What My Post Gastric Bypass Weight Loss Looked Like

When I set out down this path to have gastric bypass surgery I only knew one thing for certain that I would lose some weight. I had no idea how much, over what time period, when I would feel comfortable with said weight loss or how my body would react to the huge change so basically I had no idea what I was in for. By nature I’m a very organised person and I love to plan, lists are my best friend but the weight loss phase of this process drove me crazy because it was so unpredictable. Post gastric bypass weight loss is different for all of us but here’s a summary of mine for you.

To begin with for at least the first few months after surgery you are going to lose weight and a lot of it. Some weeks in those early days I would drop 2.5 kilos in a week which was a rate like I had never seen before. It’s a normal phenomenon that to begin with when you have a bigger bulk amount of weight that it is going to drop off faster and in larger amounts. As you get closer to a normal and what’s often your goal weight that rate of loss is going to slow down. I expected all of this.

What I liked to try and do was work out averages of what I had lost over the past month or so and then try to be able to predict when I would hit certain weight loss or BMI goals on the way down. Of course my body doesn’t play along to my control freak tendencies and would drive me up the wall by not doing what I thought it ‘should’. I really loved dropping down into the next 10 kg brackets. It gave me a new number at the beginning and felt like I was really getting closer to my goal weight. Of course whenever I got near the bottom of a bracket my weight loss would always stall and it would seem to take forever to drop down into the next bracket.

With any kind of weight loss surgery in the initial stages after the surgery pretty much no matter what you do you are going to lose weight. This doesn’t give you an excuse to ignore your dietary recommendations though. I used the first 6-12 months after my surgery to really focus on what I needed to be doing and setting myself up with new, healthier habits that would put me in good stead for the weight maintenance phase. Of course, sticking as close to your dietary recommendations will most likely see you reach your goal weight quicker and you will probably end up with a better overall result.

Needless to say after all of that, if you are expecting a nice smooth ride losing a set amount of weight each week and being able to predict which week you will reach your goal I’m really sorry it just doesn’t work like that. Our bodies are very complex and amazing things and you need to remember good things take time. Also please remember that we are all different. There is no point comparing yourself to your friends or other people that you know have had surgeries or lost weight another way because things will be different in terms of the weight loss path for us all.

For the purposes of this post I have graphed my weight loss from the weekly measurements I took from the day before my surgery to the point where I went under my goal weight. To be honest looking at it in pictorial form shows me that actually, the weight loss was pretty consistent and didn’t flatten off for very long, very often. At the time however when my body wasn’t doing what it was supposed to it felt like forever.

I thought you guys might find that interesting so let me know in the comments below if it’s what you expected and if its similar to what you have experienced yourself I’d love to hear from you.