Shrinking the liver

I went to my surgeon's office on Tuesday and he moved my surgery date up about 3 weeks because of the hernia i have. He says i need to have the surgery done as quickly as possible so i can get the weight loss going and take the pressure off of my organs which right now are feeling pretty tight in there. He will also be repairing the hernia during wls. 

 

My question is. i want to try and shrink my liver as much as i can with the short time i have left before surgery. What kinds of things to eat to help get that going? The surgeon says that he will not be requiring me to do a liquid diet though. Also, would i really be able to get the liver a bit less fatty in the time i have left before surgery?

 

Hope my questions make sense. Thanks :-)

Go low calorie, low carb, high protein. I did 1000 calories a day for the month before mine. Felt great and lost 26lbs which was a nice kick-start. I only did liquids for the two days before, primarily so there was no food in my tummy.

Thanks SuzyNZ. Really appreciate the advice. For me, even though the surgeon isn't requiring a liquid diet. I want to do something to help my liver be in a better state for the surgery to avoid as many complications that could come up.

 

My surgeon gave me a pre op diet designed for two weeks and shrinking the liver.  I only needed to loose about 12 pounds to move forward according to him and the nutritionist.  It was the Optifast 800 diet.  You have 3 8oz shakes per day.  In between those you have two protein bars per day.  Everything is three hours apart.  Wake up and have a shake for breakfast.  Three hours later a protein bar.  Three hours later a shake for lunch.  Three hours later a protein bar.  Three hours later a shake for dinner.  You are done for the day.  

Optifast 800 has three flavors of shakes that I can remember.  Chocolate, Strawberry, and Vanilla.  I did all chocolates.  These are pre made for you and ready to drink.  

Protein Bars had at least three flavors that I can remember.  Chocolate Brownie, Chocolate Peanut Butter, and Fruit Yogurt (I am thinking it was strawberry but may have been a mixed fruit.)  Alternatively you could have protein soup.  That was another liquid in the day and I thought it would go right through me so I choose the protein bars.  I got the chocolate brownie and the chocolate peanut butter.  The chocolate peanut butter had a rice crispy crunchy thing going on whereas the chocolate brownie was a bit more solid.

This diet gives you 1000 calories per day and 100 carbs per day.  I was also told that if I needed to "cheat" and have a little something else then sugar free jello, celery, cucumbers, or sugar free popsicles could be used.  The first week I stuck to only the Optifast 800 stuff.  The second week as I knew I had already lost the weight I did have some celery and sugar free jello.  

You can Google Optifast 800 and from their website find a local distributor.  I got all mine from my surgeon's office and was part of my self pay package deal.  

This process did end up shrinking my liver and I had a by the book without any issues surgery.  I also happened to have a better than expected recovery post op.  Surgery on Thursday, Friday release at 3pm and only one pain pill that evening.  Two pain pills on Saturday.  One pain pill on Sunday and that was the last pain pill I took.  The pain I had was strictly from the gas.  Once the gas was gone which was mostly on Saturday I was pain free and have been ever since ... now 8 months later.

If you didn't want the fancy Optifast 800 I imagine that getting in a lot of protein and getting the calories down to 1000 per day with no more than 100 carbs per day should have the same effect.  Eat protein first and shoot for 80g protein per day.  Also drink 64 oz. of water (flavored or not with a sugar free drink mix).  Post op would be about the same as that so you would be getting a head start on things.  Post op you will be shooting for something like 600 to 800 calories per day with no more than 40 carbs.  Also 80g protein and 64 oz. water (flavored or not).  

Use myfitnesspal.com to log everything you eat.  Get into a habit of doing this every day now and keep it up.  You will see at the end of the day how well you did and then realize where you may have gone wrong or what you are doing that is right.  Make yourself accountable for what you eat now.  You will be post op so why not start now during pre op.

Good luck.

I was on pre op for weight loss surgery with another surgeon and hospital and they had me do the Optifast 800 diet. I was on it for almost 2 months and lost 50 pounds. Unfortunately, this office put me on that diet way before i even had any of my tests done or even a tentative surgery date. It was all so far away and i had lost that weight i couldn't keep it off. That is one of the reasons i decided NOT to continue with that particular office for my wls. I didn't mind doing the Optifast but it was just too soon to do it and i wasted all that money ($1,400) on all of that stuff only to gain the weight back and not have the surgery at that time anyway.

 

Oh well, live and learn. I am much happier with the office/surgeon/hospital i have chosen this time. This time i will go thru with the surgery.  

You have seen the Optifast 800 diet work.  Instead of 2 months do it for 2 weeks pre op.  It will shrink your liver.  You do not have to stay on it after surgery.  You just need to do it for 2 weeks pre op.  Then you have surgery.  Then you get on your surgeon's/nutritionist's post op plan.  

The liver has fatty tissue.  Any diet that is protein heavy like Optifast 800 with about 1000 calories per day and 100 carbs or less per day with 64 oz of liquids per day should have you dropping weight.  As you drop the weight the liver will shrink.  

Since you have a better plan now as far as surgeon and such it won't be a waste to try the Optifast 800 again.  The great part is that you know it will work and you know how it works.  You did it successfully for 2 months.  Now just do it successfully for 2 or at most 3 weeks.  

If you are against doing it that isn't really the only solution.  Go on a diet that mimics the Optifast 800.  Drink 3 protein shakes from a different company.  Go to Walmart and get some Body Fortress 100% Whey Protein Isolate mix.  Walmart has 2 Body Fortress products.  Get the $22 one and not the $15 one.  For $22 you have a 30 day supply giving you 30g protein in one shake.  Or you can have one for breakfast then get a Quest Bar for your next meal ... lunch.  Have a second protein shake for dinner.  With those three items you would be at about 85g protein for that day.  Quest bars come in a chocolate brownie which is fine as is but even a little better if microwaved for about 8 to 10 seconds.  Gooey chocolate and better tasting than the Optifast 800.  They also have a peanut butter supreme which is my all time favorite.  Those three items by the way will get you only about 500 to 600 calories.  Of course if you use an unsweetened vanilla almond milk for the protein shakes then you can add in another 40 calories per cup.  I usually use 10 oz per shake.  If you were to make two shakes at breakfast time using 20 oz almond milk then you could split that into three servings and drink throughout the day.  You still have about 400 more calories available for the day and those three items are only about 8 carbs.  

I have tons of ideas.  Too many to write down here.  The idea is to do about 1000 calories per day with as few carbs as possible but can be up to 100 if needed.  Load in the protein ... 80g per day.  Drink your 8 cups of water (flavored or not) and you basically are doing an Optifast 800 diet.  Substituting a protein mix such as I suggested above and Quest bars you can create your own version of the Optifast 800 diet.  

 

Wow Calking. You have given me so much valuable stuff to use to be able to do this. I think i will do what you suggest with the protein powders and bars etc. It seems to do basically the same thing as optifast but for a way lower cost. If i can get some of this weight off pre-op i know i will feel much better about everything going into this life-changing surgery. Thanks again. :-)

You can do the same thing with shakes or food.  The main thing is to eat fat free and yes a week or two makes all the difference.  I had done 4 weeks of heaving drinking prior and my liver numbers were high at preadmission testing.  Two weeks doing shakes(high protein) some crunchy veggies (2 cups celery, broccoli, cauliflower and cucumbers and plain grilled chicken breast and I was normal day of surgery.  Any no fat, high protein diet is going to help.