Need to lose 9lbs in a week for surgery. Help!

[Sylver75]

I was scheduled for urgent neck surgery on Feb 29th, got a call 3 days before to say it was cancelled and to ring back in 14 days when I'd lost 14lbs. I decided to cut calories to 600 per day and lost the first few days, then it ground to a halt. I upped calories to 900 hoping it might help get metabolism moving but I'm still seeing very little movement on the scales (0.2lbs) this morning, I weigh daily. I'm drinking two itres plus of water, eating mostly protein (eggs, chicken or turkey) but am panicking that I'm running out of time.

I risk being paralysed from the neck down without this surgery. The surgeon fought the anaesthesist to get it done but they wouldn't budge.

I'm 48, BMI is 48.4 and they want it below 47 by next Tuesday. That's 8.5lbs in a week.

I tried my GP, she said drink water instead of eating and she just talked me into going on Ozempic so I'm on that now too since last week but at 600cals the injection isn't gonna make me wanna eat less than I've been doing already through sheer willpower.

I'm desperate at this point. Not getting this surgery will be potentially catastrophic to the whole rest of my life.

I can't exercise as my neck is in the same kind of condition the surgeon said he normally only sees after a car accident. I had no accident but do have degenerative issues with my entire spine in general. I've had two previous surgeries and 15 years of pain.

Has anyone had to do this?

Cabbage soup diet used to be recommended by NHS for pre surgery weight loss.

I think you need to speak to your surgeon. Have you been for your pre op yet?It’s not really realistic to lose this amount of weight and I dont see how 1.8 points off your bmi is going to make a tangible difference to your anaesthetic risk and surgical outcome.

Intermittent fasting. Eat all of the calories you will have for the day in one meal. Make it a meal that is low carb and high in protein. Don't drink anything else but water for the rest of the day.
Drastic measures but this is a drastic situation.

You say you can't exercise but is there anything you can do? Walking, standing up, light housework etc will all help.

Urgent pharmacy appointment to get some Lipotrim. Invented for GP prescription to get people
down to surgery weight. Look up local participating pharmacy. It’s mostly shakes and zero food, water, black coffee, v restrictive but will absolutely do it for you ( they’ll do blood pressure etc and check you for any excluding conditions before letting you have it).

You're likely holding on to fluid as your body reacts to the sudden weight loss. Ask chemist for a diuretic

Just an aside worry from me sorry. I recently had a partial nephrectomy and had half a kidney removed, then a breast reduction. I am on ozempic for diabetes and not once was I warned it was bad to take before surgeries. I still took it as normal, I was only told to stop ramapril. I hope you can lose weight op it must be so stressful for you.

The problem is that ozempic stops you emptying your stomach as quickly. Normally for surgery you fast so you have an empty stomach to prevent aspirating under anaesthesia. Obviously ozempic halts the movement of food out so increases your risks under anaesthesia.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10662908/

You lost loads of weight at the start as it was just fluid. You need to persevere. Eat only once a day with all of your calories. Then fast and just drink water, green tea, black coffee.

Oops I forgot to mention I am in Australia, but I doubt that would make a difference.

If youve cut your calories, you then need to up your steps if you can, i havent read the whole post admittedly so if you have mobility issues, ignore me!

But even getting one of those pedal things you can do sitting down or anything that will involve burning extra calories.

I would swap to a VEry Low Calorie Diet based on shakes. Optifast or similar. 3 shakes a day plus 2 cups of allowed veggie. As much water as you can handle. Until surgery. This is what is given to patients prior to bariatric surgery. It is relatively high protein and low carb. So really works pretty fast.

Good luck with the surgery.

Can you get hold of a sweat suit? Or wear binbags under your clothes. Go to a sauna the night before you go back to the hospital.

Same here on Trulicity - mentioned at pre - op time no problem, last pen got me to date of surgery. Ensured my glucose bloods didn’t rise so they’d end up cancelling pity pity. I got all excited Monday as I even thought they said can you walk 2 flights of stairs, I’d thought that would help with circulation like you see on fat surgeons the jokers meant the surgery table was high and to mount that without an aid I did think the 20 stone me would never have fitted on the table.

Sorry op I cannot think of any other way to do it safely except something like slimfast if you aren’t diabetic.

I had emergency neck surgery at 17.5 stone no compression stockings (have the one swollen foot) used just some weird awful massage machine at end of bed - my father just refused to take me home as they too said same risk and tried their hardest to say it’ll only be 6 months on a list.

Good luck - please do not let them fob you off. You need your strength before the op it’s the ga which will strip you of the appetite. Rooting for you.

If you can get into ketosis you should lose glycogen which can weigh 7-12lbs - no carbs whatsoever