First, a quick introduction: My name is Annette. I had my surgery on 2-22-10 in Dayton, Ohio. I lost 20 pounds pre-op and 19 post-op. I had my first fill 3-24-10 and since then I have lost 6 pounds alone:thumbup:! Please don't misunderstand me, I am beyond thrilled about the weight loss, but I have a "I don't get it" question:

I have lost a total of 39 pounds, but I still fit into my pre-op clothes, albeit they are getting baggier, but I still wear them. I got brave over the weekend and tried on a size smaller jeans - what a depressing thing to do - I'm still no where close to wearing them. I was willing to bet that by this point I would have been transitioning to a new wardrobe .

Does anyone have any words of wisdom about why I'm not seeing size shift yet? Has this happened to anyone or am I an odd duck?!

Thanks in advance,

Annette

Thank goodness I found this post! I was wondering why I wasn't going down in sizes either!

I completely understand where you are coming from. I am down 46lbs and would have said that I did not change a pants size, but seemed to be one size down in shirts. However, today I went through my clothes and saw that I have bought jeans within the past six months that were a size bigger than "I wear". Also, jeans that were tight on me before are loose now. I think (hope) I should be changing sizes soon.

I was very discouraged about this last week. Later that day, though, someone came up to me and said "Not to be weird, but I did not recognize you from the back. Your butt looks so much smaller! Have you lost weight?" I was thrilled, especially since she did not know I had surgery! So, even if my waist isn't shrinking quickly it seems other parts of me are.

Hang in there!!! :smile2:

Congrats to all on your weight loss. This whole weight loss, size change is a mystery to me too. When I had lost about 30lbs I was still able to wear the same clothes and they didn't even feel baggy, by the time I had lost another 10lbs the clothes were falling off and I needed to go down to a smaller size. The other problem I'm finding with the weight loss is actually seeing the difference in the mirror. I've lost 45lbs and when I look in the mirror I don't see big a difference. People are starting to tell me they see a huge difference, it bothers me that I don't see what they see. Anyone else experience this?

I started this thread and I am now down 45 pounds...and yes, I am still in the same dag-gone pants!!!

I, too, am having lots of people telling me how great I look, but I don't see it when I look in the mirror.

It's a mental thing for me. Before my surgery when I looked in the mirror I saw that I was fluffy, but not horrible. Then one day I was looking at some recent photos of me and I saw for the first time what everyone else saw...a VERY large me. I was in shock. I then took off my rose-colored glasses and began to see the real me in the mirror. Now since I'm loosing my weight I've become very critical of my image in the mirror and I don't see what everyone else is seeing. Make sense?

Hi fabulous@fifty I felt the exact same way this morning. I was getting undressed to get in the shower, and I was like "Dang, you still look fat". Then I came to work this morning, and had four people tell me how good I look, and ask me how much weight I lost. I guess we cannot see ourselves the way others see us, and this is how we sometimes started to gain the weight in the first place. I cannot see it, but others can, so that helps me alot. Praying that my eyes will be opened, and that I soon will see it too.:thumbup:

I don't get the clothes size thing either. I was a 26/28 and now a 14/16 after losing 134 lbs. Some people claim after they lose 100 lbs (and was in 26/28) they are into 8 and 10's, I just don't get it. I am happy where I am and I look good. I will say it takes your brain about 2 years after you lose the weight to catch up with your size in the mirror. The best feeling was about a month ago when I stepped out of shower and caught myself in full lenght mirror from side----said to myself wow you are getting thin.

I had a similar experience, but i think it has something to do with the fact that my clothes were always a bit snug before because i was about to burst out of them at any moment...so after losing 50-60lbs, my clothes were lose, but i still was not fitting into skinny clothes just yet...I don't know how you wore your clothes before surgery, but that was what happened to me...

I agree jre1974, I did wear my clothes a little snug prior to the surgery, that's why proably why it took that 10lbs for my clothes to become too big. @ adairyfarmerschubbywife, it's definitely a mind thing. I just hope it doesn't take 2 years before my mind catches up with my body, it's very discouraging to look in the mirror and not see the changes everyone else sees. I guess the only thing that keeps me a little motivated is trying something on and it's too big, even the compliments doesn't motivate me. I'll keep slamming away at it hopefully thing will change.

Since I was the OPer, I thought I would give an update...

I am now at 47 pounds lost and I am now able to squeeze (:eek:) into the next smaller size. I must admit, thanks to the wonderful insights given earlier, that my original clothes were very tight on me and in my denial I thought they fit fine. I have lost, on average, 3 inches around my trouble areas and am noticing a difference. It seemed as if overnight I lost the inches, so the initial weight loss must have been in my upper torso instead of my troubled areas, i.e. waist, hips, and thighs.

Moral to the story? Be patient, moving into smaller clothing will happen, and when it does it feels soooooooooo great! :wink:

~Annette~

Great Moral!

Just to reiterate what people are saying - larger sizes DO take more weight loss to get through, while smaller (regular) sizes take less weight to get through. I started at 338 pounds (I'm 5'10") and was tightly fitting into the 26/28 clothing. Now down to 292 (46 pounds), I'm tightly fitting into the 22/24 clothing. I prefer my clothes to be form fitting, so I'm okay with that. I do read about people in the smaller sizes that go down a size after 10 pounds.

I just keep reminding myself that I'm healthier than I've been in a long time - the Water drinking, healthier eating, etc. have all made a profound difference already on my energy levels and more! And? I'm still gorgeous at any size :thumbup:

I was banded a little over two years ago and have lost 200 pounds. At least in my case, for the first 50 pounds, I was wearing nominally the same size. This was principally because I was in denial about what size I actually wore. My clothes were all too tight, plus I had clothes in my closet that no longer fit but that I considered part of my wardrobe, that I was wearing 50 pounds later. Well, that was the case with me and certainly may not be for anyone else.

But the other thing I have noticed as I have lost weight is that certain sizes seem to be "sticky" for me. I'm not sure if its a psychological issue or a body size issue or a combination of both but it is at least partly psychological. But there have been certain sizes that I stick with for a lot longer than others. And I'm not just talking about a weight loss plateau. I did hit a stubborn weight loss plateau about 25 pounds ago, but I seemed to be stuck on that size for a lot longer. I recently let go of that size and bought jeans a size smaller, and they are already too big. Recently, I got out a skirt given to me by my sister two sizes smaller, and it is too big. Just last week I bought a new skirt, three sizes smaller. All of this in a short period of time. Was I really stuck at the same size for three months and then lost three sizes in a month? No. But looking at somewhat recently pictures of me there is a noticeable change recently. The truth is somewhere in between. I'm not sure and since it's all going in the same direction, I'm not sure it matters.

The main point I wanted to make in the ramble above is that there are many ways to measure progress in our journey. Losing pounds on the scale is one way, a different feel and fit to our clothes is another way. And they may not always go together, and that's still progress. Keep it up!

Kathy

My surgery was 2-24-10 I have lost 33 pounds. I still wear some 16 even thought they are really getting baggy, fit into 14 and some 12. My upper body has really reduced but my lower body seems to go down really slow. I still love the results Im seeing after 33 pounds. Hang in there. I feel that after a certain amount of weight loss is when you really start seening the difference!! Hang in There. It gets better!!! Also I am now able to wear soo many things that have been in my closet for years!!!!.