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Pre-Surgery Weight Loss Without A Liquid Diet



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If you did NOT have to do a liquid diet before surgery, how much were you expected to/did you lose? My surgeon doesn't do the pre-op liquid diet, and he says there's no 'magic number' I need to hit before surgery, he just wants to see that I can lose weight and follow an eating plan. I'm an over-analyzer, by the books type of person so not having any clue what he expects is driving me nuts! I've been counting calories and getting my exercise...since 5/7 I've lost 8.7 lbs. I don't have my surgery date yet. I've done everything on my pre-surgery checklist, just waiting for results of my psych eval so we can submit it all to insurance. Thanks in advance :)

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My surgeon didn't give me any guidelines either. He just told me the more weight i lost the easier the surgery/recovery would be I lost 48 lbs in the six months before surgery. I started at 436 as of today 4 days post op I'm 382

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I committed to dropping 15 lbs before surgery and I followed a low-carb diet (Atkins Stage 1) and dropped 17 lbs. There was no way that I could have stuck to a liquid diet before surgery and I'm grateful that my surgeon didn't require it. :)

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I was not required to follow a liquid diet before surgery. My surgeon's office only requires no carbs, no sugars, and 3-4 ounces of meat per day for 10 days preceding the surgery. They say it's to shrink the liver so it's not in the way for surgery and gets your body in the right "frame of mind" for recovery. I lost like 4 pounds in those 10 days. Now. Here's the thing for me (personally). I was one of the "close" ones, as in, I "just" qualified for the surgery. Had I lost much more than that, I would have become ineligible. So, I did the no carbs, no sugar and all the meat that I wanted. This was under the advice of the surgical/registered nurse. To which she explained the sugars/carbs affect the liver the fat of the meat would not (in the time-period given).

Good luck and keep us posted!

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I committed to dropping 15 lbs before surgery and I followed a low-carb diet (Atkins Stage 1) and dropped 17 lbs. There was no way that I could have stuck to a liquid diet before surgery and I'm grateful that my surgeon didn't require it. :)

this is the same preop diet my surgeon wants me to follow... how long were you on it?

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I started early... I wanted to get "mentally prepared" and in the "zone" as soon as I could... I would say about a month pre-op with the last 2 weeks following to a tee.

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I only had to follow a balanced meal plan. But I lost 15 just by not eating out. I only had to lose 5 pounds to have my surgery. I feel like I've had it easy.

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I don't have a date yet, but I got inspired by everybody and started a high protein/ low carb diet. My biggest struggle has been eliminating sodas from my diet (I was a heavy Dr. Pepper drinker). I'm so not looking forward to the liquid pre-op diet.

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I don't have a date yet, but I got inspired by everybody and started a high protein/ low carb diet. My biggest struggle has been eliminating sodas from my diet (I was a heavy Dr. Pepper drinker). I'm so not looking forward to the liquid pre-op diet.

It will be worth it to you now to break that addiction! Good luck to you!

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. LeighaTR

        I hope your surgery on Wednesday goes well. You will be able to do all sorts of new things as you find your new normal after surgery. I don't know this from experience yet, but I am seeing a lot of positive things from people who have had it done. Best of luck!

    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

        Now I have a whole new big, bigger, biggest, best days ever. I am out there with those skinny people doing stuff i could never have dreamt of. Food is now an after thought. It doesn't consume my day. I still enjoy the good home cooked food but I eat smaller portions. I leave food on my plate when I am full. I can no longer hear my mother's voice saying eat it all up, ther are starving children in Africa who would want that!

        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

    • CaseyP1011

      Officially here for a long time, not just a good time💪
      · 0 replies
      1. This update has no replies.
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