How Much Protein Should You Eat Before Surgery?

Of all the changes you can make before surgery, eating more protein is one of the most powerful, and one of the simplest to start.

If you have surgery coming up, you have probably been told what not to eat the night before. Far fewer people are told what to eat in the weeks leading up to it. Yet nutrition can have one of the biggest effects on how you recover, and protein sits at the centre of it.

Why protein matters

Surgery puts your body under stress, and it responds by drawing on its own reserves to heal. Protein is one of the most important. It supplies the building blocks your body uses to repair tissue and fight infection. When protein runs short, your body breaks down its own muscle to keep up.

I think of it as a protein bank. Surgery is a large withdrawal. Making deposits in the weeks before gives you more to draw on afterwards.

What the research shows

Studies of patients who ate more protein before surgery found less inflammation afterwards, shorter hospital stays, better fitness in the weeks that followed, and more muscle kept. That muscle is what helps you sit up, get out of bed and walk in the first days after surgery, and early movement is one of the best ways to avoid complications.

Working out your target

Multiply your weight in kilograms by 1.5, then by 2.0. For example, someone who weighs 70 kilograms (about 154 pounds) would aim for 105 to 140 grams of protein a day.

Try to spread it across your meals and snacks rather than eating most of it at once. Good everyday sources include chicken, fish, eggs, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, tofu, beans and nuts.

Progress, not perfection

You don't need to hit your target every day for it to help. Every gram is a deposit in your protein bank, and doing something is always better than doing nothing.