OPTIFAST purchases for the HRRH clinic?

Hey all!  Hope everyone had a great holiday :)  Just thinking ahead, but wondering if you purchase the opti.  I believe it is bought at the surgeons office? but can you buy one case at a time?  I see people buying 2 of each flavour, etc and then wishing they hadn't.  I will be on 3 weeks opti.  Thanks for any advice or answers?  I could search as I am positive this has been discussed but it is late and I am lazy at the moment LOL

Hi Chrissy I am sure you can, call  Tracy and ask her she should be able to tell you.

2 weeks post op here... I didn't use Opti, I went for the Premier Protein shakes at Costco. Cheaper, better tasting, and they have less calories, more vitamins, less fat and WAY more protein - do the research. Doctors get a cut from telling you to do Opti... but pound for pound, there's better shakes out there. I hope I don't get lynched for this :)

I actually did a direct comparison of the nutritional info between Opti and the Premier shakes.  I do agree with Seyenna that the Premier seem to be better.  The one thing about Opti that surprised me was the sodium content of one shake.  If you are drinking four of them in a day then your total sodium intake for the day was really high if not over the recommended sodium intake for the day.  I am sure everyone will have their opinion about which one is better.  I would ask the Doctors why they use Opti over other things.  I am sure they have their reasons whether they be good or bad.  :-) 

Opti supposedly includes vitamin supplements (although if you look at the nutritional info, it doesn't look like a complete supplement).  I asked my clinic if I could substitute some other comparable protein shakes for one or two of my daily optis (mixed with water of course) and they said no.  But strangely there was no scientific/evidence-based explanation for why Opti is better than another comparable protein shakes (especially since there are waaaaay better tasting shakes out there that have the same amount of protein in them).  I'd be interested to have a better explanation from my clinic about why Opti is used because it does seem like an inferior product (and I'm one of those who like to know the "why" about something).  Oh well, only 5 more days of these things in any case, but it would be nice to know.

They both seem to have lots of vitamin supplements in them too so I would be like you and want to know the exact details as to why one is better than the other because from what I can see they seem to be at least comparable for the most part and I think in the end would produce the same results. 

They do, I lost 26 lbs on the Premier Protein and spent way less money. As a single mom with 3 kids - this was important to me. My liver was sufficiently shrunk and my surgery went off without a hitch.

Hey Chrissy , I've PM'd you xx 

Jax x

There are studies out there that prove that Opti is in fact the shake of choice for shrinking our livers. Remember we are on them to shrink our livers pre op to get it out of the way for the surgery. 

I don't think anyone disputes that it shrinks the liver, but the studies I've seen don't compare it to other protein-based meal replacements, rather they simply studied the results from treatment with Opti versus no treatment with Opti.  For example: this study

I think the point that others are making in this thread is that it would be helpful for pre-ops to be provided with evidence-based information as to why Optifast is preferable over more affordable (and tastier) alternatives that share a very similar nutritional profile.  While the cost of Opti was not an issue for me, I'm sure there are some that found it prohibitive and it could prove to be a barrier for some people who want to move forward with surgery.