4 months in

Good Morning and Happy New Year to you all! So im almost 4months in and I've lost 55lbs! Is this the normal range of weight loss for most people? I understand everyone is different.

It totally depends on many factors. A big part is your starting weight. For example, I weighed a full 100 lbs MORE than you at my time of surgery and at four months out I had lost 100 lbs. I had a LOT more to lose. From your ticker, it looks like you are halfway to your goal at four months out. Which is great! You should feel very encouraged, and keep up your new lifestyle to get to goal. Weight loss definitely slows as time goes on, so you can't expect to lose another 55 lbs in the next four months, but with hard work and dedication, I bet you could reach goal before your one year surgiversary!

100lbs, that's amazing, Congratulations! People at the support group mentioned something very similar to what you said about starting weight playing a big part but they didn't do as well as you did.

Thank you, I'm super excited about the amount I have lost and I don't weigh myself often because of the slow downs, I don't want to stress myself with that. I hope you're right and I reach my goal before one year. I've been doing super good with eating, avoiding soda and hitting the gym.

At 4 months I had lost 70 pounds and I had surgery weighing just 5 pounds more than you, but then again I have seen people who only lost maybe 40 pounds at 4 months. It really does vary a lot. I can't imagine you'll have any issue reaching your goal (I see 160 pounds on you ticker?) by one year. I hit 160 at 6 months, so you should be golden.

What the other poster said was right though, things do slow down and get harder the further along you are. But then again that didn't really hit me til I was at 150, so if you're planning on stopping at a higher weight, you may not even have to worry about that really!

Regardless it looks like you've done great and I'm super happy for you! Best of luck in this new year and hoping 2019 brings you your weight loss goals.

you and dcgirl have blown my mind, so proud of you guys success.

People in my group sessions haven't really lost much. There is only one other person that lost alot, she lost 60lbs within three months. She was also my starting weight, well 253 to be exact but she's shorter than me so she had a higher BMI, not sure if that played a part in it. The others are in the 30-40lbs range but are 6-9months in. We also have a girl that lost 200lbs but that was 4years ago and shes managed to keep the weight off so we all hope to be her (and you guys) one day.

Are you going to continue towards your goal or stay where you currently are? I have a question, initially I wanted to reach 120-130 which is what I weighted at 21 but a friend of mine said you have to aim higher because it won't look the same as it did before you had the surgery. She said I would look sick at 120-130 now versus then. Do you think there's some truth to that? And thank you for the well wishes, I really hope I have the success story most of you have had.

that, too, is going to vary a lot with people. You'll know when you get there. You might look sickly - but then again, you might look fine...

I wonder if the reason some of the people in your group haven't been having as quick weight loss is because nutritionists often push a much higher calorie range than vets on here recommend. :/ It's a thought

Anyways, I am certainly going to try and continue to lose to goal. If I feel like I look too sickly at a lower weight, I can always gain the weight back easy, we all know how to do that all too well lol On the other hand, trying to lose more weight after the honeymoon phase, much harder.

That was pretty funny, I hope I (we) don't gain our weight back.

The nutritionist doesn't push much when it comes to calorie intake, their main focus is protein and as I said before, they want you to have meat not the protein shakes. I still have the protein shakes after speaking to many people on here that said they did it and it was fine. I still find it pretty hard to eat much of anything.

No, I don't agree that you will look sickly at 120-130 lbs. Many people may give you "advice" and tell you you're too skinny or to stop losing weight. Don't listen to them. Why? Because 1) most people don't know what healthy or slim (not skeletal) weight actually looks like (this has been proven in many different studies), and 2) they may be used to you as their fat friend/colleague/family member so may not want you to change size because of their own issues.

Instead, try to lose as much weight as you can during the honeymoon period as you may have bounce back. It is also not uncommon to look skinnier in years 1-2 but then fat may redistribute and you'll look just fine. Stay the course and don't listen to anyone else.

Now is the time to develop healthy eating habits that will work for you long-term...the rest of your life. People that regain do so because they stop following recommended ways of eating and haven't addressed their food addiction issues.

I didn't think of it that way but you're probably right. Everyone that knows me knows me as fat and even now I get the comments that I'm getting too skinny. I don't look too skinny at all right now. I look slightly healthier with fat that still needs to be worked on.

I will get to 120-130, it's honestly where I truly wanted to be in the first place. I was letting the advice/comments control my thoughts. I was even thinking how would I slow the weight loss down once I hit 150-160. As Hailey said, I could just try to regain if I look sickly.