Gastric Bypass Surgery Support Group

Gastric bypass (GBP) is any of a group of similar operative procedures used to treat morbid obesity, a condition which arises from severe accumulation of excess weight in the form of fatty tissue, and the health problems ("co-morbidities") which result. If you are considering gastric bypass or have had it, join the community where we share our experiences and find support.

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rdjw 07/25/2015

Hi All,

Lcat4 says in her excellent Newbies message:
27. Dont be a slave to numbers. If you obsessively weigh you WILL make yourself crazy! DON'T! Obsessive weighing = insanity.

So what do you recommend for how often to weigh? Taking your eyes OFF the numbers for too long can lead to trouble, as much maybe in the long run as checking too often.

Advice?

--Robin

PS - sorry to be such a pest - i just keep thinking of things I want to ask.

SgtSmith 07/25/2015

I for one am glad to see someone very active on the post. Some days traffic dwindles.

Most everyone will say weigh weekly or monthly. However I am a scale slave. If I walk by it calls me. Still, the weigh loss comes. It can get discouraging when you see it go up a pound or two. Just know it will come back down.

Scales don't always give a true picture. I weighed this morning then mowed the grass and ran the weedeater. The heat index was about 104 today. The scale says I lost 3.3 pounds in 2 hours. Lol! Not a true picture at all.

If you weigh often just expect ups and downs. Weekly or monthly will show a steadier downward trend.

Lcat4 07/27/2015

It is not such much about how often we weigh but what we do, say, think to or about ourselves when we see certain numbers. I still weigh several days a week to know where I stand. It's the obsession that is a problem and makes us more stressed which as we all know by now just adds to the weigh issue.

rdjw 07/27/2015

You guys are just great! Thank you so much for "being there." I'm sorry I missed posting yesterday - I was having a very bad day, today is already better. It seems to be One-step-back, one-and-a-half-steps-forward. Dang, but it sucks to get old and lose resiliency. I'm 63 going into this, almost as old as they let you do it, even with a few significant co-morbidities.

I have lost 14.5 lbs total, about half of which was from the pre-op liver-reducing diet. Today will probably be the first day that I will meet the protein requirements.

I was totally unprepared for how hard it has been to get enough nourishment into me.

Postop1 07/27/2015

I only weighed when I went to the surgeon's office the first year. That way I never saw the highs, lows or plateaus.

After that many weigh weekly. I weigh monthly.

joannannotti 07/27/2015

Weighing weekly seems to keep me on track without being obsessive. Once a month is not enough for me and daily weighing is far too much. Hopefully, you'll find your happy place on the weigh in scale.

MNMama 07/27/2015

Because I can get a little OCD about things, I left the weigh ins for my doctor visits. The first year was nice because I was seeing the numbers drop every month. Now I'm only seeing my weight every 6 months or so, but I pay close attention if my belted pants get a little tight. Even when they are tight, I've only been 6 lbs. over my new normal, 6 lbs. up, 6 lbs. down.... But that's because I'm watching how things fit. I think if I saw more than a 6 lbs. gain during a visit, I would get a scale and weigh myself every 2 weeks. More could get me a little nuttier than normal.
By the way.... you're not a pest at all. You're an active member and I love it! Keep it up, and someday you'll be the one giving advice to the newbies! Keep up the good work.

invirginia 07/28/2015

I weigh every morning before I step in the shower. Which is totally crazy and I shouldn't do it but I do, lol... It's amazing how much the weight is fluctuating. Up 3 pounds, down 1, back up a half, down 3, etc etc. Goodness sakes. Still, I do it. But if I was advising somebody I would say weekly :-)

rdjw 07/29/2015

Thanks, everyone. Excellent thoughts on this. .O.over-weighing sure does seem to be an easy prey for the OCD types. I can't imagine waiting for the dr. appts. My first post op visit is still 2 weeks out (at 3 weeks). I have weighed every 1 or 2 days so far, but it's "honeymoon" time, and the results are so exciting to see. I'm sure I'll slow down. to no more than weekly after I go back to work, and the new lifestyle has become more habitual.

imjj4short 08/02/2015

I don't think there is one right way to do the weigh-ins. I'm one of those people who weighs every day. My weight can get away from me when I don't weigh regularly.

Like InVirginia, I weigh every morning before I get in the shower. I have an excel spreadsheet that I've kept since the day I got home from my surgery 5 years ago. I had a few "rules" that I went by to help myself not get too neurotic... I ignored the decimals. If my weight "went up," I ignored the higher number (unless it stayed up for 3 days, which it never did). I only weighed once a day. My spreadsheet showed me how much I'd lost in total and what percentage of my extra weight I'd lost. It also had a section with a colored cell for each lb I had to lose (different colors for super-morbidly obese, morbidly obese, obese, overweight, and healthy weight). It helped to see a visual.

JJ

PS - not a pest at all!! The board had gotten slow and it's nice to have life breathed into them again!

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