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

Oh and for the month of dec i lost 1 pound lol but at least it wasent a gain

I lost 18 pounds on preop diet then 15 pounds first month 9 pounds second month 8 pounds third month and now only 1 pound in the last two weeks. It's a total of 50 pounds which is great but from January on I fluctuated the whole time with a few pounds going up one then down then back up. I want to loose another 20-25 pounds. This is getting very discouraging.

I love this, Cheri you are an inspiration!

I am 5.5 months out and have *only* lost 53 lbs. I was stalled for the entire month of Jan but seem to be making steady progress again. I feel pretty pleased with myself but then I see other people losing 53 lbs in their first 3 months! I'm glad to know there is hope for me and that its possible for me to lose ALL of my excess weight. The surgeons say 60-80% is realistic, but I want to beat the odds and lose it all. Just because it hasn't already happened does not mean it won't happen.

The saying 'comparison is the thief of contentment' is so true!

I think for me I allow my dr to stress me. I am happy with the loss thus far but honestly have put off going for my next appointment in fear of his disappointment. I think the expectation is that people lose all this weight in the first 3 to 5 months. When I went in December I felt a bit like he though I was not doing what I was suppose to be doing. On the other hand my NUT was very pleased with my progress. To date I am averaging 2.14 lbs a week. I don't think that is bad. Yes, there are people sleeved after me that have lost 60-70lbs. But honestly I am not on the 500-600 cal a day diet. I average 800-850 and I work out. I don't see how people function on less or how they could have the energy to work out!

Cheri - Congrats on your loss! And your baby! Such a wonderful thing babies are, oh yea and weight loss too

SleeveGirl-Tx - Your post is very inspiring! I have about 110 lbs from my starting weight to loose, and this gives me hope that it CAN be accomplished, even if it takes longer than expected.

Supersweetums - Oh how I am hoping to follow in your footsteps and make these life changes permanent habits. I too think that I may not be able to keep ANY trigger foods in my house.

Aroundhky - Congrats on your loss, sounds like you have had much success with being off your meds, and body fat percentages. Sometimes I need to remember that being healthy is a better goal than a scale number!

Sleevechica i have a dr app tomorrow and i know how you feel. I just dont want him to give me a dissappointing look. I work out i follow the plan . Im just a slow looser im learning to.be ok with that

Now that was an.uplifting post. Thank you so much for having the love in yourself to share it.

This is a great post. I am a slow loser as well but I am also a revision which my doctor said would impact my weight loss more. I was sleeved 11/15/2012 and have lost a total of 33 lbs. I move up and down about three lbs til the last week of the month and then I will lose 3 lbs. I feel upset and depressed because I have friends who had surgery before me and are already down 60 lbs. sometimes I feel like crying. I try to remind myself that I will lose it eventually but sometimes I can't motivate myself to just keep positive.

I hope that hearing stories like mine will show me that "hey it's ok your just a slow loser but atleast your losing it and becoming a healthier person"

Keep your head up everyone. We are in this together and slowly but surely we will cross that finish line and be successful

I really appreciate this post, because I was sleeved, 8/30/12, and to date I have lost 58 lbs. I was losing weight so fast at one time, I started to worry. Then I stalled 2 weeks, then loss 3 more lbs., and now I have stalled again. It has been almost 2 months now, and no loss here. And I admit that I wanted to get discouraged one day, and I had to pick myself up, and remind myself that I have lost 58lbs. That is a lot of weight, I don't care what anybody says. I have received so many compliments on my appearance. This past Sunday I wore 5 inch heels to church, and was comfortable. I love the new me, and had to quickly get rid of that sour spirit. God has been so good to all of us. He allowed the medical field to advance to the point that we all had the opportunity to have this surgery. We are truly blessed. I have people telling me that they wish that they can have this surgery now. Including a relative of mine who has ridiculed me about my weight for years. She was denied the surgery, by the way. So I appreciate your post, and everyone else's. We all are in this together, so why not encourage one another. When you mess up, post it here, you might be stopping me from making the same mistake. We all are human, and love to eat. I mean some of this food is really good, but half of it is not good for us. That's just the truth. So let's not be afraid to admit when we make mistakes, and mess up. Admit it and let's be there for each other. I know we don't know one another, but that's what the forum is for. You don't have to know me or see me to be an inspiration. I want all of us to live and be healthy. Be encouraged!!

Thanks for the motivating post. I was sleeved on 12/20/12. I have lost only 30 pds. The dr was disappointed with my progress.

who is coops can't find her

who is coops can't find her

Erm, me!!! Lol!

I'm here!

I love this thread and re-read the whole thing everytime it is updated with another post. Let's see my own breakdown of this process and my losses so far - I keep this info on my profile page so I don't forget how far I have come on those blue days.

Start weight of 318, 5'3" 48 female

4/13/11 - attended hospital seminar with my husband and family

6/20/11 - first month of medically supervised weight loss

Managed to lose 30 lbs in about 11 months

5/8/12 - Husband has VSG

5/21/12 - my VSG - lost 14 lbs on pre-op/Atkins liver shrinking diet for a total of 44 pre-op lost. Surgery weight 274

8/12 - 3 months post op I was down 50 from surgery weight

11/12 - 6 months out I was down 70 from surgery day

2/13 - 9 months out I was down 86 from surgery.

As of today I am at my ticker weight - I tend to keep that updated regularly.

My husband is down 134 lbs. now from 318 (yes we had the same start weight) to 184 lbs.

I have a rough goal to be 180 by the end of the semester - 160 by the start of fall semester, and 140 by the new year - which will put me at goal of a healthy BMI - so that is about 19 months after surgery - not including pre-op loss. About 5 lbs a month - and I will take it - sure I wish it moved faster but never before have I ever thought that anything I have done would "stick." We both are engaging in healthy exercise, get more movement through fun family activities (skiing, walking, aquarobics, etc), and make good choices now with what we consume. Our Dr.s and nutritionists think we are doing great.

It feels so good to finally know how to eat and take care of myself properly I dont care if it takes me the rest of the time I am alive to get there - by jove I will get there eventually!

My story is like many of you on here. I've lost 59 pounds. Still have 40-50 to go. I was sleeved 8/21/2012. I lost about 25 pounds pre-op and the rest postop. So yep, that's slow. I was in a 9 week stall after Thanksgiving. Lost a few pounds and back to about a 5 week stall.

Honestly, at this point, i've stopped stressing. I do weigh myself almost daily because it holds me accountable. But that doesn't work for everyone.

I do log what I eat and focus on low carbs/high fat & Protein.

I feel better than I have in years. The weight will come off at it's own darn pace. I've accepted it and my surgeon better accept it when I see him in a few weeks.

At almost exactly 6 months I realized I could eat more. I can now eat 2 eggs for Breakfast instead of one. I like this because it means that I don't have to eat as often. And it sure as hell isn't ANYTHING close to the quantity I could eat pre-sleeve.

I stopped posting on VST a few months ago. I found myself getting WAAAY too adjitaded with all the competition, comparisons, etc. I've just started reading at the Veterans forum. If I start feeling that panicky 'i'm not losing fast enough' again, I probably will go back into hiding for my own sanity.

Cheri & Sweetums are right- there is no 'end' date. Patience. Tolerance. Acceptance. And work the sleeve.

Oh, and one more IMPORTANT item: I feel that because I am losing slowly, or not at all at times, that it has allowed me to focus on HOW to eat for MY body. Not anyone else's. Mine. What makes me feel good. I have had the time to adjust and work out how I can eat healthy (90/10) for the rest of my life. No more fad/crash diets for me ever again!!