Has anyone hit a goal weight in the 19-25 BMI range after large (75lb+) weight loss?

After surgery I moved from a BMI of 46 down to 21 or 22, a drop of 156 pounds. Over about five years it crept back up to around 24, then the newer medication brought me to 18.5 to 19. I doubt tirzepatide by itself would have produced that total change.

Starting at a BMI of 54 or 444.8 pounds I reached 209.8 pounds, which put me in the high 26 range. Removing the loose skin on my stomach would probably take another ten pounds or so. I stayed very driven through the whole seven hundred days, yet I also recognize some luck because my wife and mother could not keep going down to their targets and each regained about twenty pounds even while still using the shots.

Right now the medications plus surgery let people lose more with the operation. As the drugs keep getting better I expect surgeries will become less necessary.

I went from 243 pounds at roughly 40 percent body fat down to 165 pounds at 11 percent body fat. I have held steady around 172 for three months now on a maintenance dose of the medication. I could have kept going lower but already passed my target.

I have not looked deeply into the surgery research but have read plenty on the GLP medications. The papers line up with the idea that most people starting from severe obesity will not reach a BMI of 25 or below. The strongest average result so far is around 25 percent loss with retatrutide, which means half the group loses less. Without continued medication most regain the weight over time, and the same issue shows up after surgery. The people posting here are a self-selected bunch who are very driven and willing to put in extra effort. That probably explains why so many here avoid getting stuck halfway. Some are also adding higher doses, stacking another medication, testosterone, growth hormone, or other compounds. From the studies and reports I have seen, the companies are mostly following the same path of testing add-on drugs.

I began at a BMI of 61 and am now at 31. Surgery got me most of the way and I am now using the medication as well because I want to get below 30. The loose skin will still need removal.

It is useful to remember that at a basic level the surgery and the GLP-1 drugs work in opposite directions, so comparing them directly is not quite fair. The operation is thought to cut the vagal nerve so gut hormones no longer signal the brain. The medications instead boost those signals. One result mentioned earlier fits what you would expect when both are used together, with the effects adding up.

I am a woman over fifty. I began the medication at a BMI of 33.9 on Labor Day 2023. I reached my target of 21.3 by January 2025 and have stayed at or below that since. Right now I am at 18.4 and have held there for months. The current issue is finding a maintenance dose that does not push me even lower. I am happy with where I am but want to add muscle.

Male, mid-thirties. Started at BMI 39.9 with FFMI 18.9. Lowest after the medication was BMI 25.8 with FFMI 22.5. That came from losing about 120 pounds of fat while gaining 20 pounds of lean mass. I have moved into a bulking phase since then so I am not trying to hold weight steady.

I had gastric bypass back in 2003 and lost more than the formula predicted. Starting BMI was 47 and my lowest after surgery was around 29, while the equation pointed to 31. Later, through diet and exercise about ten years afterward, I reached 25. Twenty-one years post-surgery my BMI had climbed back to 42. The same formula again suggested a low of 29. After one year on the medication I am at 30 and still aiming for 25. So far I have lost 27 percent of my starting weight on the medication, which beats the trial averages.

I ran the numbers on my own history. In 2011 my BMI was 53.3. After surgery in December of that year I reached 28.2 by 2013. By 2022 I had regained 55 pounds and sat at 37.1. Starting the first GLP-1 medication in fall 2022 brought me to a BMI of 22.9 by December 2025. Overall from the beginning of the journey nearly fifteen years ago I moved from 53.3 down to 22.9, but it took both the surgery and the later medication.

When I had the surgery the surgeon was straightforward about realistic outcomes. He said most people do not lose all the weight and keep it off, and that a solid result would be losing 75 percent of excess weight with some regain expected around the five-year mark. I chose him because he also published in medical journals.

Would you recommend the surgery? From what has been shared it looks like many ended up regaining over the years and then turned to the medications. I have already lost 60 pounds and sit around a BMI of 36, but the peptides I tried recently quit working and I started gaining again. I am about to try a new combination and would basically do anything to get lower. At this point I am considering surgery. Knowing what you know now, would you go through it again?

I do not know my exact starting BMI, but I went from over 260 pounds down to 163. It might have been in the 270s at one point, though I avoided the scale then. I began by cutting out soda, then added exercise, intermittent fasting, calorie counting, and one extended fast per month. Eventually I was fasting twenty hours a day, eating under 1500 calories, and training four or five times a week with weights and cycling. After getting more serious in the weight room and adding testosterone I am now holding around 200.

I am already under 25 and still losing without difficulty. I plan to keep going until my waist is half my height, which should land me around 22 or 23. Probably another three months.

I am 61 and six foot one. I have not tracked BMI closely. Using only the medications, no surgery, I started at 445 pounds two years ago and am now at 210. My focus has shifted to building muscle and cutting fat, and that has been going well.

That is a huge drop, 235 pounds. It might be the largest number I have seen posted here. Well done.