Sleeved in March; Is My Progress Done?

[BrandiBird 21]

I was sleeved in March, and as of last week, I have officially lost 81. I started at 309, I'm currently 228, and I've noticed my progress has slowed down a lot. I'm anxious that I won't keep losing weight, because I'm only halfway to where I want to be. It sucks because I know I should be celebrating all of my hard work, but I'm scared I'll be stuck where I'm at and that my progress is over.

I'm still tracking my calories, and I'm averaging about 1200-1300 a day. I walk at least 30 minutes a day, strength train 2 times a week, and I try to stay active on the weekend (5 mile hike & 1.5 hours kayaking yesterday).

I struggled for so long to lose weight, and I'm scared I'll go back to struggling now.

[Spinoza 1,467]

I just checked my stats and by your stage I had lost 70% of what I ended up losing overall. But honestly it is different for every single person. You have done amazingly well so far and you may (hopefully DO) have further to go. The best way to max out your loss is to stick like glue to your programme. Some (I think a lot) of where we end up is determined by what your body decides is its new set point.

I hope you are celebrating your loss and the changes this will have made to your body. You must feel like a completely different person now. I totally understand the anxiety to lose as much as you can - I think most of us had (have!) that.

Good luck.

[Lily2024 137]

I'm pretty sure I've read in several places that it is expected that you will lose slower after 6 months, and that you can expect to lose the same amount again but over the next year. So if you lost 80 pounds in the first 6 months, then it's possible you'll lose another 80 pounds but over the next 12 months. Even if it is already 70% of what you want to lose, then you're likely still going to lose a decent amount more.

[catwoman7 11,225]

weight loss does slow down the further out you go. There were some months after the one year mark that I only lost one or two pounds. BUT...it kept going, and finally stopped at 20 months out. So it's likely you're not done losing yet.

[BigZ 102]

My friend is 3 years out from her surgery, she was still loosing up until a few months ago, she is stable at 120 now. She has a physical job (construction) so she doesn't go to the gym. It did slow down a lot took almost a year to go from 135 to 120.

[SomeBigGuy 110]

As you lose more weight, its important to track the percentage of weight loss rather than only the number on the scale itself. We all have a base weight with all of our bones and internal organs that won't change (if we're healthy) and the muscle and excess fat on top of that are the variable amounts.

For example, using big/round numbers for easy math, not for actual healthy goals - If SW is 300lbs and GW is 100lbs, then the total excess weight one would need to lose is 200lbs.

If that person goes from 300lbs to 200lbs (100 lbs total loss), that is 50% of excess weight lost.

If the person is now at 150lb and still trying to go to 100lb (50lb excess remaining), then a 50% loss would only be 25lbs.

While its not the exact same amount of effort, you can use this to frame it in your mind that roughly the amount of effort to lose that first (300 - 100) matches the effort needed for the 25lb loss from a 150lb current weight.

Again, these aren't precise or necessarily healthy weight numbers I gave, I was just trying to paint the picture to help reframe things to prevent being unnecessarily negative to yourself. You are still doing great!

Also, don't forget that muscle weighs more than fat (I think it is roughly 1.5x heavier than fat for a given amount). As you build more muscle from exercise, you will gain weight, but it will be healthy weight. That's why it is important to also focus on more non scale victories later in the process, since the number on the scale isn't everything as you approach the finish line!

[Possum220 230]

Not done by a long way. The loss may have slowed but it will continue to happen with you doing what you are already doing. You got this.

[Possum220 230]

Not done by a long way. The loss may have slowed but it will continue to happen with you doing what you are already doing. You got this.

[catwoman7 11,225]

SomeBigGuy is absolutely correct. I remember sitting in Weight Watchers meetings before I had surgery, rolling my eyes (at least to myself) at these barely overweight women moan and complain about how hard it was to lose 10 lbs. And here I was, 200+ lbs overweight. But now I totally get it!! The closer you are to normal weight, the harder it gets to lose even 10 lbs - when pre-surgery I probably could have dropped that in a week or two! But it all comes down to percentages - and how close your normal calorie intake is to your normal calorie expenditure (which at normal weight, is pretty much even). You still have a ways to go, but those percentages have changed - so you'll lose the weight as long as you stick to your plan, but it's going to take longer to lose the same number of pounds that you could have lost when you weighed 300+ lbs. But keep at it - it WILL come off!!