Share your "slow loss" success!

[musiclover 61]

I'm still plodding along at a snails pace but it IS coming off but not every week. I appear to stay the same for 2 or 3 weeks at a time then have a couple of loss weeks and repeat so it's more of a stepped loss pattern for me. It can be frustrating when you stay the same for weeks at a time when you are only eating 700 or 800 cals per day but it is the way my body wants to do it and I have to try and be patient.

I had surgery in May and here we are at the end of Oct and I've lost 50lbs. I am seeing the difference now but I can also see how much I still have to lose and I am hoping this magic window of opportunity stays open as long as possible for me as I'm clearly not going to be at goal quickly. I have another 50lbs to lose and at this rate it will take me around another 5 or 6 months at least. That's fine as long as it keeps going down as I'm terrified it's going to stop.

[UK Cathy 977]

Music lover don't fear it will come off but it might take more time than you think. Sleeved April 12 with a target loss of 100lb, I too hoped that would happen in 1 yr but it didn't and I could see before that year was up it wasn't going to happen and yes I was disappointed. I think my stats were about the same as yours but do not have access to the figures at the moment. Have faith, chip away and you will get there, at the moment I am at 92lb loss and that other 8lb could take me up to my 2 yr anniversary but it doesn't matter, I look and feel much better. I do want to reach that number on the scale and I will but I can't tell you when.

[Bella66 13]

Thank you for posting your journey! I've been so frustrated with my 7 weeks stall and honestly just ready to throw in the towel. It's refreshing to hear that someone else struggled and stalled then came out in the end looking as amazing as you do now!!!

[Winningbylosing 49]

I am happy i found this thread. I am a ssssllllloooooowwwww loser. I was sleeved in February and the scale just got to the 60lb mark.

I get so jealous of the people who lose much faster. I think I held myself up not getting my Protein like I should. I started the Atkins diet hoping to improve my weight loss. I go to the gym 7 days a week.

If Im going to struggle to lose the weight I may as well be well toned as I do it.

[Banned member 320]

Sorry everyone that I haven't checked back in since I started Weight Watchers on 10/3 but I'm down 9 pounds. Nine pounds lost in 6 weeks, hell I'll take it I did have to play around with the points a little to see how many I could eat and still lose. Well come to find out I can NOT eat my acitivity points and lose, so I'm basically sticking to eating daily points and my weekly points. IMO it's going great. I also met with my surgeon a couple of days ago and all my labs were perfect and he wasn't upset about my slow weight loss like I was expecting him to be. Supposedly with vsg you are only expected to lose 50-80% of the excess weight and I've lost 50% so I guess I'm within range *shrugs*. The good news is that I haven't given up and this is probably what has kept me from gaining back the weight which I could easily do because I can almost eat a normal size portion.

I did go a little crazy during the week of Halloween but I still went to the meeting even though I knew I slightly gained but my WW leader is so awesome and inspirational. After the Halloween weigh in I was able to get back on plan. The meetings are helping a lot. I'm the youngest person there and the only minority lol but I feel right at home with people who are going for the same goal and that is to get healthy and learn to change my relationship with food. I wish I would of joined sooner but better late than never.

[starfish108 15]

I am also a very slow looser. I had surgery in Feb 2013 and now am down only 40 lbs...that's 8 months out. I travel a lot and definately eat irregularly and don't must admit the regular exercise has dwindled.

Any advice?

[Colemon70 87]

Lately I've seen a TON of posts about lucky sleevers that drop 100 pounds in six months.

Congrats to them and to their loss. And I would never, ever begrudge anyone the right to crow about a fantastic success. It's part of why we're all here, to share the ups and downs of this surgery!

But frequently, these posts are followed by folks that feel frustrated because they aren't losing at the same pace. All too often, we forget that everyone loses at a different pace. It's easy to lose sight of the real goal (long term maintenance) in the face of the scale goals we set for ourselves. And it's also easy to forget that this isn't a race and that there's no special prize waiting at the end for reaching goal more quickly.

I would like to contribute my loss pattern so that people can see that there is more than one way to achieve a goal. Being successful is about reaching your personal goals, overcoming your personal food demons and maintaining your weight loss for life. It's not about hitting goal in nine months.

I encourage everyone else with a slow loss story to contribute their successes here as well. It's hard to research this surgery and find only the stories about extremes - people completely thrilled with surgery or people that regret every minute of life post op. The same goes for loss. When people search out stories on this, it's too easy to only find rapid loss or stall posts but nothing showing the more realistic and moderate journey many of us take. The sleeve is a permanent tool that does not have a special window of easy weight loss. There is no reason to feel discouraged when you haven't reached goal at one year out, or even two. There is nothing preventing you (short of your own body's natural stopping point) from achieving or re-achieving goal at any point post op.

I lost 60 pounds in the first five months after my surgery.

And I slowly lost 32 pounds over the next seven months.

It took me another five months to shed the final 15 pounds to my goal.

I lost 107 pounds over the course of 17 months. I stalled twice for nine weeks each time. I had months where I only lost one pound. I regularly experienced a gain of three pounds around my cycle, and often only lost weight in the last week to ten days of the month, after sitting at the same weight for nearly three weeks.

I am a success, and at 2.5 years out (and currently pregnant) I still have good, healthy eating habits and maintained my weight loss quite easily. Even 30 weeks pregnant, I am still wearing a size 6/small (in maternity clothes, of course) regardless of how I feel about my expanding body!

I learned what was important on this journey and am in better health today (not just physically, but mentally and emotionally), than I have ever experienced as an adult.

Good luck to those currently on their journey, and I encourage everyone to share their stories here so that newly sleeved folks can see that slow vs. fast loss doesn't really matter in the end.

~Cheri

Preop - June 2010.jpg Post op - Maintaining.jpg 30 weeks pregnant.jpg

[Colemon70 87]

Lately I've seen a TON of posts about lucky sleevers that drop 100 pounds in six months.

Congrats to them and to their loss. And I would never, ever begrudge anyone the right to crow about a fantastic success. It's part of why we're all here, to share the ups and downs of this surgery!

But frequently, these posts are followed by folks that feel frustrated because they aren't losing at the same pace. All too often, we forget that everyone loses at a different pace. It's easy to lose sight of the real goal (long term maintenance) in the face of the scale goals we set for ourselves. And it's also easy to forget that this isn't a race and that there's no special prize waiting at the end for reaching goal more quickly.

I would like to contribute my loss pattern so that people can see that there is more than one way to achieve a goal. Being successful is about reaching your personal goals, overcoming your personal food demons and maintaining your weight loss for life. It's not about hitting goal in nine months.

I encourage everyone else with a slow loss story to contribute their successes here as well. It's hard to research this surgery and find only the stories about extremes - people completely thrilled with surgery or people that regret every minute of life post op. The same goes for loss. When people search out stories on this, it's too easy to only find rapid loss or stall posts but nothing showing the more realistic and moderate journey many of us take. The sleeve is a permanent tool that does not have a special window of easy weight loss. There is no reason to feel discouraged when you haven't reached goal at one year out, or even two. There is nothing preventing you (short of your own body's natural stopping point) from achieving or re-achieving goal at any point post op.

I lost 60 pounds in the first five months after my surgery.

And I slowly lost 32 pounds over the next seven months.

It took me another five months to shed the final 15 pounds to my goal.

I lost 107 pounds over the course of 17 months. I stalled twice for nine weeks each time. I had months where I only lost one pound. I regularly experienced a gain of three pounds around my cycle, and often only lost weight in the last week to ten days of the month, after sitting at the same weight for nearly three weeks.

I am a success, and at 2.5 years out (and currently pregnant) I still have good, healthy eating habits and maintained my weight loss quite easily. Even 30 weeks pregnant, I am still wearing a size 6/small (in maternity clothes, of course) regardless of how I feel about my expanding body!

I learned what was important on this journey and am in better health today (not just physically, but mentally and emotionally), than I have ever experienced as an adult.

Good luck to those currently on their journey, and I encourage everyone to share their stories here so that newly sleeved folks can see that slow vs. fast loss doesn't really matter in the end.

~Cheri

Preop - June 2010.jpg Post op - Maintaining.jpg 30 weeks pregnant.jpg

[Colemon70 87]

You look wonderful! I'm very discouraged. I'm 9 months out and only long 46 pounds. I'm in the best shape over ever been and eating better then ever but I'd be lying if I would say that I'm not upset.

[OAM 3]

Of every thread on every forum out there, this one was the most helpful to me. I am a slow looser, and spend waayyyy too much time comparing my loss to everyone else's. I track my food, keeping my calories to around 800, my Protein around 70, m carbs under 30. For the most part. I drink one Protein Drink a day, usually for Breakfast. I deal with some hunger and cravings, but for the most part stick to the plan. I don't really get enough exercise due to fibromyalgia with joint and muscle pain. I had my surgery August 6, 2013 and just hit the 50 pound loss mark. I wish I could put all the tracking and "dieting" behind me, and eat what everyone around me eats, just less of it, but am just not there yet. I have recently changed my goal weight from an unrealistic 135 to a much more realistic 150. I am 5'8" inches, and larger boned, and 53 years old, so 135 would have made me look very unhealthy, and that just isn't the perfect vision of myself. You all inspire me! Thank you!

[Banned member 320]

How is everyone doing? I just now noticed that next to my profile it says that I had the lap band lol I definitely have the sleeve. Well I'm still slowly losing weight and finally made the mental change that I needed to in order to keep the scale moving. I'm 2 pounds away from onderland and I'm hoping to be there in a week or two. There is no way to rush my body and I don't want to relapse and start being negative again. This article helped me make the mental switch http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/how-to-think-like-a-thin-person

I still attend WW meetings about twice a month but I try not to go every week because I noticed that other peoples diet mentality really affects my thought process and I want to get away from that negativity. I'm looking forward losing the rest of the weight and the pace my body wants and I'm pretty sure i will be close to my goal by the 2 years mark post op. Hang in there everyone.

[Success2013 186]

slow and steady! Down 78 pounds in a year. here is my monthly losses.

surgery success

Date. Weight Lost. TTL Lost

jan 21- wt 232 day of surgery

feb 21- wt 217. -15 pds

mar 21- 206. -11 pds (26 total)

apr 21- 202. -4 pds (30 total)

may 21- 191. -11 pds (41 total)

june 21-185. -6 pds (47 total)

July 21-180. -5 pds (52 total)

Aug 21 - 175. -5 pds (57 total)

Sep 21- 169 -6 pds (63 total)

Oct 21- 167 -2 pds (65 TTL )

Nov 21-162 -5pds (70 TTL )

Dec 21-158 -4 158 (74 total)

Jan 21-154 -4

Feb 21- 151 -3

Mar 21- 148 -3

Apr 21 - 146 -2

may 21 -143 3

june 21 140 -3

July 21 138 -2

[LynRN 294]

I feel like I'm a slow loser. 4 months out down 56 pounds from preop and 47 lbs from surgery. It's okay, though. I'm 7 lbs from onederland and haven't been under 200 lbs in over a decade.

[kj44 215]

Slowly and barely steady here. Before surgery wt 270. Sw 261. At six months 201.8. Hit onederland at month seven 198.6.its like once I hit under 200 mark things just stopped. Since then losing only 1-4 lbs a month weight this morn 186.6 will be one year in two days. I still need to lose at least 60 more lbs. down 82.4 lbs total so far

[musiclover 61]

Slowly and barely steady here. Before surgery wt 270. Sw 261. At six months 201.8. Hit onederland at month seven 198.6.its like once I hit under 200 mark things just stopped. Since then losing only 1-4 lbs a month weight this morn 186.6 will be one year in two days. I still need to lose at least 60 more lbs. down 82.4 lbs total so far

You need to lose another 60 lbs? That's seems a lot for your current weight although I don't know your height. I'm 5'5 and still weigh 190 and I'm aiming at 147 goal weight so that's 40+ pounds to go. At the rate I'm going it will be a long road!