My surgery is scheduled in November. I don’t have to start the pre-op diet until October, but I’ve been eating pretty close to it for the past 8 weeks anyway. I’ve hardly been eating enough to have any gastrointestinal motility. My eating has consisted of protein drinks plus one small meal per day. I’ve been drinking plenty of water and even taking fiber. But I’m getting horrible constipation. Last night I was in incredible pain from it. Has anyone else had this problem? How have you dealt with it?

Miralax one spoonful in your flavored water each day

Yes, this a VERY common problem for post-op bariatric patients. If you search this site, you will find a lot of helpful info. Here's a recent thread that may help:

I am curious, though, why you are starting your pre-op diet so very early? If I understand correctly, you started this about 3 months before your surgeon said you should? It's great that you're an overachiever and working hard to prepare yourself for the surgery, but I'm not sure it's a great idea to do the pre-op diet for so long. The purpose of the pre-op diet is to shrink the liver to make it easier for the surgeon to access your stomach, and the purpose of the post-op liquid diet is to allow the stomach to heal. Once the stomach is healed, though, most surgeons want us eating real food. My program recommends the "3-2-1" rule (3 bites protein, 2 bites non-starchy vegetables, 1 bite complex carbs), which is a pretty common thing, although some programs focus more on vegetables. I am not a medical professional, but I encourage you to discuss with your doctor the best diet to follow before you get to the pre-op diet. Eating more fruits and vegetables and fewer protein shakes may help with your problems.

Thank you. I didn’t want to start eating so restrictively so early. I’ve done so because I have the dietician from hell, and even though I did what she had asked of me she was very shaming and never happy with me. I realized that I needed to make her happy with me to get my surgeon to approve me, and the only way I could actually make myself lose a substantial amount of weight was to live on liquid protein plus one meal a day. I did this to please her, not because it what I wanted. And not I’m afraid of starting to eat more again temporarily and gaining weight before the pre-op diet is actually supposed to begin.

On 9/26/2020 at 6:19 AM, SAS11 said:

Thank you. I didn’t want to start eating so restrictively so early. I’ve done so because I have the dietician from hell, and even though I did what she had asked of me she was very shaming and never happy with me. I realized that I needed to make her happy with me to get my surgeon to approve me, and the only way I could actually make myself lose a substantial amount of weight was to live on Liquid Protein plus one meal a day. I did this to please her, not because it what I wanted. And not I’m afraid of starting to eat more again temporarily and gaining weight before the pre-op diet is actually supposed to begin.

Is this the only surgeon office near you. You really want someone good on your team. There are just so many weightloss places out there. It sucks you are stressed about that part when it should actually be a very exciting time