Hi everyone. Hope all are well. I had an exciting night last night. Thank god all involved are ok and alive. Not sure if anyone saw the news withthe US Airways crash into the Hudson River. My husband works for NY Waterway that was invovled in a lot of the rescue efforts for this. He is my little hero....Anyway, I have to lose 25 pounds by 2/20 - what if I am not able to do this will they reschedule my surgery? You see when I went for my first visit I was 250 and then through the 6 months process i gained another 10 pounds - so they need me to be at 230? How am I going to do that? I have no idea...I am just scared because my insurnace carrier changes effective march 1 and if they don't do it, I may have to start the whole process all over again - because Aetna approved it and they are my current carrier I don't know who my new carrier will be...Any advise greatly appreciated

i would start a low fat diet now & try your hardest to start losing some weight, then when it comes to your pre op diet in some cases the weight falls off..im sure if they can see you have tried very hard & is close to what they want you to lose they still might go ahead with the surgery?..Im sure it will be positive to lose the weight, i dont think they are going to just say a number & you have to aim for it, they will know what your capable off, good luck, remember small quantities

Hi everyone. Hope all are well. I had an exciting night last night. Thank god all involved are ok and alive. Not sure if anyone saw the news withthe US Airways crash into the Hudson River. My husband works for NY Waterway that was invovled in a lot of the rescue efforts for this. He is my little hero....Anyway, I have to lose 25 pounds by 2/20 - what if I am not able to do this will they reschedule my surgery? You see when I went for my first visit I was 250 and then through the 6 months process i gained another 10 pounds - so they need me to be at 230? How am I going to do that? I have no idea...I am just scared because my insurnace carrier changes effective march 1 and if they don't do it, I may have to start the whole process all over again - because Aetna approved it and they are my current carrier I don't know who my new carrier will be...Any advise greatly appreciated

Wow, it would be interesting to be involved in the rescue efforts. I just heard about the crash this morning.

I guess my first question would be if you gained on your six month diet - what do you think the reasons were for the gain? You should analyze what you did at the point to see if there is anything that you could have done to improve your results.

As far as the liquid diet now, since your timeline is so short, you should do everything you can to follow the liquid diet perfectly and keep calorie intake under control until February 20th. Lose as much as you can, as fast as you can with no cheating and put in lots of exercise as well. If you lose significantly, even if it is not the full amount, you have a much better shot than if you went in with no loss or even a gain.

Good luck.

I'd suggest actually calling your surgical center and asking them. For some people it's vital, others, not so much, and it may be a requirement of your insurance. They will be able to tell you for sure.

I think this depends on the surgeon, in my case they wanted us to go on a atkins type diet 2 weeks prior to the surgery. They were not as concerned with us loosing weight as much as they were shrinking our livers. I actually ended up gaining 3 lbs before my surgery but my surgeon didn't care, my liver was not enlarged so that was all he was concerned about.

I think the surgeon and/or dietician on the bariatric team is a good place to start. Tell them you are struggling and see what they advise you. I had to do a 6 month diet for insurance and the dietician flat out said she didn't care if I lost weight, I just shouldn't gain any. I managed to lose a whole 10 lbs. I was also put on a pre-op liquid diet to shrink my liver prior to surgery and prepare me for the post-op liquid phase. Up until four days before surgery I could have a small amount of lean protein (I cooked unbreaded chicken tenders with salt and pepper, or I had 2 hardboiled eggs). I ended up on it for 3 weeks because I caught a cold and they bumped my surgery a week, not enough to stop and start again, so I just did another week. I could have broth, protein drinks, sugar free jello, yogurt, cream soups, water, skim milk and the like. I do boring really well, so I did well on the liquid diet (except for a handful of peanuts I ate while walking in the park-I had peanuts for the squirrels and I was really hungry). I lost another 25 lbs on that. The rest has come off since surgery. It is hard to get your head around eating differently but as someone said "Nothing tastes as good as thin feels."

Thank goodness everyone survived that crash! Amazing.

My doctor's office has a strict policy, you must lose the required weight before surgery or no surgery. No gaining weight either. So I really think it is the doctor who will decide. Each doctor has different requirements.