Weight loss pre-op

[karakent 137]

My surgery is not until 8/22/22 and I wanted to try out the liquid diet to see how it goes and maybe start some light exercising to get my body ready. A PA at my surgeon’s office told me to be careful and consider not doing that because if I did lose too much weight before surgery my insurance could rescind my approval. Anyone else heard of this? Should I get a second opinion? It’s not like I’m going to lose 100 lbs pre-surgery. For reference I’m 5’8/280/42.6 BMI and I have hypertension and PCOS (although I don’t think my insurance takes PCOS into consideration).

[Sleeve_Me_Alone 656]

I did not experience this personally, as I self paid for surgery in Mx. but I do know it can happen. I would follow the advice of your surgeon's office, as they have a TON of experience in dealing with the insurance companies. Additionally, the goal of the liquid diet isn't weight loss, its to shrink your liver to make sure the surgeon has enough working space to complete the surgery safely. Weight loss is often a biproduct of that, but its not the intent. Adding in some light exercise is a great idea, but I would hold off on the pre-op diet until its actually time.

[ShoppGirl 5,061]

Personally I would just listen to my team. Of course you want to get started asap but august is not that far away. You have waited this long you can wait a little longer. If you don’t listen to them and your approval gets cancelled you will have to pay out of pocket. Not worth it in my opinion.

[Splenda 257]

1 hour ago, karakent said:

My surgery is not until 8/22/22 and I wanted to try out the liquid diet to see how it goes and maybe start some light exercising to get my body ready. A PA at my surgeon’s office told me to be careful and consider not doing that because if I did lose too much weight before surgery my insurance could rescind my approval. Anyone else heard of this? Should I get a second opinion? It’s not like I’m going to lose 100 lbs pre-surgery. For reference I’m 5’8/280/42.6 BMI and I have hypertension and PCOS (although I don’t think my insurance takes PCOS into consideration).

A 40 BMI is a cutoff that many insurance companies use. If you got down to 256, you would have a 39 BMI. My guess is that the PA is concerned that you will lose enough Water weight on the liquid diet that you could get that low and create an insurance hassle.

[kcuster83 1,504]

Have to make sure you stay above your insurance requirements. You BMI changes rapidly as you loose weight, with you being at 43 it wouldn't take much for you to fall under 40.

[loli_lotus 65]

That's so weird, I'm pre-op but for my initial appointment I was right at a 40. I repeatedly asked what would happen if I lost weight and they said not to worry about it, that they only report the initial weight. They even encouraged me to lose as much weight as possible before surgery. I guess your program might record and report your weight multiple times, which seems a little silly. If your program has an insurance coordinator, I'd triple check with them.

[Recidivist 1,141]

13 minutes ago, loli_lotus said:

That's so weird, I'm pre-op but for my initial appointment I was right at a 40. I repeatedly asked what would happen if I lost weight and they said not to worry about it, that they only report the initial weight. They even encouraged me to lose as much weight as possible before surgery. I guess your program might record and report your weight multiple times, which seems a little silly. If your program has an insurance coordinator, I'd triple check with them.

Same. Once my team got approval from my insurance company, they said it was locked in and they no longer needed to communicate with them.

[Bridge1967 42]

I've been on the liquid only diet for 10 days now. I've lost about 7 lbs.

[kcuster83 1,504]

it might have to do with the insurance company requirements as far as how often they report thru the process. Might not have anything to do with the team itself. Who knows, insurance companies will get you any way they can.

[joanie pony 29]

i have been trying some of the pre-op diet items i've already purchased. You may not want to do a proper liquid diet right now, but you could sample things ahead of time. I've also made a couple of the soft foods from the post-op diet to see how i like it.

All of this helps me feel more prepared.

Good luck!

[Kcfromkc 1]

On 7/7/2022 at 8:14 AM, karakent said:

My surgery is not until 8/22/22 and I wanted to try out the liquid diet to see how it goes and maybe start some light exercising to get my body ready. A PA at my surgeon’s office told me to be careful and consider not doing that because if I did lose too much weight before surgery my insurance could rescind my approval. Anyone else heard of this? Should I get a second opinion? It’s not like I’m going to lose 100 lbs pre-surgery. For reference I’m 5’8/280/42.6 BMI and I have hypertension and PCOS (although I don’t think my insurance takes PCOS into consideration).

My team told me I could fluctuate a couple of pounds, but am not able to have any significant weight loss prior to surgery or insurance will think you are capable of doing this without surgery.

[Bridge1967 42]

I've been on the liquid only diet for 10 days now. I've lost about 7 lbs. Total of 20 lbs since last July when I started with dietitian. I did get warned to not lose too much more, but surgery is Tuesday.

[ShoppGirl 5,061]

12 minutes ago, Bridge1967 said:

I've been on the liquid only diet for 10 days now. I've lost about 7 lbs. Total of 20 lbs since last July when I started with dietitian. I did get warned to not lose too much more, but surgery is Tuesday.

12 minutes ago, Bridge1967 said:

I've been on the liquid only diet for 10 days now. I've lost about 7 lbs. Total of 20 lbs since last July when I started with dietitian. I did get warned to not lose too much more, but surgery is Tuesday.

your insurance requirements could be different but according to my team it didn’t matter how much I lost after my weigh in at the pre op appointment because anything I lost after that would be assumed to be from the pre op diet (since I wasn’t weighed again).

[Bridge1967 42]

Oh ok.

[ShoppGirl 5,061]

8 minutes ago, Bridge1967 said:

Oh ok.

If they told you not to lose alot more during your last appointment though it must mean your requirements are different. I just don’t want to mess you up.

Edited July 10, 2022 by ShoppGirl