<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p>This might sound silly but, I have always counted my weight loss based on my weight from surgery day, 342, not my all time high of 375 lbs. What did you decide to do? I know it doesn't matter as long as it goes, I'm just curious. Thanks<o:p></o:p>

</o:p>

i started on July 18 2007 optifast for two weeks and that morning i was 288.6lbs, :wub: ouch not a pretty picture that's for sure thats where i start counting down.

I took the # from my surgery date.

I list both in my stats because I want to track both. I lost 11 pounds before I made the decision to self-pay because insurance wouldn't cover it but I also want to track how much weight I lose with the help of the band.

I counted mine from the day I made the decision to band!!! I had been higher---and lower---but that day---the day I spoke to the Dr. about it, and come away with a surgeons name, I took the weight from my weigh in at his office. Everything since then has been with the band in mind, or in place working.

Kat

I only lost 6 pounds in the seven months prior to surgery through dieting with the nutritionist, so I must say that I counted what my "regular weight" had been for forever. It's where I felt I really started... :wub:

My doc has everyone lose 10% before surgery. I worked hard to lose those 27 pounds!!! So, I count them in, too.

I used my highest weight because that was the weight I was at when I began the surgery process.

I use my highest weight 317 lbs which was the weight I was when I was diagnosed with Diabetes. I had lost about 80 lbs and I was on a low dosage of my diabetes medication.

I needed to use a cpap machine to breathe and sleep at night.

As I have done before I started gaining the weight back. I had regained most of the weight and then when I reached 300 lbs maybe higher my scales wont go any higher my sugar was over 300 as well and I decided I needed to do something in order to keep living.

My pre surgery weight is 285 and that is a date I want to track because it is the beginning of my lap band journey.

At the time of this writing I am 217 lbs and am almost off my medicine. I no longer use the cpap machine.

So in my case both the highest weight and my starting surgery weight have equal importance to me.

I am using my weight that I weighed the first day I started my 2 week pre-opt liquid phase, which is the day I became VERY serious about losing weight for the first time in my life. I was higher than that start weight a year ago.

I used my weight from my first day on the pre opt diet , that's when I knew for sure this was weight that I was never going to see again.

I definitely count my starting weight, my highest because by golly if I lost it I'm counting it. The doctor, however, uses my day of surgery weight. This is because they are keeping track of weight loss with the lapband and if people are counting what they lost on their pre-op diet it isn't really telling them what happened with the band. It annoys me that they use a different number but I understand why they do it that way - it is for scientific purposes - for research reasons.

I used my highest weight, which was when I decided to have the surgery. By the time my date actually came up, I had lost about 13lbs. Since then, I'm now down a total of 55lbs!!! And I plan to drop another 40 more...depending on how I "look"...

I used my high weight, which was just a few weeks before surgery. It's only a few pounds different, but I like to count every last pound.

My highest weight and my surgery weight were the same so I didn't need to make that decision. However, my lowest I've ever gotten to in my adult life was 240, and I didn't really feel like I was losing weight until I hit that mark because, in my mind, I really shouldn't have been above there in the first place!

195 - highest weight, and my weight when I started the pre-op diet.

189 - highest weight measured doc's office and for insurance purposes.

** I use 195 as my starting weight when I measure my how much I have lost. Surgeon uses the lover 189 weight since that's what was reported to INAMED.