Question

It's funny that you should mention reading so much.  My husband is so sick of all the books I have laying around.  I have a biography, many cookbooks, a book written by a doc.  I have printed out everything from my surgeon's program and gone over it with a highlighter and pen - several times.  OCD can pay off ;)

Thanks so much for your other suggestions.  I'll try to remember to be more specific with my posts.  I guess people are more apt to skim over something vague, huh?

I picked a number that was on the high side of normal based off of the bmi chart. My Dr is happy for me to get in the 180's which is the high side of overweight accd to the bmi chart. So while I met his goal I figure I'd go for mine & then I'll re evaluate once I get there.

I should figure out what my weight I'd have to be for a "normal" BMI.  Thanks for the suggestion!

My surgeon does not give goal weights but he does want his patients to get under a BMI of 30. My original goal was to get to a normal BMI, which for me was 159. Personally, I wanted to get to 140 pounds because it was the weight I felt good at when I was in my 20's (I was 42 when I had my RNY). I reached my goal and am currently below it at 7.5 years out.

Congratulations on your success!  Thanks for sharing your story :)

I am pre surgery, but my Nut. said that I need to be at 137 which is half way the distance in the charts for a person that is 5'2"!!!!  I am currently at 300 down from 335, I am not sure if this  going to be attainable but I am surely going to give it a good try!

Do you have a surgery date scheduled?  What type of surgery are you having?  It seems like setting an attainable goal is a good idea, but figuring out that balance between realistic and over-shooting seems really difficult to me, you know?  I want to reach for the stars but not make them so far out of the galaxy that I wind up feeling like a failure.  Thank you for writing!

I don't have a date yet, they said probably in June. I am going to the RNY you can lose the most weight  with it, I also have Diabetes and thats my best shot of putting that into remission.  I was probably 5 years old when I weighed 137...lol  it doesn't seem possible but I will do everything in my power to try and achieve it.  I am 59 years old so we will see!

My goal weight has changed several times since I started thinking about WLS. When I was at my heaviest, I thought I would be happy just to get back into 'onederland' again, but set what I thought was a nearly unachievable goal of 165lbs, the same weight I was at 15 years old and very athletic. My doctor had casually thrown out the number 150, saying that if I stuck to my guns I ought to be able to get there by my 1 year mark. I balked at that, thinking there was NO WAY I would ever weigh 150lbs, considering that my lean body mass before surgery was 147 lbs - how could I possibly get that low?!

Well, my surgeon's offhand guesstimate was spot on - I am just past my 1 year anniversary and easily maintianing at 150lbs, and if I had a bit of plastics work done I'd probably be in the low 140's, which totally blows my mind. I never, ever in a million years thought I would be able to hit this weight! I stick to a variety of clean, whole foods, drink copious amounts of fluids, take my supplements and move my body as much as I can every day and while it hasn't been 'easy' I think I have done remarkably well in my first year. The true test will be if I can maintain this attitude in the years to come, since I still feel like I am basking in the afterglow of my 'honeymoon' period. 

WOW!  Congratulations on meeting your goal - and staying there!  The thought of being at 150 sounds so outrageous for me, but it sounds like it did for you, too.