Search the Community

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.

Mine was when I hit 421 pounds, I was on 3 diabetes meds, a blood pressure med, and my joints were constantly hurting. When I was diagnosed with MS, I was already having mobility issues. The extra weight was making me need a walker. I just couldn't do it anymore. I hated everything about myself, my life, my body, my health. I avoided mirrors, despised trying to find clothes that fit, and the looks I would get when we went anywhere. I was always out of breath, always in pain, health getting worse.... I couldn't take it anymore.

I’m a sleever, I had it done 7 years ago and have been able to keep most of it off…I gained 30lbs after my 5th year but with the help of these vitamins and with exercise I’ve been able to take off 25lbs and have remained here… I’m very comfortable at my 130lb weight 🥰

My "moment of awakening" was when I started to sweat so bad. I went to a dermatologist who gave me pills to dry up my sweat, but it dried up my whole body (mouth,eyes ) and I was still sweating. I went to see my family doctor and she sent me to a bunch of specialists & I went through tons of tests and everything came out normal. I just had to face the hard truth that it HAD to be my weight. I was scared to tell my husband that I wanted the surgery , but I got up the nerve and was pleasantly surprised to see how supportive he was. We've been married for 50 years ... hopefully now I'lll be married AND healthy for many more

a 12 stone loss in a year is great!! Don't forget the rate of weight loss invariably slows over time. After I hit the one year mark, my weight loss slowed to a crawl. There were months I only lost 1 or 2 lbs. But...I kept at it and it kept coming off - a lb at a time...

Congratulations on making goal! I did still loose and loose when the weather and my activities change. Fixing the low iron problem got me to onederland. Staying in a healthy iron range is proving to be the harder effort. Oh, and my calories can go to 1200-1500 if I’m including a hamburger or meatballs. For me it seems to be what I eat that makes a difference, not the calories so much. I’m 5’4” and moderately active. I lost weight bumping up calories with nutritious choices. I logged food and weighed myself to figure it out, mostly it is religiously getting the iron.

My medical team said I’d gain if I ate over 1200 calories a day. Absolute nonsense and far too few calories for my height. Well done on reaching your goal.

So sorry, I know this is an important topic for us women!! Just remember it will all be worth it in the end! It is a natural response to losing the weight in such a short amount of time! I had my sleeve done April 12, 2023 and i have also noticed more coming out than before. I havent really noticed the dryness, maybe wash your hair less to see if that helps.

I started losing my hair at 2 months post-op and it stopped after my dietician recommended that I drink an ounce or 2 of keifer per day which was at 4 months post-op. I did it for a month because she didn't tell me how long I needed to until the next month when I went back for my visit and I was only supposed to do it for a week. However, it seemed to reset my gut microbes and helped with a the constant nausea I was having. I feel as though I can relate to what you've been going through. I've been losing slowly myself and they have me tracking all of my foods so that I am noticing how many carbs I am eating. My program suggests limiting carbs to 30 grams per day. I find this extremely difficult especially after the surgery because I get really tired after eating a higher protein meal. I do meal prep. I take a cup of chicken and marinate it in different marinades, cook it and I freeze it in small containers so that I have snacks or ready cooked protein for meals. I keep cottage cheese, boiled eggs, and string cheese or cubed cheese handy in the fridge. I have tried to change all my high carb foods like potato chips, ice cream, and milk to the high protein versions. I get the quest high protein chips, fairlife milk, and if I want any ice cream I get the yasso greek yogurt frozen bars. My biggest problem is the vending machine at work. Cheez-its are my kryptonite and I'm just really lucky that the past 3 weeks they haven't restocked the machine with Cheez-its 🤣. I have a hard time with drinking the no sugar drinks like diet coke or coke zero. Too many of any diet drink and my stomach is upset. Also, I'm having a hard time with drinking plain water because I don't like the taste. When I saw the dietician this month she suggested that I get an infuser water bottle and it's helping. She told me that I needed to make sure that I was drinking enough water, reaching my protein goals, and try to keep my carbs as close to 30 as I can. She also suggested that I start doing some cardio every day 15-30 minutes. I have lost a total of 60 pounds including 15 before the surgery. I still want to lose another 30-40 pounds and I'm 7months post-op. I've only been losing about 5 lbs each month since about 2 months post-op. I'm hoping to see more weight loss with the changes that I keep implementing. I was very discouraged when I started noticing everything that I was doing but my doctor and dietician were so supportive. They were very encouraging and told me that the surgery is my tool but that I would have to make some long-term lifestyle changes and the fact that I'm noticing what I'm doing and trying to make corrections that I was still on the right path. I'm sure that you will also reach your goals and the hair loss will stop eventually. Once the hair loss stops you'll have a bunch of baby hairs growing in 😁.

I’m a year po gastric sleeve start weight was 218.4 kg (34.4st) I’m now 142.4 kg (22.4 st) thinking of doing a restart as I’m not loosing anything for the past 6 months I’m doing everything right but I’m getting despondent at this point dietician said to up my gym time which I have done but still I’m at a loss for what to do

a lot of women have hormone-related issues the first weeks or months after surgery. This includes screwed up menstrual cycles and...moodiness! Estrogen is stored in fat cells and supposedly some of it is released during rapid weight loss - so you get a huge surge of it. I'm guessing that might be what's going on. It'll eventually stabilize.