I just had my first appointment with my surgeon, and then my nutritionist. I like my doc pretty well and I feel confident having him as my surgeon. After the visit with the doc I met w/ the nut.. Per my ins. I have to have a 3 month supervised diet and as part of that she told me that we would start with replacing 2 meals a week with meal replacement shake and work our way up. Then she goes on to hard sell me this stuff that's $60! "Specially formulated for bariatric patients." Whatever! She told me I would have to be on this for the REST OF MY LIFE if I had the surgery. I told her I thought that you worked towards getting what you need from actual food and she said that's not what she recommends..... WHAT???!?! so after a little back and forth she pulls a magic list of other options that can be purchased from gnc or whatever. It really pissed me off that she was hard core hard selling that crap! I bought it because I will not let this disagreement delay anything, but after surgery I will find a different nutritionist and do what I feel is best for me. I want to experiment and find a brand that I like and am willing to work with I don't want her shoving one or two options down my throat and saying that's my only option, because I know that's not true. There are tons of meal replacements out there to choose from!

brings back memories of my NUT trying to strong arm me into purchasing a book that all WLS patients need.... took me til my 3rd NUT visit to realize she wrote the book...

at that point, I was on my 3rd insurance required NUT visit...I was done and didnt plan on ever seeing her again.... didnt buy book

There is nothing wrong with our absorption so if you are planning meals carefully you should be able to get everything you need from a basic supplement, a calcium supplement, and a balanced diet.

Wow that is crazy. I such an amazing nutritionist. She told me out their stuff but said that was only if I wanted it and that a whole list of other things were acceptable. She also explained that some people like to keep using shakes just to get the protein but as soon as you can hit the required protein intake through food alone you don't have to take them any more. Sorry to hear about your experience. She did say to take vitamins for life but that's a good thing and she didn't require it be some certain brand.