When did you start dieting before your surgery?

[Savannah Lee 10]

I've already been to the seminar for Gastric Sleeve, and am going to talk to my surgeon on July 31st. When is best to start eating healthy and prepping yourself for life after surgery?

[samuelsmom 670]

I had my first surgeon visit on July 28, 2014 and the next week went to the office's monthly support group meeting. While there I decided that if I was going to do this I better get started and worked on improving my eating habits. I wasn't perfect but I did lose 22 pounds before surgery. Any loss before surgery helps to lower the operative risk. So, I would recommend doing your research and start working on good food choices right away.

[VSGAnn2014 12,992]

I started 2.5 months pre-op. Short version was I decided to start acting like I was already a WLS patient. I cut my calories to 1400/day and tried to cut out / ramp up everything I knew I'd be expected to do post-op.

Doing this was very helpful to me. Plus, I wound up 20 pounds lighter on surgery day than I'd have been otherwise.

I realize not everyone wants to do it this way.

Oh, and I had no interest in food funerals. I'm old. I've been there and done that many times before. Besides, I realized after reading a lot on WLS forums that I could eventually eat everything I loved at some point down the line -- just not every day and not very much. That was fine with me, too.

[danaadoo 26]

Well, once you see your surgeon you most-likely will see a NUT (nutritionist) during that appt. If not, you will get a consult scheduled. Usually this is the time to ask him/her those questions & s/he will give you some guidelines.

But before that, I would just alter some stuff steps at a time. Begin to cut back on caffeine, sweets, fried foods, etc. This is what I'm doing now, as well, to prepare myself. Also, Pinterest has a plethora of recipes you can start trying for WLS. But ultimately follow what your NUT says because it's personalized guidance.

[maggie409 765]

Three weeks before surgery.

[shellyd88 463]

One thing I will point out is that to my knowledge no weight loss will be counted until u begin your program and u get officially weighed in and they start a chart for you so it doesn't count unless they record it after I did that they started I had to go once a month to be weighed etc was told I had to Lose 5% before I could even meet surgeon for a consult

[AngelaWilliamsMD 290]

I had my procedure done in Mexico. No pre-op diet required.

[ShrinkingPeach 1,291]

food funerals are just pounds you have to lose AGAIN.

Change your eating habits to high Protein and low carb now, less shock to your system for later.

The less weight you have going into surgery the better and the closer you are to your goal so why wait?

Don't worry about weight lost before surgery, it doesn't matter if it "counts"...it is still weight you need to lose.

Stop the caffeine now, get rid of sugars and sweets now, stop fried foods now.

Start drinking 64+ ounces of Water or sf, non-carbonated fluids. More if you can!

Good luck!

[The Candidate 3,215]

I was required to lose 10% of my weight as part of my approval process, and maintain it throughout. So I started on day one.

[BLERDgirl 6,417]

I've already been to the seminar for Gastric Sleeve, and am going to talk to my surgeon on July 31st. When is best to start eating healthy and prepping yourself for life after surgery?

Now. I didn't have a pre-op diet. I wasn't interested in a "food funeral" or any gimmicky dieting. I started my journey to wellness years before I even considered WLS. 4½ years ago after a really horrible illness I joined a gym and changed my eating habits. I gave up sodas and processed foods. I started drinking 4 -6 glasses of Water each day and I started keeping a food journal on MFP.

It made surgery a whole lot easier. I had no pain/gas/nausea post op. Was able to get out of bed and walk from the time I woke up in recovery. By the time I had surgery the only thing I had to work on was increasing my daily Protein intake from 50gms a day to 85 - 100gms a day.