How many hit ideal weight

ditto what everyone else said. that ideal weight thing doesn't really cut it. my doc said ideal is 150 for me but since i lift he said 170 would be better. well, i got down to 145 pounds! i stay at about 155-160 but i lift. i have a lot more mass and should really be heavier. i got sick and lost all my weight by seven months. my body seems to like being under 160 so i just let it be. you may be like me and find your body will just balance at some given weight. mine was under the docs number and turns out to be normal or a little heavy on the bmi but believe me, i don't look fat....lol. if you start to lift you will have a higher bmi no matter what so you may want to take my approach and go by inches instead of pounds. if i still fit in my 32's then all is well. if they get tight, i worry and do something about it. i try to keep things simple now! carbonblob

My WLS surgeon said I should be able to get to around 225 from 404 which he said would be my ideal weight loss -- give or take as all his patients are different.... 

I hit 225 months ago, and am now at 212..so I'm "below" my ideal weight by 13 lbs....and I'm now trying to get to 202....which'd be HALF of what I used to be.

It's a mental thing really, just for me. I'm so stinking happy at 212 that I dunno whether to **** or go blind...as granPa used to say.

To me, it's all in the head....

Jim

My Starting Weight was 385+(and 2 to 8 extra pounds depending on the day) I had a BMI on the Day of Surgery of 50.8 My "Goal" was to get to a Normal Range BMI- My weight for the past 3 1/2 years has been 179 to 183lbs. My BMI is 24. Yes it's just inside the "Normal Range," but it has been easy to maintain. For Me, it was a very realistic expectation And one that has been easy to maintain thanks to my WLS giving me the oppurtunity To totally make-over my relationship to food. Dumping allowed me to break from sweets, Without having to rely on will-power, (which had obviously not worked so well in the past [385+]) For me, It has been Great.  (once the rough part passed- *see Profile) The 70% is the average. Some will do much better, some worse. According to the survey of Bariatric Surgeons I presented at the Lexington convention for OH, Doctors claim that Men tend to lose quicker to their Goal Weights, Tend to do better at adding exercise to their new routines, And tend to have less compliance issues than their female counterparts. the 70% average, is derived from both sexes. Hope this helps... Best Wishes- Dx

 I am still disappointed (to put it mildy at times) at only reaching the 250s after almost a year and a half out.  I have since actually gained about 15 lbs. back.    I know I have been flamed by some of my fellow DSers for speaking out on this on OH, but so be it  ..  Technically I am still "obese", based on BMI, and look it.      The stats have now been pointed out to me to not expect to lose more than 75%-85% of excess weight from surgery, and I guess that is right, although I wasn't aware of that at the time of my DS  -- I assumed things would go just like with the rest of the DSers I had read about and I would reach goal weight (at least under 200 lbs. in my case) w. no problemos and everything would be happy and fine.  After surgery, I lost like 45 lbs. in the first two weeks, and 200 by less than 11 months out.  It just stopped almost dead in its tracks after that.  I technically need to be @ under 190 lbs. to no longer be "overweight", per the BMI charts.  I just don't see any of that happening now, absent some kind of revision.  PS will remove probably 20-25 lbs. or so of exceses skin.  I have heard that PS will also sometimes stimulate a loss of an additional 20-40 lbs. or so, but that will remain to be seen in my case.   I'm looking at options now, including a reduction in my sleeve size, possible placement of a Fobi type band on the sleeve, removal of my pyloric valve, or shortening of my common channel.  I do not want to live in this "twilight zone" of being stuck somewhere between "normal" and what I was before ..   &:-/)

Believe it or not my surgeon didn't really set a goal weight for me. At one point he asked me what I would like to get down to. I fold him that if I got under 200 I would be happy. At my highest weight I was 375+. I weighed 359 at my first visit with him. I weighed 324 on the day of surgery. My lowest weight is 165, when I weighed this week I weighed 168. I seem to do the 2 to 3 pound bounce. I stayed at 175 to 180 for a while it seemed and then I joined a fitness club and have really started doing the cardio and dropped to 165. My goal now is to stay where I am. I feel that if I really wanted to I could loose more, but I think I am where I want to be. I am going to a Plastic surgeon in Feb just for ****s and giggles. I want to see what it would cost to get a few nips done. I have gone from a 54 to 34 jeans and from XXL to medium shirt. If I would have the hanging skin removed I would probably get down to a size 32. pan head

My Dr. told me that it would have health issues (absorbtion, etc.) if I hit "ideal". I am 6-3, large frame... when i was 20 playing ball in school, running 8 miles a day I was 240. I started this journey at 349, and am 245 right now... My Dr's Goal is 210, my personal goal is 199. But my Ideal weight is 176. I was a rail in Grammar school, I was 6-3 in the 8th grade... Played in 3 different basketball leagues... and was still 191. I don' t think ideal is realistic for me.

Duke did not set a goal weight for me I was at 460lbs with a BMI of 58. I was 6'3" with a 58 inch waist. I lost 241lbs over about 14 months and settles out at 219lbs where I vary 3-5 pounds during the week. I now have a BMI of 27 with a 36inch waist. I spent many hours in the gym working out regularly and walked over 1000 miles in 2006 and about 750 miles of mountain and trail hiking this year. I am now at my high school weight and except for some loose skin, I'm looking pretty good these days. I feel 1000 percent better so I'm not concerned about my wiehgt number other than making sure I maintain by current 220lbs base. My doctors at Duke consider me one of their great success stories and I feel like one. I regularly talk with folks considering WLS at Duke and I am suppose to speak with a group of grad students in April about WLS and how my like has changes since WLS. My idea BMI 25 is 200lbs which I may get close to it if I have PS but that is not high on my priority list right now since I have a son starting college next year. My insurance does not cover PS unless you have a documented medical issue because of excess skin which I don't. I think if you follow the WLS program by the letter, take your vitiamans, eat right, educate yourself proper nutrition, exercise, attend support groups, and change your old bad habits into new healthy ones you have about a 90%+ chance at losing most or all of your excess weight and keeping it off long term. Everyone I have talked to that has been successful at this long term have followed that path. Good Luck...

Sidenote...Tim...you're looking good man! Congrats! and I LOVE that car!!!!

   Jim