Hello,

First, I want to thank this forum for helping me get through my surgery and the first 2 months after which were tough for me. I recently took an interest of viewing the forum again since it helped me so much. I will be 6 months out on Feb. 4th. For me, surgery has been one of the BEST decisions I have ever made. I hit my original goal of 225 lbs in 4.5 months post-op. I am now down to 215 with a BMI of 29 after starting over 42.

I know 215 might not sound super-skinny, but, honestly... For me, I feel like give or take 5 lbs, this is where my ideal weight is. I am down to a 34-35 waist from 44-46, and wearing size Large shirts. I graduated high school wearing XL's and was getting into Triple X at my biggest.

So, in a nut-shell, what decides when I'm at my ideal weight and what is the best strategy to help maintain where I am right now? I've never been a huge fan of the gym, but, I feel like I might need to start visiting just to keep/gain muscle and avoid losing any more. Thanks again for the help, and feel welcome to ask me any questions as well.

Update, I am now around 190lbs give or take a couple, and have been so for the last 3 to 4 months. As most people indicated, my body just needed to get where it was "comfortable" and it has seemed to stay there.

Good to hear that you found your "comfort zone" as far as your weight. I find that my body seems to settle in around a certain weight. I could probably really push it and lose another 10 pounds, but can stay with little extra effort right around 130. It's funny how our bodies know just what to do when we give them the chance.

I thought my weight had stabilized at my goal when I stayed there for nearly six months. Then it started creeping up by a few pounds. I'm working on hammering it back down, but it's much harder now at 18 months after surgery than it was during the first year. So heads-up to those of you in your first year – Take full advantage of your "honeymoon period" to get down as low as you can because it does get tougher as you get further out from surgery.

Thanks for the advice !! I'm gonna take advantage of the honeymoon period as much as I can ????

I'll chime in here on this -- to add my own experience thus far. I started at 235 pounds.

I'm almost 15 months post-op. My goal was 150 pounds -- an old weight I remembered feeling comfy at and a pound above "normal" BMI. It was also at least 10 pounds lighter than I'd weighed in over 35 years.

I reached my goal at 8.5 pounds post-op. And then ...

... 6.5 months later I now weigh 138 pounds. Even while eating 1700 calories (on average) as a maintenance calorie budget, I've lost another 12 pounds.

Those 12 pounds have been lost slowly enough that I am comfortable at this weight -- don't feel weird, don't look weird -- actually feel pretty great and feel I look pretty great.

I think I probably ought to be eating closer to 2000 calories/day to stop losing. But honestly -- I just don't want to eat that much right now. It's a weird thing to say and a weird way to feel. I eat very nutritiously now, drink wine, eat a few treats -- but mostly am eating lean Protein, veggies, fruits, and whole grains.

I think I'll go have a Godiva truffle before I go to bed. Am not kidding.

(I think I won the WLS lottery. I wonder if / how all of this will change.)

I am trying to get to 140-145 currently at 151, I hoping that is my bodies wish too! I am still losing a pound A WEEK but I also want to be able to maintain. I eat now 1300 calories, work out 6 times a week, so we shall see,,,,

Keep hammering at it. Good luck!

I don't believe you can edit the Title of your post, once submitted. I've tried to edit my titles before and couldn't find any buttons that would allow that.

Dangit, that's kind of dumb. Hope people don't judge my the quality of my post and questions by the title I guess lol.

I can fix it. What would you like it to say?

If you could take word "does" out, that would be great... Appreciate the help!

If you could take word "does" out, that would be great... Appreciate the help!

Done.

BMI is supposed to be a surrogate for percent body fat. I recommend that you actually get your body fat professionally analyzed. I have done this and luckily it accurately matched the same results that I get with my tanita scale which gives me not only lbs but percent body fat. Weight and BMI are not the only indicators of health. You can be ripped strong and healthy with a high BMI or you can be skinny with a high percent of body fat. In that example the higher BMI might actually be healthier. Also important to understand is that you lose lean mass right along with your fat. And of course you actually want to hold onto as much lean mass as you can because that is what will help keep the weight off. Even though my BMI has dropped from 42 to 35 (sounds good right), my actual percent body fat has only dropped from 51% to about 48% (not so good). Take home message: I need to get my butt to the gym and pump some iron and build that muscle mass up. Also building up muscle is a much better way to "fill out" some of that "loose skin" which is where we are all storing some of that last to go fat. My goal is to get my BMI to "normal" aka 24 and also to get my body fat to 24% or less. Since I have already lost 19% of my weight but only 3% of my body fat, I have a feeling that I will hit the BMI & weight goal before I hit the actual body fat goal. But let's get real here... I did this for my health, not just to fit into a certain pair of jeans. I think that if you are meeting your health goals that is way more important than either your weight or your BMI. If you're strong and healthy then go for the higher BMI, but if you're flabby and weak a lower BMI doesn't necessarily equate to better health so get to the gym and get strong and healthy.