Starting my journey. My sister in law and I work for the same company and she had her surgery two years ago. She flew through the process and had her surgery in about two months from the time of her first meeting. Now our insurance has changed and requires a 6 month supervised diet. I see many of you are completing this but I was so disappointed that this would be a requirement as I watched my sister in law fly through the initial process.

Who chose to use their family practice doctor and who chose to use a nutritionist with the weight loss clinic? I am torn as I know I can get into my doctor when ever I want to.

I also don't know what to expect with the supervised diet. What does this look like and what are the expectations? Are there weekly or monthly requirements? Daily food journals? Meeting specific carbohydrate, Protein, and fat intake requirements?

Thanks for your thoughts on this!

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i HAD to use the programs nutritionist. There was no other way to get the visits done. They expected me to keep a daily journal (thank you fitbit) and make some kind of progress every month. Honestly though, I am thankful for the long process just for the pure fact that i learned SO much from everything. I look at food COMPLETLEY different and my surgery isnt even until Wednesday!

I started with my PCP then switched to the nutritionist for the remainder of the time. What a difference! She has taught me so many things about myself and my relationship with food, tricks to remember, etc. that I just wasn't getting with my doctor. My insurance requires me to keep a daily food and exercise log for the entire 6 months (and all the way up until surgery) and demonstrate at least 80% compliance, but it wasn't a requirement of my surgeon/nutritionist.

I used my PCP for my 6 month supervised diet, my PCP co-pay was lower than a dietitian. UHC Optum sent me a form, but my surgeon had already given me a generic form at my first appt so I used that one. My PCP just filled it out and we discussed weight loss. I scheduled my first diet appt as soon as I found out I "might" have a supervised diet - I was also able to pull the month before starting.

I didn't have to lose and there was no consequence for gaining. I lost 5 lbs in the 6 months. I changed my diet very slightly.

Edited April 25, 201610 yr by GranadoM74

I had the option between my pcp or their nutritionist and I chose their nutritionist. The reason being I have seen some get denied since the pcp didn't have things documented the way insurance wanted and my nutritionist knows exactly how everything must be documented and she is teaching me so much about food and fueling my body.

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I went through a nutrionist as well in fact I don't even think my pcp knows about my surgery yet. I had been going to my pcp for weight loss help and she recommended I take my IUD birth control out because she said it may be causing weight gain. Well what do you know 2 months later I was pregnant. I had been thinking about the surgery for a while and the fact that I now had to wait 9 months or longer bummed me out. So anyway during my pregnancy I kept trying to find an in network Surgeon that would do it without the 1 year post birth waiting period most of them asked for. Found one but then was hit with another waiting period since the insurance wouldn't pay for the surgery unless I completed a wellness programs for at least 6 months.

Anyway long story short my nutritionist was good at working with insurance companies so she said we only needed 4 months and would use the data from my pcp for the other 2 months. I ended up starting the program my 8th month of pregnancy, delivered naturally with no issues and got the surgery 2 months post birth. I'm only on day 4 post op and I'm a little upset I can't breastfeed anymore but I'm happy overall. I was able to get it done and the insurance paid all of it because I met my deductible from the hospital birth.

In conclusion sorry for the long story, be patient and it will work out. You just have to go to weigh ins periodically and record your food input. I wasn't good with that so a lot of time I'd be filling in a few days at a time. You do learn a lot more from a nutrientist like the other people said and they also know the loopholes for the insurance companies.

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