Tag: <span>Weight Loss</span>

How much weight will I lose after my gastric bypass?Business 861327 1920
Published Wed, 14th Oct 2020

How much weight will I lose after my gastric bypass?

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

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Five weeks since surgerySlate 3323693 1920
Published Thu, 1st Oct 2020

Five weeks since surgery

It’s now five weeks since I had my gastric bypass surgery, and I’m back for another update.

My progress so far is that I’ve lost a total of 12.2 kg in the last 5 weeks – which is 1 st 13 lbs or 27 lbs in imperial measurements. I pretty-much use metric all the time to record my weight now, because that’s the scale that all the medical staff in my hospital use.

I’m pleased with my results so far. The weight loss of 12 kg is equivalent to the weight of six 2-litre water bottles – which would feel pretty heavy if you were carrying them all home from the supermarket! But I guess it’s more the non-scale victories (NSV) that I’m more pleased with.

I can now fit into shirts that I had to abandon about 9 months ago because they were too small. My wife also says she can tell I’m shrinking when we hug. But as well as that, I feel a lot better. Simple things like putting shoes and socks on, or getting up off the sofa are so much easier now. The pain that I used to get in my legs and feet when walking has also diminished a lot.

But it’s not all good news. I find now that I feel cold a lot more often, especially in my extremities like my hands and nose. I guess that’s just to do with eating a lot less than normal. And it just means that I have to put on an extra layer to keep warm.

In a week I’ll have my first follow-up with my surgeon, and hopefully she’ll confirm that I’m doing well.

My Story Surgery

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I didn’t expect to feel so cold after my gastric bypass!Person 731467 1920
Published Wed, 30th Sep 2020

I didn’t expect to feel so cold after my gastric bypass!

As a larger person I used to look on bemused when thinner colleagues in the office used to complain about being cold. I would check the thermometer and see that it was in the 20s, and wonder why they complained so much.

Now I understand what it’s like a lot more, because I’m cold all of the time!

I have a thermometer in front of me in the room, and it’s currently 23.5 degrees celsius – and yet my hands are like blocks of ice, and I’m contemplating putting another jumper on.

In the past before my surgery I used to eat between 3000 and 4000 calories a day, so I was consuming plenty of energy to convert into heat. Whereas now – five weeks after my weight-loss surgery – I’m only consuming about 600 – 1000 calories. My body seems to be thinking WTF and not wasting any of that precious energy on keeping me warm.

I guess as I continue to lose weight, I’m also going to lose the protective layer of fat around my body – my insulation – and so any heat I do have is going to escape even more easily.

I’ve heard that eventually the body will get used to the new weight and start to regulate temperature a bit better. But until then, I guess I’ll need to put on load of layers – especially as winter is on the way!

My Story Surgery

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Four weeks since surgeryDay Planner 828611 1920
Published Thu, 24th Sep 2020

Four weeks since surgery

It’s exactly 4 weeks today since I had my gastric bypass operation, and I thought I’d give a bit of an update of how I’m doing.

I’m still on the soft food diet, and am eating anywhere between 600 and 1000 calories a day. I find it useful to track everything I eat using the myfitnesspal.com app, so that I can track calories, but also the amount of protein I’m getting in my diet. I believe I’m meant to aim for at least 60 grams of protein a day, and most days I manage that.

I find that I’m often eating the same kind of things every day, so I think I need to be a bit more imaginative about what I eat, because it’s getting a bit boring. But I guess there are some foods (chicken breast meat for example) that I find it hard to tolerate, so I tend to shy away from them.

I’ve had a few episodes over the few week where I’ve got blocked, and it’s ultimately meant that I’ve had to vomit the food back up. But in every case I can attribute that to not chewing the food carefully enough.

At the moment my main struggle is about portion sizes. Often it’s literally a case of my eyes being bigger that my stomach. I put too much food on the plate, and then either don’t finish it, or instead I eat too fast and too much and end up feeling uncomfortably full.

One strategy to limit portions is to weigh out ingredients before cooking – but I can’t do that when someone else is cooking for me. So I try to stick with small bowls or side plates for my food – but even then I sometimes get it wrong.

The good news is that I’ve managed to lose 10.4 kg since surgery – about 23 lbs – which is fantastic.

I’ve already noticed that clothes feel a bit looser, and that it’s easier to do things like put on my socks and shoes in the morning. Also the pain that I used to feel when walking has also reduced significantly.

I’m still waiting for the energy boost that people talk about. It hasn’t happened to me yet. In fact I often feel quite drained, and don’t really have the energy to be as active as I used to be. But hopefully that will come in time.

I’m also back at work for a week now. I work from home doing an ‘office’ job so it’s not too taxing. My lack of energy means that I sometimes can’t concentrate 100%, but I’m lucky that I can just take a nap at lunchtime if I need it.

My Story Surgery

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How quickly should I be losing weight?Scale 403585 1920
Published Fri, 11th Sep 2020

How quickly should I be losing 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

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Published Wed, 7th Nov 2018

Non Scale Victories

When you attend a Slimming World class you are weighed every week, and your progress is entirely defined by the amount of weight you’ve lost.

However, the process of losing weight is not all about the number of pounds and stones you’ve shed. Sometimes it’s about things that don’t show on the scales.

It’s about how you now feel about yourself, how your health has improved, how you can do things that previously used to be a struggle, the inches that have gone from your waist, the dress size you’ve dropped and the clothes that you can now fit into.

These are called Non Scale Victories (or NSV for short). They are the achievements and progress you can see but that don’t necessarily show up on the scales. 

Everyone’s Non Scale Victories are different. They might be things like:

  • You can now fit comfortably and confidently into that amazing dress you bought for a special occasion
  • A friend that hasn’t seen you for a while notices and compliments you on your weight loss
  • Your health improves so that you can play with your kids
  • Your muffin top no longer spills out over the top of your jeans
  • All that body magic has helped you run your first 5 km without stopping
  • You have extra energy, improved confidence, and generally feel better

All these victories need to be celebrated, and your consultant will be delighted for you to share your Non Scale Victories with the rest of the class!

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