It's not pound, it's percentages

Oringinally written by a member of this forum who is no longer a member and it can be found at DSFacts. I hope they don't mind me reposting it here as many people here seem concerned they aren't losing FAST enough.

http://www.dsfacts.com/weight-loss.html

 

If you are a member of any surgery support forums you will probably be comparing your weight loss with others. As we said above, in the first 3 months you can lose anywhere between 40 to 90 lbs. That is a very big range. Unfortunately the people on the lower end of that range feel they are not losing as quickly as they should and compare themselves to others who are losing on the high end. Everyone in that range is losing what their body is capable of losing. Don't get discouraged if you are on the lower end of the range, accept that this is how your body needs to lose the weight.

It's not POUNDS, it's PERCENTAGES!

by Carolyn M.

Two people, both 6 months post-op. One has lost only 63 pounds and feels bad about her "slow" weight loss. The other has lost 96 pounds and thinks she's doing great.

They are both wrong.

Person A had only 105 excess pounds, so she has already lost 60% of her excess weight. She is actually ahead of the game at 6 months out and is on track to lose it ALL.

Person B had 265 excess pounds. At 6 months out she has only lost 36% of her excess weight. At this rate, she will end up retaining 28% of her excess weight, enough to keep her in the obese category.

See what I mean? Don't compare pounds to pounds, that's like apples and oranges.

Percent of excess weight lost: pounds lost divided by total excess pounds
Use a BMI of 25 as a goal weight

On track to lose it all is 25% lost after 2 months, 50% after 6 months, and 80% at one year.

Please note: These are averages. Your mileage may vary.

Excellent point!  Why is she no longer a member?

I don't know. I just know she isn't.

Thank you very much for posting this.

You're welcome. Just saw so many here going crazy with the "why aren't I losing enough weight" posts so I figured we needed it.

Thank you, this is very helpful!  

Do you know how we count this - is it TOTAL weight loss, or do you ignore the pre-op loss and start with the immediate pre-op weight and only count what's lost since surgery?  It makes a pretty big difference for me - depending on how I calculate it, I've lost either 29% or 39% of my excess weight. Either way I'm happy (5 weeks post-op), but I'm kind of curious because it seems that this would be a good way to gauge my progress as I go.

You can decide either way. But I would follow how your surgeon does it. Is he going from your surgery weight or the weight he signed you in at? Liz