Category: <span>Weight</span>

It’s close to 2 years since my Gastric Bypass surgery, and my initial weight loss after surgery was over 40kg (about six and a half stones). However, over the last year I’ve put nearly 9kg (nearly one and a half stones) of that back on!

My current progress

Looking at it one way, it’s good news – because I’ve only put on 9kg in a year, which is significantly less than I would have gained without the surgery. Without the surgery to limit what I can eat, I could have easily gained the full 40kg (and probably more) back within the year.

However, I’m not happy that I’m gaining weight again. I don’t mind a gain of one or two kilos, but 9kg is a lot. It has an impact upon my health, and my ability to live life to the full. It also means that I now have to buy bigger clothes again – having gone from 2XL to 3XL shirts.

The good news is that I’m still under the care of the bariatric team at St Vincent’s Private Hospital, and I’m due to have my 2-year follow-up visit in a few weeks. At this point of the journey the bariatric team would be looking to discharge me from their care, but I think I will have one last ask from them before I depart.

I want to see whether there’s any drugs out there that can help me lose a bit more weight – to at least take off the 9kg that I’ve regained. I know that there’s one or two options out there, and I also know that they’re hard to find and also quite expensive, but I want to give them a go.

I guess I’ll see what the doctors say.

Surgery Weight

It’s now around seven and a half months since my Gastric Bypass surgery, and so far I’ve lost a total of 40.3 kg (6 st 5 lbs).

And as of today, I’ve also dropped down into a new BMI category. My BMI this morning is officially 34.9, so I dropped from being severely obese to only being moderately obese! Or rather, I’ve gone from obese class II to obese class I.

BMICategory
Under 18.5Underweight
18.5 – 24.9Normal healthy weight
25.0 – 29.9Overweight
30.0 – 34.9Obese Class I (Moderately obese)
35.0 – 39.9Obese Class II (Severely obese)
40 and overObese Class III (Very severely obese)

On the day of my surgery my BMI was 46.3, so I was in Obese Class III – so I’ve come a long way since then. And hopefully it’s all improved my health!

My goal is to keep losing weight so that my BMI drops below 30, so that I’ll be in the Overweight category. And to do that, I need to lose about another 20 kg or 3 stones.

Surgery Weight

I had my first weekly weight gain today since my gastric bypass surgery 6 months ago in August.

The gain was only 0.6 kg (just over 1 lb) so it’s not huge. And from experience of losing weight in the past, I don’t think there’s anything to worry about.

I’ve found that my body weight fluctuates up and down on different days all the time. And that’s not because I’ve eaten more or less on a certain day, or exercised more or less. I think it’s just how the body works sometimes. It’s probably down to the amount of fluid in the body. But I’m not sure whether – as a man – I can make any claims about fluid retention!

I try to take a longer-term view on my weight loss. As long as the long-term trend is for my weight to be going down then I’m happy. Although, having said that, it’s hard not to be a little bit disappointed when I jump on the scales for my weekly weigh-in and find that I’ve gone up.

I didn’t do anything different this week in terms of what I ate. We did make homemade pizzas last weekend, but they were still quite healthy. I’ve also been tracking all my food in MyFitnessPal so I know that I’ve only been having between 1,400 and 1,800 calories a day.

Surgery Weight

It’s exactly five months today since I had my gastric bypass surgery, and my progress so far is that I’m down 33 kg (5 st 3 lbs / 73 lbs) from my weight on the day of surgery.

I’m really pleased with the weight loss, and I can definitely tell the difference. I feel a lot healthier than I was, and I am more able to do things than before. In fact I now seek out opportunities to exercise, which is something I would have always avoided in the past!

I’ve also dropped one or two clothing sizes, and I’m able to finally wear some of the clothes that have been languishing in my wardrobe for years waiting for me to lose weight.

In the first 3-4 months the weight fell off me quite quickly, although in the last few weeks that rate of loss has definitely slowed down. I suppose the Christmas and New Year period didn’t help, because I went a bit mad in terms of they type and quantity of food I was eating.

But, you know what? As long as my weight continues to go down – even by a small amount – then I’ll still be happy!

Ways to boost my progress

In the last couple of weeks I’ve managed to re-focus myself on my weight loss. For one thing, I’m now back to tracking everything I eat in the MyFitnessPal app. It’s a bit tedious having to enter everything, and work out quantities and portion sizes, but it helps me eat more consciously and make better decisions about what I do or do not eat.

I’m also trying to push myself more when doing out for my daily walk with the dogs. I want to get my heart rate up so that my Fitbit will give me lots of Active Zone Minutes. I have to walk fast enough so that I’m a bit out of breath to get my heart rate up enough – so I make sure to include a few steep inclines and sets of steps to get the heart pumping.

Surgery Weight

When surgeons talk about the expected weight loss outcomes of bariatric surgery, they talk about the expected percentage of loss of a person’s Excess Body Weight.

For instance, they will say that a typical Gastric Bypass patient can expect to lose 70% of their excess body weight after about 12-18 months.

That’s not 70% of their current weight, but 70% of their excess weight. But how does anyone calculate what their excess body weight is?

Well, I found out that it starts out with calculating my Ideal Body Weight.

Ideal Body Weight

The ideal body weight is meant to represent, as the name suggests, the ideal body weight a person should be for their height and gender.

Unfortunately there is not just one formula used for calculating ideal body weight. There are, in fact, at least five of them! And they all give a slightly different answer about what an ideal body weight should be.

I used this ideal body weight calculator to try and find my ideal weight, based on my height of 188 cm and my gender as male, and got the following results:

  • Peterson formula (2016) – 77.7 kg
  • Miller formula (1983) – 76.0 kg
  • Robinson formula (1983) – 78.6 kg
  • Devine formula (1974) – 82.2 kg
  • Hamwi formula (1964) – 85.8 kg

That’s a range from 76.6 to 85.8 kg – almost a 10 kg difference! So what is the correct value for ideal body weight?

Well to confuse things further, some people prefer to use BMI to calculate the ideal body weight.

BMI

BMI, or Body Mass Index, has a target range of between 18.5 and 24.9 defined for a normal weight. It’s calculated as weight divided by height squared – but you can use a BMI Calculator to do the maths.

For me the normal BMI weight range would put me between 65.4 and 88.4 kg – which I suppose more-or-less corresponds with the different ideal body weight calculations above.

Excess Body Weight

To calculate my excess body weight, I need to subtract my actual body weight from my ideal body weight. However, so far there seems to be no single value for ideal body weight I can use. All the different formulas give different results, so which value should I use?

Well I’ve decided to go with the most recent Peterson formula, as it seems to reflect the most recent thinking on ideal body weight, and for my purposes is based upon a target BMI of 22 that’s pretty-much in the middle of the normal BMI range.

The calculation for my Excess Body Weight is:

Weight on Day of Surgery (163.7) – Ideal Body Weight (77.7) = Excess Body Weight (86.0)

Expected Weight Loss

Estimates vary between surgeons, and experiences vary between patients, but the perceived wisdom is that:

  • Gastric Bypass patients can expect to lose 70% of their excess body weight
  • Gastric Sleeve patients can expect to lose 60% of their excess body weight

And so, based on an Ideal Body Weight of 77.7 kg, and an Excess Body Weight of 86.0 kg, and an expected weight loss of 70% from my bypass, that would set me expected weight 18 months after surgery to be 103.5 kg.

A expected weight of 103.5 kg would give me a BMI of around 29, which is still in the overweight range, but at least it’s not in the obese range any more!

So, for now, I guess my goal is to get down to 103.5 kg (or 16 st 4 lbs / 228 lbs)

Surgery Weight

It’s Christmas Eve, and pretty-much 4 months since my gastric bypass. I did a weigh-in this morning, and I find that I’ve lost just over 30 kg, and am now half way to my goal weight!

I’m delighted with my progress so far. Especially as it comes straight after a two-night stay in a fancy hotel.

It’s going to be a fairly quiet Christmas, what with the current COVID-19 lockdown, but I think that might be a good thing. We’ll be having a turkey and ham Christmas dinner tomorrow, but it’ll be on a side-plate, and won’t be a multi-course meal.

Not being in a room full of relatives helps avoid those difficult moments when people want pile every more food on my plate, or offering me countless mince pies or chocolates.

There’s one or two small treats in the house, but just a fraction of what there would normally be at this time of year.

Anyway, hope you all have a lovely Christmas 2020, and here’s looking forward to what 2021 brings!

Surgery Weight