Question:
How many or how long do previous medically supervised diets have to be?

i have my first appt with my surgeon on wednesday, aug. 8th. they told me to bring my medical records that show previous weight loss attempts that were medically supervised (ie meds). i looked at them and realized they were shorter than i thought. i have two incidences. one lasted for a little longer than 5 months (phen-fen...thank God it wasn't for longer!!!) and the other was for 3 or 4 months (phentermine only...had to quit because i got pg!) on both i lost weight, but quickly gained back all and more! will this be sufficient? i also have numerous attempts with non-medically supervised diets (ie weight watchers). what do you think? do you think my insurance will turn me down since they weren't very long???? God bless!    — Charlotte J. (posted on August 4, 2001)

August 5, 2001
Hi Charlotte, I think the first thing you need to do is know your insurance policy about WLS in general!!!Don't rely on "others" to tell you what's acceptable or not. THis way if they feed you the wrong info you can correct it and not get caught up in lots of wrangling. To do that contact the Benefits coordinator and ask for it in writing if you don't have it already(make sure it's current)Some ins.companies say you need to be on the diets for 12 months,etc...My ins. just said 2 medically supervised diets. The longest was 6 months thru an eating disorders clinic,the other was one of the stupidist diets ever-a Dr. no less. Anyway, it counted. I happened across many of my old calendars and everything was there-dates,apptmnts so I had a guide. Sit down now with paper and pen and write every diet,shake, pill ever tried. Every infomercial ever purchased and all. Go back as far as possible. I think many of the ins. companies are looking to see that you've really tried. I had to provide dates(i used approx. or the year),I needed pounds lost-I used approx. 20+ kinda stuff and for the weight gain it was always 20+ or whatever the actual gain was plus more. Any exercise machine ever purchased,any gym memebership ever used they wanted to know. The best time to do this is before your appt.if possible. Don't short change yourself. You've probably done alot and don't even remember. I believe this is invaluable with your medically supervised diets. Give them more than what they need. I also submitted copies of my weights going back 10 yrs. I went to my OB/GYN and got my yearly weights. This way they could see I had my weights medically recorded and they could see them as actually recorded by a medical office. Hope this helps
   — Linda M.