3Guide to Liver Shrinking
Pre-operative bariatric surgery diet (another name for the liver shrinking diet), as discussed earlier earlier helps in liver weight loss before the main weight loss surgery. The surgery itself involves trimming the stomach to size, so as today reduce the amount of food intake that can fill it. It is a major surgery and, as such, should be carried out with rapt attention to guidelines. The first thing you must know about the liver shrinking diet is that it isn’t optional for you as a bariatric surgery patient. The liver shrinking diet has two stages: the first involved both liquid and non-liquid intake, while the other is strictly all-liquid intake. Non-liquid in this case, refers to food types which aren’t necessarily liquid, but have low carbohydrate, low calorie or high protein content. [4]
Before you begin your journey to achieving a shrunken liver, you must be prepared to meet with serious internal obstacles on your first few days. This obstacle consists mainly in the fact that you’d be extremely hungry and yet must not have what you want to eat. Hence, an summarized guide to help you on your way is drawn below:
• High protein intake daily is highly recommended. 70-120 g of protein intake a day keeps you in an optimal state. (Do not include vegetables and fruits to protein shake).
• Calorie intake should range between 800 and 1200 daily, which is much lower than most patients are used.
• This is a very restrictive diet, and it is advised that you take supplements to make up for vitamins and minerals requirements. Fruits and vegetables should be taken strictly on permission. Though they contain vitamins and minerals, some of them have high carbohydrate or calorie content.
• The diet is designed to provide your body with about 60-90 g of carbohydrates daily.
• The precautions stated above should be adhered to. [5]
