Weight Loss

[brandymarie81 108]

Are you supposed to lose a certain amount of your excess weight within a certain time frame?

[clk 3,519]

Pre-op or post-op? Some people are put into a program before their insurance will approve surgery and yes, sometimes that includes a weight loss goal to prove that you can handle the limitations of life after surgery.

Post-op there is no magic window of time to lose weight with the VSG. There isn't any limited window of malabsorption like with the bypass. Your sleeve capacity will increase. It will become easier to choose to eat absolute junk food and therefore not see results. However, your restriction will remain such that you'll have to actually put effort into eating poorly to really gain weight. At least for most of us this is the case! I've seen a few people post here and there about having one heavy carb day and gaining on the scale the next day.

I think the average result for VSG is 50-60% of excess weight lost. Please, someone correct me if I have that wrong! That said, I see very few people here on these boards (and I've been hanging around since early 2009, even though I didn't make a profile until late that year) that have lost less than 80% of their excess weight.

With a sleeve, from day one you still have to choose to eat in moderation and to make good food choices. The only thing this surgery guarantees you is a drastically reduced stomach. Most people lose their hunger and desire to eat post op, but not everyone. But the sleeve stays restrictive, so the ability to lose weight beyond one year out is still there.

I'm 19 months out and still can't eat more than a scrambled egg with cheese in one sitting. If I wanted to lose more weight I'd simply have to scale my calories back to the 800-900 per day range and it would happen. In fact, it took me 17 months to get to goal. While you'll see a number of people making it to goal in about 9-10 months, a larger number of people achieve goal sometime in their second year post op.

I hope I answered your question. If you'll clarify, I bet you'll get more answers.

~Cheri

[Shemy-away 83]

My surgeon told me that 50-60% is good and anything more than that is icing on the cake. He said this is usally achieved within the first 3-4 months. Just an opinion. I don't have any stats or studies to back any of this up.

[Thomas CPA 496]

Overall, lose 50 to 60% of excess. So if you weighed at surgery 250 and optimum for height is 150 then total is 100 and expect to lose 50 to 60 pounds from surgery over a 2 year period. I did my 55% mark at 6 months and have been stable now for 2 months may go up 2 pounds then down 2 pounds but finally normalized.