Does your pre-op diet weight loss "count"?

[NickelChip 1,250]

I'm almost 9 weeks post-op and trying to figure out if I'm on track. I started my 2 week diet at 239 and was 223 the day before surgery. Since surgery, I am down to 204. (So much slower since surgery!)

Here's where it gets tricky. If my goal weight is 155 lbs and I use my starting weight from the day I began my 2 week diet, I had an 84lb weight loss goal and am currently at around 41% of excess weight lost. But if I use my day of surgery weight, I had a 68lb goal and am at only 28% lost. This feels like a big difference.

I've seen some sources say count your weight loss during the immediate pre-op diet, and others say no, don't count it. Are there any actual rules, or is everyone just making this stuff up as they go?

[SemperVeritas 35]

My program counts from the highest weight in program, not the surgery day weight, to calculate progress towards patient goals.

[Lily2024 133]

My program is counting from the preop appt weight, 3 weeks before surgery, I had already lost 25 lbs at that point.

[The Greater Fool 2,039]

It's your body, you can count whatever you d*** well please.

You are on your own track. No one else has ever been on your track.

If your medical team has an idea of "on track" then they are comparing your track to everyone else's tracks. That's their issue, not yours.

Comparison sucks the joy from life.

Good luck,

Tek

[AmberFL 801]

21 minutes ago, The Greater Fool said:

It's your body, you can count whatever you d*** well please.

You are on your own track. No one else has ever been on your track.

If your medical team has an idea of "on track" then they are comparing your track to everyone else's tracks. That's their issue, not yours.

Comparison sucks the joy from life.

Good luck,

Tek

THIS!!

[AmberFL 801]

4 hours ago, NickelChip said:

I'm almost 9 weeks post-op and trying to figure out if I'm on track. I started my 2 week diet at 239 and was 223 the day before surgery. Since surgery, I am down to 204. (So much slower since surgery!)

Here's where it gets tricky. If my goal weight is 155 lbs and I use my starting weight from the day I began my 2 week diet, I had an 84lb weight loss goal and am currently at around 41% of excess weight lost. But if I use my day of surgery weight, I had a 68lb goal and am at only 28% lost. This feels like a big difference.

I've seen some sources say count your weight loss during the immediate pre-op diet, and others say no, don't count it. Are there any actual rules, or is everyone just making this stuff up as they go?

You lost 84lbs!! That's what you lost, period! I would start when you started the program. I started the program at 297, pre-op date 266 and CW 207. I have lost 90lbs, I'm with Tek, we count whatever we dang well please!

[Spinoza 1,399]

53 minutes ago, The Greater Fool said:

It's your body, you can count whatever you d*** well please.

You are on your own track. No one else has ever been on your track.

If your medical team has an idea of "on track" then they are comparing your track to everyone else's tracks. That's their issue, not yours.

Comparison sucks the joy from life.

Good luck,

Tek

Absolutely this, if your head will allow it. Tek is wise.

But - as a fellow traveller who wanted to know what *everyone* here had lost at *every* stage in order to compare my loss to theirs and angst a bit (head thing!!!) you are doing so very well. My stats are available on request but you've lost 8 BMI points in the matter of a few months. You've got this 😍

I have now relaxed a bit, 2.5 years post surgery. I do still like to compare myself to others though because I'm that type of human. Totally in awe (and I really really mean that) of all the people who can walk their own road glancing neither right nor left. That's the absolute dream and the path to Nirvana.

[Arabesque 7,313]

As all above 100%. Your medical team may track what you’ve lost since surgery but how you look at it is your choice. To me, it doesn’t matter that some weight was lost before surgery & some after. You’ve still lost all that weight & that’s amazing.

Congratulations.

[catwoman7 11,214]

that's totally up to you. Some people count their highest weight, others count the day they start their liquid diet, and still others count the day they had surgery. It makes no difference.

[NickelChip 1,250]

Thanks, all! I certainly count every ounce of the weight I've lost for my own purposes, but I guess I always assumed medicine was a science-y, formula kind of a thing. But every source seems to say something different!

[Splenda 257]

4 hours ago, NickelChip said:

Thanks, all! I certainly count every ounce of the weight I've lost for my own purposes, but I guess I always assumed medicine was a science-y, formula kind of a thing. But every source seems to say something different!

When you look at calculators for post-surgery weight loss (I used this one -- https://mexicobariatriccenter.com/bariatric-surgery-weight-loss-timeline-calculator/), they are giving you a median view of what you can reasonably expect. Of course there are outliers (I'm one -- I am about 25 pounds lighter than what the calculator says I should be), but it is designed to give you reasonable expectations.

I also struggle with what number to use for how much I have lost.
From my absolute highest recorded weight: 285 pounds
From right before my pre-surgery diet began: 270 pounds
From the morning of my surgery: 240 pounds

[Nepenthe44 188]

5 hours ago, NickelChip said:

medicine was a science-y, formula kind of a thing

Absolutely not in the slightest, at all. Not even a little.

There are occasional bits of medicine that are sciency in that way, but they are rare and WLS is absolutely not one of them.

And when science is applied to medicine, the results don't necessarily take. A lot of the advice given to bariatric patients hasn't been researched at all, but some of it flatly contradicts research results.

[NickelChip 1,250]

28 minutes ago, Splenda said:

(I used this one -- https://mexicobariatriccenter.com/bariatric-surgery-weight-loss-timeline-calculator/),

Oh my gosh, this is exactly what I was looking for! Somehow I never came across an actual calculator, just paragraphs of text that say things like, "Let's say Jane weighs 290 lbs and her ideal weight is 110 lbs..." and then you're left to try to extrapolate what that means if you are nothing like Jane.

[Spinoza 1,399]

Calculates me at 182 at 18 months. Which I would have been thrilled with. Even more thrilled to get lower but honestly I had not *that* much of a say in it. My body kind of decided. 🤩

[ms.sss 15,662]

when it comes down to it, does it really matter?

if it does, then track both.

either way, you are doing great, keep it up