4 weeks of Opti - Pre Surgery

I did 6 weeks before ( I wasn't required to I had done 4 weeks before my first appointment) once you get past day 6 it's very easy but up till then it's hell,  many years ago I did several months straight on it.


 Here is a aussie medical article on optifast, it's quite interesting

https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2008/188/6/safe-year-long-use-very-low-calorie-diet-treatment-severe-obesity

Cheeko I was on Opti for 4 weeks and managed it OK. I have to say I got to the stage where I didn't bother with the added vegies and on the last day I couldn't face another Opti :)

I used diet jelly to supplement my food and to fill me up. But there are lots of the allowable vegies that I didn't like so I was fairly limited.

Good luck with it.

My guess is that you have eaten too little and gone into a sort of "starvation mode" which slows your metabolism down.  You would be better eating plenty of the allowable veges. You have already changed your diet so the aim is to sustain it now, not to skimp on that too.  Give yourself a break! 

And fill up on free veg - Some of my favourites combos are:

A simple vege soup with Massel vege stock, zucchini, cabbage, onion, and just a little carrot and pumpkin for flavour.

My dietitian's recommendation was sauteed onion, tomato and mushroom and it is a pretty good combo - It's niced served over a bunch of freshly cooked asparagus or even just on it's own.

A ragout made with sauteed eggplant, red capsicum, onion, mushroom and zucchini and a little garlic, then baked in the oven with a tin of tomato sauce.  

My favourite raw veges were snow peas - they are sweet and delicious and on the allowed list so go crazy, I also like red capsicum, fresh cucumber slices and even green beans raw.  I used to make myself up a little container of them to take to work for snacks.

Thank you WondaWendy

I appreciate your response. I am currently in week 2 of my 4 week opti and have a list of allowed items on my list but I have to lose 10-15kgs before the 11th of June so I'm really feeling the pressure to lose the weight. If I don't lose it my surgeon could say no to the op and then I'll have to be on opti for longer. I'm finding that I'm trying to eat as little as possible and even scared to eat something like a carrot. I'm only having a shake at breakfast, lunch and dinner with a 90gram lean steak for dinner. It's a horrible journey and now I've stalled, actually put on 400grams. How that has happened I do not know and it's completely disheartening. I've emailed my dietician so will wait and see what she says. 

Jess

Hi Jess,

I only had to do 2 weeks but I have definitely heard that some people on this site do up to 6 weeks (trying to remember if I've seen any longer ones but am not sure).

My advice is to get the best dietitian that you can as early as you can and get them to help you with the Opti phase.  My dietitian specialised in bariatric patients and whilst he was strict with my Opti, in that I was only allowed to have the "original" Optifast (which came in vanilla or chocolate, I did chocolate), the Opti desserts choc/lemon (lemon is my fave!) and the plain chocolate bar as these 3 products all have less than 18g of carbs in them.  I was not allowed any of the other shake flavours or bars.  HOWEVER, on the other hand he broaded my food choices by allowing up to a cup a day of fresh berries, up to 2 passionfruit and/or star fruit (there is a reason that these 3 fruits are ok but I can't remember why).  I was also allowed up to 1/2 a cup per day of carrot/pumpkin. Personally I think these extra fruits/veges beyond the "free veg" brought variety and quality to my food that made things a bit more bearable.  I could have my lemon creme dessert with some finely chopped strawberries and a 1/2 passionfruit in it and it didn't seem so much like Optifast any more.  I could put 1/4 cup of blueberries into my breakfast choc shake and this made it taste better.  A little bit of pumpkin added to a free veg soup tastes way better than one without it.

Once you know what you are allowed to have from your own dietitian, you can start looking for recipes to try and make it as bearable as possible.

Best wishes, YOU CAN DO IT!!!

Hi 
Did anyone else have to do 4 weeks on Opti? Just wondering how you went with it? 

Thanks Jess