Weight loss at four(ish) years out

My fourth surgiversary isn't until March 2018, but I started the surgery process a bit over four years ago and I started in on lifestyle modification for REAL at the beginning of 2014. So I'm in that four-year time period and I wanted to share my experience with weight loss. I'll try to keep it brief.

I'm sharing this because I see a lot of comments that if you don't lose it in the first year, you won't lose it. Doctors say this - that you can expect to lose all the weight you're going to in the first year and then that's it. I see (and hear) people say, "don't waste your honeymoon period" and imply that if you don't reach your goal in the first year you're doomed.

I'm 5'4" and was 319 pounds at the beginning of 2014. This was my highest weight that I was aware of. I might have weighed more than this, but, if I did, I didn't step on a scale to know of it.

2014 - I started lifestyle modification at the beginning of the year and lost 27 pounds between January 1 and March 14 when I had surgery. In 2014 I lost 124.4 pounds total.

2015 - My dad's cancer spread to his brain, previous habits started creeping back into my life, weight loss slowed. In 2015 I lost 14.3 pounds.

2016 - My dad died, Binge Eating Disorder began to rule my life, but I sought diagnosis and medication. In 2016 I lost 8.4 pounds. (This is net loss. I gained weight during 2016, lost it, and lost 8.4 more pounds.)

2017 - While this year has been challenging due to college (finished my AA degree and started my BS!) and reconstructive surgeries (recovering from third and final one now), it has not been the complete emotional rollercoaster that 2015 and 2016 were. I attended bereavement group through the local hospice, I continued seeing my therapist on an "as needed" basis, I started going to a local professionally organized support group once a month, I exercised regularly for the first half of the year until surgeries waylaid mobility for the remainder of the year. In 2017, so far, I've lost another 24.2 pounds (skin weighs very little, so this weight loss cannot be explained away entirely by reconstructive surgery).

So I guess my point is, and what I want to try to convey to anyone reading this, is that you CAN still lose weight after the first year. The weight loss will probably never be as fast as it was in that first year without serious intervention, but the weight loss CAN continue. If you've stopped losing weight, or even gained weight, you CAN get back to losing.

Never let anyone convince you that whatever success you achieve in the first year is it and that you need to be satisfied with what you've lost by that point because it just is not true.

And if, like me, you get to the point where you find that your pre-WLS habits are taking control of your life, please, please, please seek professional help. You are worth it.

Gwen - thank you so much for your continued support and participation on this board!

Gwen, you have been such an amazing inspiration. Your honest, open and intelligent posts and replies have truly been appreciated. Like you, I am not done yet, I am a work in progress:-) It will be two years for me on February 9th. Congratulations on all of your success so far, you have worked so hard and have been diligent every step of the way.

Awesome post. I really needed to read this. I have a fear of failing at this weightloss thing (yet again). I know mistakes will be made, but I have to get back on track when they do. Thanks for sharing your experience.

We throw around two quotations in our household a lot. One is JFK's, badly paraphrased, "We do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard." And the other is from Batman Begins, "Why do we fall? So we can pick ourselves back up."

I'm sure there are people out there who never have any derailing in their weight loss. They get surgery, they lose weight steadily, they reach goal, and they happily maintain forever. I'm also sure (and was sure at the start) that this would not be my life - there are too many bumps in my roads. So I made a promise to myself that I would keep a vigilant lookout for signs of derailment so that I could course correct before I got too out of control. For me, that's a better promise than "never get derailed at all" as that would be a promise I already know I cannot possibly keep. So if I had made it, I would have failed, and then felt like a failure, and then.. actually really failed by not getting back on track.

Great way of thinking about things.

My Dr. said you will stop losing weight when you are ready to stop losing weight. If you don't follow the plan, make bad choices in food and activities, then you will stop losing weight. You follow the plan, make good food and activity choices you will lose weight. Im almost two years and I've gained some back but now I am losing again.

This is definitely the message we should be getting from our doctors.

Thanks for sharing this. Can you share your binge eating disorder elements and how was able to recognize this disorder? You had to go to s therapist? What did you do to go away fron it? Thanks

I ran across BED in a number of my textbooks which inspired me to do more research. The DSM criteria are listed on wiki and I met them all. My initial diagnosis was from my PCP, but now my medication (Vyvanse) is managed by my psychiatrist. I also see a therapist.

I doubt I will ever be "cured," but management is a wonderful thing.