Okay, I've just got to get this out, and yes, I have bitched about this on other threads, and after this maybe I'll leave it alone, but I'm SO SICK AND TIRED of lap band doctors putting thier patients on this stupid 2-3 week pre-op liquid diet. It's DUMB. It's RIDICULOUS. and it doesn't teach the patient SHIT.

Why make your patient starve when they can eat healthy wonderful foods like chicken, veggies, tuna, almonds, and things like this? The South Beach diet does the same exact thing to your liver as going on liquids does. And not only does it do the same exact thing for you, but it also TEACHES the patient how to eat better and properly on the band. It teaches them to stay away from the breads and the rice and things of this nature that you really should stay away from and it teaches them to eat healthier overall.

Instead you make them do liquids in which case, I bet you at least 95% of the patients end up cheating and what do they eat when they cheat? pizza... cheeseburgers.. etc.. guess what, they aren't learning anything! and I bet their livers aren't going to be much better.

It just makes me so mad... My friend got banded a week after me and her doctor put her on this liquid diet.. she cheated... and guess what she's eating right now.. fricking texas toasters sandwhiches from sonic, cheeseburgers, pizza, greasy nasty foods, cheese sticks, french fries, and going to buffets eating 2-3 plates of food.. not losing anything... and I put some blame on her doctor for not putting her on a pre-op diet that prepared and taught her to eat better.

My doctor said he tried doing that liquid diet a long time ago but found that his patients always cheated and the results of the livers were actually better on the southbeach and the weightloss was even sometimes better too or equal..

So, can somebody on here tell me why? is there some other fact that I just don't know about??

PS: And this excludes the liquids that you have to do 1-2 days after a fill, i'm talking about the pre-op diet.

I think it depends on the doctor because I only had to do it 48hrs prior to surgery just to make sure my stomach was empty.

I feel sorry for you! I guess my Dr. either doesn't do that or just doesn't care because my insurance approved me litterally 18 hours before my surgery so I didn't have time to prepare at all. I stopped eating at 3:00pm the afternoon before my surgery.

Perhaps it's easier to have people who are addicted to food NOT eat food prior to surgery? Some people have a hard time limiting their food intake (which is why they are overweight :frown:), so it might be easier to just cut it out entirely. No one dies from it, at least I haven't heard of it.

I didn't have any problems with sticking to my pre op diet which was low carb slim fast and one lean meat of 4 ounces with some green vegetables a day.

So tell us how you really feel about this. LOL!!

I did not have to do a liquid pre-op except two days of Clear Liquids before surgery and a low calorie, low fat diet two weeks before surgery. I think I lost like two pounds before surgery.

I don't think all surgeons have patients do it because of the liver, it does have a mental boost to the patient, to see a few quick pounds fall off before surgery and since some people don;t get good restriction and can actually gain a few after surgery, that pre-op weight ends up meaning a lot mentally.

And since many patients are so motivated to get their band they do follow the liquid diet as much as possible and lose some weight.

I totally agree that all liquids for several weeks is very hard and have read many posts of people unable to stick to it and for many when they cheat, it's not pretty.

A combo plan of one or two liquid meals and a small dinner of chicken and a veggie or salad would be a better compromise.

i have a few theories

1. they dont want you to have to poo after surgery!

2. you cant cheat on the liquid post op and i know at least my dr does it because he says if you won't commit to doing that for yourself, then there's no reason for him to believe that you will not cheat after the surgery.

3. to torture us for being fat? lol

My doc just has his patients do low carb before surgery. I did it for 2 weeks and lost about 5 pounds. He does not believe in liquid diets except for 2 days post op because he wants his patients to learn to eat proper foods. Post-op was 2 days of full liquids and then on to soft foods for 4 weeks. It worked out great as I lost about 10 pounds before my 1st fill.

Do a poll and find out how many people actually gained weight between the time they were approved and the time of surgery.

Okay, I've just got to get this out, and yes, I have bitched about this on other threads, and after this maybe I'll leave it alone, but I'm SO SICK AND TIRED of lap band doctors putting thier patients on this stupid 2-3 week pre-op liquid diet. It's DUMB. It's RIDICULOUS. and it doesn't teach the patient SHIT.

Why make your patient starve when they can eat healthy wonderful foods like chicken, veggies, tuna, almonds, and things like this? The South Beach diet does the same exact thing to your liver as going on liquids does. And not only does it do the same exact thing for you, but it also TEACHES the patient how to eat better and properly on the band. It teaches them to stay away from the breads and the rice and things of this nature that you really should stay away from and it teaches them to eat healthier overall.

Instead you make them do liquids in which case, I bet you at least 95% of the patients end up cheating and what do they eat when they cheat? pizza... cheeseburgers.. etc.. guess what, they aren't learning anything! and I bet their livers aren't going to be much better.

It just makes me so mad... My friend got banded a week after me and her doctor put her on this liquid diet.. she cheated... and guess what she's eating right now.. fricking texas toasters sandwhiches from sonic, cheeseburgers, pizza, greasy nasty foods, cheese sticks, french fries, and going to buffets eating 2-3 plates of food.. not losing anything... and I put some blame on her doctor for not putting her on a pre-op diet that prepared and taught her to eat better.

My doctor said he tried doing that liquid diet a long time ago but found that his patients always cheated and the results of the livers were actually better on the southbeach and the weightloss was even sometimes better too or equal..

So, can somebody on here tell me why? is there some other fact that I just don't know about??

PS: And this excludes the liquids that you have to do 1-2 days after a fill, i'm talking about the pre-op diet.

So, This makes me think that you are not quite ready to do as your Doctor says. You have to do as Dr. tells you to or you are just going to be hurting yourself in the long run. He knows more about Lapband than we do, When it comes to pre-op.

I am not so sure that 2-3 weeks is necessary. I think at least 1 week is certainly reasonable and should be required. I think the primary reason is that it helps to get people in the right mind-set.

How much of overeating is habitual . . . which makes it difficult to regroup and change eating patterns. I can't speak for everyone, but for myself the liquid diet was very difficult because it was my habit to eat certain things in certain amounts. This is exactly the reason why I found the liquid diet to really be a help to prepare for the lifestyle change.

It wasn't easy for me, but I really wanted this to work and I am willing to put forth the effort. So I did the diet and worked very hard to stay steady through temptation. I have sometimes given in to temptation but I feel that as long as we do our best to make the right decisions the majority of the time we can be successful.

As far as your friend is concerned, if she is eating these unhealthy things and not following any diet guidelines now then I am not sure that a different pre-op diet would have made a difference. I hope that she will find the inner strength to move beyond unhealthy eating patterns for her health and peace of mind.

Edited April 8, 200818 yr by HeatherO
typo

I know for a fact that you do the 48 hour pre-op diet for an empty stomach before surgery. A lot of times, the anesthesia will give you diarrhea RIGHT after surgery if you had anything in the GI tract.

As far as the 2-3 week pre-op diet, from what I know, it's for patients who have a really high BMI and subsequently have a large liver because of it. The less that the liver is used, the smaller it gets. The liver makes for a more difficult and complication ridden surgery.

I could be wrong, but this is what I've heard from TONS of surgeons.

They just told me not to eat or drink anything the night prior to the surgery, that's it.

Ha! I frickin' love my doc now...No pre-op diet...just don't gain any weight...No bowel prep either (i.e. colon cleanse)...no food after midnight...that's all folks...surgery went fine...recovery sucks...lol

My surgeon recommended a week of eating yoghurt! He then said in the same breath that providing it was low fat and sugar, and less that 1000 calories a day then it was fine. I saw him today and I mentioned that the fat content of my yoghurts wasn't as low as I thought! (I did wonder why they were sooooo yummy!) He said to me that being young and healthy at 27years old would mean my liver would be small enough so I'm wondering if it's an age thing. I have cheated as I've certainly not only eaten yoghurts! I've kept it low-ish fat but haven't beaten myself up, then again, I haven't gone overboard either.

I'm being banded this friday :-)

and have made a million little pots of homemade Soup and put them in the freezer ready for next weeks recovery :-)

I heard somewhere that there were two reasons for pre-op deit. The first reason, of course, is to shrink the liver. But as we all know, that can be done on a low-cal, low-fat diet. The second reason, however, is to shrink the stomach which I would imagine is easier without solid food. I had heard that the reason for shrinking your stomach was to allow for a smaller band which might cause less slipping and other post-op problems.

My Dr required one week of Clear liquids before surgery. It sucked, I won't lie. But, I'm on day 2 after post-op and doing pretty well. I have to give him some credit - I had thought it'd be harder for me.

I had to do 24 hours liquid preop