Spectre of failure haunting pre op diet.

I've failed at so many diets in the past that the 2 week pre-op my surgeon wants me on is scary. He already told me it's going to be a requirement that I lose weight prior to surgery, just 10 pounds in the next 2 weeks. that's 5 pounds a week. There are people that have already had the surgery that don't lose weight that fast! If I don't lose the weight then he isn't going to operate because my liver is way to big. Even if I do lose the weight, I'm concerned about fluid issues. I've had decent weight loss in the past but I have a history of gaining 8-12 pounds over a period of a day or two. It has to be fluids that's  the only thing that makes sense and I suffer from edema pretty badly and am on 2 different diuretics. If the day before preop my body decides to hang on to fluids then I can't get the surgery. That's going to really upset a lot of plans.

My wife is helping me come up with a menu for every meal and every snack for the next  2 weeks. I'm also using Myfooddiary.com to track nutrients and everything else.

This whole pre-op weight loss is going to be nothing but a bunch of effort on my part and the results are going to be a crap shoot.

Any ideas?

My surgeon does not do the pre-op diet.  I wish he would have.  My liver was so enlarged he had to make 2 additional incisions.  Plus, it makes recovery a lot easy in my opinion.   Just think, this is the only time in life you have to do this... You can do it!

All you can do is try.  Make up your eating plan for the two weeks and follow it.  Weigh yourself daily and print off everything to bring with you to your surgery so they can see what you have done and how the scale responded.  Drink lots of water to keep things flushing and try and relax as stress can make it all worse.

Hand in there.

Renee

Hey Tex,

I am so thrilled to be sharing this journey with you...just wanted to say that first. Second, being a nurse I see patients gain or lose 5 to 15 lbs in a day or two....so I hear you about the fluid retention. Have you spoken with your PCP about your diuretics and what mgs are you taking? Watch your sodium...get your waters in. Reading your posts you are very determined! You are on the right track. I give you huge kudos.....doing the liquid diet during Turkey day.....I am still awaiting approval (paperwork from nut in this Wed). I specifically look at the weeks that are coming and I do not think I have the willpower to do what you are doing. Chin up...positive thinking. And watch the sodium;)

I understand the need to shrink the liver - but damn, we're here because dieting does NOT give us good results.  I was so happy to have open and not need to do that.  I can only offer my condolences.  If he's a real hardass, I'd say go full liquid diet knowing it was the last time you had to do it.

I had to do 2 weeks of the liquid diet optifast before surgery, again, for the purpose of shrinking my liver and making surgery safer. I started at 235 and managed to lose 15 pounds during those two weeks. Just keep your carbs very, very low. Try to eat only protein and fat and avoid all carbs except for what is incidental in dairy, nuts, etc. Get yourself some protein shakes to sip on as well.

Two weeks is not forever.  Try to remember there's an end to it.  Personally, I think I would just do optifast or something that would divorce me from food completely.  Easier for me than hopelessly low-cal.  Good luck!

I dont know how you eat but if you arent currently on a diet it should be hard to lose 10 pounds in two weeks depending on how "bad" you eat.

I had to diet prior to surgery (nutrtionist demanded I lose 5 pounds in 4 days).

It was easy for me to "cheat", eg have good tasting food but cut the calories.. personally I would fail if i had to eat awful food the past few weeks before surgery.

I uyse to have an egg sandwich nearly every morning:

Sausage Egg and cheese on a roll became  Turkey Bacon/sausage egg White, and Chees on an english muffin.

Lunch i just stuck to sandwiches that were whole wheat bread and struck with things like chicken and turkey.

Dinner I ate grilled chicken, grilled chicken, grilled chicken... eg with light mashed potatoes, or on a whole wheat Quesadilla with a little cheese.

I also cut out all drinks containing any calories. I was able to keep my nutritionist happy with my weight loss other then her complaining I didn't eat enough veggies after reading my food log.

Thanks everyone for your replies. I'm not afraid of staying on the diet, and I know what to eat. what I'm afraid of is the randomness of my fluid based weight gains. I never know when they are going to happen and it takes a week to ten days to lose the 8 pounds my body decides to add in a single day. if this happens at the wrong time it could quite possibly delay my surgery. If I faithfully follow the MediFast plan I'm sure I could lose the 10 pounds by 11/27 pre-op date.