"When are you going to stop losing weight?"

Put on a skimpy bathing suit.  Take pictures of yourself from different views, without your head.  Ask yourself, if I saw this person waling down the street, would I think they are too skinny.  (Prob not)

When people you don't know say you look sick - you have prob lost too much.

Other posters have given great ideas for getting with friends and family to back off.  But understand, you have gone though a big change and it may take them some time to get used to the new you and the new you may bring up issues for them - but their issues are not your problem.  

You look great and I hope you have a great time in China. 

Love, love, love this! I actually just did a boudoir photo shoot. just for myself..... and I love every inch of me. Wrinkles and all! I look healthy and so happy. 

My surgeon had this big gala for his patients last December - just as I hit 145 - 20 pounds under my dream weight.  I bought a long gown for the gala - At The Rack for $67 - a size 6 designer Tahari.  Every month I put it on and take a picture of me in it - just to make sure I'm not backsliding.  (I missed one month when I had just had shoulder surgery - but still no harm). 

I'll have to work up the courage for the boudoir shot - I have been going swimming and wrinkles be damned - it's so much better than being a butterball. 

((( )))) With much respect.. i believe you're actually wrong about this.  Our overlarge skin ... combined with sudden weight loss CAN give a wrong first impression of illness when in fact it actually means HEALTH.

I would NEVER ask the uninitiated for an opinion on MY health

Nor will I willfully stop losing

I don't think you understood what I meant.  You were talking about people making unsolicited remarks to you and that is also what I meant.  I would not ask anyone either and I wasn't suggesting that you go up to a stranger and ask how you look - that would be ludicrous.  So, let me try to be clearer: When people you don't know come up to you on their own and ask you if you are sick - that is the time to check where you are (not necessarily stop losing, but do a check).

I totally agree - why would you ask a lay person who wasn't versed on WLS about your health??  Wouldn't even occur to me that anyone would think that.

Viewing a picture of myself helped me see myself objectively and I decided to adjust my goal downward and lost another 20-25 pounds under my dream goal.  

You'll know when your body gets to its happy spot.  

I was not aware you could set your own goal weight.  I had bypass done 7 days ago today.  My doctor told me I'd end up at about 160 which I think is still too high.  I'm 5'2.  I'm thinking more like 150.  I obviously have a very long way to go, but now I'm worried after reading these posts and the "Honeymoon" period that I won't be able to keep it off.  If that's the case, then I may as well have just gone back to weigh****chers.  What say you?

With WLS, you still have to be good about what you eat.  The people who put the weight back on usually start eating like they did before surgery.  There is no magic involved, so if you go back to your old way of eating, you're going to gain it back.

Stick with the program, cut out the crap foods, stay within your calorie limit and you should do good. 

I have to admit about a week out after surgery I had similar thoughts. Then at about 2 months my weightless slowed down and I panicked! "What was I do wrong?!" I kept seeing a nutritionist and followed up with my primary. I started to loose weight again at a more steady pace and have been. Just keep track of what you are eating and how much activity you are doing. As for weight loss goal. My experience with my surgeon, nutritionist, and primary provider have all left it up to me. They have given me guidelines for ranges my weight should be based on my height but have all reminded me its up to my comfort zone and what I am happy with. I was obese my entire life. By the time I was 12 I was close to 200. So this is all new to me. I was afraid that loosing the weight would make me more insecure about myself and maybe even sabotage myself but loosing the weight has actually had the opposite effect and I have become so much more outgoing and confident. 

Congrats on your lifestyle choices!!! 

Thank you.

I think that sometimes the docs don't want to over sell the surgery and so they give you a safe number.  He will prob not mind if you get down to 150, but he can't promise you that. 

I am 18 months now, and I am concerned about regain -but not having the surgery was not an option for me.  Only 3-5 % of the people keep a large amount of weight off - after years of yoyo dieting, I knew that I was not one of them.  With WLS, ~75% of the people keep at least 50 pounds off, with about ~25% keeping almost all of it off, and only ~25% regain it all by the 4-5 year mark.  WLS is no gaurantee, but odds of success are vastly increased.

Yes, I have to use all the skills I learned from decades of conventional dieting - labeling reading, portion control, developing non-eating responses to stress, etc. - but now I have a much better chance of keeping it off.  Some people write that they do go back to WW or OA for support. If an hour meeting once a week would help me, I'd be the first to sign-up.

Also, as I have maintained (for about 6 months) and worked through some major traumas, I am less paranoid about regain, and maybe now only super vigilent. (The paranoid feeling really wasn't working for me - super-vigilent is better.)   For me, the honeymoon phase is the time to really get your new behaviors cemented in place - exercise that does not seem like drudgery, foods that work, drinking enough fluids, being willing to make adjustments, etc. 

It maybe too soon, but there will come a time when you know for sure whether you really needed the surgery or not, even if keeping the weight off takes some effort in the out years.  It hit me about the 1 year mark when I reached my goal weight and for the first time I wasn't so diet fatigued that I just started putting the weigh back on.  

Best wishes for your first year!