Maybe some newbies will benefit from this answer, too....

[SleeveToBypass2023 2,680]

I've been wondering about something. When I look at my surgery progress under my picture, I have my starting weight (388) as what I weighed the day of my initial surgery. BUT, my highest weight was 421, which is what I weighed when I started the bariatric surgery process. I lost 33 pounds in order to be approved for the surgery, then qualified and had it right away. So should I put my starting weight as my highest weight, or keep it at the weight I was at on surgery day? How do you guys do it?

[summerseeker 2,397]

I went with my weight the day I went to the see the surgeon for my initial consultation. This was the highest I was ever going to be.

[SleeveToBypass2023 2,680]

10 minutes ago, summerseeker said:

I went with my weight the day I went to the see the surgeon for my initial consultation. This was the highest I was ever going to be.

Makes sense. I might change mine then.

[FifiLux 565]

I went with mine the day of the op as it was higher than when I started the process - I enjoyed the few weeks before my surgery 😉

[ms.sss 15,820]

i use the weight i was on my first day of my 2 week pre-op diet (235 lbs which happened to be my highest weight recorded).

p.s. my weight when i had my very first consultation 2 years prior to that was lower...i think it was like 220 or something.

there is a statistic where you can input your weight on day of surgery, but it's just not included in the summary under your name in the side bar.... @Alex Brecher...maybe we can include "weight on surgery day" in the side bar info?

[NickelChip 1,358]

I put mine as the weight on the day I went to my first surgical consult, which was also my highest recorded weight.

With the diet and lifestyle changes I made as part of the program, I lost about 13 lbs in the 6 months between then and the start of my pre-op diet.

I lost another 13 lbs in those 2 weeks of liquid diet before surgery. But I want credit for all the weight I lost!

Interestingly, Dr. Weiner recently said on a podcast that the weight lost on a pre-op diet definitely is credited to the surgery in his opinion. The reasoning was that if you go on a liquid diet, lose 13 lbs, and then try to keep that weight off without having surgery just by eating right, you are going to regain most or all of it in a matter of weeks. The fact that we lose that weight and then keep losing more weight instead of gaining is thanks to the metabolic changes of the surgery.

He also told me in a live Q&A support group a while back to use my weight from before the pre-op diet as my starting weight if I wanted to plug it into a prediction calculator. I raised the concern of being a bit behind the prediction based on one of those calculators and he asked me what my weight was before the liquid diet. When we used that number instead of my surgery day weight, it tracked much better (and is still looking very accurate at 9 months out). He said if I had always been 225 lbs (my day of surgery weight) that would be one thing, but in reality, my "true" weight was somewhere between 238 and 251 in terms of what my metabolism was trying to overcome with the surgery. I feel like that's one of those big questions a lot of us have in the beginning and nobody really gives an answer on the calculator sites.

[SleeveToBypass2023 2,680]

Ok, you guys convinced me. What you all said really makes a lot of sense, so I went ahead and changed it. Thanks so much!!!

[NickelChip 1,358]

3 hours ago, SleeveToBypass2023 said:

Ok, you guys convinced me. What you all said really makes a lot of sense, so I went ahead and changed it. Thanks so much!!!

Wow, losing 245 lbs is just mind-blowing! Your results were impressive before, but updating it to the total amount just leaves me speechless.

[SleeveToBypass2023 2,680]

1 hour ago, NickelChip said:

Wow, losing 245 lbs is just mind-blowing! Your results were impressive before, but updating it to the total amount just leaves me speechless.

Awww, thank you!!! I was hoping to get to 250 pounds lost, but at this point I'm just gonna leave it alone. The goal is to NOT lose more lol But thank you for saying that I knew how much I lost but seeing there just hits different, you know?

[BigSue 1,428]

I use my highest recorded weight (from my initial consultation) as my starting weight. I lost about 70 pounds before my surgery, and I remember my surgeon saying, "Don't worry, you still get credit for the weight you lost before surgery." At the time, I was mildly annoyed because, in my mind, that meant he was taking credit for the weight I lost without the surgery, but now I understand what he was really saying. I lost over 200 pounds from my highest weight until now, and it was all part of the same process.

[NeonRaven8919 586]

21 hours ago, summerseeker said:

I went with my weight the day I went to the see the surgeon for my initial consultation. This was the highest I was ever going to be.

Same. But it was also to my knowledge the highest I ever weighed.

[Arabesque 7,597]

I recorded mine as the weight my GP recorded when she gave me the referral to the surgeon. To me, that was when I started to make the change to a healthier me. So put that initial 421 weight @SleeveToBypass2023. Every pound you’ve lost needs to be recognised and acknowledged.

[SleeveToBypass2023 2,680]

11 hours ago, Arabesque said:

I recorded mine as the weight my GP recorded when she gave me the referral to the surgeon. To me, that was when I started to make the change to a healthier me. So put that initial 421 weight @SleeveToBypass2023. Every pound you’ve lost needs to be recognised and acknowledged.

I did. I updated it