Arlene2014

A weight loss plateau or stall is a temporary cessation of weight loss that can happen at any point in your weight loss surgery journey and can last days, weeks, or months. Plateaus happen to almost everybody sooner or later (no matter what means they're using to lose weight), no matter how hard they work at weight loss.


Why do plateaus happen even when we’re doing all the right things? The human body wants to preserve itself. It fights weight loss by adapting the metabolism to accommodate decreased calorie intake and/or increased calorie output. The body's new plan of attack is multi-pronged: increase calorie intake by making you hungrier (so you eat more), use less energy to accomplish physical activity (so you burn fewer calories) and hold on to stored fat (so it can use it for energy).
I think plateaus often happen because we're in a rut. So even if you believe you're doing all the right things in terms of diet, exercise, and mental or emotional effort - try changing them. If nothing else, it will prevent boredom and help you feel that you're taking positive action instead of being a victim of fate.
Here are some things you can try to shake up your routine.

Change the intensity, duration, frequency and type of exercise you're doing, so your body doesn't become too efficient at burning calories when you work out.
Don't neglect strength training - muscle burns far more calories than fat does.
Don't over-train - take one day off exercise a week.
Plan all your meals (the "how much" as well as the "what").
Weigh and measure your food before you put it on your plate.
Log your food intake - you might be surprised to see what and how much you're really eating.
Try calorie shifting: vary your calories - eat 1200 one day, 900 the next, and so on, to keep your body guessing.
Eat 3 small meals and 3 healthy Snacks a day instead of 3 meals a day.
Increase your Water intake.
Decrease your sodium intake.
Don't weigh yourself every day - switch to once a week.
Don't skip Breakfast.< br>
By the way, if you weigh yourself every day and think that no weight loss for three days running is a plateau, you're going to have a long journey ahead of you. Get off that scale, now!
I have one more suggestion that you probably won't want to hear: CULTIVATE PATIENCE. No, it's not one of my virtues, either. Give it a try anyway.

Most of us have a set of rules we were taught will help us succeed with our weight loss after surgery. Not all docs subscribe to the same rules, which leaves a little room for interpretation. I do try to follow as many as I can, to ensure my success. I even follow some I don't think are really necessary, and there's some I break even though I think I shouldn't break them.
**Disclaimer** I suggest everyone follow their own physician's plan. I am not recommending or suggesting anyone break any rules, but it's a frequent topic of conversation and thought it would be interesting to see individual approach in a real life setting.
I do the following (95% or more of the time)
No grazing
No drinking 30 minutes before or after meals
Protein first
65 or more grams protein per day
Take Vitamins as prescribed
64 ounces or more of fluids per day
Stop eating when full
Measure or weigh food
No straws
Nothing carbonated
Go to support group meetings (not a requirement, but a suggestion)
I do not:
Practice mindful eating. I often eat while watching TV. Since I measure my food, I'm not going to over eat.
Chew, Chew, Chew. Hard to do when you are not mindful.
Watch sugar or fat grams. I don't have issues with dumping, and I eat so little calories, I don't focus on them.
What about you - Do you follow the rules? Discuss.

I thought this surgery was going to change my life. Instead I feel worse than ever. I never even drank soda before this and now I guzzle it down all day long! Before surgery I stocked my cupboards with all the junk foods I wanted to eat as a last hurrah and I thought I would have no problem with it after the surgery! But the hurrah just keeps going! I ate an entire plate of cookie dough last night before bed.
Now all I can do Is eat candy and burgers, go out dancing and have one night stands. I just found out I'm pregnant from the last one I had the week after surgery! I still had my stitches in and we got it on all night and snorted some #%##% and order room service - pancakes!!!
I just stretch my pouch and then I throw it all up after to I can eat some more. It's crazy! And I never smoked before but since the first cigarette tasted so good and that nicotine buzz feels amazing, I just chain smoke now. I might even try some other drugs, I never knew they were so fun!
I think the surgery did something to my brain. All I want to do is have sex and eat junk food, my husband doesn't even know. He thinks I'm at work! And now I'm pregnant and he has a vasectomy so boy am I in trouble.
My favorite thing to do is lay in my hotel bed and dribble maple Syrup into my mouth and post on bariatric pal about my fiendish bad girl behavior.
Do you think the surgery changed my brain? Before this I was a straight laced schoolteacher with five kids and a pastors wife to boot!
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Just kidding. Thought you all might need a laugh. I'm totally committed to my journey and all of us seem to be doing amazing, and I am very thankful tonight to have this great supportive board of people to talk to. Happy Thanksgiving.

I'm Seven months out. How are you doing?

In 2001, Yvonne McCarthy from Dallas, Texas, decided to get healthy. She hit the ground running and never looked back as she committed to weight loss surgery and learned to manage her food addiction. Her Open Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery 13 years ago helped Yvonne lose half of her body weight and keep it off for over a decade.


Yvonne has used her weight loss surgery experience to help others. She spends over 80 hours a week advocating for bariatric surgery patients as “Bariatric Girl.” She answers emails and posts on Facebook and from her blog to advocate for weight loss surgery and support people who are fighting obesity just like she did. That’s like working two full-time jobs – for free!
Being a great role model and giving back to the weight loss surgery community are what make Yvonne a true weight loss surgery hero. Don’t miss seeing Yvonne’s website or Bariatric Girl Facebook page, You Tube Channel and follow @BariatricGirl on Twitter! She’ll share her experience on bariatric surgery, and you’ll get to learn more about this talented woman’s photography and music!
First, read Yvonne McCarthy’s story and our interview with her here.
Finding Out How Heavy People Get Treated
Yvonne was a strong and athletic girl. That worked out well when it came time to pick teams at school, but her athletic abilities weren’t needed or appreciated elsewhere. Instead, she quickly learned that bigger girls aren’t welcomed. She says, “I figured out pretty young how being different made people treat you badly.” Puberty hit hard, and the dieting started in fourth grade.
Yvonne’s struggles got worse through college and beyond. She nearly turned anorexic during her college years, but “couldn’t keep it up.” After college, she “did every diet known to man” and each time, she gained back all the weight she’d lost plus a few pounds. Her highest recorded weight was 260 pounds.
Didn’t Listen When They Said Not to Have “Unrealistic Expectations”
Yvonne got gastric bypass in 2001. At that time, the bypass was only offered as an open surgery, not as a laparoscopic procedure. She went into surgery with the intention of hitting a “normal” body weight (BMI under 25), and didn’t listen when surgeons warned her not to have “unrealistic expectations.” She followed the prescribed diet and lost 130 pounds in the first 13 months! Yvonne now weighs exactly what she weighed in college over 40 years ago.
Never Going Back to “Prison”
Yvonne says she has a “really healthy memory of 30 years of obesity” and refuses “to return to that prison [that she] couldn’t break out from.” Post-op care wasn’t a standard part of care in 2001, and she didn’t see another post-op until three years later! She just stuck to the diet because she thought she had to, and she hasn’t strayed more than five pounds from her goal weight!
“I assumed that you lost the weight and “IF” you regained that you should fix it while it’s small. When I attended my first weight loss surgery event everyone asked me how I kept it off. I literally didn’t know any better.”
By that time, she’d developed the good habits that she maintains today.
Learning to Manage an Addiction to Food
Some people eat to fill a void. Some eat out of boredom. Others eat for comfort, or to manage stress. Yvonne discovered that she ate to cope with feelings she didn’t want to have. She had a food addiction. She says,
“I was fortunate that I chose to work on my head just as much. I am passionate about the acknowledgement of the existence of food addiction and when I admitted I was an addict, I was able to take steps to work on the root problems that fueled my addiction.
I don’t know how many years ago I started doing this but today I eat very boring things and practically the same food every day. I can no longer have “sex in a plate” so my food has to be just like the fuel you put in your car.”
No More Junk Food
The days of eating junk food are over for Yvonne. She’s not comfortable eating it for fear that she’ll fuel her addiction and regain the weight. “
I can’t eat just one so I quit craving sugar and junk food because I quit eating it completely. I haven’t had cake, pie, Cookies, candy etc. in 13 years and I don’t even remember what it tastes like. I feel very strongly that if you wish to lose a craving that you need to quit eating it.
“You wouldn’t give an alcoholic a sip of beer to get past the craving….why do we think that works with food? There are some people that can eat that stuff and maintain and I’m happy for them but I don’t know very many that can.”
The Need to Support Others
Yvonne didn’t just go against the grain by setting, achieving, and maintaining a goal of 130 pounds. She also didn’t know that the “only” way to lose weight and keep it off is to have a strong support system. So, she managed to succeed without the standard support system only because there were none and she was forced to figure out her “head” on her own.
Yvonne turned to the Obesity Help forums and her profile there transitioned into her blog. Over the years, she “saw the exact same patterns over and over and I felt a passion to help warn others of what was coming down the road.”
A Life Dedicated to Helping Others
She felt obligated to help others because her own “unique situation of not seeing another post-op for 3 years in the beginning saved me because if I had seen even one other person regain I would have thought, ‘I’m nobody special and if they can’t keep it off, I can’t either.’”
Bariatric Girl to the Rescue!
Yvonne has done the majority of her advocacy as “Bariatric Girl.” She maintains a website and blog, You Tube channel, and stays active on her Bariatric Girl Facebook page and Twitter. She answers emails and Facebook messages, and even takes phone calls to help others with their struggles and questions. Yvonne now spends over 80 hours a week as a volunteer with the goal of supporting others who are considering weight loss surgery or who are already weight loss surgery patients.
“Since the sun and the moon and the stars lined up for me I felt like I didn’t have the right to not help others by sharing the experiences of the thousands of people I’ve communicated with over the years.”
In addition, Yvonne has spoken at many events and volunteered for many organizations by taking photographs and videos at events. Her other advocacy work includes:
Former faculty with the Weight Loss Surgery Channel.
Host of the channel’s Weight Loss Surgery Journeys, a program that included interviews with recent bariatric surgery patients.
Member of Apollo Endosurgery Patient Executive Council.
Three-year service on the Board of Directors of Weight Loss Surgery Foundation of America, which advocates for bariatric surgery patients and provides grants to deserving patients who can’t afford weight loss surgery on their own.

Every weight loss surgery patient and candidate wants to hear success stories. These stories are sources of hope because they’re about people who used to feel hopeless and out of control, but who found weight loss surgery as a solution. Yvonne was able to use the gastric bypass surgery as a tool to learn to manage her food addiction and turn over a new leaf.
Yvonne is more than just a story, though. She gives her knowledge, love, and support to others who are struggling with their weight and who are weight loss surgery patients. It’s rare to find someone as giving and dedicated as Yvonne is, and everyone whose lives she has touched is grateful.