I am starting my diet so I can have surgery. My Dr is having me lose 40 pounds before he operates. I have 6 weeks he gave me shakes and HCG. I started today. Is this normal for everyone to do first????

HCG? As in human growth hormone? I never heard of that.

I was given a target weight to meet by my surgeon. i hat to meet that number or weigh less by my pre op appointment.

I managed to lose 18 pounds by that appointment date (3 weeks). If you did not reach your goal, the surgeon would cancel your surgery.

I was not given any medications prior to my surgery date.

Best wishes for a successful journey...

Hcg is not human growth hormone. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_chorionic_gonadotropin.

My doctor has made me lose weight before surgery, my first visit was in January and he gave me 6mths to lose 60lbs. I have lost 40lbs so far and have one more month to go. He did not give me any drugs, but I do see a nutritionist and they put me on a 1200 cal diet, 60g of protein daily. I also cut out all sodas, I drink water only. Cut out fast food, sugar, pasta. I mostly eat chicken, fish, veggies, greek yogurt, and fruit. I also eat 5tbls of hemp seeds a day. they help keep me feeling full and have lots of health benifits. Good luck!

My doctor has made me lose weight before surgery' date=' my first visit was in January and he gave me 6mths to lose 60lbs. I have lost 40lbs so far and have one more month to go. He did not give me any drugs, but I do see a nutritionist and they put me on a 1200 cal diet, 60g of Protein daily. I also cut out all sodas, I drink Water only. Cut out fast food, sugar, Pasta. I mostly eat chicken, fish, veggies, greek yogurt, and fruit. I also eat 5tbls of hemp seeds a day. they help keep me feeling full and have lots of health benifits. Good luck![/quote']

This is awesome and will help you amazingly with the transition to being banded

I am starting my diet so I can have surgery. My Dr is having me lose 40 pounds before he operates. I have 6 weeks he gave me shakes and HCG. I started today. Is this normal for everyone to do first????

Why did he give you HCG? HCG was banned by the FDA but I see that there are some MD's prescribing it with a very low calorie diet. They call it "homeopathic", but there is really only one old study fom 1995.

Only the homeopathic over the counter stuff was banned. The homeopathic stuff was deemed fraudulent as the companies made wild unsupported health claims, which is essentially what the fda regulates. True hcg is still used and widely available, and prescribed for many things from fertility to weight loss. My doctor had me try it several years ago and it really does work for short term weight loss. I lost 60 pounds in 60 days with it and the prescribed diet of about 400 calories per day. The hcg helped keep you full, although it was not sustainable once I was off the hcg, I was never once hungry while on it, and often ate much less than 400 calories without even trying, or becoming hungry what so ever. I ended up keeping the weight off for about 6 months and then it crept back on.

The American Society of Bariatric Physicians doesn't recommend the use of HCG for weight loss. You can't get all your essential nutrients on such a very low calorie diet. The oral dose of HCG contains very little HCG. It seems odd that an MD would recommend this as a weight loss method.

My Dr. did not require any weight loss which was a good thing because I gained weight. What can I say I had a 6 mth wait and no restriction, I just ate normal till the High Protein low carb diet I read about in the paper work they gave me, that they never mentioned anything about. So I got started late I loss 4 pounds But I had gained 30. But now I have the band to help me. So will see.

Stephanie