How much weight loss is enough?

[joei0005 3]

Hi.

I had gastric sleeve surgery in September of 2016. I quickly lost weight and put a lot of it back on.

However, in January of 2019, I changed my diet with the doctor’s help. Throughout 2019, I steadily lost weight.

I am 5’8” tall. Before surgery I weighed 289 pounds. My goal was 190 pounds. That’s still a higher than average weight, but I would have been more than satisfied, considering how heavy I was.

I now weight 180 pounds. I am very happy at this weight, even though I “should” weigh 165 pounds. My weight doctor and nurse practitioner want me to drop another 10 pounds.

I feel some pressure to loose more weight, but I want to first successfully manage to keep steady at my new weight and not think about loosing additional weight until I’ve held this weight for about a year.

Has anyone else experienced “pressure” to get to their statistical ideal weight?

How much weight loss is enough?

Just curious if anyone had an opinion.

Thank you!

[Arabesque 7,604]

Congrats on your weight loss. I had the reverse situation. My surgeon asked me if I had a goal & said the 60kg I suggested was a sensible & healthy weight for my height (bmi of 23). When I had dropped to 54kg, my surgeon wanted me to put on a couple of kilos. I didn’t want to because of how common it is for wls patients to put on 2-4kg a year after their goal has been reached & I wanted this wriggle room. I lost more as I was trying to find my food intake sweet spot in maintenance but have been stable for a couple of months now. My dietician & GP are fine with my weight.

You need to find where you’re comfortable, happy & healthy. Does your surgeon want you to lose more for health reasons? An additional ten pounds isn’t much to lose compared to how much you have lost already.

[Daisyjayne 124]

My surgical team told me to stop losing at my last appointment - since then I've lost another 6kg and plan to lose another 5kg on top of that. So I'm interested to see what they say at my 12 month checkup (I'm heading into my 8th month post op). I want to get down as low as I practically can, to minimise my bounce back weight gain so many people experience. I'm basing my final number on how I feel, and at the moment I feel pretty amazing. Still losing between 0.5-1.5kg per week, with a 3-4 small loss weeks in a row and then one big one. So every time I think I'm in maintenance, I'm actually not!

Ultimately you are the one that has to live in your body, so if you are happy at 180, I reckon you should stay there.

[joei0005 3]

Thanks. The suggested weight loss suggested does not seem to be health-related. It’s based on the ideal weight for my height. My cholesterol level is low, around 150. My sugar level is fine. My dietician suggested that we test my body composition to determine my fat level. Since it took me quite a while to get to my goal, I don’t want to be “greedy”. I want to plateau at this weight, then after a sizable stable period, I’d like to see if I can loose more. 10 more pounds is not a lot to loose, but Im afraid to loose more weight only to gain more than 10 pounds back. It’s mostly a mental thing for me. It’s hard to explain, but I’d imagine that people here might be concerned with loosing more than you feel you can maintain. I’m delighted and so grateful for what I’ve accomplished so far. I guess I just want my doctor to be as happy with the result as I am.

[New&Improved 1,780]

I always had a goal in mind for myself before surgery and the surgeon agreed I never thought I'd get to where I am today.

My highest weight of 146kg (322lbs)

Now I'm 75kg (166lbs) which is amazing and below any goal I had and now I've been told to stop and to figure out how to maintain.

My BMI is perfect and I'm finally healthy.

[WInston223322 161]

9 hours ago, joei0005 said:

Has anyone else experienced “pressure” to get to their statistical ideal weight?

How much weight loss is enough?

Just curious if anyone had an opinion.

1. I chose to get healthy and Not really focus on The BMI or any chart, So my goal was to get to 235 I blew right by it and decided to hang at 225 I just like the way i feel and it seems to be a healthy weight. However the dang charts say 185 which is to low for my frame and built

2. Eneogh is when you feel healthy and are in the Normal body frame and weight. No real answer but when you look healthy and Normal that is what i think. Not to Feable and thin Not overweight

[New&Improved 1,780]

When I first started I thought I'd be happy to get below 220 and then 200 and finally 185 would be perfect for my height of 6ft and I've passed all those goals and look and feel amazing.

Started above 300 so every lb lost was good and I've ended up doing so well and now perfectly healthy BMI wise and physically.

I never thought I'd get below 200 but as I passed each milestone I set myself a new target every time and it kept me focused... Now I feel great..

[catwoman7 11,284]

it's where you feel comfortable. Some people feel comfortable being a little on the heavier side - maybe 10 or 20 lbs overweight, and that's fine. It's really not a big health risk. I got down to about a 21 BMI and really didn't feel comfortable there. Every rib was showing, so I was embarrassed to wear clothes that showed my ribs (like tops with low necklines). I hover around a 25 BMI now, and even though I'd like to lose about 5 lbs, I do feel comfortable at this weight. Plus my doctor is one of those who prefers her older adult patients (which would be me...) to be in the 23-27 BMI range (to give us a little cushion in case we get sick), so she's totally fine with my current weight (although I do wish I could lose these #&% five pounds!!!)

[ms.sss 15,835]

I think the weight you "should" be is the weight where YOU are most comfortable at AND can MAINTAIN.

[catwoman7 11,284]

20 minutes ago, ms.sss said:

I think the weight you "should" be is the weight where YOU are most comfortable at AND can MAINTAIN.

yea that "what you are willing to do to maintain it" is a big factor, too. I know I could weigh less if I was willing to cut my calories back to 1200/day. Or become a gym rat and exercise two or three hours a day. And some people are willing to do that. But I'm evidently not. I can maintain my weight if I stay in the 1500-1700 calorie a day range and exercise moderately. That's acceptable to me, and not too tough to do day in and day out.

[summerset 5,265]

"Best weight" concept by Yoni Freedhoff. Worth a look.

[joei0005 3]

Thanks!

[summerset 5,265]

Here is a free pdf-Version that's a bit older but it illustrates the concept and I think it applies to WLS patients, too, because there will be a point where you will start to ask yourself if additional weight loss is worth the effort you'd have to put into.

https://obesitycanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Best-Weight-Book.pdf

[catwoman7 11,284]

6 hours ago, summerset said:

Here is a free pdf-Version that's a bit older but it illustrates the concept and I think it applies to WLS patients, too, because there will be a point where you will start to ask yourself if additional weight loss is worth the effort you'd have to put into.

https://obesitycanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Best-Weight-Book.pdf

I just scanned through a few sections of this - excellent resource! I love his concept of "best weight" and agree with him totally. Thanks for posting this!

[summerset 5,265]

I especially like this one:

Quote

The difference between dieting and a healthy lifestyle is easy to explain. A diet is the smallest number of calories and the greatest amount of exercise that a patient can tolerate. A healthy lifestyle is the smallest number of calories and the greatest amount of exercise that a patient can enjoy.