I am finally getting banded on June 6....Yah!

My doctor has me on a protien diet 2 weeks before my band date.

I am told this is because it will decrease the size of my liver. I am also guessing it will help me to loose a little too. But here is the question:

How is this protien diet going to decrease the size of my liver?

:noidea:

I'm not really sure how that works, but I had to do the same thing--low carb, high protein for 2-3 weeks before surgery. I know they have to move your liver out of the way to place the band, and if it is too big, they may not be able to do it, but I'm not really sure how high protein shrinks the liver. On the plus side, I did lose ten pounds before my surgery.

I'm not sure but I don't think you should worry. I had mine done in Mexico and there was no preop diet whatsoever. We ate steak the night before surgery and they said my liver had a little fat on it but that everything was fine. I worried too and it was all for nothing.

Here is the Protein supplement my surgeon requires. If you look at the pics, you can see the difference. I'm not exactly sure how it works but there is some info on this page. Good luck!

Why Myocel

I believe it's not so much the protein that de-fats the liver, as it is the lack of fat and carbs. I think depriving the system of fats and carbs causes the liver to shrink and get flat and also causes more rapid weight loss. By laying off the fat and carbs, the body is forced to burn fat as fuel. At least that's my understanding.

Dr. Benavides: “As Dr. Garwood stated, what we have found is that when we place patients on pre-op protein supplementation plus reduced man made fats and carbs in their diet two to three weeks pre-operatively a majority of the liver infiltration will be re-absorbed and the liver decreases in size and becomes firmer and more manageable. This makes our surgical approach technically easier and improves our operative time by at least 15-20 minutes. Post-operatively, protein supplementation is important because after the banding procedure most patients are on a liquid diet for one month. There is a minimum amount of protein consumption on this diet and therefore in order to maximize the patient's nutritional state and promote fat re-absorption adding protein supplementation is important. This allows the patient to spare their own protein mass and promotes the body burning more fatty tissue and therefore there is more weight loss in the post operative period...”

It reduces the fat on the liver.

Thanks for the info to all!

:clap2:

I think I will go drink a yummy shake now.....:tired

Yup. . it reduces the fat around the liver. During the surgery, the dr. has to lift the liver "out of the way" so that he can put in the band. It's VERY important to follow the pre-op diet. My surgeon says that if they can't get around the liver, then they will stitch me up and send me on my merry way! I surely didn't want that!! I started my pre-op diet on May 16th, and 13 days later, I am down 16.9 lbs. My surgery is scheduled for this Thursday (the 31st). Woo Hoo!!!!!

Stick with the diet! It's totally worth it!!