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.

Maybe pre op diet isn't for everyone.....I'm 8 days into it and no expert for sure. I only know what it's done for me.

1. Lost 20 lbs so far.....284 to 264

2. Built my confidence

3. Started a habit of not gorging my self

4. Showed myself I do have some discipline

5. Built my excitement to a high level

Except for those things maybe it is ridiculous....however I'm not a doctor.

Paamulbig

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'm not sure if you didn't read my post properly or maybe didn't see my signature line, but I've been banded since 2-25 and my doctor put me on the South Beach diet for pre-op. I followed it faithfully and lost 11 pounds in 9 days! I'm basically writing this because I feel sorry for people who HAVE to follow this and told to do this by their doctors. I think it's ridiculous. But you did say one thing right, "He (my doctor) knows more about Lapband than we do, when it comes to pre-op"... "do as Dr. tells you to"... my doctor is a genius for having his patients do this diet plan over the liquids...

Somebody mentioned that the doctor puts you on this so you can follow the liquid diet better after being banded, well, I found that I easily followed the liquid diet after as I was so swollen and tight the only thing I could get down for the first few days was liquids.. lol.

Somebody else mentioned doing the liquids so you didn't have to poo after surgery.. well, I didn't poo for 2 days after surgery and when I did, it wasn't much...

Somebody also mentioned shrinking the stomach.. well, I was a pretty big girl when I got banded and my stomach had shrank enough on the South Beach diet that the planned 10cc band he put on me had to have 4cc added to it because it was too baggy, so my stomach wasn't that large afterall.

So, all the reasons I've been given for doing the liquid pre-op diet makes no sense.. its seems that the liquid pre-op is quite pointless.

I'm so tired of hearing people tell other people who get stuck doing this pre op diet - "do what you doctor says.." when it seems that many doctors follow this low-carb plan and the other half does the liquids.. so, which is wrong? why don't they ALL just choose this better path?! again, the liquid pre-op diet doesn't teach you anything valuable...

Maybe pre op diet isn't for everyone.....I'm 8 days into it and no expert for sure. I only know what it's done for me.

1. Lost 20 lbs so far.....284 to 264

2. Built my confidence

3. Started a habit of not gorging my self

4. Showed myself I do have some discipline

5. Built my excitement to a high level

Except for those things maybe it is ridiculous....however I'm not a doctor.

Paamulbig

1. You probably lost a lot of muscle because you have been starving yourself.. after you get banded, and get back on regular foods I bet you will gain some of this back. Doing it my way, I only gained 2 pounds after going back on solids and lost that quickly. Many people who do this pre-op liquid people end up gaining pounds back.. because guess what, you can't stay on the liquid diet forever...

2. Confidence? that will come in time no matter which plan you do..

3. The other way does this too, as you eat a lot of Protein and get full quickly.. guess what, after your banded and you lose restriction and go through bandster hell, what are you going to do?? go back on a liquid diet until you get your fill? no, you have to learn to eat healthy and not gorge yourself.

4. Um, it took a LOT of discipline to cut out breads, pastas, rice, sugars, fruits, etc for me too. The SB diet aint easy!

5. When I was dropping 1-2 pounds a day on the SB diet, I was pretty dang excited too.. and, I felt satisfied every day... i didn't get headaches and lose muscle in the process either.

Hey, I'm super happy for you if you are happy with your pre-op liquid diet.. but I still think its wrong to make patients do it..

We got into this shape with our wonderful ability to "reason". Think I'll let a Dr help me get out of it.

Paamulbig

We got into this shape with our wonderful ability to "reason". Think I'll let a Dr help me get out of it.

Paamulbig

Oh, you think that's what I'm doing here, eh.. LOL. I don't have to reason anything, as my doctor doesn't make his patients do the liquid diet. Hey, I do wish you all the best though..

Edited April 9, 200818 yr by coolcrystal

You sound like a very nice person.....Paamulbig :thumbup:

Personally, I was told low carb, low fat between the last doc visit and surgery (about 4 weeks).

But, regardless of what I was told, or what anyone was instructed - it's Doc's orders. I am sure anyone chosing a surgeon for such an important life decision would research this deeply. Therefore, if they specificaly are told to do a liquid pre-op, I think there would be a good reason made by a qualified doctor.

I'm not sure anyone here can answer why a doctor would do that, or would not do that. Are there any doctors here that can answer? Perhaps an individual-by-individual basis.

You sound like a very nice person.....Paamulbig :thumbup:

Wow, even when I say I wish you all the best twice you wish to insult me..

I actually am a pretty nice person.

Just feel sorry for people who are told to do something they don't need to do.. and something I feel actually harms them more.

But I have my opinion and you have yours. If you want to insult me and say in a facetious way that I'm "nice" aka, mean, go ahead. It is your opinion.

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

Just to comment on #1 and 3 - I actually didn't have a preop diet, I did some slimfast / sensible dinners - sort of for a couple weeks before my surgery and lost 5lbs but after surgery it took me days to actually have to poo and when I did I wasn't even backed up. TMI I know haha.

And to # 3 - just hehehe maybe.

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

Well I did my own preop smarter eating diet and lost 5 lbs BUT I had a bad case of the "last supper syndrome" and between knowing I'd be getting it for sure and waiting for surgery date I easily gained 15+ lbs. *sigh* so I'd be counted in that category of a poll lol.

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.

What you said about the empty stomach before surgery does makes sense ... although I've never had to have that (besides the no food/drink after midnite on day of surgery thing) with any of my surgeries, interesting to know though - thankfully I don't have anesthesia issues and it doesn't make me sick/diarrhea at all. Good to know for others though.

I have it pretty easy right now... I have surgery on 4/23 my doctor doesnt really recommend the liquid diet either. He thinks that as long as I lose 5-10 pounds then that will shrink the liver enough and also show motivation he said. I have exceeded that loss but hope to lose a few more before my pre op appt on 4/17.

I really think tho that if you cannot follow what the doctors orders are if they are within reason that you probably need to work on other aspects of the food addiction and such before venturing into a huge lifestyle change.

It would be like telling an alcoholic they are switching their booze for Water... same as telling a food addict that you have to hand over the plate of Cookies for a cup of broth :sigh:

Thankfully I started my own low carb no sugar way of watching weight before I hit the final stretch here before surgery so I won't be in too much of a shock.

I have my own view here & I did not have a pre-op diet. I've read an awful lot of people loosing 20-40lbs in their 2/3wk period of a liquid diet, and routinely those are the same people posting their fears of gaining weight during the mushy stage, or don't want to go to full 3 high Protein meals a day. My Dr is not a fan of liquid meals & nor am I, I want to eat - I didnt' sign up for this to drink a shake...but that's just MO.

I might have been slow out of the gate, only loosing 11 lbs the first month - but 100% of my weightloss has come after the band. I've never once gained a pound (except maybe Water weight during TOM - but I don't weight then) even though I have been frutstrated when the scaled didn't move....But hey, it didn't move upwards either:rolleyes2:.

My guess is majority of Dr's do this to get many prepared for the Post Op Diet, quite frankly a low carb diet does get the same results.

Interesting thread!!

My son is a diabetes educator for a group of doctors. He said he was talking to the briatric surgeon and the surgeon told him they routinely reject people who show up for surgery and who have gained weight.

I'm not really sure educating patients about nutrition is a Doctor's job. I think it is a nutritionist's job. The trick is to weed out those who need the counseling and nutrition training. I don't think all do. Those who need it should be able to get it.

I have my own view here & I did not have a pre-op diet. I've read an awful lot of people loosing 20-40lbs in their 2/3wk period of a liquid diet, and routinely those are the same people posting their fears of gaining weight during the mushy stage, or don't want to go to full 3 high Protein meals a day. My Dr is not a fan of liquid meals & nor am I, I want to eat - I didnt' sign up for this to drink a shake...but that's just MO.

I might have been slow out of the gate, only loosing 11 lbs the first month - but 100% of my weightloss has come after the band. I've never once gained a pound (except maybe Water weight during TOM - but I don't weight then) even though I have been frutstrated when the scaled didn't move....But hey, it didn't move upwards either:rolleyes2:.

My guess is majority of Dr's do this to get many prepared for the Post Op Diet, quite frankly a low carb diet does get the same results.

Interesting thread!!

Exactly what you said.. that's the scary part.. poeple will lose a lot of weight on the liquid diet, but it's not healthy. You lose muscle, not true fat.. it's not real weight loss when you gain a lot of it back after you start to eat regular food again. The two pounds I did gain was during my T.O.M, and I know that's what it was.. and it came right off. It was nice knowing that the pre-op weight I lost was "for good" weightloss. I just think it's important for people to learn how to eat before getting banded. I just really feel bad for folks who have to do this. Especially if their scale does go up when they start back on solids.

No liquid diet for me. All of my weightloss except for approx 5 pounds has been lost post-band and like you I have not gained except for .5 a couple of times which to me is not a gain. I lost 10 pounds the 1st month after banding and have lost at a steady pace since then. It is very hard to not gain when someone has been on a liquid diet and then introduced solid food with more calories. I think that is very hard for someone that just had WLS to accept and can be disappointing. We see the posts all the time where people are following doctor's order and staying within the calorie range and still gain. I would never tell someone to not follow the advice of their doctor, this is just my opinion.

I had to do it for two weeks and lost 30lbs.

Before you tell me how it's not good for you.. I was taking in 1500-1600cal/day and 60g of protein a day. felt fine and don't think it's a bad thing. If anything it got me kick started and made the first two weeks post op less of a shock to my body.