failing optifast stage! please help.

smilingsoph · February 10, 2008

I am in the Optifast stage 12 days before surgery and i am really struggling. I am so hungry, i can not get to sleep at night due to hungry pains and the head hunger certainly doesnt help. my sugeon had told me to try the optifast for 3 weeks before surgery but when i spoke to the dietian last week she thought 2 weeks should be enough so i ate normally again until it was 2 weeks before the op. I wanted to know how others got on and if they managed to to stick to just the optifast. I cheated last night and ate toast, i am starting to wonder if i should have the op at all, if i cant stick to the diet now!! please help, im feeling very desperate. By the way,my weight is about 115kg and the reason the surgeon suggested an extra week on optifast is because I know that i have a slightly fatty liver due to an x-ray i had done a few months ago. Also does anyone have trouble cutting out the alcohol in their diet?

GenaO · February 11, 2008

I have been on Optifast for 2 weeks now, surgery is tommorow moring, I had a hell of a time too. I ate carrot and celery with a little hummus everday up until 3 days ago and I have been having organic Soups like Tomato and corn, smooth Soup for a couple days too because I couldn't hack it with just the shakes. The first week I didn;t loose any weight and was totally pissed and went and ate actual food that night, but got back on the wagon the next day.I'm totaly moody and hate everyone around me eating yummy food, my husband just ate a huge dinner and I had to go in the other room for my sanity.

Optifast makes no sense to me, it has 17g of sugar and 20g of carbs, how are you supose to loose weight with that, espeacially if you have insulin resistance like me... I don't know... Good luck

cara72972 · February 11, 2008

The 2 week diet was hell, but you can stick to it. After surgery, trust me you will think you want to cheat, but try,and you"ll feel it!

Dandy Andi · February 11, 2008

My dr. didn't have me do liquids only. Apparently, the number of people capable of that are few. Ha! Instead, he had me do a 14 day, 1200 calorie, low fat, no carb diet.

I can't imagine doing only shakes! That must be tough.

I can tell you though, that the reason for the diet (at least for my dr) is that your liver needs to reduce in size and become more pliable to reduce risk of injury during surgery. He said he could really notice the change to my liver because I adhered to the diet. But then, I could have a single meal a day.

Kudos to you for doing it! I'm sure you'll be so pleased once you're done. I was banded a week ago tomorrow, and I'm not very happy yet, but hope to be really soon.

Good luck!