As part of your preparation for your weight loss surgery, you will need to undertake a strict pre-operative diet. Usually, this is for two weeks before surgery.
What is the Milk Diet?
Hear from our dietician George about the Milk Diet.
Pre-operative diets before weight loss surgery – why is it so important?
The pre-operative diet will help to prepare your body for weight loss surgery by:
- Reducing the size of your liver and the amount of abdominal fat, making the operation
easier for your surgeon and safer for you, by reducing the risk of liver injury. - The reduction in size also reduces abdominal pressure, which enhances your
recovery after surgery. - Reducing fluctuations in blood sugar, thereby improving insulin resistance and
preparing the body for the post-surgery diet - Reducing the temptation to overeat in the weeks before your operation
There are a number of pre operative diet options however the most frequently used is the Milk Diet.
How to follow the milk diet
- A simple plan – This plan is repetitive and simple to limit the mental focus on food. It has the advantage of being free from handling or eating food, including measuring and cooking. Drinking little and often aims to boost energy levels and helps to avoid you feeling hungry.
- Establish a routine – It is important to have a routine for taking your milk each day. Avoid having large glasses and avoid having it all in the morning or all at night. Instead, try to have some regularly throughout the day. Try to split it as evenly as you can into glasses which can then be taken throughout the day. This way you will always have ‘food’ to look forward too, and it can help to reduce hunger and any dips in energy.
At Streamline Surgical we feel it is important for us to understand what our patients going though and we often get asked about the milk diet. With this in mind a few of the Streamline Surgical support staff decided to try it.
Before following the milk diet Sarah and Leigh had to get the okay from our Bariatric specialist team, to make sure it would be safe for them to follow the Milk Diet.
What did Streamline employees think of the Milk Diet?
Leigh – I love milk so found this easy to follow. That said, it was nice to have the Oxo drink to break up the day and a sugar free jelly to have something to physically chew.
Sarah – I too love milk and used the ‘Crusha’ milk flavouring to add a bit of variety throughout the day. The only problem was my cat loved it as well! I couldn’t put a glass down for a second or she would be there lapping it up. All in all it was nowhere near as bad as I thought it might be.
If you any concerns or questions about the milk diet it is important to speak to your specialist team, who will be able to support you throughout your weight loss surgery journey.
Other pre-operative diet options
- The Soup & Yoghurt diet – This plan uses a combination of soups and yoghurts to provide you with the required daily nutrition that your body needs before having your operation. This option does have limited choice, as it can be difficult to be specific given the huge variety of soups and yoghurts that are available on the market, which is also constantly changing.
- The meal replacement diet – This plan uses meal replacement products and a small amount of milk or yoghurt to provide you with the required daily nutrition before your operation. There are countless meal replacement products available with varying nutritional content, so not all are suitable for you.
- The weighed solid food diet – This plan is ideal for people who do not like milk, soup, yoghurt or meal replacement shakes or simply would prefer something to chew. It uses weighed portions of solid food to provide you with the required daily nutrition before your operation. If you choose this option prior to your surgery, the it is essential that you switch to either the milk diet, the soup & yoghurt diet or the meal replacement diet, the day before your operation.
- The flexible pre-op diet – Some people find Options 1-4 too restrictive. This option allows you devise your own plan to provide you with the daily required nutrition before your operation. You can speak to a member of our team to find out more about the key guidelines you must follow for this option.
Find out more about the different pre-operative diet options and the vital role of nutrition in your weight loss journey here.