Question:
Is it possible to lose weight faster the less diets you were previously on?

I was curious. I see that some people lost a lot of weight extremely fast to the point that sometimes they are told to regain some weight. Some lose so slow that it seems to take the entire 18 mos to lose 100#. Although I have a diet history, nothing lasted more than two mos or so with only about 20-30# loss. The one that I'm on now is the longest (about 7 mos) and I lost only 17 # (I guess that shows how extremely vigilant I have been with dieting). I cut out sugar (I use splenda, drink crystal lite, sugar free deserts, etc). Is it possible that I could lose too much weight because I haven't done that much dieting in the past that my metabolism should still be relatively normal. Or could the opposite, since I didn't really do much dieting, that this surgery will more than likely fail. What has your experience been. I even had a personal friend who had the surgery and haven't dieted before. She went from over 300# to around 120#. I don't want to be that small as I've never been THAT small (well, maybe as a kid). I was thinking roughly 150ish, my surgeon says 142 (The last time I was even CLOSE to 140 anything was when I had the flu in the 10th grade lol). I looked sick too, what would an additional 20# loss do?! What are you experiences? Terri    — tinky471 (posted on August 23, 2003)

August 23, 2003
Remember, one of the advantages we have with WLS is that not all calories we are eating get absorbed...I have FINALLY met my goal (though now I've upped the ante some) of wearing a size 8 (weighing in at 148-150lbs.) and it's taken me 16 months...could I have done it without WLS? Heck no, I couldn't even get my 10% off key with Weight Watchers! The surgery won't fail you...trust us. We all have had the same fears...it may take a while,but trust us, you will lose most of your excess weight (unless you drown yourself in milkshakes! LOL)
   — rebeccamayhew

August 23, 2003
It seems like there are more people struggling with the last pounds than losing too little.
   — **willow**

August 23, 2003
It seems like there are more people struggling with the last pounds than losing too much.
   — **willow**

August 23, 2003
It seems like there are more people struggling with the last pounds than losing too much.
   — **willow**

August 24, 2003
I think you are right. I am on one heck of a plateau (since mid-May) and even had my resting metabolic rate checked. I exercise ever single day, walking every day and do weight training every other day and cannot lose one lousy stinking pound! I think it has something to do with past diets and a messed up metabolism. I did the Optifast program(12 week fast on protein)then refeeding. Twice. I essentially put myself into starvation twice. Not to mention all the diets I tried, including the "skip breakfast diet", "skip lunch diet", low-cal, low fat, low flavor - you name it, I probably tried it. I think I am paying the price for it now, even though those diets are 15-20 years in my past! I also think that people who have had a time in their past when they were a normal weight have a better chance of getting to goal. I have been fat since I was a little kid. I work with a woman who was normal sized, then gained up to 350lbs after her kids were born and her marriage went bad. She had surgery and got back down to a size 2, and has stayed there. I would like to lose another 40 lbs. Shoot, I need to lose 8 more lbs. just to get my BMI down to the "overweight" category!
   — koogy