Hi! I had my first visit with the nutritionist yesterday and I will need to lose 20 lbs pre surgery. I'm really nervous and worried that I won't be able to do this. Does the 2 weeks of liquids before surgery help with a lot of that weight? I'm going to try as hard as I can but if it were easy I wouldn't need the surgery! Just makes me scared it might not work out. Did anyone else feel this way?

I lost 10 pds in one week of liquids before surgery.

Our weight loss tends to be "front loaded" with a chunk of water weight loss when we first start a major weight loss effort (figure 10-15 lb) Most people who have a pre-op diet will see that big drop when they start it; those who don't have pre-op diet will see that big drop soon after surgery; those, while those who lost it during a pre-op diet are often disappointed that they don't see a bigger loss immediately post-op. If you are doing an earlier diet than the week or two diet that many surgeons impose, then you will likely see that big drop when you start that, but less, if any, when you start the formal pre-op diet a week or two before surgery.

And, you are right, that if if were easy for you to lose, you wouldn't need the surgery, yet some, but certainly not all or even most, surgeons have this type of requirement lose X lb or % before surgery, or at least threaten to do so (guess they think that it is in incentive for you to "try your best".

Good luck,

I have lost 27lbs in the 3 months since I started preparing for surgery. If you start making the changes to your diet you need to make for surgery and don't have "food funerals" that may be sufficient, even before the liquid diet (my plan doesn't have a liquid diet).

I don't know how you've been eating, but I was eating a lot of carbs and sweets, and when I decided to have surgery I cut out almost all sweets and cut back on carbs significantly (I still eat fruit and some amount of carbs, just a lot less). I find it's made a huge difference in how much I eat overall because I'm less hungry; doing this has let me go from about 2000 calories a day to 1400 and I'm actually more satisfied.

My surgery program has a nutritionist and I met with her and told her what I was doing and she thought it was a good idea.

Of course, for me it has always been relatively easy to lose weight... I've just never been good at keeping it off.... I hope WLS will make that easier.

Good luck!!