I have a question about setting short term goals. I find that I do very well when I have something to work towards and I'm wanting to start setting short term goals for my weight loss to encourage me to stay on track. I was banded on June 9th and have lost 10 lbs. I know that the weight might slow down and I don't know what is a realistic time frame for me to get under 200lbs. I'm 229 now. Any ideas on how to set realistic goals? Do you go by the average 1-2 lb/week that is stated by the doctors or do you go by your past weight loss after getting the band or what?

I have a question about setting short term goals. I find that I do very well when I have something to work towards and I'm wanting to start setting short term goals for my weight loss to encourage me to stay on track. I was banded on June 9th and have lost 10 lbs. I know that the weight might slow down and I don't know what is a realistic time frame for me to get under 200lbs. I'm 229 now. Any ideas on how to set realistic goals? Do you go by the average 1-2 lb/week that is stated by the doctors or do you go by your past weight loss after getting the band or what?

I am soooo glad you asked this question! I was wondering the same thing. I was banded on June 10th and have lost 9 pounds since surgery. I am at 223 right now we are basically right there together!

Just a thought. What do you want your goal weight to be? When would you like this? Maybe you can take the 85 lbs. and divide it by the number of weeks you have to get to your goal date. Example: loose 85 lbs by June 2009. That's 50 weeks from now. Loose 1.7 per week or 6.9 lbs per month and you'll reach goal by June 2009. BEST of luck to you!!

I try not to give myself time goals. I pick a weight (my first mini goal right now is 298, which for me is 30 pounds and under 300) and shoot for it. How about siging up for some of the weight loss challenges on here? I think the newest is Labor Day. With that in mind, I would think 2 pounds per week at this point since surgery would be a good start. And if you lose more, all the better!!

I would focus on 1 to 2 pounds per week (use the lower end if you have a harder time losing weight). Recognize that some weeks you may lose more and others you may lose less. Some weeks you may even gain a pound or two. Try not to get too hung up on the scale. Just follow the instructions your doctor/nutritionist gave you by focusing on the new way of eating and other lifestyle changes. If you do that, the weight will come off. As part of your goal setting, you may also want to include some non-scale victories (NSVs). Those are actually more fun to achieve in my opinion! Good luck!

carrie - i always work in increments of 10lbs. first goal, get out of the 190s, then 180's, 170's - & so on. it was relatively easy to work with 10lbs for me, VS the 80lbs i want to loose all at once. in all, it manages to be around the 2lbs per wk that was recommended by my Dr. some wks i'd loose 3, some 1 - some i just stay the same...good luck to you!