How log of a wait till surgery? Insurance hurdles

I've been reading posts for the past several months but now have my first question. 

How long of a wait did you have before you can have surgery? My insurance requires a 6 month physician supervised diet program before approving plus psyc eval etc.

If you had to also go through this, did you use your primary care Dr or weigh****chers or another dietitian? 

How much weight did you lose before the surgery? Is there a requirement to lose a certain amount.

Sorry for all the questions.

I went to the nutritionist at my surgical weight loss center. My surgeon requires you to lose 10% of your body weight.  That requirement depends on you and your surgeon.  I started the process in May and had surgery in October.

I did everything through my surgical center as well. My PCP has a good relationship with them so they were able to keep my records updated as needed. My first appointment was 7/29/14 and surgery was 2/19/15.

I also did everything through my surgical center as well. my first appointment was 2/9/15 and surgery was 5/26/15. health insurance through my job. bc/bs personal choice. no real requirements through them. but 30lbs requirement and many test before surgery kept me busy where required by surgen.

I did the 6-month program offered through my surgeon's clinic. Every month I checked in with a nurse practitioner and took part in a group class led by one of the psychologists, dietitians, or physical therapists (they rotated). It's actually the specific program required by my insurance, but that's because I work for (and am insured by) the health system that the clinic is part of, so they get to make their employees use their own providers. I started in October and had surgery in May. It would have been closer to 6 months, but my surgeon was on vacation for most of April.

I lost 80 lbs before surgery but had no requirement. I just had to be careful not to drop my BMI below 35 (and I came within 7 lbs of it!). All insurances are different in this regard. Some require loss, some don't, and some just want to make sure you don't gain.

Thanks for the feedback. So when you lost the 80 pounds before surgery- were you changing eating habits and exercising? 

Yeah, I started eating high-protein, lowering (but not eliminating) carbs, logging every bite in MyFitnessPal, playing Dance Dance Revolution, and bike riding.

Mine is not typical.  I decided I wanted WLS in May of 2014.  Scheduled an appt. with the surgeon's office for late June 2014 (orientation & meet the surgeon), got approval in early July 2014 (3 days later)!   Scheduled a date, and had surgery in Aug. 2014.  I could have had surgery in mid-July but it didn't fit with my schedule.  2 months from deciding I wanted to surgery to surgery date.  No pre-op diet, no psychiatrist visit, no nutritionist, ...Another reason I'm very grateful to this site.  I learned much of what I needed to know here.  

I have United Healthcare through a major computer company (if that helps)...

My insurance did not require a supervised diet. I saw the surgeon for the first time 3/4/15, did my preop stuff within a month and had RNY on 4/28/15.

 the surgeon didn't require a specific weight loss, but greatly encouraged it to make surgery go smooth. I lost 20#.

My insurance also requires six month supervised diet.  I did my six months with my bariatric clinic.  First weigh in was in November.  Last weigh in for diet was May.  Then I have an apt to see surgeon before they will submit to insurance, that apt is June 22.  I suspect surgery will be July/August if insurance approves.  I had to lose 5% of my weigh and show I can follow a low carb diet (south beach). Had to have a stomach scope, blood work and psych eval as well.  I already had sleep apnea so didn't need the sleep study.