Category: <span>Weight</span>

I weighed myself this morning, and I’m delighted that my BMI has dropped below 40. It means that I’m no longer morbidly obese!

Twelve weeks ago (on the day of my surgery) my BMI was 46.3. After entering my weight into my tracking spreadsheet (yes I have a spreadsheet!) it told me that my BMI is now 39.8. And that officially takes me out of the ‘morbidly obese’ category and instead makes me ‘severely obese’.

In terms of what that means in terms of my progress, I’ve managed to lose 22.9 kg in weight, which is over three and a half stone.

My weight loss goal is to eventually get my BMI below 30. That would take me out of all the obese categories, and puts me in the ‘overweight’ category. That might not seems like ambicious goal to some, but it’s a realistic goal because the research suggests than an average gastric bypass patient will lose around 70% of their excess body weight. And the 70% loss pretty much aligns with my ‘BMI below 30’ goal.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. I’m only 12 weeks post-surgery, and there’s a long way to go before I might reach my goal.

So for now I will celebrate my small milestone, and look to the future with hope.

Surgery Weight

When losing weight after surgery, it’s easy to become obsessed with the numbers showing on the scales. However sometimes we need to take time to celebrate and enjoy the effects of weight loss that don’t show on the scales.

These Non-Scale Victories (or NSVs) can’t often be measured and we might not even realise they’ve happened, but are vitally important improvements to our physical and mental health.

Here’s a list of 30 different non-scale victories that may apply to you:

  1. Clothes fitting better or feeling looser
  2. Fitting into clothes that were too small
  3. Having more choice in buying new clothes
  4. Jewelry fits better
  5. Better sleep
  6. More energy
  7. Improved attention and memory
  8. More physically able
  9. Better able to play with children
  10. Easier to exercise
  11. Feel healthier
  12. Feel stronger
  13. Clearer skin
  14. Reduced pain and stiffness
  15. Reduced need for mediation
  16. Improved weight related health conditions
  17. Recover from illness more easily
  18. Increased libido
  19. Increased compliments and attention from others
  20. More confidence
  21. Improved mental health
  22. Feel happier
  23. More outgoing
  24. More optimistic
  25. Less anxious or stressed
  26. Healthier relationship with food
  27. Reduced binging
  28. No longer use food for comfort / reward / punishment
  29. Fewer cravings
  30. Spending less money on food

Can you think of any more to add to the list? Let me know in the comments!

Surgery Weight

There’s a common perception amongst some people that having weight loss surgery is somehow the easy option or a cheat. However it’s definitely not the easy way out. It involves a lot of hard work and a lifetime commitment.

Misunderstanding

Part of the problem is that people often misunderstand what weight loss surgery is. They sometime think of it as a type of cosmetic surgery, a bit like liposuction, where an obese person will go in for an operation – have huge amounts of fat taken out – and wake up a few hours later 50kg lighter!

That’s definitely not the case.

The surgery itself doesn’t reduce a patient’s weight at all. It reduces the size of a person’s stomach, often to about the size of a golf ball, and also reduces the absorption of nutrients from food. So it’s not the surgery that reduces someone’s weight, but a very restricted diet they must follow after surgery.

So it’s not a quick fix. It’s a lengthy and difficult process that can take a year or more for someone to lose their excess weight.

Stigma

There’s also a lot of social stigma attached to weight loss surgery. Some people have the opinion that if a overweight person just stopped eating so much and exercised a bit more they wouldn’t need to have surgery. They see overweight people as lacking sufficient character or willpower to lose weight on their own.

They don’t comprehend the struggles that overweight people have gone through, over many years, with managing their weight and with yo-yo dieting. They don’t see the psychological and emotional issues around overeating, and they don’t have to live with the shame attached with being an overweight person.

This fear of negative reactions or being judged forces a lot of bariatric patients to keep their surgery secret. And this secrecy only adds to the stigma, because people don’t hear about others having weight loss surgery.

Then there’s also all the lurid headlines we see in the press where they will ‘out’ a celebrity as having bariatric surgery, and pick apart all kinds of private details about their weight management struggles and personal life.

Invasive

The surgery itself is not particularly dangerous – no more dangerous than having a gallbladder operation. It’s mostly done laparoscopically by making 5 small incisions at the top of the belly. However, it’s still invasive surgery, done under a general anaesthetic, requiring a couple of nights in hospital, and is very painful to recover from.

The wounds take a number of weeks to heal and are painful. Patients are also put on a very restrictive diet to stop potential damage to their new stomachs – normally liquids only for a few days, and after that blended/pureed food (think: baby food).

People also need a number of weeks off work to recover.

Hard work

The surgery itself is only the start of a hard journey. The smaller stomach is a tool that can be used to help lose weight. It will make people feel full a lot quicker, and will reduce the amount of nutrients that are absorbed from food. However the restricted diet is the hard work.

People that have had bariatric surgery typically can only eat a starter-sized portion of food at each meal. However they must also try to consume as much protein as possible, and avoid carbs and sugar as much as possible as they will make them sick. And because of the reduced absorption they will need to take multivitamins and other supplements for the rest of their lives.

And just think of all the social occasions that are linked to food: meals out with friends or colleagues, weddings, family gatherings, birthday parties, Christmas, and other celebrations. Someone who has had weight loss surgery will not be able to eat the same amount of food like everyone else. They will only manage a small portion. There are no ‘cheat days’ where they can pig out on a huge pizza and ice cream.

There’s also the social awkwardness of trying to order a starter while everyone else has main courses. Or having to deal with the questions from waiting staff when more than half the food goes uneaten on the plate. Or from well-meaning relatives that get insulted when you turn down their food.

Complications

As with any surgery, there’s always the risk that something might go wrong. It’s possible that the new stomach might leak, or there will be internal bleeding. Other complications may present themselves months or even years after, and necessitate additional revision or corrective surgery.

It’s also possible that over time the new stomach pouch might stretch, which reduces it’s effectiveness at helping to manage weight.

There’s also the unaddressed psychological and emotional issues that led to someone overeating in the past. Without food to act as a comfort these issues will need to be addressed, which might be difficult.

So, all in all, when you consider all of this, weight loss surgery is definitely not the easy option. It’s a lot of hard work, and a lifetime commitment.

Surgery Weight

It’s around 2 months since my Gastric Bypass, and for most of the time the weight has fallen off me. However over the last week or more I’ve hit a plateau and not lost any weight!

I’ve not made any major changes to my diet or exercise. I log everything I eat in MyFitnessPal and all my activity in FitBit, and things like my daily calories intake is the same as previous weeks. My protein intake is the same. And my exercise is the same. I’m just not seeing and weight loss on the scales.

Up until now my progress has been good, and I’ve lost an average of over 2 kg a week, which has been amazing. So my recent stall or plateau was not expected.

It can be easy to feel down and frustrated when a weight loss hits a plateau – especially when you know you’ve been doing everything right. These negative emotions don’t help the weight loss process, and can often derail someone that was doing well.

However it helps that I’ve encountered this kind of thing before when losing weight. My body, for no apparent reason, just decides to retain the fat or fluid it would normally have shed. And there’s no reward shown on the scales for all the good work done.

The good news is that the plateau is almost always only temporary, and the weight loss will eventually show on the scales. The important thing it to try not to get too disheartened in the meantime, and to stick with it.

Some things I try to remember:

  • This is a marathon, not a sprint. I need to look at my progress over the longer term, rather than day by day. It’s natural for the body weight to vary from day to day, and having a very regular weigh-in, such as daily, can give a false impression of progress. Instead I need to take a long term view, and look at my progress over the last month.
  • Not all victories show on the scales. It is all too easy to fixate on the number of kilograms or pounds lost, but at the end of the day, I’m not on this weight loss journey to be a certain weight. I’m doing this to be healthier and have a better quality of life. So I should concentrate on the positive improvements that have already been made to my life. The clothes that I can now fit into, and the activities that are now much easier to do.
  • The best things worth achieving in life are not easy. Nobody becomes a concert pianist the first time they sit down at a piano. Nobody becomes a leading brain surgeon on their first day at medical school. And nobody can shift a lot of weight without hard work, sacrifice, and sometimes disappointment and pain. So I try to concentrate on the investment I’m making in myself to reach the goal of being healthier in the future.

Of course, if my current plateau continues for an extended period of time, or indeed if I start gaining weight, then it might be time to take my weight-loss journey back to first principals. I would need to consult the dietician, maybe keep a more detailed food diary, and try and pinpoint where I’m going wrong.

Surgery Weight

I was curious to find out the average weight loss for gastric bypass patients, so that I could reality-check my expectations.

I have this goal in my head that I’d like to get down to 105 kg, which for a man of my height would take my BMI below 30, and make me officially ‘Overweight’ rather than ‘Obese’. Some might say that I should be aiming for a more ambitious goal, and try and get my BMI down below 25 into the ‘Normal’ weight category. However I wanted my goal to be achievable and realistic.

I found a blog article about how much weight you lose in a month, and I decided to use the information in it to check out if my 105 kg goal is realistic, not ambitious enough, or too ambitious.

The article talks about calculating my Ideal Body Weight, and working from there. And according to their chart, my Ideal Body Weight is 171 lbs or 77.6 kg.

From there I need to calculate my Excess Body Weight, which is the amount of weight I am above my Ideal Body Weight. In my case, on the day of my surgery my Excess Body Weight was 86.1 kg.

Expected excess body weight loss

Different bariatric procedures seem to have different results in terms of the amount of the Excess Body Weight that will be lost:

  • Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass : 70% of excess body weight will be lost
  • Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy: 60% of excess body weight will be lost

So with my Excess Body Weight of 86.1 kg, and an expected loss of 70%, then my expected loss is 60.3 kg, and my expected final body weight is 103.4 kg.

As such, my personal goal of 105 kg actually seems about right.

Expected first month weight loss

The article also says that gastric bypass surgery patients generally lose about 17% of their excess weight in the first month.

For me, 17% of my excess body weight is 14.6 kg. But in the first month I lost 10.9 kg, which is just under 13% of my excess weight.

However this 17% goal is based upon a US bariatric post-op diet that seems to be a lot more restrictive than the one I’m on. It has patients on liquids for 2 weeks, pureed food for another 2 weeks, and then soft food for another 12 weeks. Whereas my bariatric team had me on liquids for only 1 day after surgery, then pureed foods for the rest of that week, and soft foods for the next 5 weeks.

So I guess I’ve probably been consuming more calories in my first month than a typical person following the US diet. So I’m not going to worry about not hitting this 17% target.

Surgery Weight

It’s now two weeks since by gastric bypass surgery, and I did a weigh-in to see how much I’ve lost in the last fortnight.

My progress so far is that I’ve lost 6 kg, which is nearly a stone.

I’m not sure if that’s good or bad. I had rather assumed that the weight might fall off me a bit quicker than that, because I’m on such a restrictive post-surgery diet. I’m currently only managing to consume about 500-600 calories a day, which isn’t much, so I rather expected a bigger loss.

However I have to remember that I was already on an 800 calories a day diet before the surgery, so I guess my body was already in weigh-loss mode.

In a way it might be good if I lose weight a bit more gradually, as it won’t be such a shock to my body.

I just wish there was some kind of benchmark to compare myself to, so that I knew if I was losing at the expected rate.

Surgery Weight