Hello, I’m new here. I’m waiting to be scheduled to meet with the doctor about my surgery if everything goes well hopefully soon. I’ve been thinking about starting myself on a liquid diet for a few weeks to see if I can shed some pounds before heading into the docs office. Has anyone tried a liquid diet prior to the operation and did you have any success? I’m open to any suggestions! Thank you all ! ???

Depending on the doctor's requirements and your insurance idk if you might be messing up your chances of getting approved. All insurance and doctors are different. So if you do a liquid diet and lose 20 pounds they would have to take your word for it. And then if they say we want you to lose x amount of pounds this month you might be slowing down and unable to lose ANOTHER 20. Documentation is the important part. Unless you go to your pcp and get weighed in beforehand so there is proof. Some docs dont have you do a 2 week liquid before surgery. And if you are on the edge of your BMI that might throw off your insurance approval if you drop below their threshold. I was told to just lose a few pounds a month for 6 months before I could get approval but my pcp said to keep it just at that so my bmi wouldn't drop too much. You could always call and ask the office person ahead of time and see what they say since they know the criteria.

On 1/3/2019 at 7:54 AM, Mandddaaa said:

Hello, I’m new here. I’m waiting to be scheduled to meet with the doctor about my surgery if everything goes well hopefully soon. I’ve been thinking about starting myself on a liquid diet for a few weeks to see if I can shed some pounds before heading into the docs office. Has anyone tried a liquid diet prior to the operation and did you have any success? I’m open to any suggestions! Thank you all ! ???

Hello there,

I tried my pre-op diet several times before doing it for real, to sort of 'practice' for the month long prep diet. I believe it was five times that I tried (or four, I forget), each time for anywhere from 3-4 days up to 1.5 weeks. The first time I did the pre-op diet (which consists of 5 protein shakes, a tiny amount of protein (meat or meat substitute), and up to 500g (roughly a pound) of non-starchy vegetables), I had no issues with hunger whatsoever.

Every time after that (including my current pre-surgery diet) has been misery. I have been extremely hungry with considerable stomach pains, although I have been losing the weight like crazy. I just kinda endure it because I have to at this point, and don't really have any tips to share. Some people can drink water to help stave off the hunger, but that sadly doesn't work for me. I wish I could offer some kind of other tips, but I don't have any to speak of.

I do wish you luck though, with whatever you choose to do!

I am sort of on the border when it comes to BMI. My surgeon weighed me on my first visit and is using that number for the insurance prequalification so that it won't matter if I lose weight before surgery. She is encouraging me to lose as much weight as possible during the 30-day pre-surgery liquid diet.

My surgeon's office is actually taking care of the prequalification process and is communicating directly with my insurance company. I'm not sure whether that is unusual, but I'm certainly glad to have them do it!