How clean was your pre-op diet? I am in the very early stages before WLS but have begun changing my eating habits. I have a very long way to go and I haven't even met the nut yet.

But...I was wondering how good were you with changing your eating habits and changing your lifestyle BEFORE surgery? Did you have it down solid? Did it evolve more for you after surgery?

Thanks!

I would say I was improved but definitely not clean until the 10 day liquid. When I started that I was 100 percent sticking to the plan.

For me I don't drink, smoke or even drink soda or caffeine so I really only needed to focus on some bad habits. I ate in front of the tv and typically did not chew my food as well as I needed to. I was a slow eater so that was not too bad but I focused on slowing down even more.

I would say I still eat in front of the tv for some of my meals (yes i know that is bad) and eating slower than I already was is much harder than it seems. If I ever have an issue it is usually because I am eating too fast. The tummy lets me know it right away.

After surgery your taste buds will change. After RNY surgery, I was no longer hungry. I found it easy to lose weight when hunger was taken off the table. After surgery there are 3 important drivers. These are Protein intake, Vitamin intake and Fluid intake. Meals are secondary. Your body has stored fat that will power your body for several months. Your body will convert this fat into energy and you will lose weight.

After surgery, one of the most important things you can do is find a protein supplement that you can tolerate. I hate them all but I could tolerate Muscle Milk Light. Everyone has different tastes.

As you progress and your meal volume increases, your meal approach can vary significantly. I focused on using home made high protein chili and Soups. That meant that when I achieved the one cup per meal in meal volume, I was getting around 65 grams of protein out of my meals alone.

This allowed me to transition down from my protein supplements from 3 per day, down to 2 per day, down to 1 per day and now none. Instead I do (no sugar added) cocoa or a berry smoothie for a little extra protein.

Edited February 3, 201511 yr by James Marusek

I usually intake a lot of Protein in my daily food journals. I realize this becomes more difficult after your portion sides decrease. I also do not smoke, drink soda, or drink alcohol.

For the past month I have been trying to lower my carbs and making my protein choices more of the lean variety. I also switched from lactose milk to almond milk.

I am very busy and my schedule is chaotic so the biggest challenge is trying to change my eating slower, chewing better, and actually sitting for a meal. I have noticed I have a tendency to stand and eat when I have a busy day!

Like I said...I haven't met with my nut yet and that appointment isn't until next month but I have managed to loose 10lbs worth the changes I have made so I guess that's something.

I was not very "clean" at all during the months running up to surgery. I focused on trying to change 1 habit at a time (now stop eating out all the time, now stop carbonated soda, now stop coffee, etc.) but I was pretty lax overall. And, big surprise, my weight was more or less stable throughout the 6-month weight loss window.

I got mostly serious in the 2 weeks before surgery, when I finally started holding myself accountable for breaking all those habits for real, once and for all. I weighed 305 at my first appointment with the surgeon, and he asked me to get down to 290 before surgery. I made it to 291.5 by pulling out all the last-minute tricks I could think of, and then the b*stard didn't even weigh me on surgery day. LOL.

My nutritionist reminded me a couple of times that pre-surgery weight loss is not at all correlated with post-surgery weight loss. Even though I didn't take the run-up to surgery very seriously, the messages were actually getting through and I've had no issues at all with holding myself accountable to making good choices since surgery.

I didn't start changing my diet specifically for post-op until I met with the NUT and learned what my goals should be (the usual, increase Protein and Water, eat slower, journal regularly etc). Since then, I as many others have been focusing on making those changes at a steady pace. That being said it's been in the forefront of my mind that this will be the last period in my life when I can eat with abandon, so I've made and am following the NUT outlined diet but am also enjoying my possible last slice of cheesecake ever... With mixed emotions

Three more weeks or so until my pre-op liquid diet! eeeep

I wonder why there is such a difference in the amount of days for the liquid diets? My doctor will put me on liquids just the day prior to my surgery but I hear others have weeks on it. I wonder how that effects the surgery if any?

My program told us it was mainly to shrink the liver (the shorter periods seems to just be for ensuring there's no food in your stomach or intestines)....

I'm new here, too, and haven't seen my nutritionist yet, either, but he suggested, preop, I go low carb high protein. A ketogenic diet.

He also said I could use Atkins, but he thinks thats dangerous long term and that keto is more sustainable and closer to how I'll have to eat afterwards, anyway.

I wish I could help you more.