Hi everyone - I am in the process of making a decision about lap-band surgery. I, like many others here, have yo-yo'd my way though my adult life, dieting and then gaining plus some more every time. Because I have been doing this now for 20 years, I feel that it's time to stop and take back a bit of control.

At this point, I have so many questions but I'm going to just start with these regarding pre-op diets:

How long did yours last? What were the restrictions? How much did you weigh at the start?

I had no pre-op diet, but most usually last for 2-3 weeks. Unless you are talking about insurance pre-op diet which can be 3-6 months of doc supervised diet.

I weighed around 252 lbs, I had been over weight for years and had been on every diet or program that is known. I am also a life time member of WW. #:-). I made my decision after multiple health problems, hypertension, joint pain and asthma. I did a low carb diet 2 weeks before surgery. I weighed 238 on surgery day. I am two years post op and weigh 130 lbs now.

Good luck with youdecisionon, I do strongly advocate with for good physiological follow up before surgery and after. My personal opinion is that the emotional side of this journey is difficult to say the least and for long term success we need to get our heads on straight and be able to learn new coping skills and not continue to use food aa a crutch.

Behavior modification is key to our success!

Again, good luck and know we are her to support you in your journey!

I know probaly more info than your requested, I am sometimes wordy, hope it helps.

Lovethenewme, thank you - I had been having those same thoughts about finding new ways to cope with life's ups and downs. I have been studying NLP and have become very mindful of my behaviour. It is scary to think about not having food as my 'best friend'. I'd say its almost like an alcoholic deciding to quit drinking. Food is so central to my life, it's hard to imagine what it would be like without full meals. How do you go at social gatherings and family occasions?

My 2 wk pre-op diet is 2 protein shakes and 1 meal.The meal is 4 oz of meat cheese and/or eggs and a half cup of veggies. All the water I want. Snacks are 2 sugar free jello, 2 sf popsicles and 2 cups of broth per day. Started at 250lbs, I'm on day 11 and 237lbs. Been stuck here for a couple days...