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Did you diet pre-surgery?  

1 member has voted

  1. 1. Did you diet pre-surgery?

    • I stayed on a diet plan until surgery.
      25
    • I ate the same as usual until my pre-op diet.
      13
    • I had no pre-op diet, but dieted anyway.
      9
    • I had no pre-op diet and didn't diet before surgery.
      17
    • I ate like crazy until my pre-op diet (or until surgery if no pre-op diet was required).
      27


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Since finding out that my file was being submitted to insurace for approval, I haven't been watching my diet at all! As a matter of fact, I've even gone on some pretty mean binge and have gained back 8 pounds...in ONE month!!! :)

Today, I'm trying to get my head back in the right place. I don't want to have the "last supper" mentality. I'm finding it so difficult! I could use some constructive advice.

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Hi there!

You might want to check and make sure your insurance does not have a weight requirment. What I mean is, my insurance required me to be at or less than the weight I was at when I started my required Lap-Band classes. My surgeon also gave a handout saying he would cancel the surgery if you gained 20 lbs or more.

I know with my insurance (Blue Cross/Blue Shield) they have no problem cancelling your surgery if you don't follow your preop diet/eating plan and you gain any weight. They have denied people for 1/4 of a pound gain. Some of the other people in the class didn't have those same weight requirements through their insurance, but most all of them had the same surgeon as I did so they had to follow his guidelines.

I know it is very difficult to not have that "last supper" mentality -- just remember, you will still be able to eventually eat most of the foods that you enjoy (some people even eat ALL of their favorite foods) -- you will just be eating less of it and really, once you have restriction, you'll be surprised at how satisfied you are with a lesser amount!

Hang in there and try to focus on how much better you're going to feel after you get your surgery and start your new banded lifestyle, you can do it!! :clap2:

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Hi there!

You might want to check and make sure your insurance does not have a weight requirment. What I mean is, my insurance required me to be at or less than the weight I was at when I started my required Lap-Band classes. My surgeon also gave a handout saying he would cancel the surgery if you gained 20 lbs or more.

I know with my insurance (Blue Cross/Blue Shield) they have no problem cancelling your surgery if you don't follow your preop diet/eating plan and you gain any weight. They have denied people for 1/4 of a pound gain. Some of the other people in the class didn't have those same weight requirements through their insurance, but most all of them had the same surgeon as I did so they had to follow his guidelines.

I know it is very difficult to not have that "last supper" mentality -- just remember, you will still be able to eventually eat most of the foods that you enjoy (some people even eat ALL of their favorite foods) -- you will just be eating less of it and really, once you have restriction, you'll be surprised at how satisfied you are with a lesser amount!

Hang in there and try to focus on how much better you're going to feel after you get your surgery and start your new banded lifestyle, you can do it!! :clap2:

Thanks Stacy!! I was born and raised in New Castle County Delaware and had 3 of my 4 kids in Christiana Hospital!!! Nice to meet a fellow Delawarean!!! I live in WI now :)

While my insurance won't cancel the surgery due to weight gain and my surgeon told me he expected me to bounce back a few pounds, like you said, I need to FOCUS!!!!!!! 8 pounds is NOT a few!!! I really NEED to practice my new habits. Tiny bites, chew chew chew, eat SLOW, etc. My goal is to re-lose those 8 pounds before my pre-op physical in two weeks. I know I can do it (and then some) by going back on medifast. SO, that's what I'll do. Thanks again for the encouragement :girl_hug:

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My surgeon didn't require a pre-op diet, so I used the time to say goodbye to some of my favorites! LOL!

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Thanks Stacy!! I was born and raised in New Castle County Delaware and had 3 of my 4 kids in Christiana Hospital!!! Nice to meet a fellow Delawarean!!! I live in WI now :)

While my insurance won't cancel the surgery due to weight gain and my surgeon told me he expected me to bounce back a few pounds, like you said, I need to FOCUS!!!!!!! 8 pounds is NOT a few!!! I really NEED to practice my new habits. Tiny bites, chew chew chew, eat SLOW, etc. My goal is to re-lose those 8 pounds before my pre-op physical in two weeks. I know I can do it (and then some) by going back on medifast. SO, that's what I'll do. Thanks again for the encouragement :)

Born and raised in New Castle County, huh? That's cool! It is very nice to meet another Delawarean on here! Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one :D . I had my kids at St. Francis but I work for Christiana now. Where did you go to school? I went to Corpus Christi, St. Anthony's and Padua and for college I went to U of D and Del-Tech.

I'm glad to hear you don't have the same weight restrictions my Blue Cross did, that's a stress you don't have to worry about! You can definitely do this, just as you have planned, get re-focused on really watching what you eat and taking your small bites and chewing, chewing, chewing, and chewing some more! :hungry: You can definitely get those 8 pounds back off and I bet you lose even more before your preop! Good luck!

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I can only offer this.

I followed by diet presurgery because as you can see by my BMI I'm a big gal. Big gal means big liver. Your liver can get so large it makes the surgery difficult if not impossible to perform. So I encourage you to try and stay away from FAT because FATTY LIVER is not a good thing.

As it was, I had FLAT liver. That was a liver that was big, deflated and flat but still wide. It added two hours to my sugery time.

Stick to the plan.

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I can only offer this.

I followed by diet presurgery because as you can see by my BMI I'm a big gal. Big gal means big liver. Your liver can get so large it makes the surgery difficult if not impossible to perform. So I encourage you to try and stay away from FAT because FATTY LIVER is not a good thing.

As it was, I had FLAT liver. That was a liver that was big, deflated and flat but still wide. It added two hours to my sugery time.

Stick to the plan.

WOW! Thank you for sharing that with me! I don't want to make things difficult for my surgery. I MUST follow a liquid (medifast) diet for one week prior to surgery. I think I'll try to do the 5 & 1 medifast plan (5 shakes - 90 cals each and one lean & green meal) for the next three weeks. That should make the week of liquid only a little more bearable.

I really appreciate your advice and your sharing your experience :target: Thanks again

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WOW! Thank you for sharing that with me! I don't want to make things difficult for my surgery. I MUST follow a liquid (medifast) diet for one week prior to surgery. I think I'll try to do the 5 & 1 medifast plan (5 shakes - 90 cals each and one lean & green meal) for the next three weeks. That should make the week of liquid only a little more bearable.

I really appreciate your advice and your sharing your experience :) Thanks again

Someone did the same for me (actually several did). That's why I love this site.

Good luck musicalmomma.

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I didn't vote because none of the options really applied to what I did. My doctor didn't give me any preop diet, and I didn't really diet, but I made a few changes, like cutting out soda and whatnot, to prepare myself for it.

I think my doctor must band lots of bigger patients, because while he didn't act like I was a person who didn't need surgery, he kind of acted like the surgery would be no big deal... which it wasn't, but it was interesting.

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I had to do the Atkins thing for 2 weeks preop. Before that I was afraid to do any dieting for fear of losing weight and getting my insurance rejected.

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Thanks everyone for voting and replying. I think I finally got it under control!!! Every pound I lose before surgery is another pound I don't have to lose after!

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Thanks everyone for voting and replying. I think I finally got it under control!!! Every pound I lose before surgery is another pound I don't have to lose after!

This is a MEGA fantastic concept! You won't likely FEEL the concept until you are experiencing weight loss. Once you experience weight loss I swear, you will thank yourself for your hard work and efforts today.

Every bloody pound counts. When you have fewer of those to lose, it will be a blessing. You'll see, it just takes time.

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im right there with Lapdancer..my surgeon put me on a two week liquid diet to shrink my liver prior to surgery. I had heard and was concerned that if i couldnt get the liver down they would stop and not do the surgery. I wanted this so desperately badly.

Heres the thing though....before this, i NEVER in a million years thought someone could survive for two weeks on a liquid diet...or even one week or even a few days. I was weak and didnt have alot of energy, but i did stuff anyway, and was absolutely suprised by how easy it was once i got my protien levels up.

I go Back on liquids when my eating patterns get out of control. It feels good to know i can do it.

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I was banded on 4/30/07 and on my one week check up had lost 10 lbs. My question is for those who have had the band for a while. Was your weight loss consistant from day one or did it really kick in after the first or second fill. Also what is the recommendation for calorie, fat and protien intake.

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I was banded on 4/30/07 and on my one week check up had lost 10 lbs. My question is for those who have had the band for a while. Was your weight loss consistant from day one or did it really kick in after the first or second fill. Also what is the recommendation for calorie, fat and protien intake.

Congratz on 10lbs in one week!!! That's awesome!!!

Ya may want to start a new thread with those questions...I think you'll get more resonses that way. And I'd be interested to see the answer to those questions too :)

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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💪
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