Worried in a VERY unusual way

I have my 6 month appt next week.  The time has flown by and I have lost over 80% of my excess weight already!  Down from a starting weight of 250#s to 165.   From a tight size 20 to a 10.   My doctors goal for me is 162, I am almost there!!!!!!!   I have revised my personal goal to 146, which would put me at a NORMAL BMI.

RNY 9-12-2012       HW 250, SW 242 , GW 146   pre op -8,  M1 -25, M2 -14,  M3 -13,  M4 -11,  M5 -8, (M6 -6 so far, still have another week)

Well, I am almost embarrassed to voice this but here goes:  I am worried that I have lost so quickly that it may cause me problems when I am further out.  I keep reading how lightweights loose pounds slower and I have lost rather quickly (I think).  This seems so backwards compared to almost everyone else!!  

By not struggling to lose, am I setting myself up for regain when the calorie malabsorbtion stops?  I am not saying it was easy but I am saying it was not as hard as I had imagined it to be.

Isn't funny how we do that? Second guess everything good in our lives. Not sure whether its being a woman that causes it, or perhaps someone who has been obese so long. Regardless, I think you are just fortunate to have lost quickly. Sounds like you are off to a marvelous start

No - by losing quickly does NOT set you up to fail in the long run.  It just means you have a much bigger window to maximize your weight loss and figure out maintenance when you have gotten to your goal weight. 

You're doing great - stop second-guessing yourself and enjoy the ride!

My fear is by not having to count every calorie and carb and weigh and measure my food during the losing phase I have not learned the habits that will prevent regain.  Does that make any sense? 

I just have a small portion.  MUCH smaller than I would have dreamed of pre op.  Thanks for the reassurance.  After reading about many ppl using My fitness pal and having a half cup of this or that or weighing (which I only did for a few months)  I always felt in the back of my mind I was doing it wrong,  but it was working so I never changed.

LIGHTWEIGHTS DO NOT LOSE MORE SLOWLY!!!!

I'm sorry but that's a big pet peeve of mine. WE don't lose more slowly. We get to goal faster and more often and get better resolution of our co-morbidities on average compared to heavier people. That's been shown in study after study.

Also, from what I've seen, the faster you lose, the better off you are. It's like your body's setpoint gets set lower than someone who loses slower. But that's just my observation, not from a study.

My surgeon wants his patients to lose 50% of EW by 3 months and 80% by 6 months and then all of it by 1 year. He thinks that you need to lose at that rate if you want to get to goal and stay there. That's his observation after watching thousands of WLS patients over two decades of surgery.

I did specify lose pounds not overall in my original post.  I am aware that percentage wise we do not lose slow.

My surgeon wanted me to be at 162 by my year date, which made me think I was losing fast to be at his goal by 6 mths.  I did not mean to irritate your pet peeve :)

Yes, but the problem isn't that you lost quickly. It's that his expectations were too lowly. At least IMO.

IMO a lot of programs have low expectations. They call this "Being Realistic" but I call it "A Self-fulfilling Prophecy". They don't expect their patients to lose 100% of their EW so mostly they don't.

Would you feel differently if your surgeon sent you out at 3 months saying "come back with 80% EWL at 6 months"? I know did. I was sweating bullets to make sure I hit that mark. I was so anxious about it, that I overshot it and hit 92% EWL -- I wanted to go over a bit just in case. 

I dont have any specific guidelines except the "get to 162 by a year" lol

I actually pulled out my book from the surgeons office and it says "patients lose about 2/3 to 3/4 of their excess weight over the first 2 years....averaging 65 to 80% of excess weight lost.

You are right, they have low expectations for me.  Well I am going to get to a normal BMI.

You are doing an Awesome Job!!!   My Surgeon told me 150 would be my goal weight and I'm maintaining 119 pretty easily.

Also you are a lot younger than some of us.  At. 59 I don't eat big meals like you younger lightweights and by nature I have always eaten numerous small meals but the big difference now is what I put in my mouth....high protein and low carb keep me maintaining.

I've always felt a little guilty to because I feel like this whole process was easy for me. 

Fantastic Job!!  Go as low as you can go.  Mine was not nearly as hard as I thought it would be - but now maintenance - that is something else....

You won't always malabsorb so you do need to be developing different eating habits that will help you out when you get to maintenance.

I bet you are going to have a great check up.

Linda