Is losing 50% of excess weight the standard?

[Briswife15 890]

I'm in month 5 of my 6 month "waiting period" before my surgeon submits my paperwork to insurance. I'm hopeful to have RNYGB in early 2019 if all goes well. I've heard that success is considered losing 50% of your excess weight. However, I am about 120 lbs overweight and would really like to lose 100 lbs or more. Am I dreaming? Or is that attainable? I am 5' 3" and weigh about 233. I exercise daily for a minimum of 30 minutes and have every intention of sticking with the exercise, Water, and nutrition plan. I just feel like I will be disappointed to only lose 60 lbs!

Sent from my SM-N960U using BariatricPal mobile app

[chris_marie 32]

I am losing a friend. My pal who is my main support Wendy!!! She weighs about what I need to lose. So I keep telling her I’ll be happy when I lose a tiny person. 🤭🤭🤭

[GreenTealael 25,384]

Patients are told to expect about 60% average... But people are often below and above average.

Genetics, meds, health issues, mental issues, exercise, eating patterns, skilll if surgeon, rate of recovery, complications and even work stress can all play a part but YOU can manipulate your lifestyle to get more or less out of the surgery depending on how you work after.

Maintenance is also a place where people regain weight and it's harder to take it off again, so that's an idea to stay vigilant about.

I had a sleeveb and so far have lost 90ish lbs. My surgery weight was 238 (consultation 249 but the highest ever in the 270s),

It's possible, but you better be ready to wooooork.

Safe Journey!

Edited October 23, 2018 by GreenTealael

[KimTriesRNY 1,853]

You should expect to lose 70 percent of EBW on average with gastric bypass.

If you are highly motivated and stick to your plan you very well could make goal.

I have lost about 75 percent of my excess body weight but have about 30 pounds left I would like to lose to make to my goal weight. Am I much healthier and happier here? Would my doctor be happy if I was here instead of 150 some pounds heavier? I’m sure.

I would love to make my goal though and will keep pushing forward.

[elcee 3,341]

Doctors always talk in averages because they cannot accurately predict who will be successful and who won't.

With WlS in general there are some people that lose nothing because they don't follow the plan and they self sabotage by eating high cal sliders.Then there are people that lose all their excess weight and more.

The way to ensure that you are the second type is by having the right mindset, remembering that surgery is a tool not a magic wand and putting in your very best effort.

[allwet 868]

can you get to that 100% of excess weight loss, sure, maybe, who knows.

i know that's a shitty answer. I see 60% of excess weight thrown around all the time and that means some lose more and some lose less. So many things will come into play for you and most if not all are in the responses above.

Follow your plan and never stop even when it gets slow or stalls and take all the time needed and dont compare your loss and the pace of that loss to anyone else.

I hit the 100% number but i consider myself a little fanatical about the whole process (sleeved)

Not everyone could or should go the route i have taken but i have spent the last year learning my triggers and i know what i had to remove from my life to make this work for me (carbs) but not everyone has those same triggers so my way works for me but you have to find your way.

be honest with yourself and never do what you cant keep doing for the rest of your life.

Its more important that you build a new approach to food that you can maintain forever than any short term gain from a "Diet Plan"

will your new way look like a diet to others, yea could be, but you will know the difference cause you will not kid yourself about how you got here. Diets are what we did for 2 to 6 weeks before we gave up and went right back to what we were doing before.

Ask yourself if this will make you healthy - not skinny- if it is a healthy habit the weight loss will naturally follow. None of believed what we ate before was healthy it just was what we ate for whatever reason we gave ourselves at the time- easier, faster, comforting.

You will decide how much weight comes off - with all the proper cues from your body when you get there. Get all you can from this second chance but be happy with what you get and it will be a success no matter what the final number stops at.

good luck

[Briswife15 890]

Thank you all for your thoughtful replies. I feel encouraged and motivated to do my best, and stick with the plan. First snd foremost Im looking for better health, then the weight loss.

Sent from my SM-N960U using BariatricPal mobile app

[FluffyChix 17,415]

I had to go research what my RD said about expected weight loss. I couldn't remember if she'd told me 60 or 65% on average and it's that average that they use to calculate where they kind expect you to land.

It's 65% of EBW lost within the first 18 months--but the first 6-9 months is considered the "honeymoon period" where the greatest weight loss typically occurs.

EBW is calculated by taking your ideal weight (100lbs for the first 5 feet, then 5lbs for every inch over 5 feet = women ideal weight). Subtract your ideal weight from your Day Of Surgery Weight and you will have your projected weight. Right now, you only need to worry about realizing the pre-operative weight goals set for you by your doc and RD. The EBW clock starts with the morning of surgery weigh-in.

Bariatric surgery is technically considered successful if the patient maintains a 50% loss of EBW over 5 years.

If you truly modify your behaviors, work on building better eating habits and relationships with food, do the headwork, work with a therapist to heal wounds and addictions and emotional eating relationships with food, you can do much better that the projected amounts and you can maintain better than the gruesome 50% statistic over 5 years.

[summerset 5,265]

5 hours ago, allwet said:

Ask yourself if this will make you healthy - not skinny- if it is a healthy habit the weight loss will naturally follow.

IMO this is one of the best advices the OP will ever get on this board or elsewhere. Same with exercise and every other thing in life.

[FluffyChix 17,415]

8 minutes ago, summerset said:

IMO this is one of the best advices the OP will ever get on this board or elsewhere. Same with exercise and every other thing in life.

Just out of curiousity, you are so far out. As a vet, you would offer great inspiration if you filled out your stats and/or a ticker to show what your journey was like: how much you weighed at your highest, your surgery day weight, your main goal weight, if you reached goal/lowest weight experienced, and current weight now.

I'd love to see your stats. It would also lend you much great veracity IMHO.

[FluffyChix 17,415]

And a piccy wouldn't hurt either!

[summerset 5,265]

Sorry, I won't post any stats and I certainly won't post any "piccy".

If people choose to ditch anything I write without even thinking about it because of this - well, so be it. I don't care.

[FluffyChix 17,415]

3 minutes ago, summerset said:

Sorry, I won't post any stats and I certainly won't post any "piccy".

If people choose to ditch anything I write without even thinking about it because of this - well, so be it. I don't care.

I understand that. i'm just wondering why you won't post any stats. I can understand the piccy for sure!! ((hugs)) Have you regained or did you not reach your goal? I'd be fu*kin' proud of my stats personally. Few vets here go back to 2001 surgery date. I'm sure that was a somewhat archaic procedure you had and that modern surgeries 17 years later are much more elegant in nature. It would be very illuminating to see your history.

Without those things, honestly it does call your credibility into account as far as I'm concerned.

I plan on being pretty transparent with my stats and I plan on sticking around. I need the support. Plus I'd like to pay it forward and provide as much help as I can to future WLSers. I want them to see my struggles and successes.

Edited October 23, 2018 by FluffyChix

[summerset 5,265]

1 minute ago, FluffyChix said:

I understand that. i'm just wondering why you won't post any stats. I can understand the piccy for sure!! ((hugs)) Have you regained or did you not reach your goal? I'd be fu*kin' proud of my stats personally.

Actually I had that for the first few months and I decided to go lower on profile after that "ban wave" rushed through the boards and the "tough lovers gang" got banned. Never had pics online here (or anywhere) other than the one my employer made of our department. I think the older users can remember that I had them on my profile.

About regain: I wrote in older posts about (temporary) regain when I stopped smoking and when the band started to migrate and fail in the year before revision. Both times the weight loss following the regain was easy and without a real effort. I have a BMI of 25 or 26 (depending on season) and I'm still not sure if I should shell out the money for plastics but I guess I will in the end. I'm actually quite afraid of complications on the one hand but on the other hand I'm quite unhappy with several of my hanging body parts.

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Without those things, honestly it does call your credibility into account as far as I'm concerned.

Stats can be faked and the person in the picture might not really be me. So while I can see where you're coming from I don't think it really adds to the credibility of a person when he/she is posting stats.

For example, I wrote above that I had temporary regain twice and that getting rid of the weight again was quite effortless. Well, it could be that I made that up or that I regained four or five times during the years or that I struggle mightily... posting any stats or pictures won't change that everything I write here could as well be a big, fat lie.

I have drawn information for free from the net without end regarding endless topics so I'm happy to provide my experiences and opinions in return because I think they might be helpful for others but I don't need people to believe me.

I'm not butt hurt if people on a message board don't believe what I have to say or that they might think my whole account is fake and I never had WLS because at the end of the day it doesn't really make a difference for me. I'm not writing on message boards to make my living.

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I'm sure that was a somewhat archaic procedure you had and that modern surgeries 17 years later are much more elegant in nature. It would be very illuminating to see your history.

😂

Can't provide any horror stories here. I had laparoscopic gastric banding and you can only see the little scars at the usual incision points. But back in the days it was lap band for a young woman or nothing so there wasn't much to choose from.

[GreenTealael 25,384]

52 minutes ago, summerset said:

Actually I had that for the first few months and I decided to go lower on profile after that "ban wave" rushed through the boards and the "tough lovers gang" got banned. Never had pics online here (or anywhere) other than the one my employer made of our department. I think the older users can remember that I had them on my profile.

About regain: I wrote in older posts about (temporary) regain when I stopped smoking and when the band started to migrate and fail in the year before revision. Both times the weight loss following the regain was easy and without a real effort. I have a BMI of 25 or 26 (depending on season) and I'm still not sure if I should shell out the money for plastics but I guess I will in the end. I'm actually quite afraid of complications on the one hand but on the other hand I'm quite unhappy with several of my hanging body parts.

Stats can be faked and the person in the picture might not really be me. So while I can see where you're coming from I don't think it really adds to the credibility of a person when he/she is posting stats.

For example, I wrote above that I had temporary regain twice and that getting rid of the weight again was quite effortless. Well, it could be that I made that up or that I regained four or five times during the years or that I struggle mightily... posting any stats or pictures won't change that everything I write here could as well be a big, fat lie.

I have drawn information for free from the net without end regarding endless topics so I'm happy to provide my experiences and opinions in return because I think they might be helpful for others but I don't need people to believe me.

I'm not butt hurt if people on a message board don't believe what I have to say or that they might think my whole account is fake and I never had WLS because at the end of the day it doesn't really make a difference for me. I'm not writing on message boards to make my living.

😂

Can't provide any horror stories here. I had laparoscopic gastric banding and you can only see the little scars at the usual incision points. But back in the days it was lap band for a young woman or nothing so there wasn't much to choose from.

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Summerset (ALL VETS)

I can't speak for everyone, but it's not that we don't believe you, its that we need the VETS. We need the bitter truths, the cautionary tales, the elder wisdom, the proof it can be done, failures and rises...

With all the fake everything on the internet I was hoping this would be the one place no one was faking.

The VET presence is sorely lacking, and understably so. The neophytes are hostile , confrontational know it all little buggers, myself included, and VETS are busy and owe us nothing in the end.

But children still need parents

Edited October 23, 2018 by GreenTealael