Hi Everyone,

I'm new here but a short bio. I was always overweight. Weighed nearly 400lbs by 21, lost down to 225, but maintained around 245-255 through diet and exercise. Met my husband, adopted his bad habits, got pregnant, gained, poof, back up to 350. Had the sleeve, down to 195. Woohoo! Then life, covid, etc. I'm back up to 235.

Here's my question. I definately feel motivated to lose at lease 30lbs. I won't have clothes that fit if I can't get back down to about 205 and I'll be embarassed to go to work. My doctor thinks I should aim for 165. I think 175-185 is more reasonable, but regardless I'm not sure that I can motivate myself to lose more than the 30lbs. When I was 350-400lbs I hated myself. I was so motivated to be anyone but me. Now I look in the mirror and sure it might be nice to be a size 6, but I don't hate myself. I'm successful, likable, have a lot more self esteem. I am finding it very difficult to motivate myself to lost the 60lbs I really want to lose. How do I motivate myself to not just lose 30lbs, but to really crush it?

Thanks!

It’s your body, so you can decide what your goal is! Why don’t you start with a goal of losing 30 pounds — which you seem to be confident you can do — and when you get there, see how you feel? Maybe you’ll be happy with that, or maybe you’ll feel motivated to lose 30 more pounds from there. But please don’t fall into the trap of thinking it will be a failure if you “only” lose 30 pounds and not 60.

How tall are you? Your doctor is possibly suggesting a weight that places you in the healthy BMI range - can’t tell without your height though.

There’s nothing wrong with setting your own weight loss goal. A lot of people are very happy to get to a weight that is less than what their surgeon originally suggests & they find it easy to maintain.

As BigSue suggested, you may reach your goal than decide to lose more. Losing the weight can motivate you to lose more.

I lost an extra 11kg (24lbs) from my surgeon & my goal. I wasn’t intending to, my body just kept slowly dropping weight even though I kept upping my calories. It seems to have finally settled & I think this is where my body wants to be. And I’m very happy where I am too.

Good luck with your surgery.

Keep it simple. When we try to change too much at once we end up getting fed up and we lose our motivation. Try to do one thing at a time consistently and when it becomes a habit take on another task.