"You're Done"

I'm 10 months out from my surgery date and have done well - 80 lbs down, and have been at this weight for about 2 months. I had a check in appointment and they told me I had reached my new set point and that basically I was done losing weight.

While Im happy with my loss, I was hoping to lose another 20 lbs. I'm not perfect with my diet but am on point most of the time and exercising 3 to 4 days a week, so I know there's room for improvement.

Has anyone been told this, or had a stall this for out for this long? I'm just wondering if I am "done", how realistic is it to expect to lose another 20, or will my body fight me to maintain at this weight.

Thanks

Set points are just nonsense. Cut some calories, get serious about weighing and logging every bite, and you'll lose your 20 pounds.

You may just have reached a point where you calorie intake matches what you're burning, so you're maintaining. If you want to lose more, like Grim said, you have to cut your calories by 500/day to lose 1 pound a week. That's just basic weight loss math.

If you do that, and get strict on your diet and tracking everything to ensure you actually are consuming 500 cals less a day, you should start losing again.

Good luck!

That's BS.

I just hit my surgery goal weight at 2 years, 3 months out. And I'm not done - new stretch goal already figured out and I am going to make it too.

I joined a gym in late December and spent the last 3 months weight training to build muscle and cut down more fat. And it's working. I watch what I eat and still track every bit, and cut the fat/carbs if they start creeping back up. But I am still slowly S-L-O-W-L-Y dropping the weight.

You may need to try some new things. Weight training is one of the best since lifting (and yes, lifting heavy when you can work up to it) will burn oodles of calories while building lovely muscle. And no, women do not get bulky when they lift weights; they lose fat and tighten up.

I do a great variety - swimming, walking, yoga, spin class, rock climbing, biking or (throwing this out there because it's something I recently added) disk golf, with more to be added as I find them.

You should also try doing a day or two of eating differently - if you usually eat low carb/high fat, try eating a meal or two with complex carbs like brown rice and beans, or adding a few hundred calories on the heavy exercise days, and then lessening your calories on other days.

And if you're not being "perfect" with your diet, why not try that for a few weeks? Even if you end up missing perfection, it likely will mean a renewed sense of what and how you're eating and might result in shaking things up enough to lose a few more pounds.

You've got lots of options really, just have to decide what might work for you.

But no, you're not done unless you stop trying. Body setpoint or not, all it takes is refocusing and working at it.

I thought I was done and satisfied at eight months, but stayed on my high-protein plan and lost another twenty-five pounds by month 18.

Weight loss slowed considerably and some months was only one pound lower.

I continued to eat no flour, bread, corn, sugar, rice, cereal, potatoes or sweets. Set points are simply your brain accepting a weight because it is easier than continuing to work at losing.

Thank you so much for the replies! I had suspected this but you know, they're supposed to be the experts (although I have learned some information given to me by my nutritionist that proved to be incorrect - especially around supplementation).

I love this community and trust those that have "been there done that".

Thanks again! I'ts 6:00 am and I'm off to the gym!

Ditto everything that Grim said.

In addition... when I had my 1-year followup my surgeon told me that I had almost reached his goal for me. His goal for me was 180. My goal for me was 120.

This ended up really screwing with my brain. "Oh, I've reached my surgeon's goal? I guess I can slack off. Maybe I don't really need to lose more weight." Do NOT fall into this trap. It's really hard not to give credence to things like this when they come from the surgeon.

You WILL keep losing weight if you work at it. Sure, it'll be slower, and you'll need to be dedicated instead of "not perfect with my diet but am on point most of the time."

It's taken me two years, but I've continued to lose weight since that 1-year appointment. Only ~20 pounds.... but I had some extenuating cir****tances due to my dad's cancer metastasizing to his brain, his subsequent death, and a reoccurrence of previously undiagnosed Binge Eating Disorder. So I actually hung out at 180 for a year, gained 10 pounds, and have now lost 30 in the last 9 months.

It can be done and, yeah, as Grim said, the set point stuff is BS. And my ultimate point was - don't let the surgeon telling you you're done screw with your brain like it did for me :D

I think for a lot of surgeons, you're considered successful if you lose at least 50% of your excess weight, and you've met goal if you've lost 70%. But there are lots of folks on OH who've lost more than that, so it's definitely possible!

I will never be done. I still have weight to lose.

Sad reality is the smaller we get, it often means being more diligent to get the weight off (I am speaking to myself here as well) yet the further out we are we want to slack off and have some wiggle room. You can wiggle a little on vacations when you get to your goal.....

20lbs is totally doable, the last 20 maynot come off as quickly as the beginning, but remember this is not a diet- it is our life now. So keep plugging away.

I always say too- examine you choices and change up your food a little, sometimes we get into a rut ....