I'm just curious why so many plans want you to lose 10% first before surgery? What is the point?

My surgeon sets different goals for different patients. I know one person who needed to loose around 50# while I had a 5# loss requirement. I personally believe there are a number of reasons, I think my surgeon wants us as close to or less than 50 BMI (mainly because my loss put me at 49 BMI) I also think that depending on the patient and the "vibe" the surgeon gets from the patient, maybe based on age or health history, that it is also to test the patient to see how committed they are. The person I know who had to loose 50# is pretty young and has a questionable past medical history and comes off pretty immature while I walked in very educated and had pages of questions and I have a pretty clean medical history. I have theories of course :-)

I've also read that losing 10% of your body weight does a number of things. It can bring down blood pressure, stress on heart and lungs.

I also agree that some doctors want to see how focused and committed you are and realize that this takes work. So if you are willing to put in the work and lose 10% of your body weight you'll put in the work to succeed at surgery.

Sheena :-)

I've also heard it helps shrink the liver. That's important because the liver can be in the way during surgery.

Lynda

*putting on nurse hat*

10% weight loss is considered acute weight loss. In acute weight loss, the fat mostly comes off the internal organs, making laparoscopic surgery safer. Fat is slippery (think raw chicken breasts) and manipulating fatty organs leaves an increased risk for injury. Also, a fatty liver is friable (crumbles easily) and can be deadly. This is why my surgeon requires a 10% weight loss.... I can't speak for others.

Hope that helps!