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NO pre-op diet? How much did you lose?



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I am just starting my road to wls and have to do 5 more months of dr supervised diet. But my surgeon does not require a pre-op diet. In some ways that is awesome (no 2 weeks of shakes and STARVING). And other ways has me wondering. I trust my surgeon. He is very knowledgeable and is not concerned about the size of my liver during surgery. Suggested I don't eat 2 pieces of cheesecake night before surgery but other than that not to worry about it.

I'd like to know the success stories of those who didn't have a pre-op diet.

Thanks!

p.s. I might do my own liquid diet a couple days before surgery just in case

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My surgeon who has been doing WLS for over 20 yrs and is the director of the Bariatric program doesn't require one if your BMI or weight is under a certain amount. He's the one I did my band to sleeve revision with. Love him and trust him very much.

My 1st WLS was the band and I weighed the same I did for my revision and they required one. My sleeve has been much more successful than my band ever was.

I'd trust your surgeon. He knows you weight, BMI, etc. he's the one doing the surgery. If you want to get a jump start on weight loss by all means go for it, but otherwise I'd trust what ur surgeon said.

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My BMI is just under 40 with diabetes and sleep apnea co-morbidities and my program does not have me doing a presurgery diet. My only instruction was to keep weight stable, no gaining. I will need to do clear liquid diet for 24 hrs prior to surgery.

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I had no pre op diet. Lost 136lbs (271 to 135) and have kept it off over a year.

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My doc didn't require a pre op diet, either. I lost almost 95 pounds in about 14 months and have been in maintenence for about 4 months. Took me a little longer to lose it than others, but I lost it!

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I think one of the benefits of the pre-op diet is with it being low carb you kind of lose your appetite. At least most people that do low carb have a decreased appetite. I certainly do. So then after surgery when I was being so careful and ginger with what I was taking in, I was not starving. In fact I did not feel a "hunger pang" until about 3 weeks. Also when you go on a low carb diet prior you lose so much of that excess Fluid. You often get some Fluid retention after surgery and it is much easier to manage if you have already lost a lot of excess fluid.

I was considered low BMI so did not need to do anything other than the 3 days liquid prior. I did the low carb pre-op diet and I am glad I did. I will be 6 weeks out tomorrow and I am down 21 lbs. from surgery day and 28 lbs. from when I started the pre-op diet.

Good luck in what ever you chose.

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Thanks soontobethinagain, Babbs and RuralNurse. I am excited and nervous and looking forward to a new healthier and skinnier me!

Good luck soontobethinagain!

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Thanks freckles70

Jess9395..wow! How long did it take you?

Almost a year to the day!

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I think one of the benefits of the pre-op diet is with it being low carb you kind of lose your appetite. At least most people that do low carb have a decreased appetite. I certainly do. So then after surgery when I was being so careful and ginger with what I was taking in, I was not starving. In fact I did not feel a "hunger pang" until about 3 weeks. Also when you go on a low carb diet prior you lose so much of that excess Fluid. You often get some Fluid retention after surgery and it is much easier to manage if you have already lost a lot of excess fluid.

I was considered low BMI so did not need to do anything other than the 3 days liquid prior. I did the low carb pre-op diet and I am glad I did. I will be 6 weeks out tomorrow and I am down 21 lbs. from surgery day and 28 lbs. from when I started the pre-op diet.

Good luck in what ever you chose.

I am a week into my pre-op diet, and while the primary reason given for this 2 weeks of low carb dieting is shrinking my liver, I wonder if a secondary reason is to get "low carb flu" out of the way before surgery. Yesterday was the first day I felt normal. Headaches, ravenous hunger, exhaustion and irritability up until then. I definitely don't want to deal with that along with the pain of surgery. It has also served to get me mentally prepared for the journey ahead. This isn't an argument for a pre-op diet, just my novice personal experience thus far.

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I think one of the benefits of the pre-op diet is with it being low carb you kind of lose your appetite. At least most people that do low carb have a decreased appetite. I certainly do. So then after surgery when I was being so careful and ginger with what I was taking in, I was not starving. In fact I did not feel a "hunger pang" until about 3 weeks. Also when you go on a low carb diet prior you lose so much of that excess Fluid. You often get some Fluid retention after surgery and it is much easier to manage if you have already lost a lot of excess fluid.

I was considered low BMI so did not need to do anything other than the 3 days liquid prior. I did the low carb pre-op diet and I am glad I did. I will be 6 weeks out tomorrow and I am down 21 lbs. from surgery day and 28 lbs. from when I started the pre-op diet.

Good luck in what ever you chose.

I am a week into my pre-op diet, and while the primary reason given for this 2 weeks of low carb dieting is shrinking my liver, I wonder if a secondary reason is to get "low carb flu" out of the way before surgery. Yesterday was the first day I felt normal. Headaches, ravenous hunger, exhaustion and irritability up until then. I definitely don't want to deal with that along with the pain of surgery. It has also served to get me mentally prepared for the journey ahead. This isn't an argument for a pre-op diet, just my novice personal experience thus far.

I agree, I'm glad I did it. Maybe not the path of everyone but I know I suffered less by doing it ahead of time and not while trying to recover from surgery.

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Yes, I agree with the last two posters. Getting over the carb withdrawal headaches preop was probably a great advantage. You might want to consider cutting out carbs at least (and caffeine, if that's your gig).

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      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
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      1. LeighaTR

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      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.

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        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

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