Search the Community

First treat BMI as a suggestion. Same with any goal you may choose. Body type, your build, age, lifestyle, health, genetics, etc. all influence what is the best weight for you & you can’t put a number on a scale against them. The other factor which you can’t do much about is your body’s natural set point. This is the weight at which your body seems to naturally settle. My surgeon did ask if I had a goal. I chose a weight which was the lowest I reached during my weight loss & gain cycles. It put me at about a 23 BMI. He thought it was sensible & achievable. I reached that in 6 months but continued to lose as I tried to find my maintenance balance. Initially my surgeon & doctor were concerned about my lower weight but it turns out I don’t have a larger frame as everyone thought! As one doctor said you’re actually quite a tiny person aren’t you & they all stopped worrying. Plus I don’t have bones protruding - I have plenty of flesh (fat ha!) on my bones. I’m about 2kgs heavier now than where I had initially stabilised for a year. (I believe an necessary increase in my HRT dosage & protein intake contributed to the sudden weight gain - all happened in the same month.) and I’ve been stable here for a good 7 months. My body seems happy at around this weight & so am I (except for those 2 kgs 😉). You’ll settle at a weight that is healthy & works for you and it’s okay if it ends up being more or less than you initially thought. My food choices & the way I eat to maintain my weight doesn’t restrict me living my life as I want. It’s been a sustainable way of eating for 2.5yrs now. I might make slight changes in the future but for now it’s working. I guess that ‘s the real goal. Being at a weight you can maintain in a healthy, sustainable way that allows you to enjoy your life as you want. PS - the slowing down of your weight loss is perfectly normal. It slows as you get closer to your body’s set point & your calorie intake is nearer to what your body needs to function effectively & healthily. Can you lose more if you want? Sure if you reduce your calories & intake your activity but can you maintain that without impacting your health or your life?

I went from a 50H to a 36H now. I had a breast reduction in 2003 but they got bigger again after having by son, gaining a lot of weight, and breastfeeding. I was hoping weight loss would get me down to a DD or so, but no such luck. [emoji24] My cup size never did change in the past with weight loss or gain though, just the band. The only time it did was after the weight gain after my reduction. I was a 42DD after thag surgery until my pregnancy and went up to an H. They aren't as big as before my reduction at least! It is SO cool being a 36 band too! Sent from my Pixel 5a using BariatricPal mobile app

I reached what is statistically supposed to be my 12 month weight loss at 4.5 months. I’m losing more slowly now… about 1 to 1.5 pounds a week. So, i guess I can lose this final 25 pounds and get to IBW, but at this rate, it will take a few months. After losing so quickly, I’m impatient!

I set myself an arbitrary goal of 120 lbs, which was right in the middle of the “healthy bmi body weight range” for my height (5’2”). I was 235 lbs at the start of my 2-wk pre-op diet. But by the time i got to 127, i decided to call it cuz i felt i was getting a little too thin for my liking, and started the process of upping calories to find my maintenance level. I ended up losing more weight anyway over the following 5-6 months and eventually settled around 115lbs +\- a couple pounds (but did get as low as 109 at one point). Surgery was almost 4 years ago and this morning i weighed in at 119.5 Whats interesting to note however, is that while I weigh less now than I did when I stopped with weight loss efforts, i don’t look as skeletal as I did back then….which is a roundabout way of saying the number on the scale is just a guide, and can change based on your body composition; perhaps go with how you feel/feel u look? If you feel great and are satisfied with what you see, then GOAL ACHIEVED! Good Luck! ❤️

I guess I should define big drop lol. Maybe it isn't a big drop to anyone else. I never had huge expectations. I'm just thankful for the opportunity to get WLS. My weight loss is correlated with whatever my calorie deficit was for that given month, and has been relatively accurate. So last month, for example, I cut -500 cal/ day and my "big drop" at the end of the month was ~4 lbs. I'm kindasorta moving into maintenance. In the first few months I was cutting -800 to 1000 cal/day (or more) and my drop would be 7 to 9 lbs. at the end of the month. Whatever the case, my body takes a couple of weeks to adjust before deciding to let the weight go. So I don't really classify it as a stall per se.

This sounds so much like me. It's been every month that the weight loss stops and then picks up again. I don't see big drops but yea this sounds like me.

How is your weight loss coming along ? Sent from my SM-G991U using BariatricPal mobile app

They've been pulled from the market in a few countries, they can get "stuck" or move around, and like the lap band the procedure is not permanent and will result in a higher rate of regain than a permanent procedure like the sleeve or bypass. Read here, it's been linked to 18 deaths: https://www.medtechdive.com/news/fda-18-deaths-linked-to-apollo-endosurgery-intragastric-balloon-weight-loss-treatment/576874/ It's a new device and I would be wary of it. There are already a lot of red flags that it is ineffective and potentially dangerous.

Like others, it depends on how you define "stall". Every month from the start I went 10 days to a couple of weeks without weight loss and then a big drop. I'm still doing that. I don't see it as a stall. My body is just adjusting. For example, if I drank a lot more water the day before or I had more pickles (salt aka water retention). I love tracking my food too so as long as my calories were low, I know it is just a matter of time. Even people who are bed ridden need over 1000 calories just to survive. For me, I think I would be far more anxious if I didn't track calories though. Seeing low calories day in and day out gives me comfort so I don't have to worry. It's very calming. Excessive worrying just causes cortisol spikes and weight gain. Sent from my SM-S908U using BariatricPal mobile app

Something to watch is while you usually have perfect cholesterol, you may find that changes while you’re losing. Like oestrogen being released into your body from your fat as you lose weight the same is true of cholesterol. My cholesterol wasn’t perfect but it wasn’t bad just over the high side of normal but it seemed to always be about that regardless if what I weighed so my doctor was okay with it. When I was losing it went up & up & up & my liver function went weird too (also common). So while the keto high fat diet may be something you consider in maintenance, the high fat aspect may be too much while you are losing. My dietician advised keto was fine in the short term & good for kick starting weight loss but it wasn’t really sustainable. (My pre surgery diet was keto.) I did some of my own reading & decided I agreed. Do I eat fat? Yes. Do I eat high fat? No. I get a lot from animal products (meat, dairy) but I don’t add a lot more (been using the same 500g pack of butter for 8 months). Some salad dressing, a little oil if cooking. But then I’ve never enjoyed fattier foods anyway. I look at it as generally a little of everything in moderation & balance. But you have to discover what works best for you in the long term.

My dietician classifies a stall as over two weeks with no movement and no inches lost, of which I have had two since surgery. I'm now in day 5 of no weight loss so I will see if this ends up being a stall. The reason I am so concerned is the amount of pain I am in daily due to health issues that cropped up since surgery and weight loss is probably the only way to help out the situation. (without taking a bunch of pills) Kind of hard to wake up in pain and go to sleep in pain.

thanks for the encouragement. My post op weight loss experience was too easy. The weight fell off and I had no interest in food for around a year. My plan to get back on track is to cut out the last things I reintroduced. I fully expect it to be much more difficult this time from the physical aspect but I dont have the same mental attachment to food that I did so the mental side should be easy.

While tracking certainly helps and appeals to those of this mindset, there is another side-benefit to tracking: data collection and discovery of trends. I am one of those regular food trackers and daily body weighers and all-around spreadsheet lover (almost 4 years now and still going). By looking over the historical data i can easily figure out what foods/days/activities (or lack thereof) /macro combinations/eating schedules/etc work for or against whatever state i am looking to be in. You can see on your screen that these many calories don’t make a diff to your weight loss rate, or that those many carbs leads to stalls or swooshes. Or that these amounts of sugar make you eat less the next day. So much info! Lol I realize this may seem like a lot of effort to some, but (1) i like doing it, and (2) honestly takes less of my actual time than i spend on this forum, lol. I get that seeing black and white numbers may scare you cuz u are “getting to close” for comfort to your already accepted max goals, but maybe its better to be aware of facts than to live in angst of the unknown? Kinda like when we (or at least *i*) would not get on the scale in my pre-op days cuz I didn’t want to freak out over the number i would inevitably see. Then next thing u know, oopsies i gained 25 lbs. But yes, i get it, easier said than done. Hopefully your continued work with your new therapist will help you trust yourself and your abilities to peacefully face whatever comes your way, regardless if they meet your expectations or not. Goof Luck! ❤️

Hey all. Just wanted to post a 1 week update. I have dropped 12.6 lbs since surgery last Thursday. And when I include my pre-op weight loss, I'm down 40 lbs total. I am definitely happy with my progress and anxious to see where this goes in the coming weeks. My 3XL shirts are fitting much looser and I'll need to see where we put the 2XLs this weekend. I'm tracking my food, protein and water in my MFP app. It looks like I'm only consuming 450-500 calories a day. I am not doing a good job of tracking my water yet, but I'm trying to get with the program. I think I'm getting 6 cups (3 bottles) or 50 oz per day, so I need to remember to do better at some point. Today I moved on from clear liquid to full liquid, but I haven't done anything too different as of yet. I am putting a full day of work (from home office), so I didn't have much time to prepare anything different at lunch. Maybe I'll get a little more creative this evening. I did have one of those chocolate Fairlife protein shakes for my breakfast. Those taste really good, so I I savored it. I will go back to my BodyTech 24 protein powder and water when I work from home and save the premade protein drinks when I'm on the go. Overall, I think I'm on track with this thing. No regrets. Heading out for a walk now. Go July Peeps!

My psych consult was actually very comforting. I see a therapist of my own… but the hospital program required one visit with theirs. She was very nice, conversational and requested to meet with me again - to touch base and make sure I was comfortable in the program and was having all my questions answered and needs met. I had previously gone through another program and withdrew because I didn’t feel it was a good fit for me… she wanted to make sure any issue I had were being addressed. Thankfully I had none - it’s been a positive experience. We mostly chatted about why I wanted the surgery, my expectations, prior challenges with weight loss and any concerns I had about the surgery. We also talked about my support system at home and challenges I anticipated (and how I planned to handle them). She also reiterated the program resources and made sure I was aware of where to find information.

I would also monitor how many calories you are eating. It’s important to track your macros, but ultimately weight loss depends on how large your calorie deficit is. It’s easy to meet your protein, etc goals and be eating too many calories for sustained weight loss.

I'm curious about stalls. My weight loss has stalled many times in the 3 months since surgery. I'm curious as to how many stalls everyone had in the first six months post-op?

When I was going through this early post op phase, there was a group on one of these forums from a particular surgeon who did very well with combining the sleeve with extreme dieting, and he got overall very good results with even very high BMI patients (lost track as they all disappeared, so have no idea how they are doing now, however!) There was one guy on there who was very similar to my stats who was following this program and got to his goal weight at a bit over four months. Wow, but so what? I was working on slowing things down at six months to ease into maintenance, and wasn't doing any of that extreme dieting. I wonder now how well that guy is doing - did he learn how to maintain his weight over the long term, or was he one of those who "gained it all back"? It really isn't a matter of whether you can do better, or lose faster, but can you meet your goals, and maintain yourself in the long term? This is a marathon, not a sprint. so what happens to you over the next 5, 10 and 20 years is a lot more important than how you lose over the first 4, 6 or 12 months.vsg Overall, the bypass has very similar performance to the VSG in overall weight loss and rate, so there isn't much to choose there - one might lose a bit quicker with the bypass owing to its' malabsorptive component, but that dissipates after a year or two and you are metabolically in the same basic place that you would be with a sleeve, but you still have the added nutritional deficiencies to make up for. Have there been some challenges in maintaining my weight over time? Yes, much the same as there would have been had I gotten a bypass (my second choice was the DS, which does make weight maintenance easier as it is metabolically a stronger procedure, but I felt that it would have been overkill for my needs then, and still do.) We see just as many come through here who struggle with being "slow losers" or "gained it all back" with the VSG as with the RNY. With the VSG, I do have a bit of GERD, which is easily controlled with low level OTC meds (some are not so lucky, others are more so and have no problems.) OTH, I do not miss having any of the comparable RNY potential side effects - dumping, reactive hypoglycemia, marginal ulcers, bile reflux (pretty rare these days with how they structure RNYs) low iron requiring periodic iron infusions, osteoporosis (already have a family tendency towards that, so don't need more risk added,) or the other limitations in medication and medical treatment options as I get (even) older that come along with a bypass. These are not insurmountable problems if one needs to go with a bypass owing to preexisting conditions, but are things that I don't think are worth risking for whatever very small difference there might be in weight loss performance. I don't miss that at all. YMMV

Does anyone have any input for me regarding the cost for gastric bypass surgery at the OCC in Tijuana? I’ve been thinking about weight loss surgery off and on for a couple of years now, and more recently have been considering OCC.

I just scheduled my surgery for October 4th! I am also going to get the VSG. I have been working with my surgeon since May. I have a pre op weight loss goal that I’m still working on, and I had already lost some weight before meeting the surgeon. In total they want me to be down 57 pounds from my heaviest weight. I have about 20 pounds to go still. I’m also working on the fast food bit. That’s definitely been a hard one for me. It’s so easy to just want to pick something up after a long day.

That's sort of non-specific-- if you are going to the doctor about having weight loss surgery, he will tell you/give you a diet that you must adhere to. As I understand it, it is to reduce the size of your liver, so that it doesn't get in the way during surgery. You need to ask the doc.

Hi! Thanks for the check-in. I'm doing great, too, Starting weight was 277 and current weight is 205. I have been this 205 number (give or take) for a couple weeks now but I feel great. I'm a rock star in the gym and I'm really seeing my body whip into a nice shape. I am struggling with water, too, and my hunger has come back more than it had been previously. I am getting about 64 oz of water most days but I know it should still be more than that. My hair has been falling out, so there's that. It sucks but thankfully I had a lot to start. When I work out hard the scale doesn't move but I know my body composition is changing and that means my clothes fit and look great on my body. I had been 160lbs and extremely fit in 2019 - so this is a snap back for me. I have had no issues - smooth sailing so far! Cheers

I regret getting a Lap Band. Today is my first day waking up with a Bypass. So I can't say for sure how I'd rate it so far. It's been coined the Gold Standard of weight loss surgeries and I hope to find out soon why that is! Best wishes to you!

What are the foods and portions that I can eat before I have weight loss surgery? Michelle

K, so i think about food all the time, both before, during, and still now after surgery. But I “behaved” differently throughout those stages too. The focus before was to eat it, and as much as I could. Now the focus is everything else about it. I don’t *think* i suffer any angst around this though, so that is a good thing. I am just fascinated about everything that has to do with food. Not sure if this is good for me or not, but i’ve long since learned to just go with it. I may or not be a minority in this but i do really enjoy eating (or more accurately, tasting) lots of different things. I don’t see food as fuel like the many other successful weight-losers who employ this method. I prefer to enjoy eating what i do eat since I have so little real estate to work with. Now, I can’t say if this will continue to work for me in the future…but it works for me now, so i’m just gonna go with it until it doesn’t…and will re-evaluate if/when it does (saves me alot of angst). Now, i sort of digressed there for a little bit, but i actually wanted to respond to OP: while you have navigated the weight loss road (successfully!) for two years (congratulations!), i get the sense that you are still in either weight-loss mode or gearing-up-for-maintenance mode? If the former, you’ve been at it for a while and it would seem only natural to be experiencing some sort of burn-out or fatigue. You’re tired, things didn’t turn out with what you half-expected. Despite this though, i applaud your attitude and recognition of your achievements. If the latter, i’ve read enough on here that the transition from wl-mode to maintenance is not easy. Its not the diet changes that are as difficult as the mental mind bending that is required to not only change a lifestyle you’ve grown accustomed to, but also to the reflection you see in the mirror…and whether you like what you see. Alot of folks had some serious energy/strength depletion near the end (myself included…i too struggled to open those effing pickle jars). Its cliché, but the only thing i can add to all the fab posts above is Patience (though I think you already know this). Do what you need to do to get through the day (talk, exercise, vent, busy-ness, therapy, sleep, medication, etc.) It won’t always be this way, and even if it is, you may find a way to accept it regardless. You’ve done fabulously, and even if you don’t sound so terribly thrilled about it (who says we have to be thrilled anyway?!), you are dealing just as fabulously. ❤️ P.S. sorry this was so long.