I am curious for those that have low BMI goals ( like 20 to 23 BMI).

Have you ever as an adult consistently weighed that amount? Or are you just being wishful? Did your Dr. set your goal weight or you?

I am short, so to be a "normal" weight person, I would have to be about 115 to 125. While I once weighed 128 as an adult, I was much younger (18 to 20 years old) more active etc.

I just don't know how realistic, it is for me to get to or even maintain a "normal" weight for my height.

Now I could see if I was taller and a normal weight was 150, I'd have a better chance of maintaining that weight.

I know that many WLS people, lose their weight and then regain some before stabilizing, so if I don't lower my goal weight (which I have now as 140) and I rebound then I could end up at 160, which would still put me 40 pounds overweight! I guess I have to lower my goal weight, so if I do rebound, maybe I could end up at 140-150.

I'd love to hear from some old bandsters and how successful they are at maintaining and not rebounding.

Even my dr. thinks 150 is a more realistic weight goal.

When will they have a "height" band??? I need to be taller!!!

My team said that there was no way to set a goal in stone. They suggested that we look at the BMI charts and shoot for "normal" and adjust our goals as we get closer to a comfortable weight. I am shooting for "normal" but know in my heart that I will probably be "overweight" forever. Like they say, shoot for the moon and even if you miss you will land amongst the stars. Why set a too high goal. To me that's saying I don't believe I can do it. That's my way of thinking.

See its not really true that if you were taller and 150 was a healthy weight you'd have a much better chance of achieving that. If you were taller you'd probably naturally have a bigger appetite (and calorie burn too of course). So for a 5ft 10 150lb person, maintaining it is usually just as hard as for a shorter 120lb person. We dont all have the same appetite and calorie output with different "ideal" weights to achieve! Nature works in more complex ways than that.

I set a low goal weight. I've gotten to a BMI of 23, want to go a bit lower. Why? Well I didnt have weight loss surgery to achieve a so-so weight. I want to be slender, not just "not fat". My build has a lot to do with it, at the high end of my healthy range, I still look porky. Is my weight hard to maintain? With a lapband, that's a resounding NO. I dont even have to think about it and compared to people on here, I seem to eat a helluva lot. I have a completely normal lifestyle. I run five times a week or so, something I do because I really love it. I'm active in my everyday life too.

As a younger adult, pre babies, I tended to maintain at a BMI of 25, only about 5 or 6 kg heavier than now. Still a healthy weight, but a size or two bigger and I was never happy with it.

And also, setting this weight or that, wont affect where your body rebounds to either. It will rebound to a level that you influence by what you eat, and how much exercise you do, whether you initially said your goal was 130 or 140!

The weight you want to be is well within your grasp, and it doesnt take superhuman effort to maintain or achieve it with a lap band. I think exercise is the most influential factor when it comes to how low you can get and how easy that is to maintain. Learn to love hard cardio and a bit of strength training and its all in your hands. If you dont want to do that, cant do that, dont want to bother doing that, then you own that result to and many people are more than happy being having a good lot of their excess weight gone and have no interest in looking thin. Me personally, its all about vanity, lol. Thin is what I want to be and I'm prepared to do what I'm doing to keep it that way.

My doc didn't set my goal.. I picked 180 just because I haven't weighed less than 200lb since I was a pre-teen.. so I would imagine on my 6'0 frame, 180lb would look about right. BMI would be 25. I have no idea if I'll stick to that. 200lb might just make me happy (doubtful).. or 160 might. I have no idea! But saying 180lb gives me something to focus on, and my speculation is that when I reach 180, I'd be pretty damn happy.

Jachut: i have to agree with the part about how hard we want to work at this weigh loss issue, but I have many "normal" weight friends that don;t do heavy cardio or run to maintain their weight.

I will never be convinced that it is not harder to maintain a lower weight than it is to maintain a higher weight. It is a simple matter of daily calories and you can eat more to maintain a higher weight. Add age, which slows the metabolism and you need fewer calories each day.

I am happy for you that you have found an answer to your weight issues. There is no one right solution that fits everyone.

I appreciate all responses because one of them might be the one that resonates the most for me.

Wow, good question.

I didn't have a bmi in mind for a goal...only a size and weight.

Let me calculate my bmi now.... wow, 24.5...and you are wanting what?

Hmmm....don't let that BMI fool you. Just get to where you feel good in the skin you are in!

Hi,

My doc's office set 203 as a goal weight for me and then I think she said last time it's 196! Whatever. Anyway, my point is that the philosophy at their office is that that amount of excess weight lost is a success. I drew 185 out of the air for no other reason than to set a goal I thought I might be able to get to. I have never weighed that amount (well, flying by going up, I did) but I've always been super fat, so I have no clue! Some people think that is still too much for me to weigh (I'm 5'8) but I am going to re-eval WHEN I get there and decide then.

I think every person just has to meet a goal they feel good about and know they can maintain reasonably. I'm not there yet, but am really pushing hard this year to hit it!

I want to get to 140 and decide what to do from there. That's a 23 bmi, and gives me a little room to go up and down as I want. When my mom and my sisters and my DH start giving me the "you're getting too skinny" line, I'll really look at myself, because they're all very honest about my weight and my sisters have had their own weight struggles recently that they are attuned to. I figure if I bounce between 145 and 155 forever (except when preggers, heh) I'll be pretty satisfied.

That's not a weight loss solution that works for me, its basic fact. To maintain whatever weight you want to be is going to take some work and more as you get older.

As to it being easier to maintain 150lb than 120lb do some research on sites like nutritiondata.com. I think you'll find that there's a measly 95 calories a day difference for a 5ft tall 40 year old female between those two weights. Add in some exercise and see what a difference THAT makes.

As to your normal weight friends who do nothing to maintain their weight, I have those too. It doesnt mean you or I dont have to work at it though. The differences between them and us is probably why we got fat and they didnt.

But hey, if you want to wait for an answer that resonates, be my guest.

It is realistic to be a normal weight.

Yes, it does take work (if you call eating healthy and taking the recommended amount of daily exercise work) but it is worth doing. And I don't actually know anyone who is a healthy weight who doesn't exercise daily, eat well, and take care of their health.

I set my goal weight, and my Dr agreed that for a woman of my height, it was a good weight. I have maintained 107 (a BMI of 19) for over 18 months now with no "rebound" weight gain at all.

I've set a range for my goal which puts me between 23 and 25 BMI. I'll see how I go when I get there (which shouldn't be long, fingers crossed). I'm of the same opinion that I didn't get WLS to just be not fat. I want to lose all of my excess weight, be healthy and happy with my weight.

I don't understand how if some one has reached their goal by changing their eating habits and what they eat as a lifestyle change, why there has to be a rebound stage? I plan on continuing to eat and exercise the way I do now once I reach goal in order to maintain - thats just part of the deal as far as I'm concerned. Can you explain the rebound theory to me? I have honestly never heard it mentioned before, is there research that proves this?

Rebounding as I call it, is based on weight loss graphs for WLS surgery patients. The graphs show a downward weight loss and then average weights go up and then stablize. I found this online somewhere.

I guess since even as a younger, more active adult I struggled to maintain a lower weight, I am concerned that as an older menopausal woman, I will struggle even more to acheive and then maintain a weight that is normal for a height of 5"0'.

Maybe I feel this way because I don't have good restriction yet, so while I am losing now ( slowly) there is a lot of willpower involved and I know from the past, my willpower won't last. Maybe with my tool of the band working, I would be able to acheive and maintain a normal weight.

That still seems impossible and incredible to me. But after being overweight for such a long time, why wouldn't I be skeptical?

I'll re assess- my final goal weight once I start to get restriction.

There is no reason for rebound weight gain if you have changed your lifestyle.

In my 18+ months at goal weight, I have never gained more than normal monthly Water weight (a whopping 2 lbs most months that is gone within a couple of days)

With a good lifestyle change, staying at goal weight without a rebound is realistic.

Hi,

Jachut and Chickie, you two are a real inspiration! I have been reading your posts faithfully since I joined this board, just before my surgery. Thus far, following your example of good old, "nose to the grindstone" hard work has been successful for me as well. Thanks to both of you!

Shortgal, my goal weight is approximately 20 pounds heavier than I was in college, so I feel it is realistic. The way I set my goal was based on the average weight of ladies who are in my age group, my height, and who look the way I want to look.

When I started this band journey, I too felt a bit overwhelmed by the length of the path in front of me, but now being just past the halfway point, I really feel that my goal is firmly within my grasp.

The only real question mark for me at this point, is how much longer it might take to reach my goal. I am shooting for one year "bandiversary," but I don't consider my rate of weight loss to be entirely within my control, therfore I am prepared to reevaluate this goal as needed.

Have a great day eveyone!

Crazy Ates February Exercise Challenge

3/28 Exercise Sessions

Banded 8/07/07 Dr. Miguel Zapata, Monterrey Mexico

I did look up the BMR charts as Jachut suggested and found that the difference between maintaining 125 vs 140 is about 100 calories a day.

That is good to know, because I can wrap my brain around that and make better choices when I am in maintenance.

I think not having good restriction at this point, is making me feel I could easily lose the control I'm using now, to continue to lose. Perhaps if the band is working for me, I'll feel that I can acheive and maintain a normal weight.

I guess I still have a lot of the old fat lady thoughts still in my head, but I'm still early on in this journey. I will definitely re-evaluate my goal weight as I get closer to it!

Restriction is first goal!

Chickie: It is very reassuring to know that you went from 297 to 107 and are able to maintain that. I'll need to stop this negative thinking!

Banish those old lady fat thoughts. Sorry for the tough talk back there, but the BIGGEST hurdle in this weight loss thing is putting an end to all the excuses and self justifications that make us fat in the first place. I dont know if its a chicken and egg thing but its a peculiar mentality that we all seem to share. Its the hardest thing of all to do.

Shortgal, you're not allowing for how much easier a lapband makes that task. Perhaps you havent gotten your head around it yet? But it really, truly makes it quite realistic and easy to have a BMI in the low 20's. Nobody's putting a figure on what you personally should weigh either, your goals as a menopausal woman are indeed different to mine at 40 and mine at 25 would have been different again.

Nothing makes me more frustrated than to hear people give up before they've even started. They read the statistics and think "hey, well I can only expect to lose 60% of my weight and then I'll rebound some" so they just accept that. Truth is, those stats are what they are because of the high rate of non compliance, medical problems such as slippage and erosion, lack of exercise and failure to change the lifestyle. For a normal person, even those of us older than 25, it is not at all unrealistic, if we want to do a few basic things such as eat well and exercise, to expect to be a NORMAL weight. There is no need to set a high goal weight unless you seriously want to weigh that bit more - for example when you are older you may find you look better with a tad more weight on you.

And I think many doctors ought to be shot. Where do they get off telling you those statistics and then not going on to say that if you do the right thing you'll blow them out of the Water?

If people want a magic pill that means they can eat what they want and not gain, well it DOES exist. Its called exercise. Within reason (if I ate an entire cheesecake a day, I would gain weight) I truly do not even have to THINK about what I eat on a daily basis, I eat what what I want and I dont gain. I've never ever been like that in my life before, exercise has totally changed how my body works and my trusty lapband has totally changed my appetite.