Surgeon's goals

I see so many  people posting about reaching their surgeon's goal.  I was never given a goal to work toward, and now I'm wondering if I should have one.  How do the surgeons calculate your goal weight?  I think I read somewhere that we can expect to lose 65% of our weight - not too sure what this means.

They didn't give me a goal weight until my last visit which was my 9 month post-op and then they told me I had reached it. It was a % of my overall excess weight from my pre-surgery weight.  I don't remember what the actual % was but they told me that they didn't want me to lose anymore weight. I'm just inside the "normal" BMI range so it doesn't give me much of a safety net. I'm working on maintaining now without gaining, but if I lose a couple more pounds I'll feel a bit more secure in case I do have that dreaded gain back in a year or so.

I asked Dr Hagen at my one month post op meeting and he told me that they calculate 75% of your excess body weight that would take you to a normal BMI. That is the surgeons goal.

I wasn't given a goal either.  I have one of my own, but nothing 'medically approved'.  I figure as long as I'm below 26/27 BMI, I'm good with that.  I doubt I'll reach 25 ('normal') but it's worth a shot!

I was never given a goal either.  My current goal is 10 lbs above the "normal" BMI category.  I'm 7+ months out and my weight loss has slowed quite a bit already, but if I make it to 160 I just might readjust my goal by 10 lbs and try to make it to "normal".

My surgeon gave me a goal at my 1 month check up... but only because I asked.  He said he would like me to get down to 200 lbs, and that 180 would be "a home run".  Gotta love the baseball analogy.  Personally, I was thinking that 150 would be a good number, but I kind of like having these "mini goals" along the way.

I still have a long way to go til I get to the first goal, and I find that my weight loss is somewhat slower than most people, but I am trying hard not to compare.  The scale is definitely not my friend - I can have up to a 10 lb variance, depending on whether I take my water pills or not.  That is enough to drive you crazy!

Since I have been overweight all my life, I have quite an assortment of personal weight goals in my future.  I am now at a weight that is lower than when I had my daughter 31 years ago!.   My next mini goal is for when I had my son... then looking forward to being the weight I was when I started university, etc... I'm trying to think of when I probably weighed 150 lbs (my goal)... I think I probably was in grade 5 or 6.  Wow...

Linda C. 

As far as the surgeon and hospital are concerned for statistical purposes, you're a success if you lose and maintain a loss of 50% of your excess weight. That means if you had 100 pounds to lose to get to a normal BMI, you would be considered a success if you lost 50 pounds and maintained that loss.

Statistically, you're most likely to lose and maintain a loss of 65% of your excess weight. Of course there are those that lose 100% of their excess weight, and those that fail at surgery and gain back all of it. This is not an individual prediction, just an average.

Aiming for a loss and maintenance of 75% of your excess weight sounds like a good and realistic goal - to maintain at 75% that means you will likely initially lose up to 85% or more of your excess weight and then bounce back a bit during years 2-5.

I went through Ottawa and was given 75% (gave me a BMI of 29.9) of the weight I needed to lose was considered a success. It basically is a BMI of less than 30. I have now reached that goal but would love to lose the other 25% (would give  me a BMI of 25). The dietitian (Josee) said there was no way a person could go that low, that it wouldn't happen. I guess I would settle for 150 lb.
Cindy

I don`t have a goal weight by the surgeon either.  I know that when I met with the nutritionist originally she calculated my excess weight and that I would be a success if I would weigh around 230 lbs.  It was a certain percentage of my excess weight.

I went through TWH and they did not give me a goal wt. They did ask what my goal was, I said 150 and not to physically hurt anymore. Think the % is more like 60-80% of excess body weight. and not total wt.Think we just need to be realistic in our personal goals as it all depends on our body structures too,