Ideal weight

Was looking at the post up planning calculator and weight loss numbers. It has an ideal weight listed for my height. I have seen on other places calculations of normal weight for my height. Question, with VSG have any of you hit and maintained your ideal weight number or a number in the normal range? I am struggling to lose even one more pound at the one year mark. I am not far from the ideal weight number, 8 pounds more. I just barely fall into the normal BMI chart now. I didn't know it but just checked, and wow. Another achievement. But would like to know how sustainable and achievable being at ideal and keeping at that level can be.

Well, I'm not very far out and I was a lightweight when I started (36 BMI at surgery), but I'm maintaining about 20lbs less than 'ideal weight'. I'm 5'7" tall and all the calculators came in somewhere around 147lbs which was a 23.5 BMI. I maintain around 125-130 and a 19 BMI.

I think this was easier for me because I started out at a lower weight, to begin with. I lost those 100lbs in the first 9 months (I was at 'ideal weight' by 5.5 months, I've been this weight pretty much since October) when my restriction was greatest. I can eat a lot more now and so maintaining it includes a lot of willpower to not EAT ALL THE THINGS.

My hope is, even if I have that inevitable regain that people talk about (which I'm not sure I agree with when it comes to VSG because we don't have malabsorption to lose) that I will be able to stay at/below 'ideal weight'.

As a note, I track every.single.bite that crosses my lips and have for 465 days straight. I weigh and measure my food 99.9% of the time (with the 0.1% being when I'm out of the house for meals). I don't bring trigger foods into the house and I set hard rules for what I can/cannot eat. I don't eat bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, etc. There have been indulgences occasionally, but there are certain foods I just don't eat: pizza, pasta, donuts, cookies, etc. Right now I'm doing Keto, but generally, I keep my carbs low (but not Keto low) and my protein high and add extra calories from fat. When not Keto I eat a lot of whole fat greek yogurt and I have one protein bar as a 'treat' per day, with a hard rule of not eating more than one.

As you can see, rules work for me - so really it's about finding the thing that works!

I don't put a lot of stock in those charts. Neither does my surgeon. I've lost over 200 lbs. I am down to bone and muscle and some loose skin, and not even a lot of that. My BMI is 35. It is 35 in this picture, taken just a couple weeks ago. That means obese according to the chart. On paper I will always be fat. In person, no way.

I just checked it out and it puts my ideal weight for 5'3" at 130, or a 23 BMI. Since there is no other information included in the calculation other than height this is only an average, just as BMI is which is why BMI is categorized into ranges (different bone and muscular structure would change it). I find my ideal weight to be 115-118, which was confirmed via a Dexa scan whi*****ludes the other components of body structure.

Where did the DXA scan put your body fat? I just had another one today and I'm at 17.5% and my ratio to lean muscle puts me only .04% over the "Severe fat deficit" category. For a woman I have a bodybuilder body fat range, but um...I don't lift weights (much).

That seems like an unhealthy place to be. Are you still menstruating?

Yeah, I agree. I had a uterine ablation June 2017 so I don't have a period anyway. I honestly thought given I just got back into working out after plastics and that I've been adding in more calories that it would higher than last time. I'm about the same weight, but maybe the extra skin before plastics inflated the total?

When I had it done last summer, I was 24% body fat, which was just below the normal range for my age (62 at the time). It is likely to be pretty close to the same as I haven't changed my weight much (though I walk more).

I had surgery in February 2017, have had a normal BMI since September, reached my goal in November (BMI 23), and have been at or under that ever since (BMI 22-23). While I'm sure that BMI charts don't fit some people, I think sometimes people can't envision themselves any lower and are happy enough to not be at their high weight anymore so they stop losing. A normal BMI is sustainable if you want it to be.

I go back and look at pictures of myself when I hit a normal BMI and I remember thinking I would probably stop soon and I laugh at that now!