My surgeon expected me to settle right around 200. I'm currently 145. He's shocked, pleasantly. The nutritionist is shocked. The only ones not shocked are me and my personal trainer. I lost 99% of my excess weight in one year. I've maintained now for 3 months. I have a cushion of 10lbs (140-150) and usually hover at the 145 mark...not seen below 142. I have no idea where they get their statistics, but really, you get out what you put in. Good luck!

I have to concur with Aztec4Life: BMI is BS. You can't apply one set of rules to every person. For me, a male 5'10", my healthy weight range according to the BMI chart is 129-174lbs. At 174, I would pretty thin but normal. At 129, I would look like a malnourished POW in old Vietnam photos.

I also will say that anything telling you that gastric sleeve surgery will make you lose 60% of your excess body fat and your body will just "set it's weight" there is pure horseshit. Every piece of literature I have read before concerning the gastric sleeve or ANY bariatric procedure says 60% is an AVERAGE weight loss. Sure, if you just kept eating the same crap that got you to the point you are at now and didn't put in any effort, I could see 60% being a good average. HOWEVER, if you use the surgery as a tool the way it is intended, coupled with healthy lifestyle changes (eating & exercising) you can lose the majority of your excess weight.

I am five months post-op and just hit 70lbs gone forever. I am losing anywhere from 2-3lbs per week on average and that has not stopped. Some weeks are less, others are more. But the point is I continue to lose weight. I eat healthy, avoid all the bad foods that my surgeon TOLD ME TO AVOID to get the maximum benefit from my sleeve, walk and exercise lightly with a kettlebell. If I was hamstrung by the 60% and then my body would "set it's weight" I would stop losing at between 69lbs (which I have already passed in less than half of a year) and 96lbs. At 70lbs less, I feel fantastic and fit into clothes that I actually like. My health has improved drastically. If I "only" lose 96lbs, I'll be down to 193lbs and think I will look and feel even better. My goal is to reach that 174lbs, even if for just a day to say I did it. Then maintain a healthy weight around 180ish.

For anecdotal evidence, my wife had the surgery September 2012. Within a year, she lost all of her excess body weight, around 140lbs. A good friend of mine at work lost nearly 100lbs in a year and looks fantastic. Two other co-workers have lost the majority of their excess weight in a year's time. What do they all have in common? They stuck to realistic goals and all actually tried to actively work on their weight loss. Another co-worker has only lost about 50% of her excess weight in two years. She gripes about it, but she's also the first one you see scarfing on chips, cakes and other junk the surgeon expressly tells you to avoid.

So basically, you get out of the surgery what you are willing to put INTO the surgery.

I just read the whole article. It paints a very realistic picture of two individuals who go through bariatric surgery. There are definitely mixed feelings through out the process and rarely are people 100% "happy". But overall both of them were glad they did it. And I think 90%+ people are glad they did it. It improves lives, plain and simple.

I have had two WLS surgeries (I had the Lap Band from 2007-2011 and then VSG in 2015) and I can tell you from my personal experience that exactly what @NicoleL874 said is true - you get what you put in. There is misconception out there (wishful thinking perhaps) that WLS is all you need, surgery will do all the work for you. As @garber6th said surgery is simply a tool in the arsenal of life-long changes you have to make. With the Lap band I was stubborn (and lazy, that is part of what got me fat in the first place) and only made dietary changes for the first 2 years. I lost 50% of my excess weight and then I stalled. When I finally committed to adding exercise, the rest of the weight fell off. My band ended up eroding and I had to have it removed in 2011 and due to the damage it caused, I had to wait a year for my stomach to heal before my surgeon would consider another surgery. By then I had started to regain, got depressed, changed jobs, and my insurance no longer covered Bariatrics. Long story short, I regained all the weight and finally self-paid for my VSG in Dec 2015. Same thing has happened, I only made dietary changes and at one year out I have only lost 50% of my excess weight. But that is on me, not my sleeve! I always felt so out of control around food, consumed enormous portions of everything. VSG has allowed me to gain control of that impulse, I now eat small and "normal" portions. It is made it easier to feel satisfied after a healthy meal, but you still need to commit to eating healthy long-term and life style changes like exercise. As my old nutritionist used to say after WLS it may take you an entire day to eat a Whopper, but a Whopper is still a Whopper.