jennrn2006

I just wanted to ask what is the best and quickest way to shrink the liver? Is it the 2 day liquid diet before surgery? Is this long enough to get the result? I am 5'3" and 286lbs.

I have been doing the low carb diet for 2weeks lost 4lbs now back to 286 again! I am on my pd but could that be the only reason?

Any advice would be great

thanks

__________________

[COLOR="Purple"]START/CURRENT/GOAL
309 231 150

SURGERY DATE.....10/31/2008 wt 283


HAPPILY MARRIED 16 YRS
13 YR OLD SON (OUR BLESSING)

Dr. Callery

Dear Jennrn2006,

There hasn't been very much comparative research to tell what's the best diet to use to shrink the liver. Optifast 800 calories a day produces about 25% shrinkage in 6 weeks. Even two weeks at 800 calories will be a significant help. You'll, have liver shrinkage because of loss of liver fat an will lose water weight because you won't be eating as much salt.

I try to get patients to lose about 10% of their body weight if they have tight truncal obesity. If they lose about 2 pounds a week, they will have a live with little fat and don't need to use Optifast.

Two days of weight loss won't do much.

There's nothing magic about Optifast. Any low calorie well balanced diet will do fine. It's important that you ask your surgeon what calorie level will be best for you. Active large and tall patient will need more than 800 calories to prevent them from burning their muscle mass.

In summary, I have found that patients benefit greatly from preop weight loss. It seems that their recovery is smoother, their medical problems in better control, and their hospital stay shorter.

Thanks for asking your question,

Dr. Callery