Diet To Lose Weight Before Heart Surgery

The Sacred Heart Diet is a seven-day rapid weight loss plan that is rumored to have been developed by the cardiology department at the Sacred Heart Memorial Hospital; the hospital, however, denies this claim. Theories state that the diet was developed to help people with heart problems and overweight lose weight before the start of surgery. A seven-day rapid weight loss diet for people undergoing heart surgery is a soup-based plan that claims you can lose 10 to 17 pounds in the first week.

Proponents of the Sacred Heart Diet also assert that the soup helps flush out toxins from the body, leaving you feeling healthier and more energized. Some people also claim that the ingredients in the soup help you burn calories faster, although this is a false theory. The diet is merely a reduced-calorie plan.

The main staple on the Sacred Heart Diet is a broth-based soup. Each day involves consuming some of the homemade soup, which is made from tomatoes, onions, beef broth, soup mix, celery, green beans, carrots and peppers. The diet details a strict seven-day plan that you must follow precisely. On the first day of the diet, you may consume soup and fruit only. The second day allows the soup, vegetables and one baked potato. On the third day, you can eat all of the soup, fruit and vegetables that you want and the fourth day allows soup, at least three bananas and skim milk. On the fifth day you eat beef, tomatoes and soup and on the sixth day you are required to eat at least one serving of soup, along with unlimited amounts of beef and vegetables. The last day of the plan allows soup, brown rice, vegetables and unsweetened fruit juice.

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The diet also recommends at least six to eight glasses of water every day to prevent dehydration. In addition to water, you are also permitted to drink herbal teas, coffee and unsweetened cranberry juice. According to Diet.com, some versions of the Sacred Heart Diet allow baked skinless chicken or broiled fish in place of the beef.

In 2004, the Sacred Heart Hospital in Canada issued a formal statement denouncing the Sacred Heart diet and denying any involvement in the creation of the diet plan, according to EveryDiet.org. The American Heart Association and the Sacred Heart Medical Center also deny any association with the Sacred Heart Diet. If you are waiting to undergo surgery, do not follow a seven-day rapid weight loss plan unless you have specific instructions from your surgeon. The diet is lacking in calories, protein and various vitamins and minerals that keep your body healthy and strong during surgery.The decision to undergo bariatric surgery isn’t easy. People suffering from obesity and its side effects (high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, etc.) come to this decision after years of struggling and failing to lose weight through diet and exercise.

Aside from choosing to undergo surgery after consulting with a physician, your biggest requirement is commitment to a lifestyle change of eating the right foods in the right portions, losing weight and keeping the weight off for the rest of your life. And that change must begin before surgery.

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About three months before surgery, you’ll begin changing your diet in consultation with a dietitian and start losing weight. Depending on your weight, it may be recommended that you just lose 5-10 pounds, or you may need to lose up to 10% of your body weight if you’re extremely obese.

“The better you do in this stage, the better your chances of success after surgery, ” said Lisa Micetich, a dietitian and manager of Food & Nutrition Services at OSF HealthCare Little Company of Mary Medical Center in Evergreen Park, Illinois. “As soon as you’ve made the decision to have surgery, you should start modifying your behavior. Honestly, 90% of the success a patient achieves depends on behavior modification. Surgeons get 10% of the credit, and the other 90% goes to the patient.”

The first step in healthier eating is cutting down to appropriate portion sizes and following the “MyPlate” concept. Under this formula, each plate of food is 30% non-starchy vegetables, 25% protein, 25% whole grains and 20% fruit. Meals should include:

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“Another key during this phase is the importance of ingraining physical activity into your daily routine, ” Lisa said. “Even if it’s just going for a walk, people should get at least 30 minutes of physical activity per day.”

A week or two before surgery, you’ll switch to a low-sugar, low-fat, full-liquid diet (64 ounces per day) that’s high in protein and low in carbs. The protein will be important for healing and tissue repair after surgery, but there’s another reason for this step.

“The primary reason is to reduce the size of the liver so it’s easier to perform surgery, ” Lisa said. “Fat and sugar increase the size of the liver. This can make it difficult for surgeons during bariatric surgery, which is performed laparoscopically through small incisions in the abdomen.”

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After bariatric surgery, you have a reconstructed stomach with much less capacity, so it’s very important that you give it time to heal by eating the appropriate foods in the right portions. Doing this will also help you avoid complications, such as:

Step 2 also lasts one to two weeks and includes blended or pureed food that is high in protein and low in fat (no vegetables). This includes:

“While the thought of eating blended or pureed food is hard for some people, patients have been on a liquid diet for so long by this point that they’re usually just happy to be getting solid food in their body, ” Lisa said.

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Also, even though the liquid diet step is over, it’s still important for you to maintain the commitment to drink 64 ounces of fluids per day to avoid dehydration (about 4 to 6 ounces of liquid every hour). This must be a lifelong commitment.

Step 3 lasts up to three months. During this phase, you are able to eat the same foods as Step 2 but without the need for them to be blended or pureed. Additional foods include:

About three to four months after bariatric surgery, you are ready to begin the diet you should follow the rest of your life. The restrictions you faced during the first three steps are gone, but you should now focus on eating the right foods and the right portions.

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“It’s important to eat protein at every meal and eat the majority of it first so you can meet your protein goals, ” Lisa said. “In addition to helping with healing, protein preserves muscle mass, and it makes you feel full longer than carbohydrates.”