Were you required to lose weight before surgery? How much?

Thread Starter  

I have my first appointment at Tufts/NEMC next week. On the phone today they were telling me about requirements before surgery (psych eval, group counseling for 5 weeks, nutritionist, exercise physiologist...) including the requirement that I lose 10% of my body weight before I schedule surgery. I thought I heard that wrong and asked for them to repeat it, LOL! She said they are flexible if the 10% loss will make you drop below 40 BMI, but for me that's not an issue. I've been reading these threads and haven't read of anyone having to lose that much. Based on my weight I would have to lose about 29 pounds.

What are your experiences with this? How much did you have to lose and how did they calculate it? Thanks. I realize it is what it is - they can set whatever requirements they want, I'm just curious.

Hi Sue40, My Dr required a loss of 9% of the weight to be lost (for example, if you are 200 pounds and they want you to be 135 that would be 9% of 65 pounds). Sorry if I'm not coming across clearly I might be half asleep here. She even indicated that if we didn't lose the weight that the surgery might be canceled. I didn't lose the weight (in fact, i gained 7 pounds!) and I'm still on for this tuesday the 19th. My weight gain wasn't even mentioned at the PreOp meeting!

I went to Emerson Hospital in Concord and they required a 5% loss of weight but they are strict with it and won't schedule you until you've acheived 5% loss. Fortunately I was able to stick to the diet well and lost my 5% in a month.

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Linda Lu



Banded 12/26/07 Emerson Hospital Concord, MA Dr. Jiser

Hi sue,I was just banded yesterday and I lost 8 pounds pre-op.
I was on the liquid diet for 10 days. But my Dr. didn't tell me to loose a specific amount.
Good luck.

Thread Starter  

Thanks. So it sounds like Tufts is much stricter than most. I expected them to tell me I needed to lose 10% of the AMOUNT TO LOSE, not 10% of BODY WEIGHT. That is a huge difference! I weigh about 290 and should weigh about 160, so I have 130 to lose. I could lose 13 pounds. But 29? She did say they will give you meds to help, such as Meridia, but I don't generally due well with meds. And Meridia gives headaches which I already have problems with. I dieted last year and after months and months I only lost 15 pounds, with the help of a nutritionist.

I wonder if they are flexible on it? Other than my weight I am healthy. No sugar issues, no BP issues, etc. In fact, I am doing this primarily as a last ditch effort to have a baby (hospital won't do IVF at my weight and adoption is difficult as well).

I wasn't given a specific amount to lose before surgery. I was only put on a special diet to shrink my liver. This is the first I've even heard of anyone requiring a certain amount of weight loss before the surgery! I thought that is why we needed LAP-BAND^®. If I could lose weight on my own I wouldn't need the band! GOOD LUCK!

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249/233/198/149
Our minds can shape the way a thing will be because we act according to our expectations.

i am on the liver shrinking diet now. my surgery date is feb 29. it is hard getting started but i am going to do it.

My doctor "required" that I lose 10% of my total body weight. That was also 29lbs for me. I actually wound up losing exactly 20 at that time and he was thrilled with that and surgery went as planned. My friend's son in law had surgery with the same place and he was also required to lose 10% of his weight so I suppose that's standard with this office.
Regards,
Alfie

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Surgery date: January 23, 2008
I joined the LAP-BAND^®

Jesus said "I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6).

My doc wanted to see a weight loss pre-surgery, but it wasn't a rigid number. He put me on Medifast for two weeks (the office provided the Medifast foods) and told me he'd like to see at least a 10 pound loss. My understanding is that a low carb, high protein diet promotes the loss of fat around the liver, which is desirable before LAP-BAND^® surgery. It sounds as though your center wants to see that you have the discipline to get through the harder parts of recovery. Possibly not such a bad idea - the band helps with portion size and satiety, but the weeks since surgery ("bandster hell") have involved a lot more dieting than I expected.

I have to say that Medifast wasn't too difficult. I think the combination of low carb/high protein (promotes satiety), the one "lean green" meal each day, and the knowledge that I only had to do it for two weeks really helped motivate me. It was nice that I didn't have to pay for it, too... It's definitely fast - I was 13 lb down in two weeks - so it might be an option for your pre-op requirement.

Good luck on your path to the band! It's been totally worth it to me - I've lost 20% of my excess weight so far and I'm at my lowest weight in the last 4 years, and looking forward to a more active future!

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Alyson

Banded 12/18/07 by Dr William Neal, Olympia, WA
Five fills (to 9.6 ml) and one unfill (to 7.6 ml)

My doctor required 10 % of your body weight to be lost before surgery. For me that was 27 pounds. I lost 33 before the surgery. It was tough but I've lost 27 pounds so many times during my lifetime. I knew I could do it again. It was just another bump in the road. Good luck to you. You can do it, too!

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start/surgery/now/goal
277/244/193/150
12/07 Albany Medical Center, Albany NY

My surgery isnt until April sometime and all he has said is lose 5-10.. I have gained 2 since so now it's 7-10 lol

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What I do in my spare time
My Blog with pictures



4/23 Surgery, 2.75/4cc band

hello all

I had surgery 2/11. ive been on clear liquids since and will be until Friday. Friday I can implement 8 - 12 oz protein shake along with clear liquids for 4 more days. Then I can go on blenderized food for 4 weeks. Then I go to soft food implementing a new food per day for another 4 weeks. based on the posts I've seen isnt this extreme? For the last 2 days I have been SOOOOOOOOOOOO hungry and I drink drink drink liquids with no issue. HELP or advice?????

I think my doctor is a little more liberal than some. I had no pre-op diet, I did put myself on a restricted calorie, high protein diet to get a jump start on the loss and did lose 13 pounds pre-op Some of his patients were on liquid protein pre-op diet. I think it had something to do with BMI. I started at 47 and ended at something like 43-44. My blood counts were all really good to so that may have had something to do with it. I'm glad I did it on my own rather than being told I had to. I tend to be a control freak and don't like being told to do anything.

His post-op diet is pretty liberal too, ten days of clear liquid plus 4, four ounce servicing of protein powder mixed with skim milk. So far water, jello and crystal light is all I have wanted. I'm going to try a little seasoned broth this evening to see how that goes. I'm getting tired of sweet. I'm three days post op.

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Surgery-2/15/08~First Fill 4/3/08 (2cc)~2nd fill 5/15/08 .5 cc~Third fill 6/5/08 .5 cc~Fourth fill 7/31/08 Cancelled.
Dr. Scott, DePaul Hospital, St. Louis, MO
Weight loss history (H 289/S 276/C 209/G 155)

My surgery is on February 25th. I was put on a high protein diet, to shrink the liver for surgery on February 15 when the surgery was scheduled. I have lost 8 pounds since I started the pre-op diet. I was not given a certain amount of weight to lost but just told that the weight loss would shrink the liver and make the surgery easier.

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Blessings ~ Brenda
Dr. Phil says-"Do you want this, or do you WANT to want this"....