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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.

How is everyone with JUNE 2023 surgeries doing? :)) I had bypass on June 24 and am feeling much better~ regaining my strength. I should have measured myself because I’ve lost a lot of inches even with just lost 23lbs loss. Just needing to connect to others so I don’t feel so isolated. Hoping you are all doing well!!:))

yup, yup and yup. yup, my hair starting falling out at 3 months. yup, started to notice less hair accumulation on the floor AND itty bitty regrowth hairs on my head around 6-7 months. yup, my hair was dryer and more brittle looking at that time. yup, by the time i hit around 2.5 years post op, those itty bitty hairs were the same length as the rest of my shoulder length hair (at the time) that didn't fall out. like @Arabesque, i also experienced the bonus of no-longer oily hair, AND no more dry scalp/dandruff issues, AND my new hairs grew in with a pretty little wave to them (yay!) AND it actually seems thicker and healthier now than pre-surgery (though this could likely be because of my better diet and overall health, AND because im so vain now i take better care of myself, including my hair, lol) i'm almost 5 years out now, and you would never think i ever had a hair loss problem. i know it doesn't help very much when u are in the thick of it, but TrY to keep in mind its only temporary. Good Luck! ❤️

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???

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 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

I used to shed the usual 50-100 strands per day prior to surgery, plus my hair was brittle and thin. I was advised by the RN to keep hair loose as much as possible, take biotin for new hair growth, avoid treatments or heat, and was only once a week. While I was doing that the first few months, it did increase a little bit, but wasn't as alarming since I had cut my hair from hips to shoulder length one month post op. Now at 8 months post op, I have started to wash it 2x per week, and can definitely see more shedding. I have reduced the brushing to once a day, try to keep it as loose as possible (no messy buns) and started using some natural hair drops that stimulate growth and help with dryness. I suspect it will be a few more months of excess shedding for me, I'm just glad there is no bald spots.

It can be a real shock when you first see the hair in the shower even when you know it happens. Remember it does pass & your new hair is still growing just at it’s usual rate. A hair positive I got through all of this is my hair isn’t as oily as it used to be before surgery. The dry hair is often from the anaesthetic. It can become fuzzy or frizzy too. It usually grows out. Treat it gently in the meantime & try some treatments to keep it soft.

When I had my sleeve, I started SERIOUSLY shedding at around 3 months post op. It didn't stop until 9 months post op. So not looking forward to it again. What I noticed helped was taking collagen, biotin, extra protein, and using a shampoo and conditioner with collagen and biotin in it and doing a hair mask twice a week. Biotin and collagen don't stop hair from falling out, or really have anything to do with regrowth. But what they DO do is they help with actual hair texture, shine, split ends, and dryness. The protein is what's actually needed for hair regrowth since your hair needs it but can't produce it on its own. Everything you're experiencing is very normal. It's gonna get worse before it gets better, but it WILL eventually get better.

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...

the best thing I ever did was switching to a hairdresser that also had bariatric surgery. Because she had went through it herself ontop of her general hair knowledge I have felt so much more in control and so good about the decisions we made as far as cuts and products.

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'm two months out and I just noticed how dry my hair is getting ,too ! ( Hasn't started falling out yet , but I expect it soon ) This surgery is taking all kinds of strange twists and turns !

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

It has started. My hair is falling out in tub clogging, brush filling, handfuls. I knew it was coming, but nothing prepares you for it. I've noticed the touch of my hair has changed. I mean, it's dry. I just got a haircut a few weeks ago, I use good quality moisturizing shampoo and conditioner, and a leave in conditioner. Is it normal for it to be dry too?

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.

I recently had the sleeve revision to gastric bypass and I have been going through so many emotions. First, I was really beating myself up about not losing what I thought I "should" be losing. Then I all of a sudden started to feel like my husbands extremely petite new assistant has the hots for him. I read texts... She was just too chummy for my liking but didnt even say anything that bad. Just a lot of LOL's after things that werent funny and asking for favors to fix her boat while she is a cheerleader. He doesnt respond at all the same way and is very short with his answers and they are all professional. And, he is not a cheat. I know that in my heart, but these emotions that I have are making feel worse about myself than ever before. I cry out of nowhere and have fabricated this potentional office romance and can't stop checking the call logs or texts. The one line stands out when he asked her what her jacket size was and her response was "well I am small all the way around but I guess I can take a medium for a jacket". Like just say medium!! I know the way that I am feeling has a lot to do with how I feel about myself and my own insecurities, but I dont know how to stop. Google also doesnt help. I went for my follow-up today, I am 5 weeks out, and she said I was doing great. I asked her if it is common to have these waves of depression and anxiety hit out of nowhere. She said she has seem some patients with the issue and told me to try Garden of Life Dr. Formulated Probiotics Mood+ Acidophilus Probiotic Supplement. She said sometimes with the bypass we are not getting enough serotonin in our systems and this could probably lift my mood. Just wondering if anyone else had any issues like this or if they are taking a supplement with serotonin? I also had a talk about what my expectations were for the surgery and how that could be affecting things. I am beating myself up because I am not seeing things drop as quickly as I thought they would and I am terrified this will be another bariatric sugery failure for me. I didnt realize that the weight loss wouldnt be as quick with a regular bypass before I had it. All of my other health issues seem to be getting better though, except my mental health haha.

I recently had the sleeve revision to gastric bypass and I have been going through so many emotions. First, I was really beating myself up about not losing what I thought I "should" be losing. Then I all of a sudden started to feel like my husbands extremely petite new assistant has the hots for him. I read texts... She was just too chummy for my liking but didnt even say anything that bad. Just a lot of LOL's after things that werent funny and asking for favors to fix her boat while she is a cheerleader. He doesnt respond at all the same way and is very short with his answers and they are all professional. And, he is not a cheat. I know that in my heart, but these emotions that I have are making feel worse about myself than ever before. I cry out of nowhere and have fabricated this potentional office romance and can't stop checking the call logs or texts. The one line stands out when he asked her what her jacket size was and her response was "well I am small all the way around but I guess I can take a medium for a jacket". Like just say medium!! I know the way that I am feeling has a lot to do with how I feel about myself and my own insecurities, but I dont know how to stop. Google also doesnt help. I went for my follow-up today, I am 5 weeks out, and she said I was doing great. I asked her if it is common to have these waves of depression and anxiety hit out of nowhere. She said she has seem some patients with the issue and told me to try Garden of Life Dr. Formulated Probiotics Mood+ Acidophilus Probiotic Supplement. She said sometimes with the bypass we are not getting enough serotonin in our systems and this could probably lift my mood. Just wondering if anyone else had any issues like this or if they are taking a supplement with serotonin? I also had a talk about what my expectations were for the surgery and how that could be affecting things. I am beating myself up because I am not seeing things drop as quickly as I thought they would and I am terrified this will be another bariatric sugery failure for me. I didnt realize that the weight loss wouldnt be as quick with a regular bypass before I had it. All of my other health issues seem to be getting better though, except my mental health haha.

yes, however i do think menopause has something to do with weight gain/loss.

Between the weight loss itself and the drop in my blood pressure, I am constantly freezing.

I'll be 5 months on the 21st! It's flown by.i should probably avoid bread, but no one said I had to. I sometimes can eat a sandwich (just regular sandwich bread) and sometimes I find myself just picking of some of the bread. What would a week of eating look like for you? I need some ideas. I feel like I don't always have restriction anymore. I feel like I can fit in more food now before I start feeling that tight feeling or the hiccups. My weight is still moving down as well and its crazy that I'm so close to my first major weightloss goal!. I'm down about 65 pounds since surgery day. My favorite thing is that I can cross my legs and keep it there for awhile. My back, legs and ankles don't swell up much after standing for a long period of time anymore. I havent started working out yet. I had a gym membership since 2015, but no longer have a car. I feel like it's too much of a hassle to have someone bring me, so until I get another car, I'll need to find something fun to do at home. I'm losing a lot of hair too, I hope it starts to slow down soon. Some people who barely have that are so lucky! 💜💜

You can also scroll down to the bottom of this page to the Together we’ve lost section. It will have your starting weight so you just add your current weight & then click the update your weight button. That ticker will click up with your loss too. It updates your profile which you’ll see on your next post.

Hey there. I had surgery in 2022. Here's what I experienced: Brain fog: definitely lasts at first from the anesthesia but tbh you're so exhausted from the surgery and diet that you just sleep it off the first couple nights. Brain fog comes when you're in like the 3d or 4th week post op when you've just been on liquids. I believe it's just from not eating solid foods for so long. It tires you out. I had tachycardia and fatigue all throughout my liquid, puree, and most of my soft food stages but as I started introducing soft foods, the brain fog subsided a little bit. It was more the physical exhaustion of the extreme diet and rapid weight loss that I remember. I also had brain fog from low iron. Walking: I walked a lot, even in the early stages and it was hard because of my tachycardia. It probably took me four months to be able to walk 2 miles. Before surgery I was walking 5-6 miles a day with no issue and would walk 12 miles on the weekend for pre op weight loss. So yeah, it gets the better of you but it doesn't last. I'm now over a year post op and can walk a long time. I do find that I dehydrate much easier so I need to both make sure I'm very hydrated AND bring water with me if I'm going on walks longer than 4 miles. Don't let any of this scare you. It's so worth it. Once you're healed you'll be amazed at what you're capable of. Best of luck and enjoy the journey.

I had my surgery on JUly 3rd. No complications at all. I've lost 15 lbs so far and have been stuck for a few days at that loss. I am so afraid I am not going to lose anymore. Prayers to all who are beginning this journey.