Pre-op diet... very interesting

Through all of these posts I've read, I have always read the dreaded "pre-op liquid diet" posts. Of course, that is very nerve wracking and can give you a panic attack... So fast forward to my marching orders from my nutritionist and doctors... 2 week pre-op diet, (which i will start on July 15th-17th, a little more than 2 weeks prior, but just to make it even...))... it's not a liquid diet at all. It's a food diet, comparable to a high protein, low carb regular old diet you'd find anywhere on the web or in any diet book. They surely do want you to eat alot though. I found that kind of interesting, especially since I will be so restricted after the surgery, you'd think they'd want to dial it back for me to get used to things as they will be in the future. Guess not. Strange, but as i've read before, every surgeon is different.

I'm sure they don't want you to starve yourself, lol!!

But follow that high protein, low carb diet and you'll be surprised at how the weight falls off in two weeks.

Two weeks off sugar and carbs will give you a great start in the program.

Best wishes to you.  I wish you well on the journey

Thank you! Yes, it reminds me of the "South Beach Diet" in some ways. I am posting from the computer, otherwise I would have posted a copy of it from my phone. I've already been cutting out most of the bad things that got me here in the first place up to this point and I like to eat what they have on the diet, so should be too hard. And definitely won't be hungry, that's for sure! 

Good luck! Oddly I just left my surgeons office and he has no pre op diet for me....I was surprised but happy I guess. My surgery is set for July 7.  He was very reassuring that all will go well. He was also amused by the fact that I knew every detail of the surgery since I watch at least 2times a day on you tube!! So now I sit and wait.   I'm sure you will do great on your diet!!

Yup, not all surgeons do a liquid diet-- I suspect it has to do with the particulars of how they perform surgeries. I had no pre-op diet other than "don't eat or drink after 8pm the night before surgery."

 This is a sample of my pre-op diet, which I begin tomorrow. As you can see, it's far from a liquid diet. 

The key to the pre-op diet is to lose at least 10lbs. or so (depending on your start weight)...... this is to shrink your liver a bit to make it easier for your surgeon to navigate his/her tools during the procedure.

They are getting you used to a low carb, higher protein way of eating...... forever is a long time.

The liquid diet and food progression after surgery is all about healing the staple line.

The only flaw I see from what you have written is that you don't have to eat more food than necessary and typically in the 1200 cals range. 

I tend to always criticize surgeons that don't talk calories...... like it or not, it's a calorie game in the big picture.

It's not easy and it's up to you to get educated, unfortunately there is no standardization and there are many wonky ways out there !

Congrats on making the decision to better yourself !

frisco 

It's the lower carb diet that is supposedly needed to do the "shrink the liver" thing (to whatever degree that such actually happens - that seems to be somewhat controversial amongst the surgeons these days.) I've never seen a satisfactory explanation for what the all liquid pre-op diet does if all that's needed is to be low carb for that time (it's also debatable as to whether only a couple of weeks of such dieting does anything positive at all - many hold that one needs to be on such a diet for substantially longer to make much of a dent in the fatty liver problem.)

My experience has been that you really don't need any help getting used to the immediate post op diet as your body pretty much tells you what you can tolerate - if you aren't ready to go beyond liquids, your body will make that clear to you. On the other hand, some surgeons impose diets that are way more restrictive than necessary, on average, out of an abundance of caution due to the sleeve being a fairly new thing to them - being on liquids for a month or more post-op, as some still do, may need a bit more mental prep than progressing more naturally as the body can tolerate.

Beyond experimenting with some of the post-op staples like protein shakes and greek yogurt, finding ones that you like and hoping that your tastes won't change much (some do, some don't  - mine didn't change much pre- to post-op) I have found it more useful to use this pre-op period to adjust long term eating patterns toward what we should be doing in maintenance rather than adjusting to the first month or two.

My surgery is tomorrow and I have just finished my 5 days of pre-op liquids.  My surgeon says this is about shrinking my liver but to be honest I think it is to make sure you can comply with post-op diet changes.  I had lost 15 lbs in the past 6 weeks.  I lost 3 additional lbs during my liquid diet.  I honestly doubt those 3 lbs will make much difference to my liver.  And I never hit 1000 calories in the past 5 days so I was pretty restrictive.

i think the same is true about the variation post-op.  A small amount is about healing the staple line, the bigger part I think is the surgeon and their team trying to get you to take advantage of this time when you have little or no hunger and high motivation and get a jump start on your weight loss.  just my opinion of course.  

My diet has been hell. I understand I need to make changes, but battling an eating disorder and then going to a liquid diet has been brutal. I'm surprised I only cheated once!