How much longer will I lose?

I am a few days shy of my one year surgiversary.  I've lost 92 pounds so far.  I had a couple of end goals that I still want to achieve.  

1.  To reach normal BMI - which based on the BMI scale here, would be when I reach 154 pounds, or a loss of 18 more pounds.  
2.  My ultimate goal is to reach mid-point of normal BMI, that would be a loss of about 35 more pounds.

At this point I am still losing.  The past 5-6 months have been an average loss of 4-5 pounds per month.  Obviously the first 6 months were significantly more than that.

I guess my question is this - how much longer will I continue to lose with not much difficulty by doing what I am now?  (I'm getting my required protein, vitamins and water)  I've read some places that a year is the "honeymoon phase", others that it's about 18 months.  What are your experiences?

Thanks!

I had no problems losing or maintaining for the first 30 months.  It just depends on your body and when it stops malabsorbing. 

After 30 months any weight loss became extremely difficult.

Oh, that sounds great.  I realize everyone is different, but that makes me optimistic.  

White Dove,

     So at 30 months out what happened?  Did you have to lower your calories to maintain or to keep losing?  I am curious because I have hit my goal but feel like I need to get lower then that because people talk about about regain.  Any advice on what you did when it got harder would be great!

I remained at 128 pounds from month 18 to month 30.  I was eating about 1600 calories a day and exercising for an hour a day.  At my 2 year check-up my surgeon advised me to try to lose another 10 or 20 pounds while I was still in the honeymoon stage.  I did not try to do that.

At 30 months I had a five pound gain.  I gained five pounds a month until I was at 142.  Then I panicked, joined weigh****chers, added more exercise and stopped gaining but did not lose.  My nutritionist told me to stop drinking protein shakes.  I finally started losing when I went to 900 calories a day.

Every year I find I need less calories to maintain.  I am currently maintaining 131 pounds at 1200 calories a day. 

Oh Wow, good to know!  One more question why did the Nut say to stop drinking protein shakes?  And are you talking about premier protein ready to drink kind?  In an effort to lose below my goal I was thinking of drinking more protein shakes and eating less food so once again, I am curious!  I think either way if I dropped back down to 900 calories that might do the trick.  At 1200 calories I seem to maintain and at 1400 calories I start seeing the scale go up!  Crazy how a 200 calories in either direction makes such a difference.

Premier protein was not around then.  I was making my shakes from a mix.  My nutritionist said that drinking my calories would not keep me from being hungry. 

She said to stick to dense protein instead of shakes.  Shakes keep us from starving to death and let us get enough protein early out, but make it harder to lose when we are able to eat our protein.

I find myself able to maintain on fewer calories every year. 

Thanks White Dove!

I have been doing a protein shake every morning for breakfast since the beginning.  At first, it was all that I could manage to keep down in the mornings.  At this point, I do a shake on the way to work and then have a cup of coffee when I get there.  And by lunch time I am hungry.  I have never been a breakfast person, so it works well for me.  I'm hoping that it will continue to work for me as I get farther out, but time will tell.

You are only a year out.  I did the protein shakes for close to three years.

My surgeon from my RNY told me that I need whey protein. I love the injury the best. Love it too because last night I ran out of food and had two shakes. Thank you God

R