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In 2009, I chose the sleeve because it's less invasive and there's less maintenance involved. Some say you lose more with the bypass, but I lost 149 lbs. in the first 18 months with a sleeve. Now, due to my life taking the turns it did, 14 years later I regained all my weight. But that wasn't the surgery, it was all me. One month ago, I had a revision from sleeve to bypass. And I can tell you this... if I could go back in time and take care of my sleeve like I should have, I would absolutely, positively do it. I'm not liking this bypass one bit, and I would never recommend it over a sleeve. Just my 2 cents.

My surgeon set my goal weight at 80kg. My personal goal weight was 75kg, because my aim was to be the same size I was when at my smallest back in 1997, which I vaguely recalled being around 75-78kg. When I hit that goal I then had a new goal of 65kg, so I have a buffer in case of the common regain a couple of years post-surgery. I like having a weight goal, it's motivating and I find it useful. I also take what size I am and how my clothes fit into account.

Hi - I had a bypass on June 1st. I have had a pretty good recovery and healing so far and was given the all clear to swim at 2 and a half weeks post op. I have been swimming mostly daily since. I was given the all clear to start some high intensity this week (with some precaution) - I've had one class so far and really enjoyed it. My starting weight was 215lbs and I'm now 179lbs. I'd like to lose another 79lbs.

I think the time for the last hurrah is before your pre-op diet OP. Eating off plan so close to your surgery might actually jeopardise the procedure because the whole point is to shrink your liver so they can get in to perform it. I totally understand the cravings - we all do. But you will have this lots in the next few months and if you can get past them then you will see amazing weight loss. I wish you the best of luck.

My trigger (on top of years of unhappiness with my weight, as for all of us) was not being able to fit into a booth in a restaurant to eat with my family. Having to ask to be moved was humiliating. Probably for the umpteenth time but that was the (last) last straw. Never looked back.

You have a plan and it sounds really good OP. I wish you the best of luck with your weight loss and your knee replacements. Hope you're back to being as fit and active as nature intended really soon.

My goal weight shifted a few times. I want to preface all of this by stating I am very short statured, so these numbers are going to sound extremely low. I had a BMI of 46 when I started the process and weighed 245 pounds. I chose 120 at first, then found out I would still be considered overweight, so I lowered it to 110, which is dead-center of a healthy weight range according to the BMI scale. Ironically my posture has improved since my surgery and I am an inch taller now, and 120 would have been fine all along (for a woman my size it's between 94 and 124 pounds).

I disagree with the idea that goal weights aren't important. If having a goal weight motivates you, go for it. I had three goal weights. My first was to get to "overweight" BMI. My second was to get to "healthy" BMI. My final was to get to Ideal Body Weight. I ultimately achieved all three and got down to 146.5. Now, in maintenance, my goal is to stay under 150. So far so good. Having an ambitious goal weight really pushed me during the final months when the weight loss slowed and it would have been easy to back off.

You don't need to fixate on a specific number. Look at where you are now and figure out if this is the right weight or if you want to weigh less or more than your current weight. There are a lot of things to consider, but to generalize, how do you feel and look at your current weight, and how sustainable is it? If everything is good now, congratulations! This is your goal weight. It's probably not that simple because it can be a bit of a balancing act, but figure out, overall, if you'd be better off losing more weight or staying where you are. Are you physically comfortable, able to be as active as you'd like to be, and have good mobility? (Of course, there are factors other than your weight that affect these things, but consider whether losing more weight would improve these things.) Are you satisfied with how you look, what size clothes you wear, how people perceive you? Do you look healthy or do people often ask you if you're sick (which may indicate that further weight loss would be a negative for your appearance)? How easy or difficult is it for you to stick with your current calorie level for the long term? If you're hungry all the time and struggle to stick to your plan, you may be setting yourself up to fall off the wagon and regain. If you're satisfied with what and how much you're eating and exercising to maintain your weight, it's sustainable for the long term. How are your health metrics? How's your blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol, etc., and would losing more weight be likely to improve anything? Do you have any vitamin deficiencies that indicate that you're not eating enough (or not taking the right supplements)? I would take the numbers from your dietitian and GP with a grain of salt because bariatric surgery patients are different from their average patients, and without specialized training, they may not understand the nuances and may be basing their advice off the good old BMI chart. In my opinion, if they are giving you a specific number as a goal weight, or telling you that your weight is "too high" or "too low" based solely on your height and weight rather than your actual health metrics, they probably don't have great knowledge in this area. The bariatric dietitian will probably be more helpful. I know you have to wait a couple of months, but you seem to be doing fine for now, so unless you have major problems, you can probably just keep on doing what you're doing until then.

When I got sleeved in 2009, I didn't have a goal weight, I had a goal size. I wanted to be a size 12 (I was a size 6X/32, 340 lbs at the time). I ended up losing 149 lbs and got down to a size 14 (at 195 lbs). Now, I'm a revision from sleeve to bypass. My weight, when I first went back to the doc for the revision, was 333, I was a size 4X/26. I thought it was weird that I was only 7 lbs less than my sleeve weight, but still 3 sizes smaller. Doc said it was probably because I had put on some muscle weight. So this time, I decided my goal weight would be 200lbs because I know that since it's a revision, I'm not going to lose like I did with the sleeve. I didn't want to be unrealistic. Also, me at 200 lb is pretty close to a size 14. If I can get back to that, I will be more than thrilled!

My goal weight isn't a number - it's a feeling. When I can walk alot, bend over, exercise without dying and my lab numbers come back as normal ,,,, that'll be my goal weight !

My weight loss is stalled and I'm constipated - "Drink more water, consume less sodium" So I start watching my sodium intake and consuming 80+ oz of water a day and using Benefiber 2x a day Since Wednesday night, I'm cramping in my feet and calves in my sleep - "You're drinking too much water and that's washing out all your electrolytes" Where do I find electrolytes? - "In your food (like sodium), but you can only consume small portions because of the surgery" What the hell am I supposed to do???

I totally agree that the NSV are MORE important, and that i cant tie myself to a number— and I KNOW that the benefits have SIGNIFICANTLY outweighed what the number on the scale is, but am wondering how do you know what a healthy weight for you is? Im getting conflicting numbers from my dietician and my GP— I was self pay in Mexico and have had to assemble a team on my own, and am wondering what other people have done. I have an appointment with Bariatric dietician (not just a regular one) but can’t get in until mid September. Currently, I am 4.5 months out and already at the target on the outcomes link provided above, and understand that the number chooses you— my number on my ticker is what i was comfortable at years ago, and think it will be achievable. My dietician thinks it’s too low, and my GP advises an even lower number— and ideal weight/BMI calculators seem stupid. I know i started with a much lower BMI, but am trying to find that “healthy place” where i can keep the weight under control over time as well.

I remember hearing my Mom and Aunt talking about my weight as a young girl. My cousin was a year older than me and weighed less than me but we both looked the same size. Seemed they were always comparing us. I had more muscle weight or just carried it well they said. Hence my start with weight scale numbers. When I went to the carnival the guy who guesses your age or weight never got it right. I always weighed 20 more pounds than I looked and when I was 14, I looked 16/17. I always walked away with a prize. LOL I never go by weight calculators because they don't take into consideration muscle mass. Mine always told me I should weigh 135 for my height but the few times I reached that goal, I looked gaunt and sickly. Because at 135 I looked like I weighed 115. But at 150, I look 130 which is just right for my 5'6" frame.

This might make you roll your eyes, but I like to say that you don't choose your goal weight -- your goal weight chooses you. You can't just pick a number and will your body to get to it. I feel strongly that the non-scale victories are far more important than the number on the scale. I wanted to lose enough weight to get rid of diabetes and hypertension, to wear non-plus size clothing, to fit into a restaurant booth, to walk up a few flights of stairs without ending up winded and drenched in sweat, etc. If you get to that point and the scale says 10 pounds higher than the arbitrary number you picked, so what? That said, when I had my psych evaluation, the psychiatrist wanted me to say my goal weight (probably just to make sure I had realistic expectations), so I went with the average weight loss for gastric bypass. There are a lot of online calculators for this, and I think I used 70% of my excess weight to arrive at a specific number (I ended up losing 100% of my excess weight). Here's another calculator that uses a lot of data from actual WLS patients to give more precise predictions based on more specific parameters: https://mbsc.arbormetrix.com/Registry/public/calculator/uiCalculator/7?menuId=1013

I never chose one. I had so much weight to lose that I figured I could deal with the idea if/when I got into the neighborhood. I didn't want to create arbitrary goals that could make losing 500+ pounds a failure. Good luck, Tek

How did you decide on what your goal weight should be? BMI calculator, your lowest weight, recommendation from dr or dietician? Interested in learning… so please share.

Welcome! i can tell you will do well- and i hope the joint pain alleviates as a side effect of losing the weight- I know mine has significantly improved, and it has been life changing for me.

I was four square opposed to WLS because I told myself that if I got serious I could do it with diet and exercise. The problem I kept running into was I could go a week and be completely compliant with my plan, but it only took one moment of lost focus and the resultant binge undid the whole week of perfection. Eventually an article about weight loss turned out to be an article on WLS and my interest was piqued. I then began my research. Back when I had surgery VSG was not a thing. My choices were Lap-Band, RNY, or DS. I researched each thoroughly, to the extent that when my surgeon asked my preference and why I was able to go into detail about each procedure and why I chose what I chose. Initially I wanted the Band because it was 'less invasive' and it could be easily reversed. I decided 'less invasive' was not a reason to have one surgery and not another, what was important is which surgery would give me the best results. In relation to the Band specifically, after some soul searching I knew that if things got hard I would sabotage myself until the Band just had to be taken out and I would be worse off than when I started. While the other surgeries can technically be reversed, it is much more difficult and only done in extreme circumstances. Basically, no matter what happened I would have to make the best of it, which really is my default outlook. I needed a surgery that was forever. So I was down to RNY and DS. The DS generally had better long term results. Back then their was no restrictive aspect to the DS it was totally malabsorption. There were also many reports of some patients losing too much weight and having issues getting up to a healthy weight. Even then surgeons were getting better at preventing that, so this was probably not going to be an issue for me. But, DS folks often talked about being able to eat anything in just about any volume and still losing weight. This was a problem for me, because I was a binge eater and I wanted to change my habits and I didn't feel the DS would push me in that direction. Here I am at the RNY. I wanted the malabsorption to give me that slight edge to get my digestive system on board with my goals. Of course the restriction was what I wanted to teach me to limit my portions and prevent my binging. I also wanted the 'complication' of dumping as this would keep me away from sweets. Binging and sweets are a bad combination and I felt the RNY would address both. So I chose RNY. As it turned out I do dump on both sugar and fats. It took an amazingly few dumping episodes to learn to stay away from sugars and fats, so that problem was addressed quickly. It also took amazingly few episodes of one bite to many to learn not to, so my binging was addressed. I got everything out of my RNY that I hoped I would. Here I am 20 years later, and my restriction is still in full force. Eating to plan is so natural and normal I don't even think about it. Good luck, Tek

Mine was a few things I was put on ' house arrest ' by the UK government during Covid. My husband had to stay inside with me as our house was not big enough to have separate areas. I thought it was because I have breathing issues, 2 years later, I realised it was because I was obese. Two years of not seeing my family, I was distraught. This indoors two years, I put on another 40 -50 pounds and made breathing really hard and exercise a distant dream. It would take me years to gain my fitness back. I lost all my confidence and began to like hiding indoors I was now Diabetic.

I chose the sleeve due to the recovery and complication rate being lower, and having more options for revisions, if needed, later down the road. I knew I would probably take longer to hit my goal weight, but I was ok with that.

Apologies in advance for the long post!! Hello everyone! I had my surgery July 12th! I am a little over a week post op! Here’s a little bit of insight for those interested! Before surgery I was given a whole bunch of stuff as well as some antibiotics in which I had an allergic reaction to and made me break out in hives. It was super uncomfortable considering I was then wheeled to the operating room shortly after. I couldn’t do anything about the itching as I had to lay in a particular way and kept thinking “I hope they put me to sleep under soon” because it was soooo uncomfortable. After waking up I could barely open my eyes, and at some point I stopped trying but I was still aware of my surroundings for a bit. I just remember shivering and feeling extremely cold. My entire body was aching and I kept getting these chills of pain run through my body. I was in and out so I didn’t even remember leaving the operating room and into the post op room. If I am being completely honest the pain was at its highest the day of the surgery and thankfully the medications they gave me were strong or else I didn’t think I would be able to bear it. I pushed myself to walk about 3-4 hours after surgery even though I wasn’t pushed to, I felt like I needed to?? (Idk my brain was all over the place). I just couldn’t stand laying down for all this hours so if it meant walking to use the bathroom to get out of bed then so be it. I kept trying to push through it and walk walk walk. They were not kidding about the walking and how it helps with gas pains. The gas pains were so bad for me, it felt like bloating(?) just everywhere..the gas pains wow.. My entire stay everyone was super nice and attentive! My surgeon was also kind enough to fulfill my request in taking a picture of my stomach after he took it out! (I personally found it very fascinating!!) I was finally discharged the next day after being able to handle water and soup about 4oz for 5 hours consecutively. And I was very homesick and really missed my bed (and pets). By day 5 though I felt pretty good and a bit back to my normal self for the most part. Until day 5 I could NOT stomach regular water. For some reason I could not stand the taste of it?? It tasted disgusting and I had to keep drinking Gatorade or mixing my water with daily hydration flavored packets. After day 5, I was able to stomach protein shakes (mixed with collagen) and was super happy about the progress. There hasn’t been any complications and for that I am thankful, I didn’t check in sooner as I was busy trying to consume fluids every 15 minutes (I got tired of the timers soooo quick). An app that has been a staple for me personally is Baritastic, love the easy platform and the visualization of the water goal for the day as well as being able to log in my weight. It breaks down my goal into little milestones and basically an all in one app as I can also log in food and tracks weightloss from before and after surgery as well! I also lets me keep count of the days after surgery and my BMI! Highly recommend this app, especially because it’s free Apologies for the long post! I wanted to be thorough and detailed especially for those that are still waiting to have surgery! I cannot think about anything else to write but if anyone has any questions, please let me know! I’ll be happy to respond and as open as possible! I cannot wait to start puréed food though!! 😩

1200 calories a day for someone your height & activity level seems very low when you’re maintaining @ErinBrooke1982. Check out a BMR calculator for an idea of the calories you need. You’ll soon work out if that’s too few or too many calories to support your maintenance. Actually calories weren’t a consideration with my surgeon or dietician. They were more focussed on portion size & even that was more of a guideline & not rules. They did encourage me to eat more when I first stabilised but then took into consideration I’m more finely built so decided my weight was quite okay. I’m a three meals a day plus snacks person. It’s the only way I get all my calories in. My snacks are all pretty nutrient dense & offer protein & other nutrients I need. If just three meals a day is difficult for you (you can only eat what you can eat at a meal time) try reducing the meal sizes & add snacks. The snacks can be portions of your meals (leftovers) to begin or you could try 4 meals a day. You just have to find what best works for you & it may not be what your team suggests. PS - I checked a BMR calculator out of interest earlier this year & it advised I needed to consume about 1500 calories to maintain my weight, at my age, height & activity level which was about what I was consuming. I’ve been pretty stable with my weight.

I only found out about this site today. I began my trip down the bariatric road in late February of this year after roughly 4 years of being pointed in this direction by my doctor. I was resistant primarily because prior to back-to-back knee injuries (right first, followed by the left three months later) in 2008 which were both 'corrected' surgically but have rapidly deteriorated in the years since to the point where I'm grinding bone-on-bone on both sides, I was very active - ice hockey 3x per week including 1x week through the summer, gym 6 days/wk, cycling 100-200 miles/week, so I could 'do it myself'...except with my knees in the state they are, I can't. Having consulted with two separate orthopaedic surgeons, they both agreed I need total knee replacement in both knees - badly - but neither will perform the procedure at my weight. Having this surgery is a stepping stone to my ultimate goal of no longer being a 56 year old 80 year old. So, upon being referred to the bariatric program here in Toronto, I attended the virtual orientation class on March 7th and subsequently attended either virtually or in person, all of the other classes/consults up to and including the surgeon, and have done a sleep study and had an endoscopy and on July 7, received my surgery date; Aug 28 Being in Canada, I will only be out of pocket for the two weeks of liquid diet pre-surgery and then the regimented stages of dietary progression post-surgery. Everything else is covered including all of the diagnostics, the surgery and the hospital stay. I'm looking forward to getting my life back...

My moment was when it clicked that I could afford it; I always struggled with my weight fluctuating but I was getting to the point where I was just getting bigger despite all my efforts in exercising (and I always liked going to the gym, would even go for 2hrs), but I was simply eating more than I was putting out, on top of which I never felt full awhen eating + my insatiable hunger when my depression would hit, so I needed a physical stop. I opt'd for the sleeve as it would still allow me to eat what I like, but rather smaller portions. And with positive attestations from family members and friends I went ahead with it. I'm nearing two weeks post-op and don't regret it so far, I am just begging for the liquid diet to end just so I can have diversity in what I eat lol; currently getting burned out on just having protein shakes and gatorade.