curious

Well, I was one of the unlucky ones that had a NINE month supervised weight loss requirement for my insurance. I started in January and had surgery the very last day of December of 2013 (New Year's Eve!) -- and from January to June, I actually gained weight -- even while doing all the nutrition classes, binge eating classes, etc.

Yeah. I was a star-pupil...

That June, WLS started to become more real to me. I began to seriously try to log and track my food, eat under 2000 calories (which I thought was excellent ---hahahaha), and to eat healthy. My A1c had also just come back over 9 -- so I was also motivated by the fact that if it were that high on insulin and metformin -- things weren't looking so good. I lost about 15 pounds from June to August -- barely noticeable on my 350-something body.

In September, I had completed all the requirements and brought my A1c down to the 6's -- that is when my weight was 347 and logged for submission. That is the weight that I use for a starting point. I think my highest weight ever was somewhere in the 370's -- but I am not sure.

I did well until about the end of October -- I started having food funerals. Ugh. I did give up all soda/carbonation that month.

Anyhow, long story short, I was completely dedicated to my nearly 3 week pre-surgery liquid diet and lost from 347 to 320ish --- but truthfully, that's when I became serious and committed.

I lost about 6 pounds my first week of the pre-op diet and have been gaining and loosing the same pound for the past 4 days.

I was only 1 pound down from my highest weight before the pre-op diet ...and lost 8 pounds during the diet. While that might not seem like much ... that is 4 pounds each week! I am down a total of 32 pounds since March 1st (when the pre-op diet started) While it might not be as impressive as other people ... that is still an average loss of 3 pounds a week.

Before surgery my most successful attempt at dieting was 30 pounds in 6 months ... that's a little over 1 pound a week. But at the end of that 6 months I was so hungry and so sick of bargaining with myself over calories that I gave the whole thing up and promptly gained back all the weight. If I had gotten my surgery at the end of that 6 month diet there would have been that big gap between my HW and my SW .. but that isn't the way things worked out for me.

Thank you so much for asking these questions. I'm fearful and skeptical too that it would be successful or rather I will be successful with myself. I'm not on a prediet. It was recommended to start changing eating habits. Chew food slow, sip water all day, avoid bread pasta potatoes, log daily my food intake and reduce sugar grams to single digits for each meal. After 4 weeks of starting to change my eating habits, I lost 12 lbs. I was so worried about being weighed because I definitely have reduced my intake but not eliminated the carbsyet. Just reduced it. My focus right now is to control the binge eating. If I can conquer that I feel like I will be good as gold. My surgery isn't scheduled yet. I'm near the end of my required visits and tests from the bariatric center. I'm hoping to be scheduled for July but it hasn't come up yet. Best of all to you.

All sounds like good advice from your program, and great that you're down 12 lbs. Cutting out the carbs is key, it will help you reduce your cravings for more carbs.

I wasn't required to lose any weight pre-op, so I didn't. I was told not to gain any weight. That was stressful enough...

For me, it was only a 2 month window though from "I want surgery" to surgery date.

i only lost 10 lbs during the pre op diet. the shakes are brutal, but found the crystal lite strawberry/banana flavour helped a bit. i was only have 3 of the shakes a day. relied on broths as well and the jello.

you got this. the first 3 days are the hardest!