I posted this in another thread, but I thought I would try here too, just in case I might get more/different responses. Here goes:

So I'm hoping to hear from anyone with a high BMI that got the sleeve and had a lot of success. My current BMI is 63. My goal weight is 200 pounds, which means I need to lose 190 pounds. For various reasons I chose the sleeve over the bypass, and I know bypass patients lose more than sleeve patients do. BUT...I have no issues following the diet, and once I lose some weight I will start working out again (I did Keto and lost almost 100 pounds over 7 months, but then it just started creeping back up and no matter how much I restricted my carbs and worked out, I couldn't keep the weight down and I got frustrated and quit), but I worry that I won't be able to hit my goal even if I stick to the diet and work out. I have MS, so strengthening my muscles and losing the weight is a must to keep my mobility and reduce the pain. I also desperately want to get rid of my diabetes and high blood pressure. And I'm hoping losing the weight will help my asthma a little. BUT... is this possible with the sleeve? I'm so excited about the surgery, but is it really possible to lose that kind of weight with the sleeve? Has ANYONE on here done it, or even come close? This just has to work. I wasn't always overweight. I used to be a size 6, but when I had my son back in 98, my PCOS jump started and I put on close to 100 pounds and only lost maybe 25. No matter what i did, I couldn't lose it. Then I had my daughter and gained close to the same amount, and was never able to lose any of it. Then I did keto, succeeded for a while, then it failed and I gave up. And now here I am. Do I have any hope at all of hitting my goal weight?

you defiantly do have a chance of hitting your goal. Just stick to it! Have you talked to a surgeon yet? One surgeon i spoke to would not do gastric sleeve for people over i think it was like 58 BMI. That those with higher BMIs had to loose weight to get below a threashold (for safety issues) But of course every surgeon is different and have their own set of guidlines. I wish you the best of luck!

10 minutes ago, liveaboard15 said:

you defiantly do have a chance of hitting your goal. Just stick to it! Have you talked to a surgeon yet? One surgeon i spoke to would not do gastric sleeve for people over i think it was like 58 BMI. That those with higher BMIs had to loose weight to get below a threashold (for safety issues) But of course every surgeon is different and have their own set of guidlines. I wish you the best of luck!

Yes, I have a surgery date already. May 3rd. I didn't have a set amount of weight to lose. He just said to try and lose some weight if possible because it would help with recovery.

Could you get down from 390 to 200, or even lighter, and then keep it off? Yes, absolutely. Anyone can, with or without surgery. However, there's a difference between can and will. Obviously, I don't know your physiological intangibles such as your muscle profile, body type, genetics, ability to stick to goals, follow a bariatric diet, etc. BMI doesn't account for these things. Because of this, we can crunch some statistics, and assuming you're average when it comes to the intangibles, we can begin to get an idea of the odds for you.

Based on the BMI chart, every pound over 154 pounds is excess for your height, which leaves you with 235 pounds of excess weight. Now with sleeve statistics, the average person loses between 60 and 70 percent of their excess weight. Obviously, some lose 100 percent or more of their excess weight, and some lose much less than the 60 to 70 percent average, but again, let's assume you have an average surgery experience and lose 60 to 70 percent (we can call it 65 percent as an even marker). 65 percent of 235 pounds of excess weight is 152.75 pounds. 390-152.75=237.25. So, by math alone, 237.25 would be your most likely outcome, which is obviously 37.25 pounds over your goal. To meet your goal, you would have to exceed statistical expectations when it comes to average amount of excess weight lost for sleeves. Instead of losing 65 percent of your excess weight, you would have to lose approximately 81 percent to hit 200. I'd certainly say this is doable, albeit not easy.

Now the unfortunate thing about losing weight is that your body fights you on it, and it has various forms of ammunition. Cravings, plateaus, and different types of phantom hunger are all in its arsenal. Bariatric surgery depletes our bodies' weapon stock to an extent and limits the damage should we fall into one of its traps. It's something we can lean on. It won't do the job on its own, but we've essentially enlisted reinforcements that swing the odds of success in our favor.

However, the one thing that bariatric surgery won't change as we get closer to our goal weights is adaptability, and this is probably why your weight loss has stalled in the past. Our bodies learn our tricks. They adapt to low carb and low calorie diets, and thus, the weight loss stalls until we give up. So what do we do? If a plateau occurs, we have to change our tactics (even slightly) to catch our bodies off guard again. Change the diet and eating patterns slightly. Try a little intermittent fasting, or maybe switch out your carbs for fat for a bit. Same thing with exercise. If you're exercising (let's say running for example), switch things up and go to HIIT training or swimming for a while. Once your body adjusts to that, then go back to running.

It's a little weird to be "at war" with ourselves, but the reality is that we are. Got to be smart and merciless when it comes to confronting the weight monster.