I was told that Dr. Beausoleil's patients must undergo a two week regime of optifast. Are there any other options besides optifast? Where do you buy optifast? I have asked in every pharmacy in Saint John and none of the pharmist's have ever heard of optifast. I tried a can a long time ago and it was gross. I don't want to spend 200 dollars on it and discover that I really can't drink it. Any advice?:grouphug:

Optifast is VERY expensive and you can't buy it off the shelf - you can only buy it through clinics and doctors. That doesn't mean it's special, its just a marketing device.

When I was banded, the clinic had stopped recommending Optifast. They determined that a dairy based diet (yogurt and cottage cheese) was just as nutritious and a lot cheaper.

So, I ate nothing but yogurt and cottage cheese for two weeks. Boring......you betcha. But it was doable. I stuck with it and lost 15 pounds.

Optifast is a vere low calorie meal replacement. A lot of clinics require it before surgery to shrink the liver. My clinic has us order it directly from the supplier after they gave us a prescription for it. You can't buy it off the shelf in any pharmacy. We order ours from Minogue Medical out of Montreal but not sure where Dr. Beausoleil will have you order yours from. It's about $50 per week so really no different than feeding yourself for a week. I found it very easy to stick to it and after the first few days, I felt wonderful on it once ketosis kicked in. You could discuss other alternatives with your clinic to see if they will allow you to do some other type of pre op diet but I'm' happy I did the Optifast since my liver was in great shape for surgery.