I have a tentative surgery date of June 17th so I'll be starting my 2 week liver shrink / pre-op diet the first week of June. My nutritionist said I will have to drink meal replacement shakes for breakfast, lunch, & supper. I have Premier Protein powder at home, but he said that is not a meal REPLACEMENT, it's just a high protein shake.

What meal replacement shakes do you recommend? Which ones tastes the best? I don't think I can drink the ones that have a heavy vitamin taste.

Is it just me, or is it really odd they'd tell you what not to use, but didn't tell you what you should be using? Surely they must have some suggestions that fit what they want here?

As far as I know, all meal replacement shakes contain added vitamins as that's sort of the point. They also contain added carbs and fats that most protein shakes don't have.

I'd say the vast majority of people here were told to just use protein shakes. That's typically for a few reasons:

• First, especially if you also take a vitamin supplement, you're not going to suffer any long term harm using protein shakes instead of meal replacement shakes for a few weeks.
• Second, most meal replacement shakes are lower in protein than a typical protein shake. We want as much protein as possible to help prevent the breakdown of muscle tissue when dieting.
• Third, most bariatric doctors don't actually want you consuming very many carbs, since one of the main goals of the pre-surgical diet is to shrink your liver to make the surgery safer. The best way to do that is a very low carb diet. (The liver is one of the main ways your body stores glycogen, so by depleting it of glycogen (carbs), it will get smaller, even if no other changes take place.)

TL;DR: Ask your team what they want you to use.

This is what I have for my pre-op diet. It does give some guidelines for what they want the shakes to have. I'm just trying to find out which ones people prefer as far as taste before I buy some.

pre-op diet.pdf

The meal replacement shakes I liked the best were Bariatric Fusion brand in the cappuccino flavor for breakfast and the chicken soup flavor (made with warm water) for lunch and dinner. A caveat is that I hated both of these when I tasted them the first time. I almost got rid of them. Especially the chicken soup. But after about 3 days on the liquid diet, the soup was the best thing I ever tasted. I was so tired of artifical sweetness.

I also can't say enough nice things about Syntrax Nectar Naturals orange flavor protein shake (but this is not a meal replacement shake, just a protein supplement). I quickly tired of the meal replacement shakes within the first month post-op, but I drank an orange protein shake every morning for about 6 months. I had very little appetite in the mornings but specifically the lightness of the orange texture/flavor made me feel like I was having a glass of juice. It's similar to drinking Tang, if you ever had that back in the day. Or maybe like Sunny-D. Not quite orange juice, but kind of a treat. I tried the other flavors and they weren't as good in my opinion, but I would probably still drink the orange one if I needed a supplement.

@NickelChip Thank you so much! I am THRILLED to find out the is a chicken soup flavor!! LOL

Just be careful with selecting meal replacements since a lot of them won't meet the guidelines as outlined by your team. As an example, the Bariatric Pal creamy chicken soup meal replacement mentioned above is too low in protein. While there are a few products out there that will meet those guidelines, most won't. They'll either be too low in protein, or too high in carbs. This includes the vast majority of products you'll find at grocery & drug stores.

I use Quest brand Milk Shake Protein replacements with 45 grams of protein. I also get 30 grams of protein from various flavors of Premier Protein, these are both meal replacements. Be careful with anything bought in a store, make sure it has 3g or less of fat and 3 g or less of sugar, and make sure that they have NO added sugars. Gotta read the labels. I agree with SpartanMaker, you need to be very careful when looking for what you need in the guidelines you shared. That's page 19, I wonder if there are other dietary guidelines within your packet. Wishing you the best.

2 hours ago, SpartanMaker said:

Just be careful with selecting Meal Replacements since a lot of them won't meet the guidelines as outlined by your team. As an example, the Bariatric Pal creamy chicken Soup Meal Replacement mentioned above is too low in Protein. While there are a few products out there that will meet those guidelines, most won't. They'll either be too low in protein, or too high in carbs. This includes the vast majority of products you'll find at grocery & drug stores.

Yes, it's Bariatric Fusion brand that I used, NOT Bariatric Pal!

Bariatric Fusion chicken soup is 27g protein, 10g carb (check with your team because their guidelines say less than 10g carb but they may be okay with it being 10g) and 160 calories. The Cappuccino flavor is 27g protein, 8g carb and 150 calories. I bought mine from Amazon and a tub runs around $45. All the flavors on Amazon fit the guidelines with the possible exception of the chicken soup.

Celebrate also makes a meal replacement shake with several flavors that work with your guidelines, but their chicken soup is 24g protein instead of 25g (carbs and calories are within the guidelines). I tried that one and it was okay. I liked the Bariatric Fusion slightly more, but the benefit of the Celebrate brand is you can buy a variety pack directly from their website with 12 single serving envelopes of different flavors so you don't get bored. I also like their Tropical Twist flavor chewable bariatric vitamins if you're still looking for one, and their cherry and raspberry lemonade calcium chews are very tasty.

My favorite and go to is Premier Protein. I agree with you on the other shakes having a strong vitamin taste but not Premier. The only issue I had was sometimes it would get thick at room temp and hard to drink so I made sure to mix it in a cup with ice first then pour it into a bottle and shake it.

I also like Ensure Max Protein. I found that one on sale at Kroger and decided to give it a shot. It is good but the Premier is better to me.

In my third month now, just had my second post op appt last week where I was down 26lbs from when I started in February!

Best of luck to you!! You will do great! 🥰🤗