Comments

You know when I started my weight loss journey I knew I was going to hear all kind of comments about how good I look and the questions about how much weight have you loss total. Being a little more than 1 year and almost three months since beginning my journey. The comments I seem to hear a lot now is  you look great but how much more weight do you plan to lose,  and you cannot afford to lose too much more weight.  Now, I do not let these comments get to me much but they do get you thinking about your goal. We all have different goals in our weight loss journey. I know my own goal is to get my BMI into the healthy range, which for someone who is 5' 9" that is 175 lbs and I am not far from reaching that goal. My long range goal is to get to 165 and maintain my weight +/- 5 lbs.  I know that if I get too much lower than 165 lbs I will look ill or sick. I have gotten down to 152 lbs many years ago when I was in the military and almost ended up in counseling because the way I looked back then. I am a big boned and know that I need to stay within the upper portion of my BMI healthy range. I do believe I look good and I am fine where I am at in my journey but again I set a goal. I am commented to reaching that goal no matter what others think or believe. I still have one doctor who is worried that I may end up losing to much weight is monitoring my weight loss, but you know it is what I pay him to do. However, I also watch everything I do and recently had some blood work done because I changed my vitamin plan up.  The lab work showed my new vitamins I am taking and the way I am taking work for me, but it also showed that something like a sinus infections can have a big affect on me as a liver test came back slightly elevated and my CO2 level was high.  Looking at what affects those test areas I believe I may not be getting enough fluids in for me.  So, I have to really focus on getting even more fluids in daily.  I will be honest, I do not focus on the scale nor do I weigh myself every week. I follow the plan I was given to follow after my surgery and do not plan to change it until I reach my goal. Once, I reach my weight loss goal then I will switch my efforts to maintain my new goal which is to maintain my weight within the band I set for myself.  I guess my question is has anybody changed their goal based on the comments of friends and family? I am commented to my journey and maintaining my healthy lifestyle. I am also commented to my goals as I believe they are realistic and I will still look great with my weight that low.

I changed my goals based on comments. The reality was that after years of being SMO, I didn't have a very good idea of what a normal weight should be for me. BMI's are almost (notice the term almost) for people that have been morbidly obese for a long period of time. Excess skin, the weight of your bones, etc just don't really make it a good fit. My original goal was 175 (i'm 6'1''). Then as I got close I raised it to 185...when I got there, people thought I had some type of disease. I mean they'd stop my wife and ask her what was wrong with me ...sometimes complete strangers would say I looked sick. So I regained a bit of weigh and settled at 195. It works ok for me.

A lot will depend on how much you work out, how long you've been obese and how much excess skin you are totting around. Although I wouldn't base my goal weight exclusively on what people are saying, because sometimes those around us have a very skewed view of us...I mean my family was telling me to stop losing at 300 lbs..no ...no thank you. But at the same time, sometimes we are missing the fact that a low weight makes us look ill.

I hope my ramble helped.

Scott

I changed my goal myself, but never got to it...was within 15-20 lbs. of it.  I would listen to my dr.  Your dr. is not going to let you get to an unhealthy weight.  Also, listen to your ownself. 

Karla

I thought more about the question I asked gave it some serious thought before reading the responses.  I did not even bother figuring in the excess skin. Now, I do not have a lot but people will be surprised as how much even a little excess skin weighs. I know when my wife had her breast reduction I was amazed as how much the tissue weighed that was removed, which to the human eye was not that much. I believe that is part of the reason I am not to majorily concerned and I am comfortable with where I am at. I do believe to get a more accurate of how much I truly weigh I need to have the excess skin removed, which for me currently is one more year and I still need to steady out my weight. I have listened to the advice on the board about plastic surgery and I am planning based on the advice I have received. I am going to approach a plastic surgeon though this year to start the process of lining things up both finding a experienced one with experience surgical weight loss patients and finding out the total cost of the procedure that will work best for me.

What I find funny about the comment when I started this journey I never thought I would have people concerned about losing too much weight. I figured I would have a tougher time losing weight even with having surgery to help, but I still consider myself still new to this all with only being a year and a coupple months out. I know the journey is a for a lifetime and that I believe is why many people have trouble with losing weight and maintaining. The journey to stay in control of ones weight and life is constant.  It does not stop when we reach a goal or some pre-determined number.

I agree with BMI and fact many experts believe BMI to be a inaccurate means of determining whether or not someone is at a healthy weight. However, it is the best tool currently available for everyone to use. I do believe BMI should play a role in setting a goal but I do believe appearance is important as well.  As I stay I am commented to my goal because I know that for my body structure below 160 lbs I look sick.

Believe me I know my doctor will not let me get to a unhealthy weight, which is why he is seriously monitoring my weight; however, that is a concern of my wife'sthat I will continue to lose weight because there are days when I do have trouble eating. I tell her not to worry that I have my good days and my bad which cancel each other out in the end.  The other trouble I am sure to run into is I am slowly increasing my exercise and still believe I do not do enough. I will have to adjust my meal plan to help maintain my weight. I guess what I should be focusing on at this point in my journey is trying to maintain a good weight for me and eventually scheduling to have plastics done to remove excess skin to find out where I am truly at weight wise. Believe me, I would not be surprised if I am not already at my goal and do not know it because of the excess skin.  Like I said I do not let the comment get me down but I do listen and reflect on them because they do factor into journey. Thank you for the advice and encouragement because it doe help a lot in the journey I have undertaken for a lifetime.

Michael

Good Morning!

I agree with Karla.  Your body will tell you where you need to be. Most importantly, it's how you feel about yourself.  When I was still in Plano, probably a year out, a girl who worked with my cousin, said she had seen me at the grocery store.  Her comment was " I saw Nina, she looks bad, she looks old and sick."  Select people know of my WLS, so I thought it was funny at the time. 

I wish you much luck in your journey, congrats on your accomplishments!