pre-surgery weight-loss expectations

[jasonweinberg 0]

i am brand new here and there is a lot of information to digest. one thing i notice right off the bat is that a lot of people have included a pre-surgical weight, a ten day pre-surgical diet, a surgery weight, and then weight-loss after surgery in your signatures. am i to understand that with the programs you were in you went straight from your "regular weight" to a ten day pre-surgery diet and then had your surgery? in the program i was in we had to lose 10% of our body weight at our first consult, have massive amounts of tests done, then get approved for the insurance and then schedule a date. i wound up losing 56 lbs. prior to surgery. i think i would feel overwhelmed if i hadn't had that time invested beforehand before my surgery. just curious about other people's varying experiences. or maybe i am misreading these signatures...

[MollyRN 28]

I know that we did not have anything other than a 2 week liquid diet pre-op. Of course, that was if we met our insurance's requirements. I know a lot of people who had gastric bypass who had weight loss requirements pre-op - but it seems like most lap band people just had pre-op diets (and not even all people had that!).

I did lose 10% of my excess weight in the pre-diet though... but like I said, that was not a pre-stated goal.

[jasonweinberg 0]

we had to lose 10% of our total weight, not just excess weight. i thought that was a requirement of the insurance companies but am quite glad i did it anyway.

[MollyRN 28]

For mine, we just needed a certain BMI and proof of sustained attempts to lose weight (aka, nutritionist, doctor)

[LapNYC 3]

Same for me (BMI over 40 and proven, sustained attempts to lose weight), and then a two week liquid pre-op diet.

[Isa Bella 0]

for me just BMI over 40 & proven, sustained attempts to lose weight so I just had Clear Liquids day b4 surgery. Dr said lab work was great, everything was within range.

[TheUrbanWasteland 0]

I'm a self pay so all I had was a 2week liver shrinking diet (but I did 3).

I count from the day I started losing weight which was 5 weeks before surgery as it is all connected with my surgery - I started losing the day I got my surgery date !!

Rach.

[adagray 1]

It really depends on your surgeon and also how much you have to lose. If you are borderline to be approved (meaning not much to lose), you may not be required to lose anything before surgery. I was not required to lose anything before surgery (actually gained, not that I wanted to, but that was my MO). My advice is to just clarify what your own surgeon's requirements are and go from there. I was also not required to do any pre-op diet except to 'eat light' a few days before surgery and then only Soup for lunch the day before and bowel prep the afternoon before. Every surgeon is different, though, so you gotta ask.

[AmyC315 0]

I had to have a BMI over 40 & lose 5% of my total weight (14lbs) pre-op before they would approve my surgery. I ended up losing 30lbs in those 2 months. I had a clear liquid diet for 3 days pre-op.

[Mangofish 1]

Since I was self pay I didn't have to jump thru hoops. I also had a large fast food good bye party right before my surgery. I didn't do any type of diet before hand and my surgery and everything else has been a breeze.

I am the opposite from the OP - more of a free spirit I suppose where rules and regulations would actually overwhelm me but I def. did stick the the post op diet.

Luckily My surgeon and my post op doc are laid back and as long as I'm losing they could care less if I ate kit-kats all day.

[cwm812 11]

This was a great question because we all did this differently and it doesn't seem to have effected our success. My ticker indicates the weight from the day of surgery. I did have to do a 6 month "diet" for my insurance company. During that time, I lost 30 lbs and gained 35, so actually went into surgery 5 lbs heavier than my original consult. My doctor doesn't require any kind of pre-op liver shrinking diet (Thank God!!!).

Some people on this forum really seem to thrive on rules and structure, but I'm not one of them. I need to find what works for me, with a lot of guidance from the professionals.

Cindy

[jasonweinberg 0]

interesting. my surgeon specifically mentioned that my weight loss did help with having a fatty liver and said my surgery was easy because of it. it does, however, seem that many that don't lose a lot of weight pre-surgery quickly make up for lost time after. still, i am glad i did it the way i did because i am really struggling with the post surgery diet and feel it would be even worse if i hadn't "prepped" by losing weight.