I have just started my first steps! I have attended my seminar and am meeting with the surgeon. I know will be self pay so I am hoping to have fewer "hoops" to jump through. I think my surgery will be in mid June. Does this mean I am free to eat what I want until the pre op diet?

Apricot, I want you to imagine your liver, which overlaps the top of your stomach. During the surgery, the surgeon has to use a liver retractor to hold the liver out of the way so that he or she can cut out the stomach. Now imagine the liver of an obese person, who has gained 10 - 20 pounds more before surgery, which makes the liver even fattier. The surgeon has to use a paddle to hold the liver aside, at the same time that he or she is trying to cut out 85% of your stomach. Do you REALLY want that? He or she is trying to staple the incision line so that you don't have leaks. Wouldn't it be better to make handling the liver easier so that he or she could put the majority of focus on doing the surgery correctly? Every pound you gain pre-op makes his or her job more difficult. Having a food-for-all pre-op isn't exactly the best idea, IMHO.

Plus imagine how much harder weight is to loose than it is to gain. Surgery is just a tool to help you loose weight, not the cure.

I ate what I wanted up until pre op diet..gained 10lbs to..I think I ate a dozen donuts the night before pre op diet started. Its really not a good thing to do plus it will only make it more weight to lose

I have just started my first steps! I have attended my seminar and am meeting with the surgeon. I know will be self pay so I am hoping to have fewer "hoops" to jump through. I think my surgery will be in mid June. Does this mean I am free to eat what I want until the pre op diet?

sigh. Yeah I figured as much. I am going to keep being good. I do have a Vegas trip scheduled before the surgery.

I haven't really dieted since seeing my NUT for the first time...she did warn me not to gain any weight though losing a lot wasn't her goal for me either. We have been eating out still. I have just watched gorging myself. And have been making some better choices. I stopped drinking sugary drinks and soda and quit going to Starbucks. So I have lost about 6 lbs just doing that. So maybe just maintaining will do until pre op dieting....