male only Pre-OP Diet

BigBander · June 19, 2008

Starting my Pre-Op liquid diet (Optifast) today. I'm dreading the next 12 days. How's everyone else?

Fenton · June 19, 2008

BB, it's not so bad. You just have to commit to liquids only, and get on with it.

It helps to know WHY you're on a liquid diet. Two reasons, basically:

1. When you eat solid food, your stomach gets stretched. If you're a hefty fellow, chances are you've been eating solid food for some years now, and your stomach is big and dilated. A few days on liquid diet will mean your stomach has time to get used to holding smaller volumes; it'll probably get a bit smaller before the surgery, making things a bit easier.

2. More importantly, the body stores a lot of fat in the liver, making the liver swell up in size. Since the liver sits on top of the stomach, the bigger the liver is, the harder it is to do the surgery: you want to make things as easy as possible for the surgeon, because that means less work for him, and less discomfort afterwards for you. Worse, a fatty, swollen liver is also more fragile and can be damaged during surgery.

Finally, one of the fastest periods of weight loss is while we're on the liquid diet - you'll jumpstart your weight loss, and get a sense of how it feels to lose weight quickly. So, I guess, three reasons.

Suddenly switching to liquids is a bit of a shock to the system - you may have hunger pangs, but if you do, just tell yourself that that feeling means your body is burning off fat.

Good luck with your diet - come back and post often! You're among friends here.

PRCowboy · June 19, 2008

I agree with what Fenton says. If you embrace it you can really drop some weight. I started with two days of liquids and a light dinner, then 4 days of clear liquid followed by my two weeks of clear liquid post op. I have completed about 8 days post op.

I started on June 5th @ 463 and today June 19th (only two weeks) I am at 423. Good luck!