Finally finding my way back to this forum, it's been a LONG time. I'm about 16 or so pounds from my new goal weight. Ha! 175 seemed so unobtainable that I never thought I'd actually hit that number, much less pass it and keep going. I'm still losing - in month 19, I'm at 5 pounds lost. I weigh 166 and am 5'6".

Best decision I've ever made, but it's also a LOT of hard work. There's no easy way out. I make decisions every single day and I live with the consequences of those choices. I still only eat around 800 calories a day. I can get up to 1200 if I try really hard, but I still have amazing restriction and I seem to lose best at 800, so I just keep it there. I get around 30-50 carbs per day, a LOT of Water and 70-100 Protein. I use MyFitnessPal to keep myself in check.

There's a LOT of skin. I held most of my weight for 30 years in my stomach. It's really bad. There will be eventual plastic surgery to deal with it. But I'd much rather have that than all the fat that was hanging around.

My life is so much different now. I'm a totally different person, yet completely the same. I'm able to do more and live life how I'm supposed to be living it. I have been married to the most amazing man in the world for nearly 20 years and we have two (nearly) perfect children and life is pretty darn good.

To those of you struggling, stalling, wondering if you can do it... you can. You just have to want it bad enough. And by that I mean... BAD. Stalls are normal. I lose some, stall, gain some back, stall, lose that and then a little more, stall again. My longest stall was 20 days at 3 weeks out. I routinely stall for about 2 weeks at a time nowadays. It's all good, as long as the overall trend is down.

I'll attach a photo of me at 200 lost, I've lost 8 more since then, but the difference is pretty amazing.

I am so impressed and inspired by your story and your general outlook on your whole weight-loss success. Congratulations!

You are amazing and such an inspiration!

Congratulations!

Wow, you look great.

Awesome!

Finally finding my way back to this forum' date=' it's been a LONG time. I'm about 16 or so pounds from my new goal weight. Ha! 175 seemed so unobtainable that I never thought I'd actually hit that number, much less pass it and keep going. I'm still losing - in month 19, I'm at 5 pounds lost. I weigh 166 and am 5'6".

Best decision I've ever made, but it's also a LOT of hard work. There's no easy way out. I make decisions every single day and I live with the consequences of those choices. I still only eat around 800 calories a day. I can get up to 1200 if I try really hard, but I still have amazing restriction and I seem to lose best at 800, so I just keep it there. I get around 30-50 carbs per day, a LOT of Water and 70-100 Protein. I use MyFitnessPal to keep myself in check.

There's a LOT of skin. I held most of my weight for 30 years in my stomach. It's really bad. There will be eventual plastic surgery to deal with it. But I'd much rather have that than all the fat that was hanging around. <img src='http://www.bariatricpal.com/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

My life is so much different now. I'm a totally different person, yet completely the same. I'm able to do more and live life how I'm supposed to be living it. I have been married to the most amazing man in the world for nearly 20 years and we have two (nearly) perfect children and life is pretty darn good.

To those of you struggling, stalling, wondering if you can do it... you can. You just have to want it bad enough. And by that I mean... BAD. Stalls are normal. I lose some, stall, gain some back, stall, lose that and then a little more, stall again. My longest stall was 20 days at 3 weeks out. I routinely stall for about 2 weeks at a time nowadays. It's all good, as long as the overall trend is down.

I'll attach a photo of me at 200 lost, I've lost 8 more since then, but the difference is pretty amazing.[/quote']

Congrats it's very motivating

Wow. Congrats.

Great post! Thanks and Congrats!

Congratulations, and thanx for sharing your story and your pics!! Very inspiring and encouraging!! You look fantastic!!

Wow, you look awesome, thank you so much for sharing your success!

Great stuff... but you need to buy new jeans... they are WAY too big!!

Congrats! =]

I love seeing before and after pics and reading stories like this, you are awesome! Congrats on your weight loss!

Oh you're so small! Incredible! Looks like its tjme to go shopping Again for a smaller size, even!!! Go you!

Congrats! You look great!! You are truly a success story!!!

Congrats on the really great work. You look wonderful.

I know that you'll still have loose skin but it really does rebound once your weight stabilizes for a while. So put off plastics until you've been at goal a while if you can. I had an apron even prior to surgery (I have twins) so I knew the stomach would be rough and I was right. But I was amazed at how much bounced back on it's own. So you might save yourself some procedures if you wait.

Then again, plastics are really the icing on the cake after we work so hard, so why wait if you don't have to?

I was in the same nutritional window in the loss phase and upping it in maintenance happened slowly but surely, so it's possible you'll have more leeway later if you want it. I still have a ton of restriction, too, but it's still a lot more than I was able to eat at one year post op.

Thank you for posting. I appreciate that you not only show a nice, moderate approach to your loss but that you are demonstrating to new folks that you don't have to lose all of the weight in one year to be a success.

Congrats!

~Cheri