I was told that I have to do a 2 week pre-op diet by my surgeon's office. I decided to begin a week early and do 2 Protein shakes per day along with one healthy meal. Today I had to start the surgeon required portion of the diet and I was told that I could have 2 shakes per day, and could only eat Soup, SF Jello, and SF popsicles, though no specific calorie limit was set so now, I have absolutely no idea how many calories I should be eating.

Last week I kept it at 1200 per day with a lot of success, I wasn't hungry and I lost 6.5 pounds. Today I've had only 535 calories and I'm not starving, but I am hungry and am not sure if it's ok for me to go up to 800 or if I should try to keep it around 500 - 600 per day.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be welcome! Thanks

Erin

Hi CaliBlonde;

I do not recommend such low calorie intake preop. You need to keep healthy and fight off any small infection or cold that might come your way. If your surgeon only needs two weeks diet, give them that honestly. Right now learn how to eat more slowly, eat Protein first, make new habits. Final word should come from your surgeon. Good luck on your upcoming surgery!

Thanks for the input.

Follow your surgeon's orders. My surgeon told me my liver needed to shrink, so the preop diet is needed to do that. I have followed a very low carb plan, taking Vitamins, more activity, and roughly 1200-1400 cal plan per day. I have not begun Protein shakes yet. I see my surgeon Thurs morning this week, so will officially start preop diet then. Good luck! I believe my surgery will be either May 27 or 31.

I was told that I have to do a 2 week pre-op diet by my surgeon's office. I decided to begin a week early and do 2 Protein Shakes per day along with one healthy meal. Today I had to start the surgeon required portion of the diet and I was told that I could have 2 shakes per day, and could only eat soup, SF Jello, and SF popsicles, though no specific calorie limit was set so now, I have absolutely no idea how many calories I should be eating.

Last week I kept it at 1200 per day with a lot of success, I wasn't hungry and I lost 6.5 pounds. Today I've had only 535 calories and I'm not starving, but I am hungry and am not sure if it's ok for me to go up to 800 or if I should try to keep it around 500 - 600 per day.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be welcome! Thanks

Erin

I'm doing well on the pre-op diet. I haven't been cheating, and have lost 9 out of the 10 pounds the doctor has requested.

The first week I stayed a little above 1200 calories per day and lost about a pound a day doing that. Then the second week I was on all liquids, the first day I had about 500 calories and that gave me the worst headache and I was dizzy, so I bumped my calories up to between 800 and 1200 per day and that seems to be working very well, I stalled out for a couple of days, but am back to losing about a pound a day.

Why would you drop your calories so low? If they're not concerned about your calorie intake, I'm not sure why you are. As long as you're following EXACTLY what they want you to do there shouldn't be any problems. Low calorie diets can be dangerous and like you said, make you feel like crap.

Good luck with your upcoming surgery!!!

Renee`

I don't know, I shouldn't have. It was mainly because I thought they wanted me to be very low and I was also nervous about needing to drop the 10 pounds, but since I felt like crap I bumped them back up and now I'm eating the correct amt. of calories and am back to feeling good. I also lost the 10 pounds I needed to lose!