Seeking advice/ideas!

Hey! I am new to this forum and wanted to ask a question. I am 5'8 275 pounds and have my VSG scheduled for January 30th 2018. Can anyone with stats similar to mine walk me through the amounts of weight you lost in a certain time frame.

Example: I am 5'7 and was 285 and I lost 20 pounds in thirty days, then 35 pounds in the next month etc.

Go to the OH Post-Op Planner and input your stats. After the first few months, when people seem to lose a lot, my surgeon expected me to lose at least 10 pounds a month.

Another way to look at it is on average, people seem to lose about 50% of their excess weight by the six month mark. For example, if your goal weight is 165, you have 110 excess pounds to lose so by the six month mark you should lose about 55 pounds.

Knowing how someone with similar stats did isn't going to be an indicator of how you will do. Plus, it can give you unrealistic expectations for your own progress. There are a myriad of factors that go into how much and how fast each one of us loses, including genetics and the diet/plan your surgeon has you on, which can be completely different from someone else's.

The best thing you can do is just make sure that you follow your surgeon's guidelines and don't cheat, get in all your liquids, and eat protein first. Some people lose slowly, others lose fast. But as long as you stay the course, you'll make progress! Best of luck on your upcoming surgery!

It is VERY difficult to compare yourself to others' journeys. Starting BMI will affect things, as well as other health situations. The post-op planner can give you an idea of what to expect in general, but other people's journeys won't necessarily reflect your own.

That said, don't expect to hear from anybody who lost 35lb in a month. Surgery doesn't work like that. Very generally speaking, people will lose quite a bit of weight in the first month (depends on starting weight, but something like 20lb is very common) before things slow down in week 3. After that, it's 1 - 2 lb per week, slow and steady, until you reach goal, with the loss slowing as you have less weight to lose.

A lot of people (like me) include their losing stats in their signature. When I was newly post-op I would look for people who were a similar height and starting weight to see what their progress was just to get an idea. In the end, your journey will be your own, but at least you can get an idea of the possibilities.

It is deceiving to compare how many pounds were lost. It is a bit more helpful to compare the percentage of EWL lost. Lightweights in general lose at a slower rate, super heavy weights post huge numbers comparatively. In the end the Ewl percentages tend to be a bit closer than the number of pounds. For example, I had 150 to lose... 15 pounds is 10% of the EWL. There was once several years ago I calculated a bunch of peoples ewl rate and found it to be fairly consistent. Somewhere in the archives is a thread on it. Search ewl perhaps to locate it.