I found the coolest site, ladies! You enter a height and weight and are shown a gallery of photos of real women with these stats. This may be a useful tool in helping determine your desired goal weight.

http://www.mybodygal...com/search.html

Don't let my profile pic fool you. Sadly, this was taken at the height of my loss and fitness, I am probably at least 25 lbs heavier now and about as fit as a veal. I would change the photo if I had access to my personal computer. I still wear a pre-op work out tee to the gym, and it doesn't even look foollishly large. I look at photos of my face before and now and see only the slightest of changes. Still round.

Bah! I'm not fooled. You started out just under 300 and now your around or just under 190! That's 100 pounds! Whether all of that came before or after surgery really doesn't matter, you still get credit (I'm taking credit for every pound of loss that I've managed to hang onto)! That's a big deal! And, I have to point out (with no criticism or malice) that the shirt in your before pick was a bit snug, so if you're wearing the same size shirt to the gym (and let's face it, big girls and "used to be big girls" tend to prefer roomier tops to camoflauge all of our perceived flaws... I assume that's not just me), so I wouldn't imagine it would look foolishly large (although it's entirely possible that it could be, but you can't see it and your workout partners might not tell you). My next point is this: I'm 5'8" I weighed 349 at my heaviest. I just donated a workout shirt that I wore at that weight almost more because I have better stuff now than it's too big. I can still wear it without it looking "foolishly large". So, that's a span of about 80 pounds that I was able to reasonably wear the same shirt.

You have come a really long way, give yourself credit for that. So you're 25 pounds up, (25, not 100) after a really traumatic period in your life. It happens to most of us at some point or other. I had lost 115 pounds between 2009 and 2011 and then my mother in law was in ICU for 2 weeks, so we spent every night in the hospital since we were out of towners and didn't have to work. Every day, we went to a greasy spoon for Breakfast (in Oklahoma, so their baseline for plentiful healthy food choices is pretty darn low, not that it really would have mattered). I gained a little more than a pound a day that trip and never got my motivation back after that until I decided it was time for surgery. It's unbelievably hard to make good food and fitness choices when you're exhausted and under pressure and stress. You've lost it before, you can do it again! Might take a little more planning and dedication this time, but you sure as heck can do it! After reading your info on your profile page, though, I would consider investigating any health issues that might be interfering with your efforts to lose weight. Standard culprits: sleep disorders, depression, pain, thyroid, insulin resistance/diabetes/PCOS, medication interactions and side effects. I don't even know how many things could interfere, it feels like it's a never-ending list. For me, my biggest barriers were a sleep disorder, pain (let's face it, it hurts like hell to weigh over 300pounds, and that's a major motivator to keep your butt velcro'd to the couch!), and depression (dysthymia, really - pretty minor, but still a pretty significant factor in my lack of motivation to exercise and make good food choices). After I really started getting into my health issues, as minor as they were, I learned that I actually wasn't lazy! I truly thought I was a lazy person because I never wanted to do anything, but it turns out that I was exhausted from an undiagnosed sleep disorder. Now that I'm dealing with that, and have found an antidepressant that seems to be more effective (and to be honest, I'm still not certain that the dysthymia diagnosis wasn't actually misdiagnosed symptoms of my sleep disorder, but I'm sticking with my med while I move through the weight loss phase and into maintenance before I start testing coming off of it).

Anyway, I digress... I just want to urge you to go easy on yourself and take care of yourself. It sounds like you've been doing everything you can think of to keep moving toward your goal. You are working hard and deserve success, you will find the right combination. Best of luck to you as you keep working hard. I wish you all the success and support you could hope for! (and I apologize for my diarrhea of the fingertips... I just started on a stimulant... I think I took it too late in the day or I probably should have just forced myself to bed, like, 6 hours ago. Tomorrow should be fun...)

this website still doesn't show my body' date=' none of the women in my search have pronounced lower stomach pooches. but, it does give me something to work toward, when I put in my goal weight and saw how cute it looks![/quote']

Perhaps you should send your pic n? It's great when they have different body types in there so more people can relate.

Plastic surgeon told me that formerly obese are more prone to swelling after plastics because we still have larger vessels etc. She said she sees with her own eyes that internally the formerly obese just have more " insides".

It is false that a lifetime of carrying a bunch of extra weight makes your bones stronger and denser?

I just got around to reading this thread and I want to thank you for posting that website link!! I look in the mirror and sometimes do not recognize myself. 123# less. But for some reason I still think I am still out of proportion. Now I know I am not!! The 5'9" 190 girls all look great. And that's me, too!! How exciting!! I sometimes wonder when my best will be good enough? We are so hard on ourselves.

It is false that a lifetime of carrying a bunch of extra weight makes your bones stronger and denser?

I know it seems counterintuitive, but when we have been obese (BMI of 30 or greater), it actually lowers bone mineral density and puts us at a higher risk for osteoporosis. This wasn't always what was believed but it's what more recent studies are showing. I only know this bc I'm a medical editor and was just working on an article on this topic--I was shocked!

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/721071

Plastic surgeon told me that formerly obese are more prone to swelling after plastics because we still have larger vessels etc. She said she sees with her own eyes that internally the formerly obese just have more " insides".

That makes sense--plus we can't lose fat cells once we have them--they just get smaller (sort of deflated).

That makes sense--plus we can't lose fat cells once we have them--they just get smaller (sort of deflated).

And that is why I am such an advocate for plastics + lipo to finish off our journeys, it isn't cosmetic surgery, it's reconstructive and just putting us on an even playing field with the NFs (Never Fats)

I know it seems counterintuitive, but when we have been obese (BMI of 30 or greater), it actually lowers bone mineral density and puts us at a higher risk for osteoporosis. This wasn't always what was believed but it's what more recent studies are showing. I only know this bc I'm a medical editor and was just working on an article on this topic--I was shocked!

http://www.medscape....warticle/721071

Conventional wisdom struck down again! Very interesting.

And that is why I am such an advocate for plastics + lipo to finish off our journeys, it isn't cosmetic surgery, it's reconstructive and just putting us on an even playing field with the NFs (Never Fats)

Completely agree when necessary (not referring to medically necessary due to rashes or whatever, but when the patient feels it's necessary)