Question about pre-op...

Rhonda39 · June 21, 2007

I was wondering if anyone was told that they needed to loose weight before they were to have surgery?

I have Kaiser and they said that everyone has to loose 10% of their body weight before surgery. I told them that if I could loose weight like that on my own, then I wouldnt need to have assistance with the lap-band.

Does this happen to everyone?

SElaine · June 21, 2007

Hi Rhonda,

Welcome to LBT!

I would get clarification. I don't know for sure about your particular insurance company but a lot of companies will require you to lose 10 percent of your EXCESS body weight. For example, if you are 100 pounds overweight you would need to lose 10 pounds.

I think most of us have yo-yo dieted in the past. We get the weight off somehow, but end up putting it all back on. This scenario is a little different in that if you lose the weight and have surgery while you are at the insurance companies target goal, you will not gain the weight back and will continue to lose.

I lost 15 pounds during my two week liquid Protein diet prior to surgery. There is no way I could have done that long term, but it got me to where I needed to be for surgery.

Good luck to you!

Rhonda39 · June 21, 2007

Thank you, I thought maybe I was just way to big for this to be done and felt really out of sorts about this.

Can you please let me know what the liquid protien diet is? I would like to get started on that asap.

SElaine · June 21, 2007

Rhonda,

The liquid Protein diet I was on was a pre-op diet required by my surgeon prior to surgery. The goal is to get in a lot of Protein and absolutely no sugar. During that two week period I was allowed to have:

*Protein shakes made w/ Water or diet soy milk only (No slim-fast or anything like that; they have too many carbs. The best one I have found personally is powders?utm_source=BariatricPal&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=CommentLink" target="_ad" data-id="1" >unjury. You can buy on-line at unjury.com)

*Water

*Low sodium chicken, vegetable, or beef broth

*sugar free popsicles

*sugar free Jello

That's it. I know it sounds really bad, and yes it was difficult. However, I found after a couple of days it became much easier. If I cheated and ate a tiny little bite of something then I just wanted to eat more so I quickly learned it's easier just to stick with the diet.

I would check w/ your surgeon, though. Each surgeon tends to have different requirements.