determined amount of weight preop. But I have to drink two protein shakes a day and then eat dinner or lunch whichever meal I plan on having. The meal has to be high protein/low carb. Doc asked that I not eat anything solid 48 hours in advance. He sometimes people do the "last meals" the night before and their tummy is still full during surgery and he has to "hand express" the solids out.....sounds gross....so I will be sure to not eat anything solid during that period.

To do the surgery the doctor must flip the liver out of the way. I recommend watching a real surgery on YouTube so you understand what they are doing and how the bad is attached. This helps you understand why you need to follow the post op diet closely. Not gross at all no blood is shown.

By doing a low carb diet for 2 weeks the liver can be reduced in size by 25%. What's really important is the low carb aspect. Protein shakes are very low in carbs. If you aren't eating carbs the body is forced to burn protein and fat. Thus reducing the fat in your liver. Some doctors have people eat high protein foods (Atkins) and greatly reduce carbs. So the liquid part is not really that important; its the nutritional make up of the foods that counts.