After surgery it can be difficult to know what to expect. Everyone is different, and it can be hard not to compare yourself to others. Below is a graph of how we find many of our patients expect their weight loss to occur. And it is fair enough to think this way! Your diet and activity levels remain stable, so you should expect weight loss to be consistent right?
Not quite! As we know our body is very clever when it comes to regulating body weight. Realistic and HEALTHY weight loss has many more ups and downs than we may expect.
The below graph is a more realistic weight loss pattern. As you can see the overall trend is declining, however there are some periods of weight regain. Many of our patients are often very disheartened when they notice this pattern on their scales. Many of you report to us that you feel like you have failed, but this is not the case at all!
When you expect these plateaus and slight increases in weight throughout your weight loss journey it is easier to manage! This is also why we emphasize the importance of your non-weight related goals. We do not want the weight on the scales to be the only measure of your success after surgery. It is important to remember those other goals during periods of slow weight loss.
This also highlights the negative effect frequent weighing at home can have. If you only weigh yourself once or so a month, you will miss most of these plateaus! We hear this all the time, when our patients come to see us and are very upset as their weight loss has stalled, however when they jump on our scales and we look at the trend over the last few months they have lost weight and are right on track!
How many of you have experienced this? Always remember weight loss is not perfect! And that is just fine!
