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There isn’t really a hard & fast rule about how much weight you will lose at certain points along the way. The calculators, advice from your surgeon, dietician, etc. are all based on averages so not what you WILL lose but what you MIGHT lose. At about 5 months you’ve lost 63lbs (plus the 40lbs before your surgery). It took me about 6 months to lose 60lbs & I lost at a pretty good rate. Yes, I started at a lower weight than you & we say, the more you have to lose the faster you’ll lose in the beginning, yet again this is a generalisation based on averages. I’d say you’re doing well - congratulations! My test always was what did my surgeon say. If he was happy I was happy. (My dietician to a lesser extent.) What does your surgeon say about your weight loss to date? Focus on getting in your protein. It’s essential as is getting in your fluids. It will help you get the most from your surgery. Eat your protein first, then your vegetables & if you are able any multi/whole grains you are allowed. This helps ensure you hit your protein goal. In the first months it wasn’t unusual for me to just to eat my protein & nothing else for a meal. Drink all day - in the car, out doing chores at the shops, etc. I found drinking through the night helpful too - still do. Enjoy every one of those pounds you’ve lost. Remember there’s no time line for when you have to have lost all your weight. You’ll get there in your time & there’s only right in that.

Any advice helps I’ve regained 40 pounds and I want to get to my goal weight which is 66 pounds away I’ve went back to basics but struggle mindset wise and can’t afford the therapy part 😭 any advice?

Congratulations. You’re doing so well. Your weight loss is certainly noticeable. Sometimes the scales don’t move but the numbers on the tape measure gets smaller or our clothes get bigger. I think our body makes small adjustments to the location of our fat as we lose. It certainly goes through a noticeable resettling after maintenance begins & our weight loss stops - we look less gaunt, our body shape changes, etc. It’s why those of us who’ve been here a little while often suggest taking body measurements instead of weighing yourself during a stall. Looking forward to seeing what their next months bring you.

Today marks 1 month since my surgery. Little back history for me, my start weight in March during diet for surgery: 280#. My surgery day: 269#. Today, I'm at 256#. I started and am currently still at at class 3 obesity. Posting before and after pictures. I read and hear so many positive stories on how others lost 30+ pounds their first month. I should be happy with the fact I am losing weight but super slowly. I'm considered a "slow loser" apparently. I'm down 13 pounds in 1 month. I go 5-6 days plateaued same weight before I drop another pound. It's quite annoying. I've been drinking/drinking protein shakes, yogurt, cottage cheese and when I'm not working, I drink between 64-96 oz of water. When I'm working (I work as a warehouse worker and does get to heavy lifting at times), I can hardly down 16 oz of water. When I work, I get excited thinking, "I'm burning so many calories, I'm bound to finally lose that pound!" Just to be disappointed. I weigh daily, I have a separate nutritionist outside of the place I got my surgery as the nutritionist there hasn't helped much, doesn't respond or pay much attention when I try talking to them. So, I found a different one. I tried not weighing in each day, went a week, only to still be disappointed with the same weight. I do occasionally lick unhealthy items or chew and spit out just to get some flavor again. It's not often. Something different about me is I have a lot of muscle naturally. I also have PCOS. I've read PCOS can stall weight loss. I do for sure see changes in my stomach, not so much in my face or my arms...but why can't I be happy about this? Is this like a depression thing others have gone through? I'd love some others opinions, stories, how you're feeling right now.

I agree with your statement and probably why I've been in a holding pattern at the same weight now for 2+ months and I'm not happy about it. As far as macros: Protein: 80 grams was 70 until 3 months post op Carbs: 50 or less - H2O: min of 45oz but prefer 80+- JennyBeez: "It sort of makes sense? A nutritionist I saw years back (not program related) told me that she often starts people on higher calorie counts and then as the weight loss slows down, that's when she restricts them further to keep the momentum going. These days, I take it all with a grain (or seven) of salt because everyone reacts differently to foods / calories / etc. Different strokes. " These are what they've had me at since I went to solids about 8 weeks post op. I've had no change oin calories since then..your idea makes sense tho!

For me, I can't really have another decent sized meal until I've used the toilet... This is coming from an RNY patient. Everyone's anatomy and post surgery results will be different. This is the reason why weight loss surgery results can not be replicated for each patient. One patient may have problems with one thing while another patient who underwent the same surgery won't.

I am SO bummed. Tomorrow I will be 1 week post-op and I've lost 0 pounds. I finally made it back to my pre-surgery weight today.

I love that last part. That’s so true. I am looking at every way or calculating it and it boils down to the fact that losing only a percentage of that I am most likely not going to reach my “happy weight” however I will lose a large amount of weight and I will be healthier. That’s what matters most.

I find the calculator on the Mexico site to be rather inaccurate for me, but everyone varies. Age and surgery type, as well as co-morbidities all impact weight loss rate. It thinks I should be at 212lbs at 6 months but I'm at 240 with 6 days to go. Not gonna happen. It also thinks I should be at 170 by 12 months, but that's not very likely either. I've always used the following one as it takes into account the different surgeries and looks just like the one my surgeon uses. They calculate from the highest weight, it is important to include that because if you have a lot of weight loss before surgery your percentages may track differently and your post op weight loss may be slower. I've seen this happen to several people with surgeons calculating it improperly, or applying the bypass trajectory to a DS patient, which is a disaster and very stressful for the patient! This one takes into account much more like your age, ethnicity, and pre-existing conditions: https://riskcalculator.facs.org/bariatric/?_ga=2.112690692.1282950073.1698781773-393992475.1698781773 According to this one I should be at 78 lbs down for my DS surgery at 6 months. I'm at 80 lbs down. My weight loss has tracked along with this thing pretty steadily, give or take 15 lbs, since surgery, except for my 6 week stall. It puts me at 202 by 12 months out, but DS patients lose for 18-24 months post op, so I should be at 170 sometime in that 12-24 month period! In the end these are all just estimation tools. Our bodies do what they will and we make the most of it. Still, it is nice to have a loose guideline to follow.

Happy Monday! I'm approaching my 4-month post-op mark at the end of this week and happy to say the long stall I had in month 3 is behind me and I'm back to losing at a good clip. I had been worried that it would be a permanent slow-down, but it wasn't. This morning, I hit 60lbs lost since my highest weight, which was almost exactly a year ago when I went back to my weight management team after a long absence and seriously discussed entering the surgical program. I'm going through a patch right now where food is just not at all appealing. Maybe it's the start of the hot summer weather, or just the fact that cooking and eating such small quantities is tedious. I don't know. But nothing sounds appealing and I get a few bites into a meal and really don't care if I finish eating it or not. No real hunger, and the head hunger from the beginning has quieted down, too. At least hydration is going well. I ordered a swimsuit online for an upcoming trip to the waterpark with my kids and tried it on yesterday, size 16 US. It fit! It even looks reasonably good! I'm finally down to a weight I legitimately haven't seen in half a lifetime, and I can finally see the difference more. In the early days, I think I still had a memory of being the weight I was before, like I never fully recognized getting bigger, so losing that weight was just bringing me in line with what I believed I had looked like all along, if that makes sense. But now, at 15 pounds less than the very lowest I had ever managed to get with nutrition and exercise alone, I find myself surprised to realize my silhouette has changed and that I'm looking smaller, or that I can easily sit in a seat at a theater or a booth at a restaurant. 6 more pounds and I will be "overweight" instead of "obese" for the first time in about 25 years! The big challenge coming up is family vacation. We're doing water parks and amusement parks, and the food choices are sure to be dismal. I have no desire to eat the junk food, so my bigger concern is really that I won't get in enough healthy foods over the week. Especially fruits and veg. It's so hard to get healthy food when you travel, and I still get enough issues with my stomach that I've bought some discreet vomit bags to keep with me in case something doesn't agree with my tummy on the road.

Hey everyone, I was on here talking before about some comments that my partner's family member made, and how it kind of upset me. Yet again, now more comments are being made but this time from my own Grandma. I had a dessert with my sister whilst we were out and she proceeded to call us 'piggies'. I know this is just a phrase that a lot of people make, but for some reason it just got to me a bit. I struggle a lot with being perceived in public, always worrying that I am taking up too much space, or if someone is looking at me, thinking it is for a negative reason around my weight. It is a really destructive pattern of thinking, I am aware, and I am trying to change it. I just feel really heavy with it all at the moment. But I think I just needed to rant about it. I am just feeling quite low about a lot of things, and unfortunately, unless you have struggled with your weight, I think it is hard for people to understand the why. x

my stomach was the last place I seemed to lose my weight (probably because I carried most of my fat there before surgery). You may end up losing more in your stomach with those last few kilos. I think you look great, though!! (and you've definitely lost weight in your stomach!!)

A protein shake is really a meal replacement so you are having more than a meal or two. And no, don’t load up on junky snacks or empty calories. Look too foods that will add additional nutrients: fruit, complex carbs i.e. whole/multi grains, good fats like avocado & nuts, boiled egg, cheese stick, etc. Keep the deli/luncheon/charcuterie meats intake low too - highly processed, high salt & high fat, lower protein. Better to buy a bbq/rotisserie chicken& package it up in single serves & eat that. Give your body time to settle. It takes time for your body to work out what it needs to function effectively & for you to physically be able to eat appropriate sized portions & meals. My hunger didn’t really come back until about a year so after I reached goal at 6 months & it played a part in my continued weight loss. And it took a while to work out the calories I needed. When my weight first stabilised at around 18 months I was eating 1300 odd calories - it took me all that time to eat that much. At 4 years I was eating 1500/1600 & still maintaining much the same weight so it took that long for my body to work out what it really needed. Your lowest weight may not be your final weight either. There’s the quite common 5-10lb bounce back regain around the 2 or 3 year mark. Or lifestyle choices may mean you settle a little higher. And finally, your goal weight might not be your body’s goal weight (your new set point). My new set point was 11kg/24lbs less than my goal.

Medications after weight loss surgery can feel like a rollercoaster, right? You just conquered a huge hurdle, and now there's this whole new world of prescriptions to navigate. While I'm not a medical professional, I do believe in tackling health holistically. So, along with meds, focusing on mental well-being during this journey is super important. It's like giving your body and mind a high five for their teamwork! For me, staying positive and focused helped a ton. There were tough days, for sure, but resources like mentalhealthhotline.org can be a lifesaver. They offer confidential support, which can be a huge weight off your shoulders.

that's totally up to you. Some people count their highest weight, others count the day they start their liquid diet, and still others count the day they had surgery. It makes no difference.

Thanks for checking on me!! About the same in terms of weight, unfortunately 😩, although I'm bouncing around the high 240s instead of the low 250s now, so there's been a slight change. I'm going to reach out to my team soon if things don't get moving again.

Congratulations on your loss and thank you for sharing your story thus far. I was 258 at my dr when I started my LSD 12 days ago and I was 244 on my home scale this morning with 4 days to go till surgery day although I think my scale is a few pounds below the dr so probably 11 pounds lost. Losing 30 pounds in 7 weeks post surgery is absolutely amazing!! I am so happy for you. I am a revision so I probably won’t be losing anywhere near that quickly after my revision but that’s okay. I didn’t gain it overnight either. As long as it does eventually comes off.. I will be thrilled. Okay, probably impatient at first, but eventually thrilled. I almost forgot about cold food. I am 3.5 years post sleeve so I am able to eat at a fairly normal speed again and I absolutely hated that too. Whenever I was home I would microwave it over and over and over…. And one of my biggest fears are the bathroom ones. My surgeon’s NP says that so far diarrhea bas been the biggest complaint with his SADI patients with one having it so bad that it interferes with work. For all of them they say it resolved at about three months. I am usually near a bathroom and can make sure of it for 3 months but I am really concerned about the smell. I already bought poo pouri 🤣 Getting past just using a public restroom to go number two is going to be a challenge for me. I can count the number of times I have had to do that on one hand I think. Having it be noisy and smelly is going to make it even more mortifying. Hopefully it will be a small price to pay, though. 🤞 I literally just got up and put my measuring tape in the pile I have started for the hospital so I will remember to take measurements the night before surgery. I seen it posted so many times before and never did it. Always wished I had remembered that and to do photos more often. Just like now I’m wishing I had started before the LSD. Thanks for the reminder. There is so much to remember with all of this. Even the second time around it’s an adjustment if you are like me and let old habits slip back. (Please don’t be like me, anyone, so you don’t gain it back) My sleeve portion is already done so they are not doing anything to my stomach. I can already eat a fairly normal sized portion so my issue shouldn’t be with getting food or liquids in a tiny pouch like most of you. It will more likely be that I will want more than my healing anastomosis will be able to handle so I will have to be very disciplined and eat the portions my dr sets for me. I am just hoping that I have some changes in my appetite still because this is gonna be like a really long pre op liquid diet for me that continues on throughout the purée and soft food stages if not. Aka not fun. You are so smart to only weigh once a week. I wasn’t that self disciplined to put the scale away. I did only record it once a week with my sleeve though so I could see the downward trend more easily and looking at that helped quite a bit when I felt like that scale wasn’t budging. Which reminds me I need to start logging my weight again. And such a good reminder not to compare myself to others. That is going to be especially hard as a revision. He did say it should be faster than a bypass revision though. So maybe on a tad slower than the rest of you here. I hope. Thank you again for sharing your experience. I hope to see updates of your continued progress and that the rest of us have as good of a handle on all of this as you seem to at 7 weeks post. Sounds like you are rocking this. Keep it up.

Hellow, thank you for your answer. I'm not unhappy with myself; let's say my self-love is at 75%, sometimes I feel a little down but I have never hated my body or my looks. The lowest my weight has been is 200 pounds and I looked like I was weighing 180 at the time (it was 7-8 years ago). I'm lucky enough to say I dont have any health problems at all, and I dont have difficulties moving around. I can run easily at work for any code happening. I think i'm going the surgery firstly for my health. I know it is a good option. I'm just confused about if it the best for me. I'm also doing it because I know I will be gaining weight throughout the years of life. I'm young and I might not feel it now, but with time, I will have more and more health problems.

My PCP has me recorded at 320 pounds 2 yrs ago at my highest weight ever. I saw her yesterday and she smiled and said well hello there tiny person. I laughed and said well I did lose half of me. She said you look like a small child. I wasn't sure if that was good or bad but I'll take it. LOL 🤔 Same here. I really like it. I hope you kept the pink hair.

I was recently converted from a sleeve (6-10-2013) to a RNY (11-7-2023) because of GERD. Getting insurance to cover it took 8 months. 4 appeals. And Multiple calls and emails all the way up to the VP of the company. I work in medical education so I fought and fought and fought and finally proved they had an immense amount of bias towards obese individuals. They kept denying me because I "gained weight" and "just want to lose more weight" that I "don't have GERD". In that 8 months of proving I have GERD I had to have an EGD, Barium Swallow, Stress Test, Colonoscopy, and a PH Monitoring study (that was the really crazy one).... and they were positive for GERD. They kept insisting that no they weren't positive and if I just lost weight I wouldn't have heartburn. When I had my first sleeve I was 380 pounds I got down to 170 pounds in 2017. In 2022 when I started the program to get the revision I was 220. So yes I had gained some weight but NO I hadn't regained all my weight. My entire experience has been very eye-opening how quickly someone in insurance will deny obesity as a medical condition and say it is a lifestyle choice. Especially when the entire point of the conversion was to fix GERD and not lose weight! If you seek to have the revision my advice is keep all the framing on GERD. Don't even reference weight or weight loss. It has to be for GERD. Study that insurance companies weight loss surgery policy and reference it often. It is best practice to convert a sleeve to RNY to fix GERD. And craziness I had the conversion and haven't had GERD once since! Don't let them tell you no. If the tests prove you have GERD get the conversion.

the first few months can be a challenge (although fortunately, most of us lose our sense of hunger for the first few months, which makes it easier), but after that, not really. At least not food-wise. By six months out I was cleared to eat anything my stomach could tolerate, which for me is pretty much everything. I eat a lot less than I used to (obviously), but no one would guess I had bariatric surgery at this point. They'd probably assume I'm just a light eater, like lots of my women friends who've never been obese. When I go out, I'll sometimes order just an appetizer or a salad, or if I get an entree, I'll eat half of it and take the rest home to have for lunch the following day. A lot of my friends do the same. I worried about this too since I'm a food lover as well, but other than cutting my portion size and just enjoying things like desserts occasionally, I really don't notice a huge difference. I do try to prioritize protein and vegetables since I need the nutrients (we all do) and my stomach is small, but I don't deny myself anything. Although there are some things like rice and pasta that tend to sit in my stomach like a brick. I still eat those occasionally, but not a lot of them at one sitting. P.S. your comment about being afraid you won't enjoy food. I enjoy it a lot - too much! (I've been in maintenance for years and it can be a struggle to keep from gaining weight). For the first few months after surgery, though, most of us lose our sense of hunger for up to a year (my hunger came back at five months out). Many of us also do lose some interest in food, too (and that comes back too!). But even though it's weird at first, enjoy it while it lasts and take full advantage of it. To be honest, I found it very liberating. It was so easy to lose weight when I was never hungry and didn't give a flip about food for the first time in my life! once I got over the weirdness of it, I LOVED it and wished I was one of the very lucky few whose hunger never came back (but again, it does come back for the vast majority of us)

If you had a DS you are thought to absorb about 20% of the fat you eat, 60% of the protein you eat, and 100% of the carbs you eat. Your doctor should have explained this to you... The intestines can adapt some to the surgery over time, but most studies have shown DS patients continue to have malabsorption. That's the whole point of the surgery! In rare cases, there is a small number of patients who will lose more weight than they intend, or have excessive muscle wasting. The muscle wasting is normally due to not eating enough protein post surgery. A DS patient needs around 120 grams of protein a day, more if they workout trying to gain muscle. Are you taking your vitamins? Have you had your labs checked recently? In the case of someone who has lost more weight than they intended to with a DS, certain enzymes can be given to help them absorb more of the food they eat, or a surgical revision can be done to lengthen their common channel, giving them more length of small intestines to absorb calories from. Of the two, I'd try the enzymes first. If you gained up to 240 with the enzymes, clearly they were effective for you! So why not consider taking them on an alternating schedule, titrating the dose to slowly gain what you need, and then taper off of them and see if you can maintain?? If you want to do this with food you are probably looking at over 4,000 calories a day. That is going to be tough. You can only eat so much food in a day! DS patients usually don't count calories at all, we count macros because it is the macros that help us stay in our target range, since no one really knows exactly how many calories an individual with a DS surgery is going to absorb, we can only ballpark it. But you should be getting a LOT of protein and around 120-150 grams of fat, according to vets who have lived with this surgery for decades. To bulk, most people I know load up on carbs, which is not easy for a DS person unless you want to spend a lot of time in the bathroom, or you are lucky enough to actually tolerate a decent amount of carbs. But carbs will usually put weight on. If you want more people with DS to talk to, check the bariatricfacts.org forums. We are mostly DS people over there and most of the regular posters are vets. But be prepared, they are fans of straight talk and not everyone likes that!

I hear you! I feel like the social side-effects of my surgery have really taught me to tell the difference between truly supportive friends & family, and those who claim to care but seem to be more concerned about how my weight loss (& lifestyle) will affect their life. There are some I don't talk to about dieting/health of any kind anymore, and others I just don't talk to period.

ooo Pilates okay! I haven't tried that, I will have to look into that. That's why I am doing a cardio day and an F45 day. I am not trying to loose anymore weight but I feel so good afterwards. And I am starting to get muscly so I would like to maintain. I lift heavy as well. Do you think 4 days of heavy lifting is good? I am new to this and have been working out with weights for only 4 months but the progress is pretty addicting. I am having mixed feelings about F45 I did hybrid day and it was meh, I felt like I needed more, then I did a only strength day and oh man! that felt good, so this week I am doing an only cardio day and see how that is. I am only doing 1x a week, (works better for my schedule). So this is new but I am so bored with my workouts and I feeling like I am just coasting and not getting sore or tired like I used to, which I am told that is good since I am in shape?

OK so I have no experience with this because I have no interest at all in skin removal. WLS was, for me, all about the health benefits and way less about the aesthetic benefits but I totally get people who want both (and OMG see the photos on the before and after threads for detail and inspiration)! From what I have gleaned in my 2.5 years here people's weight loss is in the single pounds category after skin removal surgery. Unless you started off in the 60s or 70s of BMI? The point isn't the added pounds of loss but more the making their bodies feel more comfortable to them. I am also a huge believer in the concept of a new 'set weight' after surgery. Our bodies just seem to decide where to settle. Pushing beyond that is tricky. I would have been happy 15 or 20lbs above where I am at the minute. I didn't particularly push myself to get beyond that. But it feels like my set weight was decided by my body. I know that sounds strange. You talk about feeling happy at your current weight plus or minus the weight you might be after removal of skin and whether losing a few pounds more might cause sag that you would have to address at a later point. Honestly I don't really understand that but I guess others will be along soon who might. It might be worth discussing in detail with your surgeon what your desired end point is. Congratulations on your loss, it's amazing.