Preop liquid diet calories

Hello all! This is my first post on here, I have found good and helpful info reading through the forum. I am 1 week away from surgery (4/11/17), eeek! I have been following my preop diet pretty much to the T. 1 week of 1 healthy meal per day and have been on only clear liquids and protien shakes for the past week. I just started to add exercise to the mix today. So here are my questions: how many shakes/calories should I be getting during this time? I am currently doing 3/day. And has anyone experienced a very slow weight loss during this time? Every post I read about preop diets have people losing between 14-30lbs! That's awesome, but not seeing that at all, have only lost about 3 so far. Besides the large amount of water I take in and manly be water retention from that and the salt in the broths, not sure why it's so slow..that weight loss motivation sure would help me get through this week. Thanks!

I recommend asking your surgeon this. My pre-op liquid diet was 5-6 protein shakes a day with no need to track calories.

Don't worry about the speed of your loss, and try not to compare it to other people. If you stick to the plan, you WILL reach your goal :)

Thank you! I will call tomorrow and ask, just follow ling the liquid part and think the only 3 shakes a day is not enough and my body is holding onto calories since I'm not putting in the calories needed. Thanks again!

Mine is for 1 week. 7 days prior to surgery. Two shakes and a Low Calorie Meal High in Protein. No carbs like pasta, potatoes, etc. Between 300-500 cals.

My pre-op liquid diet was for 2 weeks, minimum of 5 shakes a day with at least 15g protein in each shake. Other than that it was clear liquids, broths, SF jello and popsicles, SF drinks. No calorie guidelines at all. The goal was to shrink the liver for surgery, not really about losing weight.

Yes, that's the goal...just hope it's happening even though weight is not coming off..thanks!

the pre-op (sometimes called liver shrink) diet varies tremendously from practice to practice so really is best to call your practice for clarification.

A lot of them require a liquid diet. Mine didn't - the guideline I had was at least 80 grams of protein a day while staying in the 800-1000 calorie range for two weeks. I asked my NUT if it had to be all liquid because so much of what I read online was the preop liquid diet. And she said no, that a lot of practices say that because it's easier to get that amount of protein while keeping the calories that low if you just do shakes. She also said it wasn't necessarily about losing a certain number of pounds but the low calorie (and hence very low carb because of having to have the majority of calories be protein) is what would help as far as any needed liver shrinkage to make it easier for the surgeon. She said most people do drop weight during that time but it doesn't need to be a big number (I lost less than 10lbs during that two weeks).

Stay strong - you only have a week left before your surgery. You can do anything for a week!

Thanks for the encouragement!

Check with your surgeon on the calorie requirement. Mine was 800 calories, and because of my high BMI, I had four weeks of the pre op diet.

Don't worry about slow weight loss now. Some people lose a lot of weight prior to surgery, then their weight loss is slower after surgery. You may get lucky and lose more after your procedure. Just remember that you will lose weight when you follow the program. And avoid pizza after surgery... heh.