Like everyone here I have struggled with my weight my entire life. It didn't help that growing up my family fat shamed me. I became a closet eater early on, and brought that into adulthood with me. I have been on every diet out there, and as all of you here they worked for a while. I am now the heaviest I have ever been, even when I was pregnant. I am beating myself up every single day. In addition to the self esteem issues, the health issues of being overweight are a concern. I am so tired of the anxiety that I feel every time I go to the Doctor and I know I have to get on the scale. From January to March of 2020 I lost 15 pounds, I felt amazing, I was on a roll. Then Covid-19 happened, and all of a sudden I am working from home. My entire routine has changed and I am still having a difficult time finding the "right" routine. Needless to say I have gained back the 15 pounds that I lost and more. That was the moment I decided to explore bypass surgery. I made an appointment and did my research before my first appointment. I decided on gastric sleeve because I feel that is the best option for me. I have my nutritionist consult on 7 August. At the Doctor appointment, the nurse told me to start drinking 1 protein shake a day for breakfast, which is not an issue since I've been drinking protein shakes forever. My confusion comes in for the rest of the day. My surgery is 6 months out. Do I begin the Pre-Surgery diet now? 350-400 calories per meal, 150 calorie snack etc? Or should I wait until my consult with the nutritionist? Also, the nurse told me I cannot gain any weight between now and my surgery.

Any advice you can provide is appreciated. ?

I would probably wait until you've seen the nutritionist. I'm guessing at your weight, 1200-1300 calories a day is probably what they're going to recommend (so what you mentioned is probably on target), but who knows. They had me eating a lot more than that, but then, I was well over 300 lbs when I started, so that makes a difference. At that time I'd lose weight even on 2000 kcal/day (which is about what they had me eating)

@catwoman7 thank you. It's a bit overwhelming. So much information. But I'm excited.

Yes wait until you get the first weigh in and stuff before you worry about weight loss... I personally changed my diet from 2 months before surgery just for my own piece of mind and it worked out for me even the surgeon said I got a headstart on my weight loss and I've done really well lost all my excess weight...

I personally just woke up one day and started on shakes and was only on like 500cal Max for a few months...

@New&Improved Thank you. I'm just trying to sort everything out. Get all my appointments in order etc.

I've been through it all and out the other side now in maintenance

I started a diet right after I saw my nutritionist, and she told me to just start with the one shake and then 4-6 weeks before my surgery to go to two shakes a day before the 2 week liquid diet. I did all of that and ended up losing 20 pounds before I began my liquid diet. I am currently on the liquid diet, even though it is so hard, the transition from two to three shakes was not that hard, I do struggle at dinner time, but I know it's all worth it in the end. Good luck!

When I started the process for WLS I was 385 pounds. I made the choice to start dieting before I even saw the nutritionist. I had a six month program like yourself, but wasn't able to get in to see the nutritionist until the third month. At that point I was already on my own diet and the nutritionist approved of my choice. The first month I cut down my portion sizes and stopped eating seconds. The second month I cut out soda. The third month I cut out rice. The fourth month I cut out pasta. The fifth month I cut out bread. The six month I cut out beans, potatoes, etc. But I ended up having to wait an extra two months as they were overbooked and I just kept up my diet for the two months until my two week pre-op diet. I lost 64 pounds before my surgery and was 321 on my surgery date. And I've lost an additional 85 pounds since my surgery six months ago.

In the end, it's your life and you get to decide how you want to approach your surgery. I wish you the best of luck!

I lost over 60 pounds before my surgery by intermittent fasting and tracking everything I eat in MyFitnessPal. I didn't really get any guidance from my program except recommending MyFitnessPal. I was on a "medically supervised" weight loss effort with my PCP for my insurance requirements, but she didn't really give me any specific guidance, either.

If you're not already tracking everything you eat, I would start there. MyFitnessPal makes it really easy because they have a huge database of food, so you just have to search for the food and you don't have to enter nutrition information manually. If you eat something with a barcode, you can just scan the barcode and it will find the food for you. It will calculate a calorie limit based on your current weight and weight loss goals. You have a pretty low starting weight, so you probably won't lose that much before surgery, but this should at least help you not to gain.