Your Dr.'s goal weight/BMI for you?

[loridee11 510]

Thanks all. The lowest I've been in my adult life is 183, around a BMI of 27. (Even in high school I was well obese. I felt pretty good at 183, but I think I would have felt better a little lighter (I carry a lot of weight in my legs and at that point, my upper body was good but my legs were still pretty heavy). I guess I'll see how I feel when I get back around that level and decide if I want to keep going. But based on that discussion and what I am hearing hear, I think I'll likely end up over my original goal of 150, but somewhere below 183. Maybe 173, which would be a BMI of 24.8 and officially not overweight (I really want to be in a "normal" range at least once ).

[angryspice 31]

my doctor said I would be fine at 160 (which is still overweight). fine enough to avoid all the health complications I was worried about prior to surgery at least. based on the nutritionist plan, it seems that she was tailoring my eating plan to around 140-145, which is the upper end of a healthy bmi range. I think I would look perfectly fine at 150, but I would love to be 125-130. however, I am questioning whether that is a sustainable weight for me and sustainability is important to me. my personal goal is 140 because I desperately want to be "normal" bmi as silly as that sounds. I realize that bmi is not the sole indicator of health.

Edited July 18, 2020 by angryspice

[catwoman7 10,869]

2 hours ago, angryspice said:

my doctor said I would be fine at 160 (which is still overweight). fine enough to avoid all the health complications I was worried about prior to surgery at least. based on the nutritionist plan, it seems that she was tailoring my eating plan to around 140-145, which is the upper end of a healthy bmi range. I think I would look perfectly fine at 150, but I would love to be 125-130. however, I am questioning whether that is a sustainable weight for me and sustainability is important to me. my personal goal is 140 because I desperately want to be "normal" bmi as silly as that sounds. I realize that bmi is not the sole indicator of health.

at 5'5" you can come up to 150 and still be at a normal BMI. The ranges are pretty wide, though...frame size and amount of muscle can make a big difference on where on your range you look best.

[minimamaz00m 61]

Same height- I was in my 20’s, jogged, worked out - and at 135 you could see my ribs. Was not a good look. 140 is the lowest I want to go. I’m also 2 more kids later and 50 years old now so 150 seems reasonable.

[Officially Not Fatty Matty 459]

I honestly don’t know what I want my weight to be.. I really don’t. I’m 6’4”, was 334 at the start of my preop diet, down to 292 36 days later. When I graduated high school (I’m 45 now) I was about 250. I look at pictures of myself and everyone says how thin and good I looked, but I know I was teased about my weight even then. I guess I’ll aim for about 220 and just see how I feel and look. My brother and I are the same height but completely different frames. He looks normal at 180, but I think I would look way too thin... either way I’m really excited about the future, I’ll know my weight when I get there. Plan on building out a lot more muscle too that I’ve lost over the years so I know that’ll add to my count.... Time shall tell.

[Prestonandme 107]

My surgeon predicted that I would bottom out at 150 lbs. and I would have been very happy with that goal, but somehow I was able to lose more weight than expected. During my one-year checkup last month, my surgeon told me that it's highly likely that over the next few years I may gain back 15-20 lbs. (which he says is average for WLS patients) but even if I do, I'll still be happy at that higher weight.

[TheLdywMoxie 14]

My surgeon never gave me a goal weight. I was curious though so I asked my nutritionist what weight I should be in a year and she told me about 178 but that it depends. I think I just needed that goal in mind and hope i surpass it honestly.

[AlwaysCruising 100]

On 7/17/2020 at 3:49 PM, loridee11 said:

I just had my 6 month check up with my Dr and I had the chance to ask them what my goal weight should be. Their "goal" for me is to be comfortably in the overweight category - somewhere around a BMI of 27. This seems high to me, and my personal goal is to be in the healthy weight range, around a BMI of 22 (which I know is aggressive). Her rationale is studies show people who are overweight but exercise, and people who are of average weight but don't exercise have about the same morbidity. So, they focus on getting us firmly out of obese, then worry more about activity.

For those of you whose Dr's gave you a goal weight or BMI, where did it fall?

Part of the mental health evaluation of people seeking surgery is whether or not they have a rational and realistic view of what is possible In terms of weight loss with the bariatric surgery. Of course some people lie about that (health care professionals aren’t psychic after all). And the fact is that it is unlikely that people who have WLS will reach their full healthy weight, but will instead lose only a percentage of that (for many, 60%). That’s not my opinion, that is a scientific fact (ask any Bariatric surgeon or expert). When people have expectations that exceed that (and I have seen it many times on WLS boards, patients talking as if they are Joan of Arc determined to defy all odds), But it’s a real problem when people have unrealistic expectations as they can lead to significant disappointment, or depression, and sometimes weight gain.

I don’t understand people thinking they’re surgeons are somehow it gets them, or have a low bar for them, or just know less than WLS patients. I have lost 100 pounds and kept it off for six years (and got a leg injury for the effort) and then regained the weight. I hope this surgery will give me a tool to keep it from happening. And if I get anything remotely close to being normal again I’m going take that and be thrilled beyond words.

Edited July 21, 2020 by AlwaysCruising

[BriarRose 432]

I started the journey at 320 pounds and 5'3" - ten years later I am 5'2" (and 64 years old )

Initially my Doctor said I should weigh 140 I laughed. I have never weighed that as an adult. My goal for myself was about 170. My doctor after about 6 months finally told me he agreed with me. That I would (statically speaking) probably lose to about 180 to 175 IF I was able to exercise. I had/still have medical issues that do not make much exercise possible. I lost to 175. Gained 5 back almost immediately. Over the next 8 years gained 40. Last year decided to DO something about it. Have had a slow but steady loss of 3 pounds a month for a YEAR. No drastic dieting, just back to basics.

Have lost 38 pounds. At 175 my BMI will be about 32. Still high, but on the BMI adjusted for age, I will be overweight.

Goals and wants and desires and wishes aside.... be logical. Take YOURSELF into account. You are YOU. Not just a number. Living in your body and how you feel - and not going up and down the scale is what my doc now wants me to do.

Set realistic goals.

[over65 133]

My bariatric center says goal for every VSG patient is 60% of excess weight. If you do better than that long-term, then great. But they discourage unrealistic self-set goals. Will set up a lot of patients for disappointing results. The average weight loss for VSG over thousands worldwide is 60% excess weight.

Sent from my SM-T580 using BariatricPal mobile app

[BriarRose 432]

OK so my math is really lousy..... IF someone weighed 300 pounds and their desired weight was 145, then the excess weight would be 175 pounds. 60% of 175 is 105 pounds putting weight at 194 to be considered a success.

I was told that the over all goal was 70% of excess weight, which would then be 122.5 pounds needed to lose. Correct ?

[summerset 5,261]

1 hour ago, over65 said:

My bariatric center says goal for every VSG patient is 60% of excess weight. If you do better than that long-term, then great.

I think the important thing here is that they're talking about "long term". No offense, but while we have quite a few people on here who've lost 100% EWL and more there are at least two things to consider:

1) selection bias of internet boards.

2) the majority of the above mentioned users are less than 5 years out, some even less than 2 years.

[minimamaz00m 61]

12 minutes ago, BriarRose said:

OK so my math is really lousy..... IF someone weighed 300 pounds and their desired weight was 145, then the excess weight would be 175 pounds. 60% of 175 is 105 pounds putting weight at 194 to be considered a success.

You're close - 300 - 145 = 155 . 60% of 155 is 93, putting the end weight at 207.

The desired weight is not what is used in this equation though. It is bone and muscle mass. That is determined usually by a special scale at the dr's office. If 145 was the weight of the bone and muscle mass then this equation would be correct.

For example, I weighed 260 at the doctor's at my initial visit - the scale found 130 of that to be bone and muscle and the other 130 to be excess weight. So using the same formula, I'd lose 60% of 130, so 78 lbs, putting my "success" weight at 182.

Does this help?

[Stella S 612]

The BMI calculator is not really a scale that measures health. Seems to me if doctors measure their success by getting others out of the morbidly obese area their success is higher. I encourage you to chart your own course and be your own judge!

[minimamaz00m 61]

20 minutes ago, Stella S said:

The BMI calculator is not really a scale that measures health. Seems to me if doctors measure their success by getting others out of the morbidly obese area their success is higher. I encourage you to chart your own course and be your own judge!

I do agree with you here for sure - everyone's picture of health comes at a different weight. She might be trying to decide between surgeries though and I know I pored over different statistics seeing which surgery would bring me closer to the weight I wanted to be at without too many risks and the best chance of long term success.

Edited July 28, 2020 by minimamaz00m