I'm 6 days into my 2 week pre-op diet. Surgery is the 7th. I didn't expect the pre-op diet to be so difficult. The first 4 days were absolutely horrible and had me rethinking everything. It's tolerable now. But my question is since starting it, I've had heartburn, indigestion, burping, and nausea. Anyone else experience this?

The hunger pains were terrible the first few days but have gotten better but definitely still there. I'm getting about 550-700 calories a day as required with the diet guidelines. I had a few days where I felt sorry for myself because I couldn't have the food my family is eating (I still have to feed hubby and 4 kiddos) but told myself that is same the food that made me this way. I had to morn my unhealthy relationship with food for a few days. It was crazy because I kept reaching for food or getting ready to plan to go out to eat out of habit until I was like wait, I can't have that.

Please tell me this gets better after surgery when the diet is even more strict? It's the hunger pains, cravings, and indigestion that needs to go.

Sent from my SM-S115DL using BariatricPal mobile app

Are you doing shakes. It could be the shakes causing the heartburn and all that?? Maybe try a different brand of shake. In terms of it getting easier it does for almost everyone. Most of us (with the exception of a small few) lose our hunger hormones post surgery so we only have to fight with head hunger which is usually a little easier to ignore. If you do continue to fight head hunger and it’s difficult for you, some people find it helpful to work with a bariatric therapist to get to the bottom of the cravings and learn different ways to cope with them.

4 minutes ago, ShoppGirl said:

Are you doing shakes. It could be the shakes causing the heartburn and all that?? Maybe try a different brand of shake. In terms of it getting easier it does for almost everyone. Most of us (with the exception of a small few) lose our hunger hormones post surgery so we only have to fight with head hunger which is usually a little easier to ignore. If you do continue to fight head hunger and it’s difficult for you, some people find it helpful to work with a bariatric therapist to get to the bottom of the cravings and learn different ways to cope with them.

Yep, 2 shakes a day and then 1 meal from the list of acceptable meats/veggie in very small portions. I am using the Nectar chocolate protein powder in milk. I am continuing to see my bariatric therapist that my bariatric center had me go to for my evaluation. She's amazing. I'm so glad to hear that it normally gets better for most. This week has been tough. I don't know how people do it for longer than 2 weeks or even stricter diets pre-op.

3 hours ago, BlessedMomma91 said:

I had to morn my unhealthy relationship with food for a few days. It was crazy because I kept reaching for food or getting ready to plan to go out to eat out of habit until I was like wait, I can't have that.

Mourning the way things were is a great analogy. It is very accurate because you are leaving behind life long patterns that were unhealthy and teaching yourself a whole new way of being. It has helped me to remind myself that even though change is really hard, I am making these changes to say yes to so many things and to actually be able to live life instead of existing.

Like mourning any loss, it gets better with time and adapting to the new normal. Find little things to look forward to. Be adventurous in trying new things in your new dietary reality. You may find a new favorite!

I guess I'm the weirdo that found the pre-op diet easy and struggle more now post-surgery.

Let me explain my theory on why: I actually started a restricted calorie diet about 4 months pre-surgery. I then started substituting a shake for one meal a day about a month before the pre-op diet. I feel like doing both of these allowed me to ease into the pre-op diet without missing a beat? My pre-op diet, by the way was full liquids. No meals.

I knew from previous experience with drastic dietary changes, I'd likely regret it if I didn't ease into it, so that's why I did what I did. The biggest challenge for me pre-op was actually just dealing with my emotions. I was constantly worried something would delay the surgery I'd been waiting so long for.

Now that I'm ~6 weeks post-op and "allowed" to eat anything, I find my head-hunger talking over sometimes. I didn't have this pre-op because it was so restricted. I basically had no choice in what I was eating then. Now however, I find myself sometimes making bad food choices. I'm not actually hungry at all and so when I do feel like eating, I gravitate toward things that sound good, rather than are good for me.