Nearing Goal- Should I let Skin, Scale, or Size determine where to stop?

My VSG journey has been successful so far. I am 8 1/2 months out from surgery.  I have lost 85 pounds since surgery, and 116 pounds since I started my weight loss journey one year ago.  I now weigh 166, below my surgeon's goal for me. I am wearing a size small or medium in tops, and 10 or 12 in bottoms.

My question is this- How should I determine when I am "done" losing weight? I had set the number 149 in my head as where I wanted to be for my personal goal. However, I look at my body now and I think any more weight loss would be at the expense of saggy skin. My skin is certainly not firm, but it is better than I expected after all the weight loss. My massage therapist says that my skin is not super saggy like others he has seen who have lost a lot of weight. I am curvaceous for sure, but I don't feel fat any more.  I am starting to date again after divorce from a long term marriage. Right now I feel good about my body. I'm not sure how I would feel with lots of saggy skin if I enter into a new intimate relationship.

How did you decide where to stop? Did the saggy skin get worse at the end of your weight loss? Should I keep on 10-15 extra pounds to keep a little padding under my skin, or lose as much as I can and risk saggy skin?   Any advice would be greatly appreciated! How did you know when you were done?

I'm going to go with how my body looks to me. My surgeon's goal is 165, but I'm thinking 145. I have very large hipbones, so we will see how it looks. I know some people, even on here, who've lost to where their BMI is normal, but it didn't look good on them. I'm not too worried about sagging skin, but each person has an idea of what they're willing to tolerate. Go with what makes YOU happy and healthy. :)

I didn't pay any attention to my surgeon. His goal number is 60% of excess weight and I know that's a hedge based on averages. Well, I'm not average. Bah, I know I'll do better than that. If 18-25 BMI is considered normal, I know I'm going to be below 25. I set my personal goal at 24 BMI. Then I will consider slowing down depending on how I feel and look.

Anything below 25 BMI will help you live longer.

i think how you feel and if you are healthy is the number 1 thing

then how you look in the cloths you normally wear(no one looks good naked after wls unless they had plastic surgery)

 It might be best to have others that you trust judge how you look most people don't see themself they way they really look they think the look to fat or to thin never just right

I let my body decide. My goal was 145 but I stayed on plan and stopped around 120-125. I've seen here and on YouTube that many people bounce up 5-10 pounds with time.

Some is just personal preference though. The smaller I go, the more wrinkled the skin and I don't like that at all.

I went by body fat %.  I got tested near goal and found I was around 16%, and set my target to be a little lower.  After a few months of maintenance I got tested again, to make sure everything was going in the right direction.

I felt that bodyfat was the only thing that made sense as an "objective" measure.  I had set my original goal as a guess, based on BMI.  Fine tuning with body fat % worked well for me.

I find doing it myself with skin calipers to be difficult, especially with our "ahem" loose skin.  I did a "BodPod" measure at Arete Fitness in Edina...  2 measures for $75.

 

Tom

 

PS - i had pretty saggy skin when I hit my goal, but now 4 months later it seems to be recovering a bit. I still have sags and wrinkles - especially lower stomach, inner thighs and underarms... but I'm pretty sure they look much better than at goal.  I hope that continues... 

PPS - CONGRATULATIONS on nearing goal!!!!

I guess I am trying to decide based on vanity. Will I feel I look better with less wrinkled skin and being still curvy but relatively thin? Or should I go for as thin as possible?  I had this surgery to be healthy and look better. I can't believe that now I am worried I will lose to the point that I don't look good! 

I'd say... lose as much as you can - that makes sense anyway - you can always go up once you see what things look like at the lower weight.

i had pretty saggy skin when I hit my goal, but now 4 months later it seems to be recovering a bit. I still have sags and wrinkles - especially lower stomach, inner thighs and underarms... but I'm pretty sure they look much better than at goal.  I hope that continues...

Oh Tom--I sure hope this is true for women also!! I thought I was prepared for every aspect of this journey, but the sagging skin has been the big surprise that I could never have fully comprehended preop. It is so disgusting! Maybe mine is worse due to my age (50) and how long I was MO (since high school). Anyway, you have given me a glimmer of hope with your post. Thank you!

Sheryl

I don't know what the hell I'm doing. There. I admitted it. LOL :)

Seriously, I'm just going to go with how I feel like I look and what my husband says. He's always honest and I've given him permission not to give me the "right" answer of "you look great". It does screw with my head when people say I'm getting too thin (WTF?). Right now, I know that while my arms and legs look really good, the fat is still pretty abundant in my stomach. I'm going to lose the rest of this down to 150, reevaluate there and see. I did the same thing at 175. I also am going to get a plastics consult in June or so to see what they say.